Play your strength

I got the messages in Facebook. It summarizes what we should be doing - "play your strength" and "measure the performance when playing the strength"

How much we rely on the performance appraisal system (outsourcing our career) and how much we are ensuring that we are playing our strength (creating our future).

Thinking

How much ever i try to think, i cannot think.

Despite that i continue to think that i can think well one day (hope is eternal, remote possibility but there is hope)

Daily Improvements

Why we often fall short of our big goals? Let us take an example of acquiring a skill.

When we are building a new skill (swimming) it is very important to be consistent (go to pool everyday). Every day we keep making tiny improvements and if you put things in bigger time scale the tiny improvements become big (tiny drops make ocean). This is not a rocket science.

But why are we often failing to make "big" improvements. Because of our nature of failing to recognize the tiny improvements we often end up not making an effort for the tiny improvement. The improvement or the increase is tiny and we tend to equate the tiny to negligible (often of no value). We give up thinking that it is difficult or it is not worth trying (whatever it is - the end goal is "zero").

Secondly, the consistency seem to very easy as long as it is consistency (you hit the pool and swim). Because the amount of mental effort needed is less (it appears to be easy). But once the consistency is lost (stop going to pool for a couple of days), the mental effort to bring in consistency is highly difficult (no room for context switch and focus should be spot on). It is mentally tough.

Issues with Instant Gratification

Do you prefer smaller short term gain over bigger longer term gain? Do you prefer to get instant "pay backs"?

I see few issues with instant gratification. 

• Instant gratification focuses more "pay backs" rather than the "actual goal". When you focus on short term "temptation", sometimes the efforts are scattered, sometimes leads to failure to learn at boundaries, leads not to see a big picture.
• Gratification is always tempting and i think that is why most of us want to cash it instantly. 
• Since i have already cashed, i see that there is no need to put more focus on the goal - i consider that i have already accomplished
• Hinders continuous learning

Only a very few people overcome the temptation and look beyond few days to few months to few years (deferred gratification). You can call it a virtue or maturity. It is very difficult to acquire. easy to say but very very hard to do.

Growth Vs Pseudo Growth

(Pseudo) Growth - Growing as much as someone wants you to grow. This depends on how much someone wants you to be tucked. This depends on your society (boss, society, wife and your dog). This is sure shot way of growing when you want to be good and it is safest.

Growth - Grow beyond boundaries. As you reach your ceiling, you keep pushing out, stretching your own limits. When you keep stretching your limits, you become UNLIMITED. It doesn't matter whether you are taller than someone or shorter than someone but you are UNLIMITED.

Choose you game :-)

Pushing out emotions

Emotions are good and bad. 

Good - when it helps to build relationships (Love, trust, care)

Bad - when it doesn't help to build relationships. Often used to prove that "i am correct (and you are wrong)"

In a difficult situation (where i badly want to express something in that moment) when i want to get relieved (satisfying my ego), i used to burst out. For past few months, i have been selectively taking up not to burst out (otherwise - not to make an attempt to do something to simply satisfy my ego).

When i do not make an attempt, it often makes me more productive and happier than if i had to show my emotions. "moving on" is becoming easy. I seem to enjoy the new person in me and finding his new limits. These days i think that the best email is that is not written and the best words are that not spoken.

Push out (emotions) - to find a new self.

Paradigm shift

Human beings are designed to thrive and evolve. Most of us think that we have limitations. It is our own thinking that is causing us stagnated. But we are limitless possibility. Here is a video that someone shared in Facebook.

Inspiring Story

Whatever we do might be a very simple like fixing a puncture in a cycle. But it might have given us a new thinking, new eyes, new possibilities. If it gives us a new perspective, even a tiny thing is a paradigm shift. New perspective gives us limitless possibilities.

Perspectives are important as they fetch shift in frame of mind.

Happy weekend

Notion of Role

I often hear from people about wanting an elevation in the role thinking that mere elevation would give us a career progression. The career progression is a sword and ultimately lead to suicide when there are no business need and an undue promotion (a different topic).

Let us dwell right into the "notion of role".

Unlike a drama or cinema, the role at work need not be restricted. The role is something what i believe that i would be doing (aspiration), what i should be doing (expectation), whether it pushes my abilities (performance) and whether i really like what i am doing (passion). 

Each one of us can aspire to become something. It doesn't mean that it is available right now. The second thing - the reality might be quite different from belief. I might believe that i am something and ready for something more. The reality could be different and there could be gaps. I might need to work on the gaps, be flexible to play better (efficient, try to solve the team's problem and create impact).

But to start with I feel it is very important to be flexible to contribute more. Flexibility (mindset or paradigm whatever you call it) could be a real game changer. The moment i become flexible, i really tune my antenna of learning and slowly expand my capacity which is very likely to give a career progression and role progression. There is a possibility of becoming a role MODEL.

Right Back Here

It has been more than 10 months that i turned up to my blog. I tried to find reasons and many things came to my mind. The reasons are mere reasons. Anyways, here are some

1. If I had 25 hours in a day, probably i would have written an useful post (like this?) everyday. 
2. If there an extra day in a week, i would have written a weekly post for my readers and that would have given a weekly gyan to you.
3. If there was an extra day in a month, i would have written it or at least i would have released a photo (like before and after photo of a slimming clinic)
4. Work, family, commitments
5. I did not write simply because i do not have that time. I always want to write masterpiece posts so it requires lot of thinking. If you do not yet understand what is masterpiece, read at least of my posts here. You will be enlightened.

The reality is - "i lack thinking", "i did not conceive any new ideas", "i did not try anything new", "i did not try to change much", "i was like a stone", "i stopped being intellectually curious", "i was in a silo - unripe fruit waiting to be become a ripe fruit".

But last 10 months aren't so dull. May be bright in different aspect. The last four months are so thrilling, calm and peaceful. Feeling more grounded because i try to be more grounded :-). May be it is starting point of a new beginning. I really need to unstuck now :-)

Let us see

But i promise - more is in store. If i do not change, i would be extinct

Start seeing you regularly

Note on Online Courses from Coursera

Happen to see that there are couple of courses in Coursera that starts near future. I would highly recommend all our students (who have attended OpenGyan workshops) to register and try to complete the course. The courses are for someone who knows little programming and i believe the take away for any computer science undergraduate would be huge. The professional who feels that they lack algorithmic thinking (like me) should also get benefit out of it.

• Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Part 1
• Algorithms, Part I

The second course would exposure us to land of Algorithms while the first one would help us to design and analyze the algorithms. These two courses nicely complement each other. I am pretty sure that these two courses would challenge us for next 2 months and add fun to our life.

Happy learning

Good Start for 2015 @ OpenGyan

OpenGyan was in Trichy for a one day workshop. It is our first workshop in 2015 and we had a good start. One of the alumnus (Siva, thank you) of Jayaram College of Engineering and Technology who used to work with us introduced us to HOD. We were supposed to have workshop on Programming but we had to switch over to general topics as we have got many students from different streams. So, we did a workshop on "College to Corporate" and touched on "Resume Writing" with giving elements of good resume and review of the resumes of the students, "How to present oneself in interviews" and a mock "GD" and review of the GD.

We will be there on another day for a programming workshop.

And finally the day was ended with a very long discussion with Principal, HOD (CSE) and there were a lot of exchange of interesting ideas, exchange of thoughts on academic, industry and state of industry. We happen to capture few snaps during and after the workshop and the pictures are hosted here.

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OpenGyan in Trichy