Big Men

I have always observed that big fat guys have good sense of humor. I have seen many of my friends who are big having good sense of humor.

Is there any scientific reason behind this?

(It may sound absurd, both my weight and sense of humor are increasing steadily. There must be some relation between these two)

Cup over Coffee

What do you drink, a cup or a coffee?

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change."

"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

[So friend, don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead.]

Story above is just a copy-paste of what I got by mail.

I felt this was heavy because I lately seem to run behind better cups in search of a good coffee.

Ain't we all?

Exploit...

On a sunday afternoon I got a mail from one of my team members updating the status of his work. He is a smart one in the team so obviously victimized with loads of work, which made him to work during the weekend. Is this an exploitation?

This may sound like exploitation. But actually it is not. It is opportunity in disguise.

India and China are becoming (should I say already became?) outsourcing hub for the developed nations like US & UK. As a matter of fact US & UK are exploiting the low cost labour in India and China. But for the countries like India and China with over population and poor employment opportunities this 'exploitation' is certainly an 'opportunity'. In fact a great opportunity that has changed many lives.

Total number of employees in India's top 3 IT companies alone has reached around 200,000. Recruitment projections each of these companies show are mind-boggling. Our work environments are becoming more and more competitive with highly intellectual people around. To stand out in the crowd there is a lot need to be done by each individual. It has become not an unusual thing for the people who are 'meeting the expectations' to end up with lower performance ratings. Everyone is crazy about 'making a difference' and going that 'extra mile'.

There is a saying: You can achieve little with little sacrifice; you can achieve more with more sacrifice; you can achieve great with great sacrifice. Achievement is always directly proportional to the sacrifice. If we look at the history of great achievers there would be lot of sacrifices in their lives.

In my experience I have realized that when it comes to getting opportunities & growth one should let others exploit (positively). That’s the hard reality now.

Boon or Bane

Mr.P.V.Mohandas Pai, Board Member and Human Resources Chief of Infosys Technologies, has stated in a recent interview that "the trgedy of the whole IT revolution is that people are becoming less humane in the sense they are losing inter personal skills, the ability to move with people, be sensitive to each other. The softer side of life is giving way..."

How true is that statement..! After spending a long day at office I come home and sit in front of my lap top to do some more work or to write blog or to browse the net. If not in front of the Lap top I wish to spend my time with a book or in front of the idiot box. Rather I could call up a friend or visit a friend or neighbor to catch up with them. Looks like it is becoming tough to be humane. I admit honestly that my inter-personal skills are going down. Everyone I meet or talk I tend to think them as prospect in my 'network' rather than opening up myself to see a friend in them. What a pathetic state to be in?!

A-Rush

Today is a significant day in my life.

I have kicked off 3 new projects today with a team sized 24, my highest ever.

24 is a mix of people from 0 to 6 yrs of experience, with 0 being the major part of the pie.Above this, I am supposed to run the show with 75% of staffing. hmmm.....that's interesting.

This is going to be one of the most challenging assignments that I have undertaken.

Whenever I start off with doing something 'big' or 'new' or 'tough' or 'many-eyes-watching-it' kinda work, I would feel an
adrenaline rush in me.

Speaking of adrenaline rush, the first time I felt the A-Rush quite frequently was when I was doing my first year under grad.
That's a very nice, pleasant & embarrassing feeling to recall now. Like all normal adolescent boys in college, I also liked talking to girls. Poor me, never had experience in interacting with girls much in my school days. I used(!) to be very shy and self-conscious about talking to a girl, I think a lot about what she would think about me, if I talked to her. I used to rehearse a few times myeslf before spitting the words out. Even then I would stammer a lot. Ad-libbing? Definitely not my cup of tea. The time I start rehearsing to the time I complete with spitting it out is the A-Rush period. I am a dead meat, when it comes to conversing with girls in english. Double the rehearsals, double the stammering, double the A-Rush. But the things changed over the course of time. Remarkable improvement during the four years of my collegehood. By the time I was at my final year, I was really an expert(!) and even did pass my wisdom on to poor souls who were like me just a few years back. No more A-Rush while talking to girls. (Bad, eh?)

Do I have this adrenaline rush with my newly started assignments? Absolutely NO.
Probably this is like that 'talking-to-girls' thing. Over the course of time A-Rush got reduced and gone down to zero.

Last time I had a grrrrreat adrenaline rush was when I was standing 160 metre high on a pad just seconds before bungy jumping.
That was awesome

Competency

Recently I came across with different kinds of competencies, which was very interesting. Thought of sharing 'em...

They are,
Unconscious Incompetency
Conscious Incompetency
Conscious Competency
Unconscious Competency

(It's like 4 quadrants)

Desired state of competency in anything for anyone is Unconscious Competency.

May be an analogy will help to comprehend these easily.

A person who does not have driving skills. Rather he does not require at the place he is living currently. (say in India, not everyone is expected to have driving skills).
This is Unconscious Incompetency.

That person goes to America. First thing he learns is that he requires Driving skills to be independent.
This is Conscious Incompetency.

He learns driving and starts driving around. A burgeoning driver...
This is Conscious Competency.

Eventullay he becomes a veteran and expert in driving since he's been driving a while.
This is Unconcious Compentency.

Interesting...eh?