Startup

Late bloomer is a term often associated with developmental milestones in kids. It turns out the actual meaning is a lot more generous than that, despite what Urban Dictionary has to say on the topic. I always topped my class in school. Even through undergrad classes, I stayed in the top 5 ranks. So, “late bloomer” is not a term that anyone would associate with me. Frankly, I haven’t considered the possibility until very recently. I did well in most of what I took up doing. And if you look at my career path, I’ve dabbled with a lot of technologies across the spectrum. I mean, does anyone even remember SSI clustering anymore? Until recently, I even had a google alert setup for “Mosix clustering” - if you even remember something like that in the first place. Just out of college, I had the opportunity to setup both SSI cluster as well as a Mosix cluster :-). So to say, that I had the opportunities and then I had the capability to pick up on those opportunities is somewhat humble. So where is this thought of a “late bloomer” even figuring in all this? ...

I am largely techie guy. In the sense, I can rarely understand what it is to be a non-technical person. Let me explain that a bit. I cannot fathom why some people cannot see how a certain idea or logic could be written as software. While here I am, trying to see the world around me as though someone wrote down code to make it work the way it does. I guess people are just wired differently. I have more recently come to terms with this fact and that some people are just better at other things than visualizing software. Its perhaps the same way that some people are visually challenged or aurally challenged (is that correct?). And I continue to remain indifferent to this difference. ...

My favourite TED talk is the talk by Larry Smith on “Why You Will Fail To Have A Great Career”. It is also my worst nightmare. It is what keeps me looking hard for problems that I believe in, that I want to be assosciated with. I take part in multiple forums just trying to see what would interest me. After all, if you want to commit all your time to working on something, you might pick up something that you really believe in. Or you have to be one motivated personality (which I know I rarely am). I need a reason to do things however silly the reason may be. But I cannot fool myself into believing there is a good enough reason. Catch-22, right? ...

The biggest update since the last time I posted something is that I have moved to Chennai. Singapore is fun and a great place to live, but perhaps it didn’t work out very well for my career aspirations. It did work great for the wife, but she is happy to back in Chennai as well. Besides she is on the planned break for Sid, so maybe it doesn’t matter all that much in the short term. ...

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 wrote about needing a good exercise timer here. I am using the yoga timer app that I downloaded and am reasonably happy with it. I hate quite a few things about that app. I could give feedback and make it better, but the app has a paid version. So chances are the paid version has these fixed already. Besides, it doesn’t do many things it claims to. So am quite unhappy with it. ...

Our house has a weird problem. There are 4 air con units in the three room house and some aircons are so close to each other that if you need to turn one ON without turning the others ON, you will need to defy the laws of physics, and sometimes even the laws of quantum mechanics and/or law of conservation of energy. Usually we end up switching one air con ON and then take a trip around the house to see what else got turned ON and then turn them OFF using our own algorithms. ...

One of the things that is uniquely Singaporean is their hawker centers. Cheap, good quality food. Of course, being a vegetarian, my options in a hawker center are quite limited. And you can find one in every other block – basically you are never too far away from good food. Perhaps why services like Food Panda are not a major hit. Besides the hawker stalls don’t cost you any more than $3-$4 for a good filling lunch. I don’t think anyone can quite beat that deal at all. Also, delivery services are quite expensive across the island. Perhaps just the cost of employing personnel wouldn’t really help you cut down the cost any further. Maybe this space is open for some innovation, but that later. ...

Currently, am an NRI. Wow!! And an expat in Singapore. Super wow!! I never thought I’d be any of that. You know only NRIs are able to afford housing in Abhiramapuram and Mylapore, right? For Teynampet, you may need to be NRI banker or something. And you know the kind of life expats live in Chennai? Splurge is the word. They are the only people who buy stuff at KNK road and that European coffee boutique off-Gopalapuram. Someday, I’ll be an NRI expat in Chennai. ...

Lantiq got acquired by Intel. It was in the news all over the business world. In some sense, it was the best that could happen. And Intel is the dream company for most people who studied electronics. It had been my dream too when I was just finishing bachelor’s.I am looking forward to working in Intel. I am fairly confident they’ll take me in. If I think about it, 2015 has been a fabulous year. I am regaining my ground and Noni also thinks am becoming the confident and pushy guy that I used to be, not so long ago also. I made some great progress in some directions. And I am making more progress in multiple facets, not just technical career. I see a long way ahead, but am at least walking. ...