Fair Share & Equilibrium With God

Everything (that you can measure) in this world has some quota. They food you eat, the number of hours you spend in sleep, the number of days you work, the number of days you think, the number of kilometers you walk, the number of good companies you have, the amount of garbage you can thrash on to the soil, the amount of air you can breathe in your lifetime and everything has a fixed quota. It is your choice on how to use it. A balanced life or an equilibrium is the outcome of mindful thinking, the awareness on things we do and how it affects us. When you take something from somewhere, we got to remember that there is going to be imbalance in another side from where we take. If you slog at late nights in office, you have to sacrifice in your personal life. On a contrary, if you don't work enough, you got to take home much less salary. It all depends on mindful choice we make.

We cannot get away from the system, the system is so fair. Fairness is the language. Even if the part of the system is unfair, the overall system tries to bring in the balance. Everything from recession to green house effect to necessity of a climate change pact is manifestation of systems (The time by which the system threatens the humankind, the mankind reacts with climate change pact. The system knows how to survive and if needed it will wipe off mankind. The question is whether we will survive?) When someone abuses the system, the system reacts but it takes a while for effects to erupt and this doesn't mean that the system is tolerant to abuses. It means that we are not used to sense little change in the behavior of the system. We are so insensitive to early symptoms. We realize only when we choke. The guys who believe in God say that as cosmic energy or Karma and the atheists say that as system or a gravitational force. Very few agree with both (because everything has a limit :-)).

But at the end - everything has some quota.

The system is equal opportunity environment.

Be On The Right Side And Be Responsible For That

Be on the right side and most importantly be responsible for it. Let us get back to the story.

One of the friends who loaned 1000 rupees (just after his graduation) just reflects on his life. It is just a year since he graduated. He sees that the money he borrowed has become1080 with interest. He puts himself in a time machine and he is at the 11th year. His loan has become 2158 bucks, he throttles 10 more years in time machine and his loaned amount has become 4660 bucks and a final push to 40 years in time machine, his loan has become 21.7K. He feels not so bad because it is a time machine. After stepping from the time machine, he just zooms to his bank and pays 1080 bucks for the loan he borrowed and he invests another 1000 bucks. So, that is what we call "responsibility". Responsibility is not power but action, responsible for attaining ones own vision. Everyday we put 24*60*60 seconds somewhere. Are we putting in right side and do we feel that it is "we" who is responsible for putting 24*60*60 in right side?

In everyday's life, it is not really possible to be always in the right side. At times (or most of the times) will be in wrong side. Being in the wrong side is not a big issue as long as you have a mechanism to detect that you are in a wrong side and be able to come to right side. If you miss couple of years or couple of lacs, it is not a problem. Nothing is free in this world and you got to pay for everything, the air you breathe included. Being in wrong side always teaches you how to be in right side. Wrong side becomes your experience/wisdom when you are responsible (reflect upon your action and act on making the course corrections).

Being in right side or wrong side, it needs responsibility to maintain the track if you are right and detect/change the track when you are in wrong side.

Be On The Right Side

There are two friends. Quickly after they graduated, the first one got a loan of 1000 rupees for 8% interest and the second deposited 1000 rupees in a bank for the same 8%. After this incident, they just moved on with their life. The years passed by and they were about retire at the age of 60. Forty years just passed like anything. The first one had a debt of 21.7K and on the other hand the second one got 21.7K accrued in his account. Do the math and understand the power of compounding. What happens if first one gets 1000 rupees loan everyday and the second one deposits 1000 rupees everyday? Do the math :-) (Compound interest calculator)

After completing the college, all of us take up some profession. But only very few feel satisfied. We just put our efforts everyday like money being deposited in bank without knowing the compounding effect of time. If we follow our heart, we deposit in bank and if we don't follow our heart, we just buy loans. At the end of show either you got pay for it or take your money happily. And that is why, being on the right side makes sense.

By right side, i mean the side of your heart. Always, your heart is right and so if you follow your heart, you will always be on the right side.

Presentation on "Security - An Introduction"

Here is one of my presentations on security titled - "Security for Thinkers". You may want to view the presentation in full screen (and if you see full presentation, treat me with a comment/feedback :-))

Don't miss to visit revived "Unstuck". I have made some changes to linkbars, removed some stuffs and added few stuffs. I m planning to make one presentation per week and host it here. I welcome your comments on this initiative - "Unstuck Blackboard" and Unstuck in general.

You may want to subscribe to "Unstuck" via Email subscription so that the email notifications is delivered to you whenever new posts/presentation is posted. Here is the link for Email Subscription.

Security - An Introduction

Thanks to Scribd, for making us to converse through presentation.

Ask for Help, Honor Help Request

After the invention of money, the human race started to lose its shine and i would say, "more is dangerous". I still remember my childhood days where we share food with our neighbors. If i was ill, they used to come along with my father and me to hospital, they rub my butt once the needle of the syringe is taken off from my butt. If someone is hospitalized either because of giving birth to new child (i m so proud that my mom, she took care of dozen women during their pregnancy) or some disease, there would be small folks (everyone was studying 10th standard or less) shuttling back and forth to hospital. Few of the elder people would accompany the person in hand rickshaw. The entire community would make sure that the person who was not well felt so good about the people being with him/her. What a fantastic feeling? Caring for others and getting cared is not boring thing. It is so interesting thing.

They ask help without any hesitation. They share their grief without any inhibition. The others back him emotionally and sometimes financially too. The beauty is that each of family's monthly income won't be sufficient to run the family for a month. But yet, i don't remember any instances where the help was turned down. It was one big family. Festivals were much bigger and we never missed to celebrate one. We lived big in small world.

Those are the days in which we felt both giving and asking as gift.

Today, it is quite opposite. We live small in a big world.

Asking for Help and Honoring Help are satisfying things. It gives a lot of peace and meaning to life.

Added Later:
I would suggest you to read the comments too as there are many thoughts/insights shared by people.

Good 17+ Minutes

If you have 17+ minutes, listen this talk by Mr. Shashi Tharoor on "India - Soft Power".

Tell Stories - Powerful Method for Fresh Thinking

It is quite unconventional to ask an adult to tell stories to another adult. But it is very powerful method to learn something. For example, if you are learning new programming language, try to squeeze sometime to share your knowledge in the form of stories to your close friends. Initially, they may be little hesitant to hear you. But as days pass by, they ll surely listen to you. The stories kindles imagination. When you are telling stories, the person(s) hearing it tend to ask questions. Those questions will make you to understand the concepts well and for sure you will do the home work. As you practice it, it gets build as an habit and there is a greater possibility of you becoming fresh/free thinker.

Imagination is key to fresh thinking. When it comes to thinking, freshness matters. So, telling stories makes sense.

Can you Really Teach Abstraction?

I was talking to one of my friends about OOPS. While talking to him, a question suddenly flashed in my mind about OOPS and more specifically about abstraction - how can you teach abstraction and the methods to be used to abstract ideas. In order to answer this question, we need to understand the real meaning of abstraction - "a concept or idea that is not associated with any specific instance". In other words, it is our ability to take our learning to higher level so that it becomes independent of specific instances. 

Let us try to understand whether it is possible to teach abstraction with a help of simple mathematical addition. 1 + 1 = 2, 1 + 3 = 4,  6 + 5 = 11. Each of these additions are specific instances of addition. When we are learning "addition", we focus more on "+" (and put it in long term memory, yep that is abstraction) and we just remember the numbers until we solve the problem. Once the problem is solved, we just forget the numbers (short term memory). When we are early stages of learning, we tend to believe that specific instance is ultimate truth. When we practice, we face many types of similar problems and start to change our perspectives. The change of perspectives is critical that leads abstraction. With practice, we are programmed to abstract concepts (eg: addition).

So, i tend to believe that abstraction is directly proportional to practice and more specifically the number of "wow" moments that you create on specific subject and i agree if someone says "abstraction cannot be taught but can only be felt or facilitated".

OOP - Bending, Stretching, Thinking My Mind

The past two days, the Saturday and Sunday, were really exciting. I lived in this world with a lot of imagination and i would say it was good exercise for my brain. When it comes to Object Oriented Programming, nothing comes near to practice (of course, practice with head/brain/mind or whatever we call it). Object thinking was good testimony that one has brain and trying to use it.

I started off with a nice relaxation at Marina Beach with Sandy (an amazing guy and rock star) who often gives you a lot of challenges in the form of questions. It is not so easy to answer him as it is quite difficult to convince him (i bet, if i have a presentation now, i ll be more comfortable in answering questions than i used to be few months back). We spent around two hours in Marina beach (and we both thanked each other for making a good start) and later an hour in Saravana Bhavan. Dropped of Sandy at Guindy and from Guindy, i started my week on OOP.

I was trying to come up with a design for a problem and so far came up with at least five designs. Whenever i tried redesigning, i got to go back and reread the requirements/problem statements. I m a poor guy and i got to read the requirements many times. But yet to settle down with a design. I believe, i ll change the design five more times :-)

I expect to complete the design and coding of the problem this week and hope the next Saturday morning will be intense with some OO discussion.

@Sandy

I hope, you will join me next Saturday too :-). But the next time, we will be more technical and let us make sure that there is good amount of learning. What do u think?

Experience And Conditioning

In a given duration of time, there are two possibilities - conditioning or experience. You get experience when you question (and make mistakes) and learn to stop making mistakes. You get conditioned when you don't ask questions, make mistakes and keep making it. The sad part of conditioning is that you feel like you are deserted most of the times. Experience validates by questioning.

It is questioning that is key differentiator between experience and conditioning.

What I Think About Thinking

There is a friend of mine, initially i didn't like him much because i watched him from a distance and i believed what others had to say about him. I was deeply conditioned having my own lens (and few borrowed ones). Later, i had a couple of close interactions with him, now, i started to like him and most importantly the way he thinks. That is a usual story and probably heard number of times in your life. (me too). Here are my inferences with few meet-ups.

A good thinker always spends a lot of time in "thinking" than "speaking". He listens a lot and he doesn't jump into conclusions but keep learning (or draws inference). A good thinker always has a model to think - his own way of inferring/learning and he even learns the ways of new thinking (contemporary). Thinking has to be like a moving target. It is all about being dynamic and more dynamic.

Human beings are programmed to think, think deeply and that is part of the evolution. Thinking deeply needs time (to think and to reflect) and practice (with mistakes). You got to reinvent the wheel for your sake because if your friend knows "A B C D" that does make you educated. Your life is quite different from your friend's life and so is your thinking. So, reinvent the wheel, if  it gives you joy. Whatever that gives you inner happiness is always going to be correct.

Nothing can be so dangerous than being unknown and partially knowing something. Let us strive hard to do the research on something. Research makes us to think. If there are two choices - the first is to use the existing material and the second is to do research, choose the second. Research makes us to think though it takes little time. When you think, your learning gets registered in subconscious mind (otherwise, you abstract concepts). Life will be pleasant once we start abstracting.

The interaction with my friend made me to think and as a result i infer paragraph #2, #3 and #4

What do you think :-)?

Weaker Ones - Go Get It

There were many stories and the good one is the story of the fox that says, "mmm, no, those grapes will sour".

Weaker are the ones who surrender totally. I won't even use the word surrender as the word signifies freedom and realization in spiritual context. Inaction and letting others to act on me is a terrible pattern. Initially it made me feel so good and i seemed to get things with someone's effort. But i m sure that as the time progresses, the pressure will mount on me - you can't really say the cause of the pressure and if you drill down, it is self. I feel that i m deeply chained and we know that if we are chained to anything except the roots is not freedom. Freedom is something for strong hearted but not for me, because i m faint hearted. Freedom should lead to action but not the passport for inaction.

Freedom is highly risky and for sure leads to evolution. If i don't choose freedom, i not only stop the evolution of my self but also attempt to extinguish my self.

The above is my thought and highly influenced by Osho through his book "Freedom".

(Hu)Man's Problem

The human race is now going away from evolution. It is going through extinction. It extinguishes other micro organisms and organisms and that changes the ecosystem. We are marching towards to a point of no return. A point from where the mistake is going to be costly and most importantly it is going to be a irreversible situation. Is the nature keeping quiet to all our deeds? No

Nature gives him the signals through events. The man is not patient enough and intelligent enough to sense the events. He might have invented latest gadgets, most posh/luxury sedan and made a cover story in latest inventions. In order to understand the nature, he doesn't need those invention. He needs to be patient. He is too impatient to listen the nature.

He has the unique thing "awareness". But he is impatient and hence lacks to employ "awareness". The magazine Scientific American talks (for more than months, years?) all about the mess we create for future generations.

Politicians at Ripe Age

Yesterday, i happen to meet one of my great friends who is going to retire in two years. He is working in a bank and says he wants to retire as early as possible. He clearly knows that he needs rest. After hearing that, i was thinking about politicians and i deeply pity them. 

The politicians are mostly at ripe age - 50s (it is ok), 60s (still ok), 70s, 80s and 90s. It takes them a lot of time to climb the leadership ladder in their party and later in government administration. Somehow, their thirst is not quenched even if they are in power throughout. In some cases, by the time they enter their office as ministers they are quite above their retirement age.

But then, they are not able to leave the power even at 80s and 90s. My question is how they will face the death. If they feel so much about power and need the kick of power, how will they face death. Do they want to die when they are in power? Are they willing to be powerful dead-bodies? The death is total surrender. Even our own lung won't breathe, our own heart won't pump blood, our own blood won't flow even if we command it. It is total surrender.

I feel, the death for them is going to be so painful and paradigm shift.

I m not responsible if it sounds like your workplace :-(

Mindful Living For Simplification and Abstraction

We are sum of mistakes and we learn everything by making mistakes. When we were kids, we just couldn't hear what our parents used to say when we were about to touch a candle flame. Our reflex kicked in when the flame hurt us and we registered that event in brain permanently. We build our knowledge base by etching the neurons and their interconnections. This etching process is called experience. As we gather such experiences, our intuition also grows and our intuition reflects in the form of our actions. Our action leads to mistake and the mistake is again fed back. It is a constant learning process. We are life long students. Some of us are quite aware about that and some of us are in the process of learning that.

But now the question is how to learn fast? One option is to learn from our mistakes/actions. Another option is learning from fellow human beings. We can agree to some extent that learning from others helps us to learn fast. But no faster. The lifetime of human beings are pretty long and if we rely on learning from human beings alone, it wont be sufficient. How about learning from animals and nature? How can it be possible to learn from animals and nature? In order to do that we ought to be simple and adopt a simplistic living. A simple living is not only leading life with less things but also living with mindful thinking.

A student asked his master. You say that each event is unique. An event occurs as it is interconnected with so many other events, some of them are dependent on other events and some of them are interdependent on other events. But yet, how can the solution to the problems or interpretation of these events can be generalized (or how come Buddha simplified that the root cause of all problems is "desire"). The master answered his student that it is all about simplification and abstraction. Simplification and abstraction are quite possible only when we live a mindful life - state of complete awareness. You have to simplify things leaving out irrelevant things and consider things that are relevant (which is abstraction). It is when you simplify, you will be able to abstract.

When we have total awareness, we can learn from ourselves, others, animals and nature. All the encounters will teach us something and even the restful mind will teach us something. Mindful Living is needed to understand interconnectedness of many events and hence a must for simplification and abstraction.

What do you think?

Knowing Linux Processes

Sometime in 2005, I happened to write two articles on Linux Processes which was published Linux for You. For someone who is relatively new to Linux/Unix programming, the following two articles should be a curtain raiser as it explains basics of processes in Linux. While the topic is Linux processes, the concept should apply to any multi-tasking operating systems. Sharing it here hoping that it will be useful for some of you.

Access the following links for the PDFs

An Introduction to Linux Processes

Processes in Linux (Part -2)

Happy Reading.

What Can We Learn From Hatching?

Sometime back, i published a post titled "Get out of the Shell, Mr. Chick" on the need for passion to transform oneself. This post is add-on to that and please make sure that you read that post ("Get out of the Shell, Mr. Chick") before this. Now, we are sure that we need internal force or passion to do anything (and to excel in that).

But one question that pops up - "i have been doing this for so long time but no results". There is no wrong in being result oriented but i just can't see results. Seems like the tunnel is too long and too dark. I m afraid that i will give up. First, i would say, these thoughts are usual and things will be clear if we just try to understand from chicken hatching (or birth of a human).

There are two ways of answering this question. First, the usual answer which is simple without logical thinking saying that you shouldn't look for results when passion drives you. But, I don't agree with that fully. I agree with that statement to an extent of putting in efforts - dont measure your efforts when passion drives you. I don't agree with the argument if someone says that you shouldn't measure the results. Obviously, we need to measure the results so as to understand the efforts required to reach the purpose.

The second way of answering that question is to understand the process of transformation. Let us take the example of chicken hatching out of an egg. Once the hen lays the egg, it takes roughly about 21 to 37 days for the new baby to be hatched. Even this is the case with human being. But there is no clever doctor in the earth to exactly predict the time of birth or chicken hatching. The scientists have understood the environment or process of birth or hatching. But they haven't understood enough to predict the date of birth to the minutes because that is close to impossible or the world is not interested to know the exact time. The world is more interested on the transformation (to motherhood) and the product of transformation (the child), so extra few days or weeks doesn't matter. No mother in earth pulls her baby out if she stays in for few more days, the mother and the child know the time doesn't matter, but the pain (labour) matters.

If we are working on our transformation, it is quite natural that if we take few more days/weeks/years. It is worth the wait. Sometimes, "the wait" is far better undue transformation.

Powers of Truth

Today, I happen to write a recommendation in LinkedIn. Now, I m writing my experience on how i feel when i say something and how it affects our state of mind. When you say something, your intuition says something to you - you will feel that you have done a good job and your mind goes into peaceful state or your mind goes to confused state and you feel not so good. Even if you do something wrong because of your conditionings (but not based on the real facts), a slight discomfort kicks in. It is up to us to regard or disregard the cues given by our intuition. You can call it intuition or conscience (which again shapes you in a long run).

The real powers of truth are - the truth and its omnipresence, its ability to kick back some quality feedback on the subject immediately (person who is truthful/untruthful) and its ability to erupt like a volcano if suppressed (the tipping point factor).

Today, there is no doubt that i feel so much peace in mind and it was fantastic day :-)

Real Test Of (your) Leadership

One of my colleagues used to say that leading an informal group is bit challenging than leading a team where hierarchy is already put in place. I would go one step further to say that leading an informal group is litmus test for one's leadership skills. What do you mean by informal group? By informal group, i mean that there are no rules set in favor of you and you have deal everything on your own. You have to stretch, bend, set standards, be flexible, listen with one thing in mind - achieving the vision of the informal group.

Unlike in traditional team setup where the lead/manager has naturally rules set in his favor either by organization or by himself, in informal group/initiatives, there are no rules set in favor of you. At every point of time, when you are leading an informal group, you got to make sure that you take consensus from everyone and be as democratic as possible. You got to really use your brain, sharpen your thinking, impress the group and win confidence of the group. Improvement is daily ritual. There is no wonder why my friend said, "leading an informal group is challenging". The work is quite involved, no wishy-washy :-).

In order for a someone to acquire some leadership skills, i feel that it is quite important for him to lead a diverse and informal group. This skill is more relevant in today's context where as more young people join the workforce who ask more questions, who are more inclined towards being democratic, who cannot be bound within a boundary, who cannot work with constraints, it is quite essential for the guys who lead teams to lead like leading an informal group. In an informal group, there are no power centers. The group favors who add value to the group. You cannot win the confidence of group just by words or by past action but got to show that in action every second. Leading an informal group is more about action at present.

So, the real test of leadership starts when you lead informal group.

What do you think?

Unconditional Burning Desire To Make Everyone The Best - Teacher's Day

Today is Teachers' day - a day that is dedicated to teachers. There will be at least one teacher (if you are lucky enough, you will have more) who made a difference in our lives. Often, they are Gods in disguise. They give us knowledge, wisdom, experiences, motivation, inspiration and what not without any expectation. The unconditional burning desire to make every student a better human being. During this wonderful day, I would like "thank" my teachers/professors (and all teachers of the world) and "dedicate" my professional and personal successes to them. In a sense, our parents, friends, siblings and seniors at work are wonderful teachers and my dedication to them too.

Direction & Initiation is Key

When you talk to good people, they point your mistakes and give you areas where you can improve. They will give you some framework on how to deal with your mistakes and insecurity (your perception) due to the mistakes you make. When you talk to great people, they don't tell you explicitly about your mistakes. They give just direction and some times multiple directions. They want you to explore many directions and finally arrive at a place in a way that fits you and that comes natural to you. 

The great people know the starting point and ending point are important but not the methods. For example, measuring the temperature is quite important when a doctor examines a patient who is suffering from flu. But it is not so important whether to measure the temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius. Both makes sense and does the job. Using both ways, we can arrive at worthy inferences on the condition of a patient. The change or transformation is more important than the vehicle/road you chose for transformation. The directions set by great people are open ended that give way for exploration, imagination, contemporary thinking and creative. They just let us to find our way. They give us tools - direction & initiation, by which our ignorance are exposed and converted to experience.

GMAIL Priority Inbox

An email program that learns your reading pattern and brings those emails that are of your interest when the similar emails arrive next time. Already we have SPAM filtering but yet the number of emails that reaches our Inbox is huge. We also have various types of information shared with us at various levels of importance like personal credit card statement, bank statements, updates from facebook, important IM from your loved ones when you are offline and simply too many emails and too many important emails. If you don't regularly clean up your Inbox or if you are off for few days, there would simply so many unread emails. Sometimes, an important email (emails from your girlfriend) hides itself among not so important emails (emails from your boss). Thats were we need bit of help.

Yet again, Google has come up with Priority Inbox feature for all its GMAIL users. As soon as you login, check out Priority Inbox. It takes little time to configure. As and when an email arrives, you also have facility to increase or decrease its priority. There were two additional buttons to increase and decrease the priority. GMAIL learns it and remembers to apply the logic when similar emails comes next time.

For me, it seems to be a nice feature as it tries to bring up important emails and sorts them based on your reading pattern.

Here is a video from Google on Priority Inbox

Java Books - Must Read

I was involved in fresh professionals' training program and got an opportunity to think over list of books in Java that must be read by anyone who is new to Java.

Head First Java (Step 1)

I m great fan of Head First books. It is a killer idea to present complex technical concepts with fun. Many things get registers quite well and quickly. Head First Java, like usual Head First books, has lot of examples, lot of exercises at relevant places. The concepts are not covered in a hurry. For anyone who is new to Java, Head First Java should be the first book to get started with so that it gives you confidence. I would recommend to read this book cover to cover at least twice and make sure that you complete all the exercises. It is the worth the time spend.

Effective Java (Step 2)

This is a treasure. What is more required from a programming language? While many books teaches about certain concept, this book creates "love" towards the programming language and that makes you to create your own ideas/concepts. It makes you to think and stretches your imagination and technical knowledge. It raises many questions on the design of the language and answers them. What else can you expect from the author who has created many APIs in Sun Java.

Java Concurrency in Practice (Step 3)

If there is one book in Java on threads, this is the book. It is worth the money and time you spend on this book. Period

Inside Java Virtual Machine (Step 4)

In order to understand the interpreter, there is no other material available better than this. This book talks about internals of JVM and logic behind each modules. A must read for those who wants to understand internals of JVM.

Java Language Specification & Java Virtual Machine Specification (Step 5)
It is always great feeling to get ourselves exposed to specifications. Once you get sufficient handle in Java/JVM basics, these two specs should take you deep drive into design decisions of the language and JVM. It may be bit dry to start of with but certainly be interesting as you read. The following are the links.

Java Language Specification
Java Virtual Machine Specification

Hope this helps.