Now that's remarkable?

I played 5 games, lost 4 of them and the 1 game which I won was in a fabulous fashion. For all those who play Table tennis, you'd know how it feels like to defeat your opponent in love (defeat in love means to win without the opponent scoring any point).

The end result - the guy who won 4 games was not so happy, and the guy who won just 1 out of 5 games was the happiest ;-D. With this, I'd like to add another wisecrack to the popular keyword - Victory.

Victory is sweet, but, if you lost miserably - even once, you kind of ruin the taste.

I dint mean it

Disclaimer:You wont understand anything if you don't know how it feels like to be insane for a while. Somethings are just point blank, some of the other things don't even mean anything. There is meaning to it, you just have to read between the lines.

I don't care if I have a heart-attack or someone else gets it because of me, coz I don't fear, I  know that we are all gonna die someday. Don't paint the wall with your 5th standard lemon and spoon competition gold medal brag, show me what u've got now. What kind of a person are you, are you the one who comes in the newspaper articles that talk about how you believe in karma and how meditation is good for health, if that's true, great job, but did you really use the product you endorsed in that article, either ways, I don't care how you make money as long as you are not stealing my job. 


I just don't mind whatever happens around me, coz (almost) everyone seems to be doing a commercial here, I am not complaining, you can live in denial, its not something new to my generation. I have this friend of mine who talks to me and gives his resume every time we talk, why does he do that, who is he trying to impress, if you have the balls, stop referring to what happened back then, do something now.


All said, go to hell, moving right along.

I read, so I wrote

What I write is a reflection of all that I read. All smart guys read (I hope you got the drift ;-P), all leaders are readers, the more you read, the more insights you have. If some guy in the office is always silent, either he is a psycho or he doesn't read anything.

What you write, what you read, and what you talk about is directly proportional to what you like. You don't have to carve a niche or think before starting a blog, instead you just have to start a blog and start writing all that you feel like writing, slowly you will find out about what you REALLY like.

Every blogger who blogs regularly, blogs only about one thing and that is what defines his blog. That said, if you really like a blogger, mail the blogger asking him what he reads, coz you might want to follow what he follows.

PS: I think I crap write about YOU, life, improvements and business. That's pretty much what I like to read.
PS: One more thing, you have got to read this ebook (go download it, it's free), you can thank me for sharing - later.

Yahoo-ooh it hurts

I am reading a lot about yahoo businesses and the CEO who told a famous host to F**K OFF, Carol Bartz. Nobody likes her for what she is doing, like firing people, closing down delicious and selling other yahoo businesses. I consider myself the least informed guy in front of other Internet tech bloggers, but I think what Carol Bartz is doing is out of our understanding, there is always a reason behind such decisions, I am sure the investors and board members wont allow such things to happen unless they are backed by a good reason.

I just read the pink slip which yahoo employees got, almost 4 percent of the workforce is gonna get fired. I am sure Indian yahoos are safe as they always are, low pay, less risks and lesser chances of getting fired. Read the whole pink slip here, an excerpt from it as follows.

It’s never easy to say goodbye to Yahoos we know and work with, especially before the holidays. Please know that we’re helping those affected with severance pay and benefits, plus services to help them find other jobs.

PS: Whatever it is, as an employee, I am against this firing business. I am not a rookie, I totally understand that sometimes its not the employee performance but a company strategy to cut down on workforce.
PS: Companies hiring now will be lucky to get these experienced yahoo engineers on board. Hire them ASAP and give the referral fee here ;-).

Innovation stumbled upon

is really what happens when we start solving some problem. We start with a goal to solve the problem in hand, but as and when other things unearth, we come to an understanding that the real problem is something else and we slowly move towards solving the REAL problem.

With historical innovations/innovators in mind, all too often real innovation is simply stumbled upon. When companies say, bring innovation, do innovation, be innovative, think innovation; the simple answer to that is innovation is stumbled upon and certainly, we don't start with innovation in mind, that's the most remarkable thing about innovation or creativity. There is no road to innovation (as in, there is no set path/procedure/instructions to innovation), that's what makes it cool.

Save Girish - Pay Rs. 300

Donating is real fun, a few years back I worked for CRY, giving a donation meant filling forms, signing is some 4-5 pages and sitting for an objective type test. But that is history, log on to any charity site you like, I suggest savethechildren.in, you don't have to fill any forms, just donate with your debit/credit card and also get the 80G benefit in the donation certificate. I did it, and I promise it wont take more than 2 minutes. What are you waiting for, before you donate- Do your research - here, here, here and watch the embed video for sure (then you'd know why the title says Save Girish).

Happy Christmas. BTW, Rs 300 is the least you can donate, I think a lot of us can do better than this, how about a a few thousand bucks ;-).

Giving gifts

I dint give a gift and I am not guilty. No comments on why giving gifts is good or bad.  I gift therefore I care is rubbish, I genuinely care for people but this gifting thing is new to me. Personally, I love receiving gifts, but I never care to remember who gave me what, and when I got it (unless you plan to buy me a Kinect, I'll even remember the date and time). Sadly, there is no part of me which tells me to buy a gift before going to a function/party etc. I am best friends with a lot of people and I never care to give them a gift, likewise, they never gift anything to me ;-). A celebration is a simple affair, full of food, dance, and booze; again, no gifts.

It's time for me to show the sensitive gentlemen side, the question is, do I have such a side ;-D, jokes apart, I pretend well, so no problem ;-). Finishing with a wisecrack.

Giving a gift is voluntary, its not a part of a contract. So, If you gifted me something and I dint gift back something else, no hard feelings oh k, this blog post is a proof that I am trying.

PS: I am sure this applies to a lot of you too ;-). In any case, Christmas is just a week away, buy gifts ;-P.

Its a buffet, help yourself

or else you might not get the help you want. It is really a waste to wait for people to refer us to their friends (for help), why? because, for us to get help, all the three parties have to find time. I am the guy who waits waits and waits forever - not any more - till my so called referral a.k.a the middle man gets time to refer me. But, now I have realized that these middle men take a lot of time to get us help and it is far better to just go and approach people our-self.

Someone said, god helps only those who help themselves. I was being a give-up candidate, and thinking of the correct approach all the time, time just passed by, and in the end, I had to drop the whole thing coz I couldn't get help.

You need to (especially me) seek help for yourself. Apart from a few jerks in the workplace/society/community/forums, all the rest of them will always be willing to help. I just learned from one video in okdork.com which says something very similar, go talk to people, invite them, go approach them and they will surely help you out.

New hire, a software program

Hours you put is not what you are paid for, what matters is the kind of work you get done in whatever number of hours you work. There are plenty of jobs that are instructional as hell, I mean whatever you do, you do it according to the instructions provided- How boring is that.

All your life, if all that you did was what someone else told you to or what a manual told you to do, then I'd say, your job sucked big time. For the years to come, make sure you do things without a manual or a freaking tutor (says the guy who prepares software manuals at work ;-)...ahem, I am a Tech Writer ;-)). Instructions are important, but they are not rules, they are just suggestions, and a lot of times these suggestions GO wrong. That said, what I suggest is that we should take up work where there is no mode of operation, no particular way of working, and has a lot of room for screw ups improvements.

If your job is instructional and all that you do is follow instructions (blindly), then it is very clear that you can be replaced by a software program.

So, ultimately, you got fired because of WHAT, a software program.

On idea recognition

My idea got recognized because the evaluator knew what my idea can possibly do.
My idea didn't get recognized because the evaluator didn't know what I was talking about.
My idea didn't get recognized because I was not able to express it in words/presentation.
My idea got recognized because the evaluator's work was directly impacted by my idea.

I don't think anywhere we talk about how good or bad the idea was. It is quiet evident that every (may be, most of them) idea is worth a try, the ideas which get recognized are the once which the evaluators like. Thumb rule, your idea is always worth it.

An idea gets a true evaluation when the evaluators are customers or a varied audience. Why should a writer be evaluated by some writer's guild, why should technologists decide which technology should be mainstream. It should be the users who get to decided what's hot and what's not. A wonderful example of a truly evaluated idea, facebook.com.

Criticism is not an issue

but your defense mechanism in return to that criticism is. I am sure this has happened to you before, you tried to give someone a genuine feedback to address one of the not so cool things in their personality or work, instead of just listening to you and trying to figure out how to work towards making it better, the other guy bounces back saying something stupid which demeans your comments and makes you feel like you are preaching. 

You know if the critique is genuine the minute you get a feedback. In anyways, just take the freaking feedback, remember that you were worth being noticed and criticized (what an honor ;-P). If the critique just wants to ridicule you, people around you would surely notice that, likewise, when the critique gives a genuine feedback and you try to demean his comments, people around you notice that too.

PS: But...a really big but ;-), If you get criticized for what is your way of life, you can just take the feedback and give a damn ;-P. Something similar, Grab attention or awkwardness. 

What you said, what they heard

What you said - I have worked for a lot of clients, there has not been a single problem with my work. I like challenges and I am always work oriented, I even work on weekends to improve on leading technologies.

What I just heard - I have never worked in a team, never had a demanding client, never had tight schedules, never felt like it was too much work, never got any negative feedback coz I dint do anything that challenging, and ya, I don't have a life as I prefer to work on weekends.

What you said - I know that technology, I can answer your questions (Conscience - I actually don't know about it, but lemme just try)

What I just heard - I don't know, I am just trying. I cant accept the fact that I don't know what you just asked.

What is my point with all this - usually, what you say is not what I hear. A good lesson for all those (including...wait!...especially me) who think that accepting a mistake and not admitting a glaring flaw works in their favor. In my experience, you highlight your flaw by hiding it.