Recent content on Raise the Bar
I want my “smart” phone to be just smart enough not too smart. “Smart” phones were revolutionary when they came out in the market around 2007 with iPhone announcement in macworld and following immediately with Android, phones exploded. We immediately had Phone, Music Player, Navigation, Browser all in one hardware that you can carry in your pocket. This was revolutionary.…
According to Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of Spotify, “The value of your company is equal to the sum of the problems you are able to solve.” “Sometimes, your work is critical in ways you might not realize. It transforms the lives of those who use your product, solving problems for them. Often, whether you’re a junior or senior in your field, you might not grasp who you’re…
This article is purely my opinion. Take it or leave it. People don’t realize mocking someone in name of fun with their body appearances, color or height or any other form of disability is not mocking the other, but showcasing oneself in poor light. I witnessed this in a recent encounter in a technical meet up. I know both folks, but one shaming the other in the name of joke was unacceptable.
I have never been prescriptive on my learning. But I felt there is a universal appeal to this set of learning I had. Everyone have their own learnings in their career, and they use it as their guiding north star. Here are my learnings that I learned hard way. To summarize, skills I want to write about are Being Assertive Effective Communication Healthy Boundaries Being Assertive There is a fine…
Before I even write about this, I have to thank my wife who supported and allowing me to take time to write. It means she took additional responsibility of dealing with newborn and elder one. So, thank you for her. Last year 2022, I made a decision to write one blog post weekly. I didn’t believe I can do that but still that is the purpose of goal setting to aim higher.
I am self reflecting in this blog. Every year brings everyone a new learning. I was once told by my friend,“ Instead of planning what to be done at the beginning of the year, let’s start reflecting the year went at the end. It will inform what you should do next year” We are in this world where constant education is a constant thing. We learn from books, blogs, videos, by observing others and…
Overthinking - Art of creating problems that didn’t exist in the first place. I wanted to do a job that I enjoy. We all do. But the challenge is figuring out what I enjoy. We are faced multitude of choices every day. The part I struggle when faced with a choice. What I enjoy ? Or Will it give me the satisfaction in long term ? Hard choices in life appear simple in its face value.
Past few months, I am working on changing few things in my life. I thought it is good time to document them and see down the line how they worked out. Did I persist with them ? What I learnt from them ? Notifications One I felt important to mention, is turning off notifications on my phone. It is the single influential change for me in recent times. I notice when I turned off notifications, I am…
I work with leaders and I consider that a privilege to see them in action. I have worked with a lot of leaders from my present and past. Furthermore, I was thinking what made them to be in that position. Is it knowledge, or they know people or natural ability to lead or decision-making ? I am sure they are humans, and they are qualified to make mistakes. But what separates them out from the rest…
I was watching a cartoon series with my kid, and it was interesting to see a part where a tiger was questioning his father about all the things he is seeing from the car. The kid was curious and wanted to know all about things. Kid was a good observer. But as we grow up, we stop being curious and lack motivation to learn about anything. We are interested about saving money and taking care of…
“I feel that I’m not entitled to have an opinion unless I can state the arguments against my position better than the people who are in opposition. ” - Charles T. Munger In this modern social media world, everyone has an opinion on everything. People argue to justify their position and belief. I would imagine what would world look like without arguments or dissents. But Arguments are essential to…
We call it peace of mind, but actually all we want is peace from mind - Naval Ravikanth I push myself to edge or point of no return. I encounter array of constant Zoom calls and meetings. My mind races to solve one technical problem after another. I get out of work to spend time with my family but hard to unwind. Mind still churning things from work. Pending tasks and things to prepare for…
I have my handful and far too many things pending in my to-do list. I am not sure where to focus. Let’s say 2 things in my to-do list like, Read the book that is sitting on my shelf for months Write the article for my blog These two to-do are from my current list. I am not able to pick which one to do first. Also, while doing one thing, I am thinking about the next on my list.
Successful innovators are conservative. They have to be. They are not ‘risk-focused’; they are ‘opportunity-focused. - Peter Drucker When Amazon reported a strong third-quarter revenue growth in year 2011, but indicated that they will spend more money to invest in continued growth, stock plummeted and traded lower at $181. Stocks was always bumpy when it came to Amazon in those years. It was due…
This is final part 5 of me documenting my journey into economics. In this I want to write about trade economics, generally called - Global Trade. Trade has grown so much in the past century, you can even define that it is an important development that has changed world. This integration of national economies has materialized into remarkable growth in trade between countries. World data from 2019…
This is the part 4 of my economics journey series. You can read part 1, part 2, part 3. As I am summarizing my learning as a beginner here, I found growth theories more relatable than many before. This part covers the growth aspect of economics. So here we go with few definitions before we jump into theory. Key Glossaries Positive Economics - Branch of economics that uses fact-based approach to…
“Stability is unstable.” - HYMAN MINSKY Warning - This might be a boring part of economics in my opinion and it depends on how you see it. I personally love this part as it is the core in many respect. This is continuing from my Part1 and Part 2 of my journey into economics. Free Market Capitalism Understanding capitalism is key to understand many countries policies and growth. If you are working…
My Journey into Economics Part 2 - Classical Theories An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today. - Laurence J. Peter In Part 1, I laid out some key glossaries and here I want to write about some classical economic theories in a simple format. Obviously this is to offer a big picture to consume theory in less than a minute.
I have some basic idea of what economics is, mostly from reading news. Apart from that I don’t know much. I was asking to my ex-collegue on what is Stock and how to start investing. I googled a bit in parallel. He guided me into this journey. For me, stock is more of a practical way to learn the market. I learnt that I am not a theoritical person. You learn by doing is my way of learning a…
“What you don’t know, you don’t miss” — Cecelia Ahern Do you say, “I don’t know”? We rarely say and if you observe it is mostly to our inner circle. It is the place you are not being judged. We feel confident when we are not constantly being judged. We all want to look good to others. Furthermore, we dress to impress and tune our body language to look confident.
I wrote something like this back in 2020 during the peak pandemic. I want to write something I collected from then and put it down here. Processes harden into routines. When company decides to do something new, employees try out different approaches. But once it is locked down we don’t try to change much as it increases productivity and predictability. But established process have life of…
To know why, we have to start the story from Ashoka and his edicts he installed all over India back then. Brahmi script is base for all Indian languages that is in use. Popularly known as Stick Figure script. This is an earliest writing system of South Asia, India after Indus Script. This script is adopted for Sanskrit, Prakrit, Tamil in its own way. The timeline of origin of this script is…
This is a guest post from my friend. I know this is first of many. I am excited that my friend decided to give a try in writing. He has chosen to remain anonymous. He lives in India with his wife and a daughter. Furthermore, he recently had a trip with friends. This article is his perspective and what he gained from the trip. By the way, this is his first time writing an article or post of any…
It’s always, “All About People” The world we live in today often fails to recognize the value of human beings Month of June was rough for our family with back to back illness. We were down and tired. I assume most had their phases like these. But then I organized a small mini party for my daughter’s birthday. A close group of people. 4 families. Few I knew in last couple of years…
Envy kills happiness. By comparing ourselves with others takes focus away from oneself. By complaining, we forget to fix ourselves first. In my native language Tamil, there is a work of ethics and way of living - Thirukural ( one of the best collection of work on ethics and morality). In fact, I made a website for my own reading - https://randomkural.herokuapp.com ஏதிலார் குற்றம்போல் தங்குற்றங்…
I personally do not have a routine. But I am seeing every single productive pundit out there is recommending to have one. It helps reduce the decision fatigue. Agatha Christie’s (a popular English writer known for her mystery novels) hero - Hercule Poirot, a famous fictional detective, always insist on method and order. He will have his routines and process on how he approaches his murder…
I thought I should title this “How to make effective decisions ?”, but sounded like click bait. But rather true to the content of this article, I mentioned, “Decision Fatigue”. This is real and many don’t realize this. Do you know why Mark Zuckerberg wears a monotonous grey t-shirt, or why Steve Jobs used to keep his morning routines almost the same ? They are all…
I use to quote in my workplace, “OLD is GOLD”. It doesnt mean I support all the old things, but we have to learn all the lessons we got from the past and use that to move forward. In similar vein older people have a radically different view point than the younger folks. Old people have seen life and again it doesnt we have to take everything but certainly if you talk to many old folks,…
Many people might have heard of language Sanskrit. It was recently I personally came across language named Avestan. Before we dive further, I want to draw out this quick language chart for your reference so you can follow along. If you notice, Avestan and Sanskrit had a common ancestor. It branched out while retaining some traits. Languages affect cultures and vice versa. Old Avestan is quite…
Of course I browse Twitter, favourite way to spend time in an unproductive(mostly true!!) way. But I did come across some fascinating parts of history. So, thought to put them together here. Let’s go. Eiffel Tower Eiffel Tower during construction. 1887-1889. pic.twitter.com/QajO8H9xcN — History Defined (@historydefined) May 29, 2022 Roman Facial Cream 2000 year-old Roman face…
You might think that’s a straight forward question. It is an animated cartoon series, with vivid colors and ear warming rhymes that revolves around a small baby JJ. In year 2020 cocomelon YouTube channel had the highest viewership traffic. It is also the top watched series in Netflix. Would you believe that ? They make $11 million in advertising revenue. Don’t doubt it, as they have 2.5 billions…
I wanted to learn about Lithium and its future. Personally all I write in this article is much browsed and written for my future reference. I learnt a quite new in here. Hope you too. World you can say now relies much on technology. Increasingly any kind of business now rely on technology in one way or the other. There are many contributors to it. More underwater cables, powerful and cheaper…
Are you mentally strong ? How do you know ? By the way, do you know yourself well enough ? These are some questions I thought to write about. Of course, I am not here to motivate anyone. But rather I want to write based on me watching people and my close friends. How some differentiate themselves being strong minded and face adversity. For example, let me share some stories without naming my…
One thing that always make people turn in their seats is when someone disagrees. We generally don’t disagree well and end up burning bridges. I have my own experiences in the past where I learned some lessons on disagreements. As with everyone, I too learn from experience, some are hard lessons to swallow. Nevertheless, they are lessons and I make sure not to repeat them. So I ended up…
“Adventure in life is good; consistency in coffee even better.” ― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful In part 1 article I wrote about the history and how coffee roasting is a first key step for a great coffee. Location influences coffee’s taste, also the cultivation methods. In this part, we will see how cultivation, harvesting, milling and roasting all contribute to a great cup of…
A favorite drink for many, consumed historically for many hundred years. A drink consumed at an estimated 2.25 billion cups everyday globally. Coffee has history and story of its own. As a coffee lover, I want to share its origin and spread and its first step in process - Roasting. Moreover, I come from southern India where Coffee has a strong presence culturally. Now being in U.S, which is a…
Somewhere along the way, you hear a story. It doesn’t matter who said it but stays with you for long time or forever. I thought I want to write them down as these stories had an impact on me. Good thing about these stories, they are short. If you have not heard these stories before, let me know, I will be glad that I shared something new. Story 1: Please tie a cat ?
This article is a long due for me. Idea originated like 6 years back when I was in my low of lows. People who know me then, know what I am referring to. Even if not it was a phase where I realized life’s worth. I recently came across this phrase - Memento Mori. It translates to Remember you will die . Death always has a negative connotation. But remembering death brings a sense of humility…
Success is a target but a wrong metric by which you should measure how well you are doing. We all want to win but when focus is on winning, we are too late to change anything. It is a Lag Measure . Recently, I was in a meeting were team was analyzing an Issue report. Issues have a time before which Team has to resolve them. If they are past time, it is marked late.
When there is a learned or observed understanding on how things work in life, they usually come to see a pattern. Pattern’s purpose is to help one navigate and understand this world better. So here’s a small list of laws or fallacies that I find interesting. Pareto Principle 80/20 rule - came about in context of quality control. Can be applied in many fields. E.g 80% profit comes from…
Writing is need of the hour Writing is so essential in these days that many think it is only for writers or novelist. But if you turn around everyone writes in one form or other. You write email, documentation, chat, tweet, a facebook post. With the advent of pandemic, face to face interactions have reduced. We need to write more than ever. what is that really stops you from reading this text that…
Chennai is a mega city or metro city. Capital of TamilNadu, India. Houses major port and an important city both politically, historically, culturally. I want to go backward in time and find when history of Chennai starts. Let you join my journey of findings. I am from this city’s suburb. I was trying to see what I could see Chennai from historical perspective. During british rule, it has…
Every year there will be certain articles that standout. I want to record for the fact what I read and revisit them when I can in the future. If it also interest you, take a read. It has everything from general reads, technology and long reads. I like to read whatever I get my hands and found fascinating and couple YouTube videos. These have definitely expanded my view a bit.
There is always this fight between should do things to fix it for now or fix it for good. You might think it’s an easy choice. Fix it for good. But it ain’t that easy as it sounds like. Too many variables come into the play that deter you to take you away from fixing it for good and will make you take the easy way out. Life is all about choices.
Title is so ambiguous, that I thought I will keep it this way. Let me start with defining Ambiguity. [Ambi] as a term means Two, two meanings. A statement interpreted in 2 different ways, it leads to ambiguity. Ambiguity is not uncertainty. Uncertainty is more of things we cannot deduce or where it can lead us to. But Ambiguity is more of, possibility of admitting more than one interpretation.
I came across this Blog Post. I liked it for its analogy on importance of big picture in our life. We get lost in details when sometime have to step back to see why those details matter. I guess we can apply this analogy for everything in life. Some fights over minor details might not matter when you step back and analyze. I recently read a story which goes like this -
Lagom is an idea which I was introduced to by a youtube video I want to write my thoughts over this concept. When searched youtube, many videos popped up. The core concept being everything in moderation. We can also think as just about right. Everything right sized keeps you away from impressing others and start living. Nothing should not be too much or too little. Living your life with purpose…
I want to make a quick note for myself about this idea on this concept “Braving” from this Book “Dare To Lead”. Couple of things stand out for me in here. Change starts from us. Another thought is Leader needs to get comfortable saying NO and have a long term thinking. It starts from doing the right thing over easy. All the more, we can lead others only by knowing oneself…
Simple means focusing on essentials. It’s hard to keep our focus on main things. To let main things be main things. Focusing on few things at a given point in time is important. Simple things when done consistently yield results in long term. Similar to how you start your meditation practice, by focusing on your breath or When you start your training in gym, by doing focusing on basics.…
Life is short to get stuck in a rut, learning is the only way out. When you go to work, you are working with bunch of people. Every one of them have their own aspirations and style of working. Work in today’s world is not done by force but by mutual support and coordination. In a Corporate setup, we all work towards the same goal by contributing in our respective roles.