Life

Recently, I have been coming across a lot of people who use their work laptop as though it were their personal laptop. Of course, there isn’t anything wrong with that. Companies know and understand fair use of the equipment provided. That’s the keyword here: fair use. I think an extended definition of fair use is also acceptable. In my opinion, it is fair use as long as you don’t benefit from or misuse the equipment. In that sense, skype video calls to your parents back home, watching your weekend movie on youtube or some crappy pirated website is ok too. By doing these, you largely don’t harm the trust factor in the fair use clause. But Skype interview using work laptop is a strictly unethical. At least, in my view it is. Making job applications from your work laptop is just as unethical also. But most companies do expect and forgive some of these. I don’t even keep a copy of my resume on my work laptop. ...

I am a Jobs’ fan. I mean, by now you must already know this. I have heard his “Stanford commencement address” almost once a month ever since I came across it. I take inspiration from many of his quotes. I don’t want to be another Jobs. I just like his example. But unlike most Jobs fans, my favourite quote wasn’t “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”. Simply because I never understood what it meant. At least not until now. But maybe I understand now and so maybe I’ll join the drones of others who love this quote as well. ...

Yet another year has gone by! I was just running by my last year’s birthday post. It is sad to see that not much has changed from that post although quite a lot has happened in the year. I still cannot call myself an entrepreneur. Not even a freelancer. I still am trying to beat the blues from last year. Maybe I’ll just count my blessings this year and set some realistic goals for 2016. ...

I had introduced Unta in an earlier post. Unta came into our lives on the 5th of October. Today he is a month old. He already does a lot of very insightful things like saying “ah” or “oooh” when we aren’t expecting it. He can tell dad’s arms from mom’s. And he loves dad’s better 😉 He knows when to fold his legs so that changing the diaper is a tough exercise. He knows he can stretch all he wants when he is lying on dad’s arms, but most others tend to restrict him. He knows how to position his feet so that mom/dad cannot sit him up to burp. And he knows how to get dad to carry him around. Or to get grandma to carry him around. A very smart chap for his age. Also a very patient listener, he won’t bat an eyelid for hours on end listening to anyone talk. And he is interested in any topic in any language. I even tried gibberish once and he loved it. Of course, he might have understood something I didn’t. Or he just found it funny hearing me out. ...

It was an insightful morning today. I was getting my 1-month-old to sleep after his feed so that we can get our day started. Noni is sort of jealous of me on this: Unta seems to love my arm couch better than hers. Even though I squeeze him like an orange. Maybe he feels super cozy! Ok, please don’t advise me on why I should not squeeze a 1-month-old like an orange. I already know I shouldn’t. ...

I think I came across this phrase in school. Since I chose to study “Hindi” as my second language, I probably didn’t get to study this phrase first hand. “Poruthaar Boomialwaar”. A very powerful phrase that every kid should learn, understand and imbibe in his/her life. I told Noni that the only thing I want to teach my kid would be “delayed gratification”. I cannot say it is an uninfluenced thought, we all have heard of and seen some version of the marshmallow experiment. But my reasons are slightly different. I have personally felt places where I won just by sheer perseverance and places where I lose sleep simply because I can’t wait. And I have generally seen some form of correlation between impatience and poor skillsets (learning/execution/planning) etc. So I sort of have my own subset of proofs for the marshmallow tests. So one thing I want to teach my kid (if it is teachable) is delayed gratification. ...

This is my hundredth post on the blog. I got here in less than two years, averaging > two posts a week. But the distribution is not that even. Maybe it is time to have this blog more noticed and have people read and give me a piece of their minds. For a start, I’ll publish the links to my first circle of friends. I definitely like to write. But I can’t write on a cue. It takes a lot of interest in a topic for me to write about it. That is why a good majority of the posts are about how I view the events in my life. And the next major topic is technology and programming. There are a few ideas tossed around too, but they usually come under tech. ...

I have come to realize that I need a portfolio. A showcase of what I can do. While I can work in multiple disciplines, I only have a resume to say this. And maybe some references. Going forward, neither of this is going to help. At least not much. And when I am trying to get interesting gigs or get an interview or two with some promising startup, I need a portfolio more than ever. ...

I sometimes think Seth Godin has a team that just spies on me to give him inputs on what he should write about. Because there are so many instances where his post for the day directly answers something I have been pondering over or ranting about to Noni. Ask her, she’d vouch for this. I find it difficult to accept most of his advice, though. I think I have my feet too deep in staying afloat that I am super scared to change any of that. Hopefully, someday I’ll be able to follow at least a portion of his writing. ...

I recently came across someone who called himself a “full stack” developer. By his definition of the term, I am at best a “full queue” developer. In my entire career, I have never written my own stack implementation. But I recently wrote my own working queue. I didn’t have the heart to break his illusion. I know, I should have educated him and become a better person myself. But I also know, from a lot of my students, that am the worst teacher they ever had to learn from. I don’t disagree with them. ...