Just another rant

I find reading as one of the most relaxing tasks but writing anything (even simple things) as very stressful.

Wondering why? Is it because I m not used to it?

Tried to start free-writing but ironically the problem being that writing a lot is not very 'free' for me!

From now on, for some time at least, I ll try to keep writing regardless of mood or my stress-level. Hope doing this would  make me comfortable in writing!

THE END

Today I read the end of Holyland manga series. Even though it wasn't the best, I enjoyed all of its chapter thoroughly. And hate the fact that the author had to end it.

I hate it when any good series (manga, anime, movies, TV series, books) which I enjoy comes to an end. Somehow always wish that I get bored of it first and stop following than reading its end and hoping for more. But as usual, in life one doesn't always get what one wishes for.

What are your favorite series which you didn't want to end but ended anyway?

Constructed reality

Below is an excerpt from The Nature of Technology by Brian Authur

We, humans, use a frame of reference constructed from integrated sets of assumptions, expectations and experiences. Everything is perceived on the basis of this framework. The framework becomes self-confirming because, whenever we can, we tend to impose it on experiences and events, creating incidents and relationships that conform to it. And we tend to ignore, misperceive, or deny events that do not fit it. As a consequence, it generally leads us to what we are looking for. This frame of reference is not easily altered or dismantled, because the way we tend to see the world is intimately linked to how we see and define ourselves in relation to the world. Thus, we have a vested interest in maintaining consistency because our own identity is at risk.

Future of books

"How we will read" interview series published in the findings blog is interesting. Found it enlightening.

I also need to go through the main site of findings. After I check it out and use it for some time, I ll blog about it.

Talk in Entrepreneurship

Yesterday I attended a talk in series conducted in IIT Madras called "Leadership lecture series: Alumni speak!". The talk was given by Sandy Chandra (1973 B.Tech Chemical engineering batch) titled "Confessions of a serial dreamer: A broader conception of entrepreneurship".

The talk was delivered in an excellent fashion. He started the talk with his personal connection with  IIT Madras and went on to define what it means to be entrepreneur. It was very interesting to hear him walk as through his life journey as an entrepreneur.

The part of the talk which I feel is important is about his view on cash. According to him, success of business comes down to cash flow it generates - not very successful if it got high valuation and little cash flow. And he also mentions his other golden rules on cash:

1. More cash is better than less cash
2. Cash at present is better than cash in future

The rules might seem obvious, but he explains why many forget and also how he himself found sometimes hard to follow those rules.

The talk duration including Q&A was 1 hour.

I forgot to take my Sony voice recorder with me and sadly couldn't record it.

Below is his profile (which was sent in the mail) - 

Sandy Chandra is a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology and MBA from Rutgers University. Sandy is a serial entrepreneur, focusing on building world class technology businesses. He is currently recreating a global technology consulting firm with deep domain focus on a number of areas such as Financial services, Health Care, Life Sciences, Manufacturing and Technology, security and defence. The underlying core competence is each of the areas is built around managing big data in the context real time. Before this Sandy spent 10 years as a turnaround specialist focused on the acquisition and turnaround of seven distressed companies in India, Europe and USA. In this role, he has had significant exposure to India’s agriculture, manufacturing and engineering consulting sectors. Sandy has worked in villages of India as well as dealing with labor realtions and has deep understanding of needs of the Indian societySandy started his career at Lummus Crest (then part of Asea Brown Boveri) and was with them for over 18 years. Sandy was involved as a conceptual thinker and designer of some world’s largest and most complex petroleum, petrochemical and oil and gas facilities, and was responsible for building Reliance Industries’ major petrochemical assets in India. At the end of his tenure at Lummus Crest, he was the Managing Director for the Indian operations and was responsible for building the largest offshore engineering centers in India. Sandy and wife Lakshmi have created a Foundation active in promoting classical Indian performing arts in India and the USA. Additionally, they are very active with respect to a number of charitable institutions serving the underprivileged. Sandy is a student of foreign policy and matters concerning human development and rights, and is currently focused on seeding a think tank focused on human rights in India.

Quotes...

I have always liked reading quotes and at the same time I feel that it is intellectually harmful or at most useless in most cases. In very few occasions, it is actually helpful in making me be aware consciously or give me ability to express what my unconscious mind already knows.

For past few months, I have been passionately reading rationality quotes (especially one from lesswrong). Ironically, I still haven't found out a rational reason for reading rationality quotes. If anybody does have one, please be kind enough to share it.

Reading non-fiction books

I like non-fiction books. I gain information, knowledge and insight on variety of subjects and they are easy to consume. It is also very useful and easy to spread and discuss about ideas written in it. But I feel that I don't read it enough despite its usefulness. I just read 27 books in 2011. In the start of this year, I decided that I would read at least 52 books (a book per week on average). But, till now I have read just one book. I hope that I would be able to read 51 books in next 9 months.

Developing good reading habit

I m usually asked by many to give suggestions on how to develop a reading habit or what to read. Let me try to pen down some of the things I feel one should know

• Don't read daily newspaper (in paper format). Consume it digitally. And even digitally don't spend lot of time browsing through the websites of major Indian newspapers.
• Use RSS reader. And curate the content you receive. After spending sometime, you would be able to receive and consume a very personalized content which would make your time spent on reading effective. Will tell in a separate blog on how I use my RSS reader, like which content I follow, how i read, which software I use - since it is a rather huge topic by itself.
• Before reading a non-fiction book, read few good reviews written on it. And ask yourself what answers are you seeking from the book. Read the content. And when reading for the first time, limit the time of your reading (usually between 3 to 5 hours). After the first read reflect upon the book. And then re-read it again. Usually most non-fiction book needn't be read from start to end. Pick any chapter or page you like and start reading. There is nothing wrong with reading in a disorderly fashion, in fact most of the times it tends to improve your reading effectiveness.
• Avoid reading General Knowledge books, encyclopedia for fun or time-pass. Refer encyclopedia (eg, Wikipedia) only on need to know basis.
• Reading is not a solitary activity. It is something that should be done with a social group. Discuss about what you are reading with your social circle and also get recommendations on articles and books. Quality of reading habit greatly depends on your circle and hence try to carefully develop and nurture it.

Forecasting

Still, I have no idea what I should be writing. Or to be more precise what can I write. I seem to be suffering from rather low esteem recently. Instead of ranting like yesterday, I have decided to republish a blog which I wrote of Immutable. The idea written below is inspired from a business book on forecasting. I don't remember its name, but if anyone knows it please tell it to me.

Let me use the following terminology:

Prediction - It is a statement of what will happen.

Forecast - It is a statement of what you think will happen, based on certain assumptions about the world - assumptions about the  external environment and about your own future actions and those of others.

I have seen many people severely underestimate the importance of study of probable futures.

Forecasting is a very important tool for making any sort of important decisions. Actually, it is impossible to take any decision without employing at least some very rudimentary forecasting technique. The decision making skill would improve greatly if one learns more about it. 

For now, let me tell you some of the points, which I think are important and feel that most people are unaware of it.

• A forecast, if it is to be an effective tool, does not have to be a good prediction of the  future. The very fact that the forecasted future might not come about - because the assumptions might be wrong or have been changed - as a result of decisions you make based on forecasts - that makes forecasting useful. A perfect prediction is perfectly useless. 

• Bad forecasts are worse than no forecasts. If you have no forecast, you will be at least be alert; you will always have a lookout posted. A poor forecast, on the other hand, can foster dangerous complacency or misinform decision making. Forecasts help us to work out what to look for - they distort our perception. If we have not contemplated that something might happen we may fail to even notice it until it is too late.

• Unlike historic information which we only need to collect, forecasting information must be created; and the process of creation is very complicated. Simply forecasting better is not enough; you have to know what you can do with the information if the picture the forecast paints is not what you want, so we need to understand the link with decision-making as well.