Life

I spent some time listening to some TED talks on creativity (yes, again). And I noticed something that I had missed all the other times I did this. The first step to being creative is being engaged to your environment. Duh! That is quite basic understanding right? But somehow I missed this part. And this is something I complain to Noni about a lot. I keep telling her that I can’t seem to find any problems around me. Just about everything seems to be working fine for me! Clearly, am not engaging with my environment. I have a whole lot of assumptions that make my environment work for me. Or am making an “ass” out of “me” – flicked that from “Silence of the Lambs”, creative huh? ...

What I am about to discuss here is not a basic need. It is more of a luxury, good to have setup. Nobody quite misses it now, but maybe it will become essential in the future. Or maybe not. During the formative years of the foetus, parents get to see their baby(-ies) take shape through the months with the help of the ultra sound scans that the doctor uses. For the first 6-7 months, the baby is still not very active. But around 7 months, it becomes quite active and is almost able to listen to sounds from outside and maybe also responds to them. Usually, you would have to be in luck to see this happen during a regular checkup visit. And not a lot of us would be that lucky. ...

After a lot of deliberation, discussions, depressions, planning and meticulous budgeting, Noni convinced me to just stfu and pick up that damn device. So we did just that. I am still a little unsure whether I like the feel of the device. I love my iPhone 5 because the form factor is just about perfect for me. This is my first 4.7″ device in the last 4-5 years that I have held a smartphone. Way too old for tech? Maybe. ...

I sometimes wonder if I should just enroll and do a certificate course in UX. UX, not UI – my visual sensibilities are a tad retarded, but I am good at spotting failures. And I love research. I may not be the best guy to talk to people yet, but I haven’t tried that first hand as well. So maybe I can learn. I think UX is a very interesting topic. A good understanding of the principles and knowledge of how to apply them to a system/product/solution/problem at hand is an immensely useful skill to have. Of course, I don’t think it will fetch me any salary to start, but maybe I will be good at it. And If I am good, then I think I can get closer to the design field that I believe is the next most important horizontal going forward. ...

… is that you may end up having little to no understanding of domains where there are actual problems worth solving. For instance, Noni and I were discussing one of Noni’s ideas for payment processing. As software people, both of us can quickly locate the api and frameworks required and even build an MVP in little to no time. But neither of us are aware of what regulatory aspects control such finance apps. That means we now need to engage with a finance specialist (like an auditor or a chartered accountant or a banker). No, that’s not a bad idea as is. But it leaves us looking naive even though we pack close to 10 years of programming expertise each. ...

In general, aggression is not a good idea. But I think aggression is the fundamental reason I have come some far in my life. I believe you need to be aggressive in your work. This has nothing to do with the proverbial rat-race. Of course, you need to be very aggressive to actually achieve something in the race as well. But that aggression possibly only gives you bad health and nothing much else. ...

Two years of iPhone has served me very well. Now I need to renew my contract and I can get another device with the new contract. I could forgo a device, but I may not be able to get a device in the contract later on. So, it put me in a fix. Fix because the contract does not support picking a 5S device. Or even a 4S device. And I am not sure if I want to lug around a bigger handset than that. iPhone 6 is big. Its bigger than I like a personal handset to be. Maybe I am stuck in the 2000s and the world has moved on. But I can choose to remain in my own little time warp, can’t I? ...

If you have to hesitate to make a decision, then perhaps you are not yet ready to go ahead with it. You lack the clarity or confidence or the rigor needed to keep up with the decision. I hesitated again today to do something. A hesitation I would not have had 4 years back even if I was earning only half of what I do today. Growing up does not always make your life easy. ...

 As I was rolling in the bed y’day night trying to sleep, I weirdly started thinking how Hindi as a language fared in my life. When I entered middle school, I had to make a choice for the second language. And my parents rightly made my choice for studying Hindi. They felt, I would anyway pickup Tamil and knowing the national language is very important. Yes. I totally agree today – besides, I am sure Hindi was simpler than Tamil. In those times, choosing Hindi has its own disadvantages. For instance, during Engineering college admissions, if two candidates had all parameters equal, then the candidate who chose to study Tamil would get preference. At least that is what I was told. I never had to validate it though. ...

Last weekend I had a very bad tooth ache. Clove oil wouldn’t work. And it got so bad that I actually went to a dentist. Oh! And getting a dentist appointment in Singapore is next to impossible – I guess every one is fixing their teeth at all times. After quite a few failed attempts, the wife managed to land an appointment in one clinic. Dental treatments in Singapore are a luxury. It has a reputation for being overly expensive. Maybe people are mostly getting their tooth to look good than fixing aches or root-canals. And usually dental treatments are not covered by group medical policies or insurances. ...