Innovation and problems

The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity for innovation. While big problems don’t always produce big breakthroughs, little problems never do.

- The Why, What and How of Management Innovation, HBR Feb ’06

Detachment vs Indifference

Today I realized the true meaning of something I had read in the Bhagvad Gita a long time ago. In the second chapter of The Gita, Bhagvan Sri Krishna preaches to Arjun two things – characteristics of a sthita-prajna and darshan.

Stitha-Prajna stable thought is actually emotional stability and darshan means vision, translating to a healthy philosophy of life.

Now, this is something that is pertinent to management. A good manager needs to be emotionally stable and he needs to pervade health into his/her team. Emotional stability comes in the form of making detached decisions. Sounds weird? How can you make a decision if you are not passionate about what you are doing? I had the same question…

Well, let me explain!

Here detachment is to bring in the necessary emotional stability. Have you ever noticed how we provide rational, thoughtful decisions to others’ problems and still end up getting confused of our own? This is because of that “detachment”. It brings along with it a rational perspective, which is uncanny and necessary to make well, rational decisions. And it’s with “emotional stability” that we can make detached, rational decisions in our own lives.

However, there’s a thin line between detachment and indifference.

This is where Darshan kicks in. Vision of a healthy future helps us set the necessary objectives in life, which are clear once you have the necessary detached vision. So it’s into these objectives that your decision shall lead when you make rational decisions.

Yet another reason is that data is objective while decisions are subjective. Being subjective, you need to have an impartial perspective to make the right decision.

How do we get a healthy perspective in life? If I remember right, it starts from a healthy state of mind, which in turn is achieved through a healthy state of body, soul and cleansing of harmful thoughts.

I think it’s time I picked up the Gita again. More as I get any further enlightenment ;-) !

Hacking Technical Interviews…

Now I know why I ace @ Technical Interviews…

For more info http://hackingtechnicalinterview.com/

Apple: “…and one day we will enter India,…”

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080304/apple_asia.html?.v=1

Apple COO Tim Cook was quoted by Reuters at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting

We will enter Asia with the iPhone in 2008… we will one day enter China, we’re not saying when, and we will one day enter India

When _is_ that day? We are already nearing one year since the release of iPhone and there is not even a whisper in India. When you contact the local retailers of Apple hardware, all you get is 8-10 months more. *Sigh*. You disappoint me Mr Jobs.

India gets everything late, new line of laptops enter as late as 3-4 months (that’s a quarter :-P ) and iPods a couple of months. Why this ill treatment? Aren’t there enough Mac faithful in any other country? I am trying to dig up some numbers for the number of Mac users in the country. Well, when we join together, with the typical clamor that Indians are known for, we will be a force to reckon with ;-D!

Anyhoo, here goes the open request for any Mac faithful / Apple faithful in India. If you own/rent/lease Apple hardware, put in a comment. We can decide how we can get the iPhone in India.

Selfishness…

Selfishness is a virtue as long as you aren’t immoral

- a Friend

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St Patricks Day!

Here comes the cold
Break out the winter clothes
And find a love to call your own
You – enter you
Your cheeks a shade of pink
And the rest of you in powder blue

Who knows what will be
But I’ll make you this guarantee

No way November will see our goodbye
When it comes to December it’s obvious why
No one wants to be alone at Christmas time

In the dark, on the phone
You tell me the names of your brothers
And your favorite colors
I’m learning you
And when it snows again
We’ll take a walk outside
And search the sky
Like children do
I’ll say to you

No way November will see our goodbye
When it comes to December it’s obvious why
No one wants to be alone at Christmas time
And come January we’re frozen inside
Making new resolutions a hundred times
February, won’t you be my valentine?

And we’ll both be safe ’til St. Patrick’s Day

We should take a ride tonight around the town
and look around at all the beautiful houses
something in the way that blue lights on a black night
can make you feel more
everybody, it seems to me, just wants to be
just like you and me

No one wants to be alone at Christmas time
Come January we’re frozen inside
Making new resolutions a hundred times
February, won’t you be my valentine?

And if our always is all that we gave
And we someday take that away
I’ll be alright if it was just ’til St. Patrick’s Day

- John Mayer – St. Patricks Day!

I am wondering why I didn’t pick this song earlier into my liking of JM songs… I think it’s one of the best contemporary lyrics I have heard in all my life :-) !! Especially the main chorus and the second stanza :-) ! Amazing!! Simply super dooper

Wow, and it comes at the right time :-D!

Life has its funny moments certainly. Today, I was wondering about what is going on with my blogging. I thought it was indeed getting a bit popular! And Baba sent me this by email. I am quoting the original source

Having blogged in one form or fashion for the last 6 years or so (not including personal journals that I’ve written in, on paper even, with crayon even, since I was six years old), allow me to personally provide you with a rundown on the lifecycle that I’ve observed from personal bloggers.

#1. Start reading blogs.
You start out as a lurker and by either having met a blogger or run across an intriguing and challenging post from someone else’s blog, you start mulling about in your head for either a forum for response, challenge, or agreement. You *could* start by commenting on other folks blogs first, but you start having a gradually increased desire for a space of your own. Like when you’re living in your parent’s basement and the rest of your friends are making weekly trips to Home Depot and using words like “mulching”. You begin to wonder if you want to belong.

#2. You start a blog.

Maybe at first it’s on blogspot or livejournal. You start writing about cheese sandwiches. You use your full name and the full names of your friends that are involved in your occasionally mischievous exploits. These things satisfy you. Hubris starts taking a more significant part of your site as you develop your tiny homestead online. The notion of fleshing out your online personality becomes important.

#3. You become a stats whore.
Daily stats/referrals and meme participation for webrings, quizlists, personality profiles, and the occasional sepia toned webcam photo to make you look all “emo” and “sultry” and “sensitive” or at least a little bit thinner. And definitely like a Kpop music video still image. You voraciously groom your links list as you build a posse. The wishlist makes it’s initial appearance and creepy strangers start sending you gifts when your birthday comes around. You consider this slightly weird, but hey, then again, you *did* get that Star Wars Box set that you always wanted. You *start* memes just for the additional traffic. Perhaps you even start a webgame of sorts.

#4. You become really personal on your site as the online and real-life worlds start confusing you.

As you recognize the possibility of being an opinion leader in your personal circle, people flame you. You occasionally flame back. You cry about comments that certain people make to provoke you. You bitch about these things as well. Then you take into consideration that comments were made by pimply 14 year olds who post jpegs of their warcraft characters online and realize that these lOZeRs aren’t worth your time. This gives you an sense of superiority. Haha! you say to yourself. I have a posse and a blog and you don’t. So fuck off, you lame twat. Hazzah!

#5. You faux “retire” from blogging.
Having temporarily exhausted the emotional reservoir from which your personal blog has sprung forth, you post about retiring. Or a vacation. Or a hiatus. Or a sabbatical. You say this will be permanent. Or last a month.

#6. You cave back into blogging in less than 72 hours.

You candy pants blogging crack addict.

#7. You decide to “get serious” about blogging.
You seek out “The A-List” of bloggers and start reading more of them, and news about them, and news about blogging in general. You come to the conclusion that if you ever hope to join their rank, then you need to at least register your own domain. After all, http://candypantsnewbiebloggeraboutcheesesandwhiches.blogspot.com will not get you linked by Kottke.

#8. You have a pseudo flirty im/blogging/flickr flirting relationship with another blogger whom you have never met.

This will likely end badly. Very badly.

#9. You decide that you must meet other bloggers.

SXSW seems like a good way to go about it. Or attendance at Fray Day. Or finding any excuse possible to move to San Francisco. At least a trip, after all. With a visit to SF, meeting other “celebrity” bloggers is just as tasty a tourist destination as going to Fisherman’s Wharf. Or more so. Definitely more so. Your blogroll grows threefold.

#10. You take a step back and metablog about blogging and what blogging has done about your blogging.

You become pedantically navelgazingly annoying. For some reason, your blogger readership eats this shit up. This does not convince you, however, that you want to do something silly like smoke weed with Marc Canter. Because even *you* know that’s a bad idea.

#11. See step 5. Shampoo, rinse, repeat.

#12. You decide that as a result of step 10 and having repeated step 5 more than 3 times in the course of your lifecycle as a blogger, that you need to sanitize or reinvent your blog. You purge or hide archive entries and take more note to remove full names of your friends/crushes/accidentaldrunkenfondels from your site and links list. Your blog goes back to cheese sandwiches. But this time your site validates.

#13. You either lose your job because of blogging, are afraid of losing your job for blogging, or join a company that builds blogging tools.
Either way, your blog either dies a horrible painful death, or becomes significantly less personal to the degree of trite and uninteresting compartmentalization or subject matter discretion.

#14. You decide to start an anonymous livejournal blog.
Here is where you still talk about your crushes, the he said/she said crap, and that you really really really really really really really like Maroon 5. And it’s on

Hilarious!! I can't stop laughing!! Awesome MinJungKim =))

Life is all about ass

Another gem forward :-D !

Life is all about ass;
You’re either covering it,
Laughing it off,
Kicking it,
Kissing it,
Busting it,
Trying to get a piece of it,
Behaving likeone,
Or you live with one!!!

Virginity is a like a balloon…

I received an awesome message from Milo today!

Virginity is a like a balloon. One prick and its gone forever. Sex is like a pack of chips. Once you start, you can't stop. Life is like a dick. When it's hard, it fucks!

Amazed at the creativity of the super cool person who has come up with this! Every word has a punned [if there's a word like that] meaning!