4 and counting

We had a lab meeting earlier this week and i heard it went bad (ofcourse, since i dint attend it). "As usual", i thought.
But, what i heard was even worse. People who had completed 5 years and 10 years were given "Service Awards". Some managers did not know what to say, some engineers chose not to speak and others spoke in very vague terms...

Whatever!

4 years is a long time to be wasting with one company, some say. Theres even a mail thread doing the rounds that talk abt one guy who changes a company every Financial year (or FPR cycle). Intersting theories.
But somehow, its different around here (and thats where i lose it? :P). Everyday presents new problems. New approaches. Some mistakes. Some stress. Its definitely new. Maybe because i have changed a lot of teams in the last 4 years. The last one and a half years has been with one single team, though. With fresh problems and weird approaches, it was worthwhile.

Last year was more about communication skills, people management and a little bit of software design than core technical contribution to me. The (technical) contribution was already made. It was all about sustaining it. Figured there are a lot more dumb people around than necessary. Sooo dumb that they

a. Dont listen.
b. Hence they dont understand.
c. As a result of which, they dont remember.
b. And hence they never learn.

Their existence in my universe is to waste my time and efforts.
I've learnt to handle them after repeated 'beatings'. I'm not at all satisfied with the way the year went. Hopefully, i wont be wasting more time cos of their whims.

Given the economical conditions in the west, the impact of which has added absolutely no motivation to the job(if u know wat i mean), i failed to celebrate this occasion by buying a new phone. It was indeed very tempting.

MotoSurf A3100 (from among Samsung Omnia, BlackBerry Pearl Flip/Storm, iPhone 3G, Nokia E,N Series... and the late entry of Samsung Star 3G) will forever be known as the phone that allllllmost made it to my 4 year anniversary celebrations (of starting my career as a soft engineer). The drive to buy something new was so much so that, in a strange way, the 'tipping point' became clear to me.

Lets see how the 5th year goes.

PS: i had the ebay account created and ready, it was just a matter of few more clicks.

R(p)ML

for especially the services domain:

http://thedailywtf.com/articles/programming-sucks!-or-at-least,-it-ought-to-.aspx

i like such articles. They tend to be right most of the times. since they're written by people who are actually technically capable of commenting on software products.

There are many links to other posts also have interesting comments.

Current Addictions

Networks and Printing. :)

To the extent of running wireshark on my wireless network at home, learning all the weird protocols and their extent of usage and trying to determine how to make the network better. considering this has encroached upon most of my time and efforts at office these days, its no surprise. finding viruses on the wire, locating machines and unplugging from the network is a tough task if you dont have a NMS setup already. Tools like Wireshark, Snoop and ntop (brilliant find) helped. Also, its a great learning exp because i used to maintain distance from networks all these days. Networks are addicting and hard to debug keeping the business impact in view. Its like a Chess game. you make a move and the network gives one back.

Printing... Got a free printer with my internet connection after a deal with the ISP. And all i can think abt is what i can print! a LOT of paper is going to get wasted soon. :) Only sad part is, the printer is a Canon make. :( tried hard to get a HP one. am willing to give this one off to a friend or cousin if it really gets to me sometime down the line.

Apart from this, the wish-list of 'must do' things is growing... and i am finding less and less time to rest or exercise. Thats showing up in the form of dreams. Phew, scary ones!

Language and culture

Alfred Russel Wallace is a great man. He is not well known, because he wrote a book called "Darwinism". He was obviously not good in marketing his name and work. He is a great man because he says Darwin was right, but not entirely.

He says, yes, the human body has largely evolved by natural selection and survival of the fittest, but our talents for music, art, literature and other human intellectual achievements are not a work of chance, but due to "culture".

This is how VS puts it in his book, Phantoms in the Brain:
All the other animals evolve new traits because they are constantly challenged by the environment and opportunities. Sure, even humans do so. But, by evolving the brain itself (which basically 'took the cake with the cherry on top'), homo sapiens solved the problem forever. They never had to evolve anymore!
One simple example illustrates this. Due to non-availability of grasslands, giraffes had to have longer necks. But, to survive in the colder climate, humans did not have to grow fur like the polar bears. They 'figured' how to kill one, use its skin and make coats to keep themselves warm. Thats the difference between other animals and homo sapiens. If giraffes had the brain capacity of humans, they would have figured out how to cultivate plants instead and would have had variety in their meals. :)

So, is it just brain capacity? Darwin said Yes.
Wallace introduces another element into the equation.
'culture'.

Now, this gets deep. He goes on to say that Culture, along with tools like language and art, was what helped humans to score over the others. Others simply couldn't communicate effectively! This kinda makes sense. Because, Darwin could only say, the genes were transferred and carried the potential to make the difference. its like saying, if you take a tribesman (absolutely no disrespect intended to them), and put him thru college education, he too, will be able to grasp mathematics, physics and other basic sciences. which goes to prove that there is a 'potential' capacity involved, other than the 'kinetic' one, which is learnt as we grow and experience things. So Brilliantly put.

But, there is a catch to this. If we all had potential capacity, it just beats the necessity rule. which says, you develop or evolve something only when you know you need it. Why did this potential capacity even pass on from generation to generation? just sticking around with you, so you can use it when you need it? sounds like an overkill! :)

Also, if this potential is enough to get us thru, along with the 'culture', our pre-historic generations should also have had this capacity. Wallace couldnt explain it and called it a God's doing. Thats where VS and I stopped following Wallace :P

Language is indeed a very important tool. Its really amazing how sounds made in a format, adhering to a rule, can help you say what you want. Its also the main contributor for our rapid growth in science and technology. we share what we learn and our future generations dont have to figure it out all over again. all they need to know is how to understand the language.

Even though we've known language in one form or the other for quite sometime now, we often mistake what is told to us OR we make mistakes in putting thoughts into words. Voice and expressions make a big difference in this and very often helps in covering up our inadequacies wrt vocabulary. But how would you handle just purely written communication?

The background, experiences, learnings over a long period of time influences the kind of words we use and how we communicate. The other end of it is how one would interpret what is told. which, is also based on his/her learning and experiences. Some people dont realise the importance of communicating at all, and thats just the other extreme!

There is also this feeling of being comfortable around people who speak your own language (so much so that i have rarely liked any one who doesnt speak kannada) and be extra careful with others who dont. The language is also a barrier (once again, some people think its God who created that many languages so that man shoudnt conspire to 'reach out' to him :P)

With all these limitations, if humans have come this far, AND to attribute it largely to language/art and culture (which is behavioral and bascially attitude based), i wud say Kudos! Good job Mate! :)

VSR, Brilliant book with simple explanations!!! He sure knows how to write! :D

BrainPalya

Feelings are such a burden to 'living'.
i 'feel' (ha! yeah right.) lifes best moments, biggest lessons are when you let go of something you hold very dear to yourself. That desire to win. Tat need to be the best or the first or the only one.

Let go. And you feel free from the burden.

Let Go??? Isnt that negative?

if you really look at many such lessons, majority of them are indeed, negative!

like, whenever i get attached to anything, i get screwed. :)

so, i usually never get attached to anything or anybody.

orrrr never be too 'open', for, u will invite trouble.

Food for Thought. Definitely brainpalya!

comments are disabled cos this is such a pointless post! Will get back with better ones.