Common sense

Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius.
                                        Josh Billings

Conquering hesitation : Talking to strangers

Why men don't ask for directions? Of the many reasons, hesitation is one. Many of us are too hesitent to walk up to stranger and talk to them. Even when we are looking for help. When was the last time you spoke to a stranger?

Have you been to an village or small town. People so easily talk to strangers. Have a chit chat - over whatever be the topic - politics, economy, sports, doesn't matter. Everyone has his two cents to throw in. But what a stark contrast you see in big cities. You won't even pass a smile to your neighbour, forget the greeting. Why?

I don't think lifestyle is a reason. In a smaller town, you will somehow secured and easy. A big city gives a very intimidating feeling. Like you are nobody and no one bothers about you. More or less true, but why let that feeling hang on to us so tight? I know, even if you gather courage to tell something to a stranger, first look you will get will be of suspicion. That's a hazard of times we are living in. Anyway, let get back to the point. We are hesitant to talk to strangers and how we get rid of it.

You surely would have met a salesman and a beggar on the road. Next time notice how they approach to strangers. There's a lot to learn from them. Both have a very different approach. A salesman will start with introduction, but a beggar cuts all the crap and throws a one liner at you. We all know who is more successful.

Again, lets take it in a vice versa situation. How you would like a stranger to approach you. To be point. Specific and precise. Isn't it. So lets do the same. When you approach a stranger get to the point right after a a polite greeting.

Easier said then done. We know what to say but approaching take guts. Remember we spoke of Baby Steps process. Lets use the same.

Start small. One day just walk on the road, without your wrist watch. Ask for what time it is. And move on. Try it after every 50 yards or so. This will give you some confidence. Do not forget to smile when you are asking for time.

What next. Perhaps you guessed it right. Ask for directions. Pick up a landmark and ask for the directions towards it. When you are asking for direction, the length of conversation is longer and give you little more confidence.

Now the some more practice. While waiting for elevator or bus or tickets, try to hit a conversation. Now do not use a one liner like "Oh! Such a sunny day", "The elevator is taking forever" or "Is the queue even moving". As soon you let something out like this, any scope of decent conversation is over. Because now if say anything more after this, it will look like you are "trying hard" to get that person's attention. And this puts people on back-foot.

How to hit a conversation then? Its getting longer than I expected to lets split here and take that topic out as Conversation Starters.

Conquering hesitation: communicating with (professionally) seniors

Only few managers are very approachable. You are lucky if you've got one. But then not all are lucky. and not always too. So how to deal with situations where Open Door policy is just a rhetoric.

Before we discuss how to approach, lets first try to find what really intimidates us? I do not believe its the power they have (by virtue of their position) to affect your career. I feel the intimidation, the fear, is generated from our own desires. We want to impress them, want to be in their good books and a sense that we might not be able to achieve it; is what intimidates us.

Now obviously we can't do away with desires. But then we need to realize our self-worth. If you know you are doing your job well (knowing ain't enough. you have to do your job well too). Then you approach your senior with that confidence and self-pride. Both will show in your attitude, and in your conversation. Think of it in a vice versa situation. If you are a senior and a junior approaches you. Who you would be more impressed with - the one who is lost or the one who knows what he wants.

So this will be a helpful approach. When ever you have to appraoch a senior, think of it if you are a senior and a sub-ordinate wants to reach you - how would you like him to behave and that will be your answer.

Now its not necessary that things will definitely go well with this approach. You still might get an unwarranted negative treatment. What can you do if that person had a fight and you were the scapegoat for this anger unleashed upon. I would say do not dishearten. I would look even such thing is a positive way (if we are sure you were not wrong). Because then when that person's anger cools down, he realises his mistake and guilt takes over. That is the right moment to go back. High chances that you will get what you were looking for, the remorse of being rude at you will give you a bias in your favour if not an advantage.

Poll: Conquering hesitation

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Conquering hesitation

Now hesitation is a vicious circle. It will block you. And it keeps blocking you. The more you let it block yourself, more hesitant you keep getting. Slowly, it becomes a problem to the extent that you are no longer able to communicate with others properly. Of course, the degree varies. You may feel hesitant only when approaching strangers or opposite sex or seniors. It differs person to person. But the traits are same. You want to say something. Want to do something. But you can not. Your mind holds you back. It will project all sorts of negative consequences.

Baby Steps

Hesitation can not be killed in a single day. You have to make conscious efforts. conscious small small efforts. Slowly curing it. You can start with identifying things that you are hesitant in doing. Now sort them. Where you feels least hesitant on the top and so on. Now if may so happen that that even the first item in you list is proving too much to handle, them think of smaller things, which you would be less hesitant in doing. So start with it. Collect you guts and go ahead. Do it. Now proceed to next item only if you feel confident. If not, repeat the first item few times, till you feel ready for next. Keep taking baby steps. Do not try to measure, how much you are out of it. To think about hesitation is to get into it even more.

The most commonly seen hesitation is to communicate with strangers, opposite sex or seniors. There is one more - expressing yourself in public. I feel we need discuss all four in detail. So instead of clubbing them together, I will break them into different posts.

Buck up

It is so easy get lost. So easy to loose the motivation. There are so many distractions that its unbelievably hard to remain focused on your goals. I am going through the same these days. Office work and family life keeps me so busy that I am getting hardly any motivation to pursue my goals for this year. And time is running out fast.

We once discussed about the perseverance. Habits of Innovative People : Habit 6.

We should preach what we follow. But today am in situation where I need to follow what I preach. I realized that as you grow up the ladder in your organization. It becomes harder and harder to remain focused. How to get out of this situation?

Let me take this as an opportunity to experiment with myself. And try to find a way to deal with it. So here is what I am going to do. Firstly, I need a way to keep reminding myself of the tasks which are getting delayed. Alarms or To Dos won't work because they will remind me when I will be busy doing some other work. I am taking few post-its and pasting them over my work desk, on TV and on door of my bathroom. This should remind me when I am not technically busy.

Memory is taken care of. What about motivation? Rather Self-motivation.

I should now do a SWOT to take stock of my situation.

This shows high degree in Threats and Weakness. Unless I make opportunity quadrant heavier or Weakness quadrant lighter, it will remain a very uphill task. So to achieve this, I am now marking each day 10 to 11pm for my tasks. This shall remove the time management from weakness. Now if I add brainstorming activity this dedicated slot, I see opportunity for new ideas. This should now balance my SWOT. Lets see how it goes now. Will keep you posted.

Life

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.
                              John W. Gardner

Half knowledge is worse than ignorance

I was discussing this with Praveen the other day. And he brought this interesting point. People would start learning something and then will leave midway (why?). Then, they are left with half knowledge. Now not only they would suffer from misusing it but will cause pain for many innocent victims too.

The problem Praveen mentioned was application of Design Patterns. This everyone agrees that patterns are grossly misapplied. And many times they create unwanted trouble instead of help. That's why Anti-Patterns where published. To warn people of they traps.

Lets generalize it here. Like Dilbert's boss, we will find many people who would start learning something new. Not because of need, but they want to use the jargon like others. Now they would loose the patience half way. Off course, any subject gets complicated after few chapters. Then it becomes a test of learning ability and patience. Which we know these kind of people lack. Now starts the massacre of technology. Such people will start with throwing the new jargon they picked...left and right. You will look for a corner where you can go and scream. Like Praveen said..."If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail". So this monkey will now take the knife and will start cutting whatever comes its way.

I feel taming such people is the biggest challenge for managers. Not because they themselves suffer from this problem. I am talking about those who know that this is a problem and are technically sound too. (I have a manager like that. At least at the point of writing.)  Such people prove as liability than asset if part of design team.

How you deal with such people?

Caution. Never get into argument with such people. If you can not get rid of them, then only way is to help them improve. If you are their manager, enroll them to trainings. The money spent on their training will get justified by the bugs they will not be introducing. Which will improve others productive too. Now, if you are their peer or worse, their subordinate. Motivate them to learn. Throw advanced jargon so that curosity drives them to learn. If you have a manager like that, make presentations and involve them in discussions so that they get a better hang of things. Its not an easy job. But its your only chance that can save you from night outs. Fixing the design issues they brought in with their half knowledge.

Thanks Keng LEE

for the appreciation and your valuable comments.

For other readers, Keng LEE is a KNOWLEDGE ADVENTURER & TECHNOLOGY EXPLORER. He is an avid blogger and you may find some very insightful reads at OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGIES.

Make most of what you have got

We haven't discussed about innovation for quite sometime. Today lets talk about dealing in innovation with limited resources. This is the case quite often too. We feel the spark of great ideas but then we let it go due to a seeming resource crunch. Seldom its money. Mostly its time that we say we don't have. But I am not going to talk about time management. That's one topic beaten to death. So lets focus on the other important issues.

So the crunch you would generally feel, other than time, will be either be money or technical know how. The money is not so important. We will come back to it later. The technical skill is a much bigger hurdle than generally anticipated. And later you discover it, the more it hurts. Because it completely blocks you. No amount of time or money will then help.

Now obvious thing to say would be to update your skills and keep learning and blah blah blah. I prefer different approach.

Just in Time learning

Basically, you don't learn something, until you know you will need it soon. It doesn't mean you wait till the very moment you need it, then block the work and start learning. Its Just in time. Just when you anticipate its the right time to update or acquire certain skills. No bullet lines Use common sense. Evaluate you learning speed, available time, etc and figure it out.

This way you can mitigate the risk of technical know how to a certain extent. But some time the JIT learning will tell you that the time required is not feasible or perhaps, the technicalities are way too complicated for you. In such case, I suggest you extend your team. Or build one, if one is not there already. Its better to collaborate with subject matter experts, rather than trying to learn and become one. But to ensure control over things, I suggest you acquire basic knowledge, even if you are taking services/help of an expert.

Now about the money. Well that's where the real test of innovation is. Before you start looking for innovative ways of raising funds. Spend some time over what resources you have at hand. What can be borrowed feasibly. Brainstorm over ways you can implement your idea with whatever you have got. You will find mostly you can use inexpensive ways to simulate the actual implementation. This would help you gathering funds because you will have a working proof of concept.

Silence is golden not charming

Silence is such a nice weapon is you really know how to use it. Yeah. When I say silence is weapon the first thing that comes to mind is the silent treatment we are given by girls. :)

But you don't have to be a girl to know how to use silence. And anyway silent treatment is not the only way you would want to use it.

If you work out your expressions correctly, you can use facial expressions combined with silence to convey many things. Like when you don't know the answer, you can remain silent and give an expression that you know it but not going to tell. Off course, you should be using such tactics are your own risk. Common sense is something nobody can teach. You will have to learn to use our own head over here.

Other day we discussed that more you know less you speak. And in front of stupids, don't even utter a word. Shut up. Remain silent. Because anything you say, they will be using it display their stupidity that will not only piss you off further but will also provoke you. so don't fall into their trap. Counter them with your silence.

You can use silence to counter anger also. Remain silent when you are very angry. Because you don't know what you will say or do. Which eventually might be more damaging for you only. I am not sure if counting techniques work. But deep breathing should. If it worked for The Incredible Hulk quite likely it will work for you too.

The people who generally remain silent are much more unpredictable. The others can't judge what you are up to. And so you can use it easily to keep them guessing about your moves. Not just that. As a side effect of it, when you have something to say, others pay attention. Now you better do justice with their attention else you will be soon marked as dumb. Use you silence to clear your thoughts. Be sure of the point you wish to make. Few words will do the trick that long speeches can not.

Let me add a contradiction to what we just discussed. Though Silence is so useful, but if you can not woo people with it. For that you need to talk. And please talk sensible. If you blabber then you should read my previous few posts.

So basically silence is an interesting. Experiment with it. And let me also know what all you could achieve. And as of being charming, we will talk about it more in coming posts.

The more you know the less you need to say

This world is full of stupids. And specially those idiotic species who can blabber on any topic non-stop. Full confidence. As if they know it all. (What? I am one of them? Huh. As if I care if you say that).

But the more you know less you need to say. I will tell you why my blog doesn't come under that. But later.

How many times this occurred to you that you joined a conversation where someone is blabbering without knowing the facts. Do you correct that person? why take the pain. Two reasons. That person will never accept that he doesn't knows anything about what he is speaking. (Am not gender biased. Read He as She if you like it). If you correct him, he will straight take it on his ego. Making it a prestige issue. And will start cooking false reference which no one can verify. And the second reason being, why waste your time and energy on such stupids.

How to deal with them? Ignore them. The are all around us. We can't fight with each one of them. We might need their help someday. So keep silent. But if he is really pissing you off, then this is what you do. Guide him. Ask open ended questions and raise such topics which you know he has no clue. Slowly he will venture too far for everyone to see that what he really knows. This should give sufficient joy to you. And if you really don't care, then take him down as soon as he spits out something very lame. Everyone would be watching his recklessness and will be eager to join you in taking him down.

Now the reason why you and me don't belong to that category is that though we know and we like to tell. We don't force our self on others. When we don't know something, we say we don't know. We say what we know and make this clear that this is what WE think.

Deepest desires and worst fears will always come true

Things that we fear most always take shape right in front of us. So thus the most desired things too. What could be the relation between the two? I have a hunch that when we are fearing something so much, we are probably erasing the boundary between fear and desire. The subconscious mind is so much focused on that one thing that it probably forget it wants it to happen or does not wants it to happen. But then why it is so biased towards happening and not towards not happening.

I have a weird thought about it. When the consciousness of universe touches your consciousness it only gets a image of what it is on focused. Ignoring what you mind and circumstances want from it. The consciousness of universe is only looking for things it can make happen. That's probably why it is so biased towards happening.

Now the obvious question is can we tweak it? May be there is a way to do that. But I won't know it. How can you program your consciousness. I don't think we can want enough something that we really get it. It has to come from within.

Don't be cannon fodder

Last night we discussed the importance of updating the skills. I guess I missed to iterate on what will become of you if you miss updating your skills. Well, my dear friend, you become cannon fodder.

You become cheap labour and dispensable. In any industry, you are just a resource. If you want to feel better, I will call you human resource. Now, I am not going to feed you the same old vague story of moving up the value chain. What I am highlighting today is the Darwin's theory of Survival of the fittest. If you are fit. And skilled. You will survive. Its all about adapting with change and blah blah blah.

But what happened to our idea of last night, that keep learning the skills of your interest so that you move towards it. If I tell you to adapt and for sake of it acquire the skills to survive. You will end up just like any other blind mice in the rat race.

Learn at a brisk pace. And always run your own race.

Survival is must. So that goes without saying that you need to do what it takes to survive. But beyond that, don't just keep changing with time. Change the time. Be the Agent of Change.

Change the circumstances of that you don't just keep chasing your dreams. Change the hurdles so that you can realize the dreams and what always interested you. Off course, this never going to be easy. But the easy thing is to chase, not change.

So don't be that 80% that is fed to the cannons of difficulties so that the skilled 20% can then win the war. Be in that 20%, so that you go and win your war.

Skills are like money

Skills are like money. If the are not increasing, then they are depleting.

Which ever industry you are working in. Whatever domain. Skills are the best and mot important investment. They control your relevance. Your reputation. Your compensation. So never discount their importance. Updating skills is important and keep learning new skills is even more important.

Time generally leads the list of excuse we make for not updating our skills. Everyone gets the same 24 hours each day. If you are not getting enough time to update your skills then perhaps time management is the first skill you should go after. I am not scoping just the technical skills. Technical know-how is just a fraction of the skills you should be looking to acquire.

We often neglect the importance of soft skills. Communication skills are as vital as technicalities of your work. A job well done is not worth enough unless you are able to communicate the success to relevant people. We communicate through various media - voice conversations like debates, discussions, presentations, interviews, etc to written media like electronic mails, papers, articles, instant message conversations, etc. Each media warrants certain level of skills to be effective. so identifying the common modes of communications you use and acquire necessary skills to become effective with them.

Many times you are stuck in work which is not in agreement with your interests. Though it is very important to follow what interests you but many times either is not feasible or not as easy as said. Such circumstances need special handling. And off course extra hard work. If you are going through such scenario then what I would recommend for you is that you to focus not just towards the skills that interests you but keep upgrading on your work related skills too. Basically, you keep improving in the work you are doing besides keeping yourself up with the skills you wish to shift to. Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

Too proud to beg, too dumb to steal

Remember that It's probably me song? Too proud to beg and too dumb to steal. That is what most of us are. If you are one like that, what you do? You search the city for one friend and it's probably me. That's how song goes. But that doesn't makes it untrue.

Too proud to beg, too dumb to steal? - go look for friends.

The friend you should be looking for is yourself only. On one can help you until yourself is ready to help. Next you reach out to the wise ones. It is easier to point out other persons mistake. But more difficult is to empathise with them and come up with a better action for those situations. So go look out for friends who would do this for you.

With two friends already your side, what remains is the friend who would help you execute what your wise friend have told you to. This is the most tricky part. Be very sure of the person you are taking help from. Be very careful of false friends. One wrong pick here will screw you for ever.

So when your life is fixed. No need to beg. No need to steal. What you do? - Help others. Go help those who are like you were once.

Battery charging complete

In case you been wondering where have I disappeared. I was too tied up with work. And now when work had finished, I took a break to recharge. Feeling good about life again. We will be talking again soon.

My sincere thanks to all my friends and well wishers who not only kept me motivated to keep writing but also suggested ideas and topics. We will soon be discussing them as well.

Curing Mediocrity

We have seen various forms of cost cuttings in companies. From shortage of toiletries to laying off people. But I am yet to see a cutting of Mediocrity. In my opinion, it is the single largest reason for loses. Yet its seldom that something is done about it. Many managers seem to accept it as fact of life. I feel that its mediocrity saving mediocrity. If someone is tolerating mediocrity then its a reflection of its own mediocrity. Before you object that your hands are tied. I am ready to discount only those cases where you don't have authority. But if you have authority yet you tolerate mediocrity then its a clear proof of your own mediocrity.

It is like a virus. It tries to replicate itself. And if your defenses are not as strong, it gets into you. So how to counter it? What should you do when you face it. Before discussing what to do, let me warn you what not to do. Never confront it. The first rule of mediocrity is that you don't talk about it. Ya am copying that from fight club. But that doesn't make it wrong. If you tell such a person that he is mediocre, you will not only lose the trust of that person, but also any chance you had of curing him.

So when I meet such a person, first thing I would do is to remember my achievements. The honor, the pride I used to get each time I climbed those stage stairs at my school. That motivates me so much, I can never let mediocrity into myself. This is how we can prevent it. But how to cure it...in others.

Curing Mediocrity

Motivation doesn't work on losers attitude. That needs to be fixed first. I feel Kick and Carrot is a better option. You force that person to perform. And then reward him (consider him as him/her/it). You make it a cycle, till the person gets used to it. Then even if you remove the Kick, the person will get used to working hard. But before you release the pressure. Its important to motivate the person. So as to charge him enough to continue with hard work.

Sometimes a person is just too lazy. The spark is there. He will work hard but just too lazy to go that extra mile that will make him shine. I really don't know how to cure laziness because I am myself a lazy person. But I have a tweak for you. Give that person mundane task. That will bore him and then he will start thinking to counter it. Out of his laziness he would then try to find to cut short on the mundane stuff. He will. Remember he is hard working. Before you question me let me clear how a person is lazy yet hard working. Such person will work hard but would be quite lazy to tell anyone. He will continue to slog but won't do anything to change things. So you need just introduce to change. And make him comfortable with change. That's why I say, give him very boring task. Then he will try to change it. Make him initiate the changes. And when he reciprocates, reward him, motivate him. Never ever try Kick and Carrot on this person. You will only push him deeper in the quicksand of mediocrity.

Think New

Always think of something new; this helps you forget your last rotten idea.

                                                             Seth Frankel

Look at this way. The only way to erase old memories is to create new memory. Now its upto you; what kind of memories you create. Be careful, because they are the only thing that will stay with you....till the very end.

How to handle criticism?

We often face criticism. In our personal life as well as professional. In fact, where-ever we interact with other persons, there are chances we might face criticism. Now don't confuse criticism with harassment. Harassment is NOT even superlative degree of criticism. Lets start with understanding it.

What is criticism?

Criticism is others showing disagreement or disapproval of our ideas or actions. It usually consist of pointing out of our mistakes and shortcomings (of our actions/ideas). Though there are various direct and indirect forms of criticisms, we generally get the idea when it is and what. So instead of trying more on defining it, lets jump straight to handling it. That's what I think would be more relevant to you too.

How to handle it?

Whenever you face criticism, you should first realize that others have as much right to express their opinion as you have. So you should respect it. Because criticisms are generally negative comments, you need to be sure of what is getting criticized. In most cases, its our ideas or our actions that are criticized. Realizing this only is the first step. Because then you know that you are not being criticized but its the idea or action that is getting criticized. This way you alienate yourself from all negative comments.

I understand that you might be feeling very passionate about your idea. Or you would have taken some action in rightful spirit. But this does not mean when they are criticized you take it to your ego or worse, make a prestige issue.

You should start by calmly explaining your thoughts and reasons. The facts and the circumstances. The logic and the rationale behind it. Most of our actions are function of our knowledge and the circumstance. Under similar conditions, quite probable that others will do the same. So try to get them to empathize with your situation.

Sometimes, we our-self start feeling guilty because its a genuine mistake. Instead of having that add to the negative comments, you can use it to counter it. This technique is also called fogging. So when someone criticizes, you accept the mistake right away and mention that it was due to so and so reasons and perhaps next time you won't repeat your mistake. You can also make others indulgent by asking what they would have done. This shifts the focus from what you did to what they would have done. Thus, fogging creates a maze where the negative comments simply gets lost and never reaches you.

Anticipating criticism also helps. It takes away it surprise value. So, if you are prepared, you are not shocked by it. You have you thoughts and your plan of action already in place.

Habit 9: Agents of Change

If The Joker be an agent of chaos, the innovative people are Agents of Change. They don't fear change. They bring change. They adapt and evolve with change.

Why is it so important to change? No, I don't say that you would perish if you do not adapt. Otherwise old wouldn't be gold. I have different thoughts about it. I feel it is important to change if you want to innovate. Let me explain it further. We are used to working in a routine fashion. With time, we slowly become expert in that routine. So far things remains in that well accustomed domain, we are good. We grow so used-to of the situations that we stop thinking about improvements and improvisations. And slowly mediocrity starts sinking into us. We start getting habitual of sub-standard stuff. Now you are intelligent enough to know its ramifications.

My focus today is not why you should learn to change. It is up-to you, you want to or not. But if you want to be a successful innovator, you will have learn to create change and to adapt with change. That is the point am trying to highlight.

Innovation demands change. The demand itself is the problem. And that problem, if solved, will lead to a better solution. An innovative solution. So you should not wait for circumstances to change. And then follow the wind and adapt with change. This is what you do to survive. not to innovate.

Innovators do it other way. They innovate and thus, cause change.

Fear of change

Life goes on. So lets move on. And talk about the most common yet least admitted fear - Kainotophobia - the fear of change.

We, the humans, have a high tendency to ignore change. Not only deny it, we resist it too. If we look around in nature, we find that animals are far more adaptive and flexible towards change. They always look ready to move to new pastures. Some migrate as if a routine. But we. We wait. for new grass to come up. We sometime wait so much that we sometimes even perish in wait. I really can't figure out how we evolved as most deveoped species despite having these traits. May be these traits are recently acquired ones. Whatever!!

Crux is that most of us fear change. We are scared of getting out-dated. If not extinct. But I have seen more reasons. Some of us are just too lazy to change. No attitude. No will.  Worse, some are just too dumb to get it. But until forced, no one wants to change. This one point I want to highlight today. We really don't change unless something forces it upon us - sometimes its professional. Sometimes its personal obligation. Seldom we change because we want to.

Madness is like gravity. All it needs is a little push.

Sorry folks. Google made this post number one search result (which off course I didn't expected). You probably were looking for The Dark Knight quotes. You may find them at

My blog

IMDB

The Dark Knight Trivia

Official Website

Wikipedia

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Original Post

It was a dark weekend. I couldn't bring myself to write anything new or something useful. And more i follow news; I see Two-Face all around. We are all mad. With our minds poisoned. To such extent that we are standing on the edge and all we need a push. And the saddening thought is - that push will come. Sooner and not later.

And when we tip off that edge, what will we do? This reminds me of a quote from the epic Mahabharata.

Who survive the jungle fire? Only those who live down in holes!!

Should we start digging our holes already? But where? And The Joker wasn't wrong.

You’ll see, I’ll show you, that when the ships are down, these uh… civilized people, they’ll eat each other.

And no one can deny that. When things will start getting bad, morals will be the first causality. What difference will it then make that we belong to so-called civilized world or not. We all be worse than animals. Is that really how we will meet our doom. God help. And God save us. Am all down and out. Losing My Religion.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=M7vs21ZKrKM]

The Dark Knight Quotes

Oh I am so impressed by these. Nolan has done an amazing job in writing them.

Y'see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little...push.

You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. But you were wrong; the world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world....is chance.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We're tonight's entertainment. I only have one question. Where is Harvey Dent?

That man in Burma, did you ever catch him? Oh yes. How? We burned the forest.

The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules!

See, I'm not a monster...I'm just ahead of the curve.

You'll see, I'll show you, that when the ships are down, these uh... civilized people, they'll eat each other.

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain.

Let me get this straight. You think that your employer, one of the richest men in the world, is spending his nights running around the city beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands? And your plan is to blackmail him? Good luck.

Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey? It's fair.

We are decent people living in indecent times.

No movie intrigued me this much. And see the circumstances. We watched the movie. Come out thinking. Reach home. Only to find out there has been around 8 blasts in the city. These are really dangerous times. And it has only started getting darker. So the dawn must be far away.

Human mind is so easily corruptible. It amazes me that it the same mind that also invents and innovates so much. Yet it falls pray to emotional traps. May be that's why we were given a heart as well. But we choose one over another. Instead of marking a balance, we move to one extreme and then call is human nature. Nature never made humans like what we are today. Nature evolved us. True. But now slowly we are deteriorating. Corrupting ourselves. Racing towards our own extinction.

Y'see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little...push. And Mad Mad World it is. The more we are innovating to connect and collobrate. We are slowly trapping ourselves in a vicious loop. We create something. And then we see it correupting our minds. Then we innovate something else. Same story. Over and over. Yet the minds, capable enough to solve quantum mechanics yet so stupid to not even see its own doom. May be because we have created so many ways to end ourself, that now we only can say for sure.

Habit 8: Passion to succeed

Nothing tastes sweeter than success. And once you taste it, you want to taste it more. Till you get addicted to it. Let's not focus on the vices. But lets talk about the passion behind it. That positive energy which you can derive from it to achieve. Goals. Success. Happiness. The passion to succeed leads you to achievements.

Initially it looks difficult. And we easily tend to get complacent. But the innovative people drive themselves from the desire to succeed. And this desire slowly turns into passion which makes winning a habit.

How you develop this passion? You have to first free your mind. And think. What is that you REALLY want to achieve. Don't be vague like "I want to successful." Be precise. "I want to be successful in my job by achieving so-and-so position in this much time". Be realistic with your goals. You need to be really really sure about it. No Ifs or Buts. No compromises. We all want to be rich. But that's not a goal. Define how rich in how much time.

Most importantly you should be clear why you want to achieve that goal. When you have cleared your doubts. And you have clear vision of your goal. Then only can you focus on it. And then only the desire to achieve that goal starts driving you. What will happen next? You will succeed. You succeed and you like it. You savor the feeling. Then you set a new goal. And achieve it. Then next. And next. You won't even notice when the desire to achieve goals turns into passion to succeed.

And when this happens, you will see how WILL MAKES ITS WAY.

Success and Happiness

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.
                                                      Dale Carnegie

How to be both? Successful and happy. What's the key to it?

Targon

Recently while reading SlashDot, I came across this nice set of Technical Jargon aka Targon.

We need to deliver world-class e-tailers, aggregate bleeding-edge channels while growing our virtual bandwidth and benchmarking one-to-one deliverables. That is not to say that we redefine dot-com experiences and maximize B2C web services all the while revolutionizing end-to-end mindshare and monetize front-end deliverables.

But this is not just for humor's sake. I have seen people actually talking like this. Blabbering endless list of targons. Without bothering to pause and check if their audience is still awake. This is one of the most common mistake that we notice in Technical Presentations. Even the simplest things starts sounding like Greek and Latin.

Perception is bigger than facts

Its not a fair world. And it turns out that its not logical too. Perception matters more. More than facts. Reason. Logic. And Rationale.

So what you does not matter as much as what I perceive that you do. Now what would you do? You can close yourself in your shell and keep doing what you feel like. Like hell you care. Good. Go ahead and do that. But what if I am a stakeholder in your work. Then you like it or not, you need to bother yourself with what I think about you and your work.

Dear friend, this is how this world goes. And if you don't fix the perception, you go down the drain. The whole politics (Poly - tics :)) thing runs on perception instead of facts. Who has time to find the facts. And if you have the facts, may be I am too busy to analyze them. May be I don't have patience enough to verify them. May be I am full of mental filters. So I am going to jump on conclusion. And with my Ego at stake, I will choose my perception over your reasoning.

Now this is some thing you can not fix about this world. Only option you have is to make your make your way through it. So start caring about what people think about you. You can't live in isolation. You will have to fall in line. Ah! your ego hurts doing it. How you will sleep now?

Look, you need to detach your ego from what you do. Be witness. You do it but don't invest your emotions and feelings in it. Easier said than done. But then realize this. What is that you want? What are your priorities? OK if can't keep your feelings away. Then you will have to make extra effort to reach to me and explain me your side of story. So the onus will now lie on you. You will have to go that extra mile. But if you want to do it your way and want others to understand it. You will have to make that extra effort. Without this you will not be satisfied. You can not be happy. Don't you want others to appreciate your work? So either do it their way or be patient and make them understand.

Self Presentation

Very much a vague term. I kept wondering for quite some time when I first encountered it. What is means? Presentation to self? Presenting self to others? I guess most will go with the later one. And, off course, you knows English will say so to. But leave it to self-help gurus to coin these terms. How else they will run their shop?

Anyway. Let's discuss it today. And see if it really makes any sense. To me both version makes sense. Presentation to self. As well as. Presenting yourself to others. But I feel a hint of Self-Representation too. See I can coin terms too. But we will discuss what really i had in my mind. And more than understanding what self-presentation means. I feel we should know the fundae. Then its just a matter of naming them. How does it matter?

Presentation to Self

Yet another double entendre. Is it like making a presentation to yourself while preparing for a presentation. Or is it how you are selling (presenting) some idea or something to yourself. Leave the literal meaning of words for now. Lets stick to fundae and theme. So how you sell something to yourself? You do sell. Don't you. Our mind plays so many tricks on us. And this one I love the most. Even when we know the good and the bad. Yet our mind will trap us. Will make us biased toward one side of it. Ask alcoholics. Don't they know the evil of drinking. Still their mind play the game and is able to sell them the idea of drinking. So its important to be self aware.

Presenting Self to others

Show Off? In a way. Yes. But its like how you carry yourself. Because that speaks volumes about your self confidence. That marks an impression on others. And if you are able to present yourself good, you will be able to present your ideas well too. Good presenters use it to empathize with the audience. And as we discussed yesterday about selling. We are always selling something. So it becomes more important how we present our self. Let's discuss it more in coming days.

She sells Sea shells on the Sea Shore

Yeah. yeah. You can speak it. May be fast enough too. But that not am talking about exactly. You know whats the tricky part in this tongue-twister? Sells. Shells. Sells. Shells. So its about selling. There. You got me now. So tell me one thing. Was I able to sell it to you? Hell yes. You are still reading me.

So that's the deal am talking about. It all about selling. Do YOU know how to sell? Shut up if you were about to say its MBA stuff. Because its not. And don't tell me its not something techies need to worry about. Because you know it very well. You wouldn't have forgotten your last appraisal so soon.

So dear. You need to know how to sell. If you don't want to take bath, you still need to sell that idea to your mom, to you wife....whoever shouts at you more. So next point is, we already know how to sell. Only we are able to sells somethings better than other things. And why is that?

Think. Think.

That is because the things you sell better are the things you really wish to sell. Are the things that you believe in. You really really want them to. And also happen to know about them. Off course. And that is what that gives you the motivation and the energy to convince others. Unless you believe in it, how can you sell it to others? You can't convince others juts like that. So if you want to sell something - you have to REALLY want to sell. Now hey, just your conviction in your idea won't do. You need hard facts too. And a good story as well. And then how to weave the two together, will decide how good you sell it.

Test post

Testing