Thoughts

As usual, I have started running another experiment.But this is only two days young. I should wait for another month or so to see if I really hold this up. The routine is the SAVERS routine that I came across in techcrunch or mashable recently. The actual routine is like this: Sit in silence; Meditate Affirmations Visualizations Exercise – my usual yoga Reading – currently “War of the worlds by H.G.Wells” Scribe – for the first time, am writing a journal with pen and paper. Each of the steps, except exercise is about 5-10 mins long. Overall it costs me about an hour or so to finish. But the best part of this is, I don’t touch my iPhone or mac until this is done. And usually, there are some tasks like watering the plants and replacing dry plates and cutlery back in their aisles. Then I have only enough time to give myself a bath and start for work. Of course, I don’t wake up that late either. I just managed to start work quite early on both these days. Maybe most other days, I ll have a lot of spare time. ...

I found out recently that I don’t use Facebook all that much anymore. Ever since they created a separate app for messaging, I don’t really chat up anyone on Facebook anymore. I have nothing against the move, I just hate to have one more app. I haven’t posted anything on Facebook in a very long time. I don’t tag the places I go to anymore. I don’t check-in anything I do. To think about it, I don’t even click pictures when I go some place. I just enjoy it in my eyes, get mesmerized and leave it that way. ...

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? ...

The sector that really needs better marketing folks is the real estate sector. At least the residential real estate market in India and to some extent in Singapore also. Today someone from India wanted me to buy a house in Bangalore. Apparently I could do that with just a 7lac payment and then rest upon possession. I had a couple of problems with the call: It was made at a completely inappropriate time. I dunno if there is a way to say what is a more appropriate time, but it maybe polite to ask after you make the call. Assuming that picking up means am idle is a tad incorrect. And keep your opening line simple and clear. Maybe I have an answer as soon as I know what you call for. Or maybe after you tell me the city you are talking about? Do some research please – I have never, all my life so far, searched for even rental spaces in Bangalore. I have never written on any of social networks that I’d like to settle down in Bangalore. Not even once. Thinking about it, I don’t think I even talk about Bangalore unless I have to mention something about my cousins there. But then, I have never had to mention them on any social network. Oh yes, many of my friends are in Bangalore. But please check my interaction levels with each one of them. No. I am not going to Bangalore. And I don’t intend to own real estate in places I don’t want to go. Don’t tell me you don’t have this data. I didn’t give you my number in the first place. Remember? I made the mistake of attending a real estate fair about two years ago. I thought – now that I am an NRI, maybe I could suddenly afford all the houses in India. I got my answer about 10 minutes into the fair. I never went back again. There have been 6 or 7 fairs since. And my absence is each one of them should tell you something – either I already picked something or I am not interested. What part of my absence don’t you guys understand? Even in the sole fair that I attended, I only visited stalls that had properties in Chennai and Coimbatore. Neither of these places are a 2 hour drive from Bangalore. Not yet, at least. And please stop advertising and marketing the fact that your properties are very close to international airports. Let’s look at this a little closely Nobody goes to work in an aeroplane in India. Unless they were pilots. Nobody goes to work in the airport unless they are staff or security. No, I don’t have my own aircraft. And please think about the number of people who picked your property that have their own aircrafts. I don’t intend to buy one any soon either. And I might even consider proximity to domestic airports – but international airports just beat me. I don’t want to own a property that I stay in for a few days a month. I am better off staying in a hotel. And I don’t see how I could rent my property to pilots, airport staff or security. Given how bad most airlines are doing, this doesn’t seem very exciting. It doesn’t help either that the property is very close to engineering colleges. For what it is worth, I don’t have a kid yet. And when I have one, it is very likely I don’t want him in Engineering. Oh, the engineering colleges that are near your property are neither Anna University nor IIT. Even if my kid decides to study engineering, I won’t pay up unless he/she studies in an IIT or a Anna University. Of course, there is a very good likelihood that the obscure college near your property does better research than both these places combined. I don’t mind regretting my decisions in that case. And all this is at least 19-20 years into the future. Maybe the college would close down by then. Or maybe they would be a different state or a different enrollment examination? So don’t bother selling something so distant in the future. The only thing that matters is the proximity to a healthcare facility. One with good doctors and good equipment. Rest else fall flat. And yet, only a few can claim this. For singapore only – While most of the above are not applicable to Singapore, they do claim proximity to MRT. Once I saw a property ad that was just 30mins from a very prominent interchange. I was stunned given its pricing. But then you need to think again. 30 mins from that interchange could potentially take me anywhere on the island. And that is quite bad for your marketing 🙂 Wake up guys. Already the market is volatile and stressed. Bad marketing on top of this cannot do much good. Or at least, leave me out of your loop. ...

I attended the Singapore MiniMakerFaire this weekend at Tampines. It was fun. I had to keep it a short trip for other reasons, but am happy that I didn’t miss the faire at least. Next year, I really should present something or volunteer at the least. One of the things about attending this event is, it kinda puts me to shame. I can give you reasonably detailed steps on how to make most of the stuff in display. Yet, I haven’t made even a simple four wheel bot on my own. Shame on me. ...

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. ...

… 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. ...

I got this idea as I was in the middle of my yoga session. I have this app called “noizio” installed in my mac. There is nothing special about this app and there are many variants on this app as well. It can generate ambient noises like being present in a cafe, beach, grass, etc. You can choose if it is raining, windy, thunderstorms, riverside and others. It works quite well, especially if you like to work in a noisier environment. I don’t, but I just installed it for seeing what options I can get 🙂 ...

Isn’t it a tad surprising to see that so many vegetables and fruits are so good for a human body? As in, there are specific fruits that can help improve specific organ functions. You can see it as a wonderful gift from God, or as an evolutionary thing. But what if they aren’t either? What if these organs are essentially evolved from those fruits or vegetables? After all you can trace human species as an evolutionary successor in a chain. So what if somewhere along the chain, the atomic/chemical structures in these fruits or vegetables are what became base structures to modern organs? That is perhaps why they seem to cure/fix/help certain organs? ...

I find this an oft-returning thought to me. I completely believe in assuming responsibility to what happens with my life. And truly, my career and life so far is a reflection of conscious decisions I have taken thus far in my journey. But every time I look back, I clearly see the mistakes I make. Some of these mistakes are fairly disastrous. I sometimes wonder I shouldn’t have joined IIT. I always knew I wanted to be on my own. IIT was not a logical step in that direction – as in – not a step aimed to directly equip me for this. IIT was a dream and I pursued it. But should I have pursued that dream in lieu of a losing a bigger dream? ...