Geek Joke

One day, e^x sees x^2 running down the street in a panic.

"What's wrong?" asks e^x.

"There's a Differential Operator in town!" yells x^2. "If I run into him too many times, I'll disappear!"

"Don't worry," responds e^x. "I'll go have a chat with him. No, don't worry about me -- he can't hurt me. After all, I'm e^x."

So e^x walks down the street to the Differential Operator. "My friend tells me you're a Differential Operator," e^x says pompously. "Well, I'm e^x."

"Pleased to meet you, e^x," says the Differential Operator. "I'm d/dt."

Admin Mourning (Source: xkcd.com)

Admin Mourning

via xkcd.com on 1/7/10

Asking Right Questions

All I remember from my Instrumentation & Process Control class during my college days is a non technical fact, which my somewhat philosophical (and rebellious) professor (Red ?) mentioned in one of the starting lectures. It is something which you would have heard quite often and not paid much attention to, what he said was that it is more important to ask right questions than to give right answers. The hypothesis which has been not yet been proved scientifically in the realms of psychology (did someone say pseudo-science) is that once the right questions have been identified anyone can proceed to find the answers.

Unfocused questions can do exactly that – take you away from what you want and towards what you don’t want. Ever heard of “The Secret”? It basically says that if you want something you should focus on that, rather than focus on what you don’t want. And the book (yes there is actually a whole book on “The Secret”, dint know myself until I saw the documentary called yet again “The Secret”) goes on and on , on how the universe tries to unify you with what you are thinking about. So in case you were craving for the new Play Station, bingo it is all yours!!!, however in case you DID NOT want the Xbox, tough time you will have to manage with it – at least that’s what ‘The secret” is all about.

If you do think logically it is true to an extent, that since your focus and your efforts are directed towards a target you will be at peace with yourself and spend more time towards achieving them. On the other hand if you are focusing on making something happen by not letting its alternatives materialize – it would probably take much more efforts and you would always be worried about achieving/getting your actual goal. On similar lines it is difficult to make someone avoid thinking about cows, by instructing them to “Don’t think about cows?" So my friends ask the right questions and answers will emerge from the mist. 

PS. I am thankful to a refresher course in “asking questions” by Megatron >-)

Some links to help you write your thesis on asking questions:

1. The Secret (the book) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_%28book%29 , and The Secret (the film) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_%282006_film%29

2. Tata’s Nano to Airtel to ICICI – all owe to right questions being asked, interesting read http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_34/b3948440.htm

3. You should judge a man's wisdom by his questions and not by his answers. http://workingsmarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/08/asking-the-right-questions.html

4. ***RECOMMENDED READ*** This one from blogs of Harvard Business Review: When faced with an employee's problem, you can respond in a much more value-adding way: by asking the right questions, help her find the best solution herself. We aren't talking about asking just any questions but, rather, employing questions that inspire people to think in new ways, expand their range of vision, and enable them to contribute more to the organization.

http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2009/05/real-leaders-ask.html

5. A blog with readymade good questions =) which you can either use in your daily life or maybe use for practice http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/02/asking-the-right-questions/

The Nehru Myth

Here is one of the most thought provoking column I read in recent times

Source: DNA India, Author: R Jagannathan
Link: http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/column_nehru-and-other-myths_1334486

Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs, got it both right and wrong on Jawaharlal Nehru because he forgot a basic piece of wisdom: you don’t fight foundational myths.

Myth-busting is for scholars, authors and retired politicians, whose ranks Tharoor may soon be forced to join given his controversial twittermania. It’s not for active politicians who want to leave their mark on history.

His remarks on Nehru —- to the effect that he followed a wishy-washy foreign policy driven by Gandhian morality — are a case in point. If you are a Congressman, you have to believe in the Nehru myth.

The Nehru myth states, inter alia, that modern India was entirely hiscreation (only slightly true), that he was entirely secular and democratic (not always), that the Nehru family is the only one that has the whole of India’s interests at heart (absolutely untrue), that non-alignment was a wonderful thing, and so on.

If you are part of a dynastic party, you cannot survive bychallenging the Nehru myth. If you do, you challenge the very basis forits existence.

No Nehru myth, no dynasty. This is why theCongress cannot put any leader — Sardar Patel, Ambedkar, Jinnah,Rajagopalachari or Rajendra Prasad — on the same pedestal as Nehrudespite the fact that they all contributed much to the making of India.

Besides, Nehru himself was no perennial success icon. Hisforeign policy blunders culminated in the humiliation of 1962. Hiseconomic policies were equally flawed, as Nehru believed in the Sovietmodel with minor roles for the private sector.

His daughterinitially compounded his economic follies, but after the 1980s shestarted changing course. It took a bankruptcy in 1991 to finallyabandon Nehruvian socialism.

The reason why Nehru made colossalblunders was simple: he was vain and hence sycophants could take himfor a ride. This is why he persisted with VK Krishna Menon long afterevents proved him to be a liability; Chinese leader Zhou Enlai pulledwool over his eyes by pretending to be a novice in internationalaffairs.

Nehru held forth about his views on the worldbelieving Zhou to be a genuine admirer when the latter was actuallyplaying to his ego and neutralising him on Tibet.

In course oftime, the Nehru myth has been extended to the whole family, from IndiraGandhi to Rajiv to Sonia and now Rahul and Priyanka.

Thus,Indira is the social messiah (bank nationalisation, garibi hatao),Rajiv Gandhi is the moderniser and reformer (though Narasimha Raoactually did more in reality), and Rahul the new youth icon andemancipator. You question these myths at your own peril. Tharoor got arap on the knuckles only for this.

Without myths there would beno institutions, for myths are the glue that holds disparate elementstogether. Whether it is a religion or a corporation, myths areessential and beyond reality.

Management writers Jim Collinsand Jerry Porras (Built to Last) discovered that successful companiesthat have survived for over 100 years tended to have cult-like culturesthat you could not question. People who questioned the corporate myths(“we are a people-oriented organisation”) were ejected fast. You can’tbe in Wal-Mart and not participate in the company’s theme song. Youcan’t be in HP without kowtowing to the HP Way.

In Pakistan, theyhave a Jinnah myth — he was never a pious Muslim, but given his role inthe creation of the state, you can’t mention it. In India, Jinnah hasbeen demonised (often for good reason), but a rational reassessment isnot possible either by the Congress (which believes in the Nehru myth)or the BJP (which has to follow the RSS, which believes in AkhandBharat, where Jinnah has been given the villain’s role).

Itdoesn’t matter that Partition has actually created a huge Hindumajority India, of the kind that the RSS could not have dreamed of in aunited India. But myths do not need to have a rational basis.

It’sthe same with the major organised religions. You can’t be a Christianwithout believing in virgin birth and resurrection, never mind thatthese myths are far removed from the message of Jesus Christ andinvented much later.

You can’t be Muslim without believing thatbefore the prophet arrived it was all jahiliya — the age of ignorance —even though common sense tells us humanity always had its dark andbright spots in all ages. Hindus have too many myths to count, but thepoint is that a thought gets institutionalised only with the help ofmyths.

Myths work best when you pay lip service to them, butdon’t get hemmed in. If Tharoor wants to change Nehruvian ideas, thebest way is to lionise Nehruism and then dump his ideas in practice.This is what we have done with Gandhi. So why not Nehru?

Simplicity of Men Vs Complexity of Women

HER DIARY

 
Day night, I thought he was acting
weird. We had made plans to meet at a
cafe to have some coffee. I was shopping with my friends
all day long, soIely thought he was upset at the fact that I
was a bit late,
but he made no comment.Conversation wasn't flowing so

I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk, he agreed but
he kept quiet and absent. I asked
him what was wrong - he said,

"Nothing."I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had
nothing to do with me and not to worry.

On the way home I told him that I loved him, he simply smiled and kept
driving. I can't explain his behavior; I don't know why he didn't say, "I love u,too."

When we got home I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore.
He just sat there and watched TV.; he seemed distant and absent.Finally I
decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later he came to bed. I decided
that I could not take it anymore,


so I decided to confront him with the situation but he had fallen asleep.

I started crying and cried until I too fell asleep. I don't know what to
do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else.

My life is gonna be a disaster.
______________________________

HIS DIARY

Today India lost the cricket match
against bangladesh.

DAMN
IT.