MuSick in my head

Music: It’s in your head, changing your brain - CNN.com

Very interesting article with loads of research insights cited. My own simplistic interpretation of this used to be that this is mind’s “screen saver” program doing its work. Whenever your mind is not involved in any active thinking, the screen saver kicks in.

However, for the past few years, there has been a peculiar thing happening to me. A particular song would play on & on & on, during some days & events. If you are curious, it is the song ‘Megangal ennai thottu ponadhundu’ from the movie Amarkalam, particularly the line _Eriya vilakkai veezhththiyavar evarumillai_. I got really worked up on this and was wondering WTH was going on. The more I would want this song to be not playing, the more it would. More like - You cannot not think about something consciously. Once I studied it more, I became aware that this song plays when I am actually bored / annoyed / anxious / one such negative feeling. So when this song plays, I now become aware that there is something wrong in my system, take a deep breath and try to correct it. It could mean ending the conversation I had, thinking about what exactly is bothering me and giving solace to myself etc. In effect, it has become a kind of friend of mine who nudges me when I am in a negative feeling.

From my Twitter feed in Hootsuite… Not even a good try, Nokia! Sorry!!

Joshua Project

Brahman, Iyer of India Ethnic People Profile

A kickass website with details of every ethnic group in the world (though the purpose for which it is maintained is a bit replusive)

Cross Selling Conundrum

Had recently been to a jewelry shop. Apart from showcasing the piece of jewelry my wife was wanting to buy, the sales lady was continuously trying to sell a ‘monthly plan’ to us [1]. She was openly saying she has a ‘target’ to meet for the month.

Made a phone call to ICICI Bank today to inquire about their interest rates. The phone banking executive was hell bent on selling a recurring deposit plan to me. He would not let me do it online - I just need to tell the amount and he would do it himself. I had to really be apologetic to get out of the call and he was very disappointed with my behavior. Am sure he has his own targets.

Wonder the pressure these guys go through!! And with customers like me!! Sigh!!

[1] The plan itself was interesting - more like an SIP. You pay a fixed sum every month. The quantity of gold that sum would buy, based on the gold rate of the day you pay, is set aside in your account. For example, if you pay 12000 bucks a month and the gold rate is 24000 for a sovereign (8 grams), you get 4 grams stored in your account. This continues till your ‘plan’ ends, typically in 15 months or so. End of the period, there is a bonus one month’s amount added and the total quantity of gold accumulated is available for you to purchase. This way, you apparently do not get affected by the ‘fluctuations’ in gold price.

Private sector have to work to pay for you in the public sector

Not really. This insightful article exposes this myth:

Tim Harford — Article — You’re wrong – we are all wealth creators

In the Indian context, in industries like Banking / Insurance etc, if public sector bank employees are going to compete with the private sector guys, I believe public sector guys would come out winning. May be even Telecom? I wonder.

Dilemma of the day

If you injure a bug, should you kill it or let it live? This happens to me all the time. I accidentally step on a bug and injure it. It sits there struggling and I’m always confused over if I should kill it to relieve it of pain or let it live in hopes that it may survive

If you injure a bug, should you kill it or let it live? - Quora

Do you also have this dilemma? These days, I leave the bug alone and hope he recovers. But there was a time when I cut off a lizard’s tail to see if it really grows back. I have no clue if it amounts to torture & the lizard felt emotionally hurt etc. :-)

Steve Jobs & Brahmin Language

“Maybe there’s a better way, a gentlemen’s club where we all wear ties and speak in this Brahmin language and velvet code words, but I don’t know that way, because I am middle class from California”

says Steve Jobs (Pg. 569 in the biography - yes, I finished reading it)

This photo has nothing to do with the article. Found this when I searched for ‘Steve Jobs Brahmin’, that is all. (Every post should have an image, no?)

What does he mean by Brahmin language here? The only Brahmin language I know is to say “Vaango” for “Vaanga”, “Aathukku” for “Veetukku” etc. (Non-tamil readers may please read this WikiPage for more details)

But I am sure this is not what is meant there! :)

I did some search on this but could not locate anything. The business paper of Mount Road Maha Vishnu has done an article on the biography including this quote but does not explain :(

Knowledgeable people, please enlighten me!

The IT Guy

At a recent meeting of residents in my locality, an innocent looking dude sitting next to me asked where I work. Once I answered, he said “Oh so you are not in IT?” with a quizzical expression. He seemed concerned if he will not be able to talk anything to me over the next hour or so for which the meeting was scheduled.

With a few career moves I have made, I get really confused on what to answer for such questions. For a moment, I thought I should say “I work on the intersection of technology & liberal arts” :-p but I simply said “You are right”.

And the conversation ended there!

Found this spam mail very interesting! Creative, no? :-)

Steve Jobs, MODS, Gyaan & Free Book

MODS (Mobile Developer Summit) happened in Bangalore last week. No, I am not posting something that should go into my mobile news blog here, by mistake.

There was a contest in MODS - To pay tribute to Steve Jobs and pick up a free copy of his biography. I do not know how many people had participated but I was one of the 5 who were picked up to speak & get the biography. So, someone who has not owned a single Apple product (including the iPod) in life spoke about Steve Jobs & picked up the book :-)

Here it is:

Hello Everyone,

To a lot of us, Steve Jobs was “God”. And all of us want to emulate him. See, Steve Jobs personified 2 things – being a Genius and being a Jerk. A lot of us sub-consciously realize that we cannot become a Genius so we automatically become Jerks!

Jokes apart, over countless interviews, keynotes, tributes & videos of the great man I have come across, I have distilled 3 lessons for myself. This is what I will share today with you, as a tribute to him. These are all common-sense lessons but as with all common-sense related things, very very uncommon. If I can follow these at least in some areas of my life, I would die a happy man. Without further ado, here are the lessons:

#1 Of being an ‘A-level’ player:

In one of his interviews, Steve Jobs says, not so verbatim but along these lines: “In a regular domain, say being a taxi driver or a cook, the difference between the best guy and the average guy might be in the order of two to one or three to one. However, in the field of technology, the difference between the best guy and a the average guy is fifty to one, huge dynamic range. It is like the difference that exists between the best & average poets or artists. Artists & Engineers are just people who pursue different paths but headed to the same goal which is to express something. Therefore, in my domain, it really pays to go after the best people in the world.”

The learning for me here is to try to become someone who Jobs will hire! That is, be an A level player in what I do & be an artist. How do I become an A level player? That leads to the second lesson.

#2 Being true to the man in the mirror:

His father once told him – “You’ve got to make the back of the fence that nobody will see just as good-looking as the front of the fence. Even though nobody will see it, you will know.” The lesson for me here is: I need not be out there building the greatest company on earth, not even the greatest product. Even if I do a simple thing of writing an email, preparing this speech or doing a chore, for me to sleep well at night, I better do it with all the care & quality. That will make me an A-level player. Now, how do I give this attention to the smallest of things? That is the third lesson.

#3 Intuition & the Power of Now:

Some of the books he cherished were in the realm of spirituality. This is one area of his life that probably needs more study. I believe all the focus & determination he got was through the countless hours of meditation he did facing the wall. Which is why he said, “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

His biography says that he learnt about intuition in India – If only we can start practising that, people here, in this room and our children & co-workers, may be, over a period of time, one of us will turn out to be Steve Jobs!

Thank you, ladies & gentlemen. It was a pleasure to speak here.