Convocation babble

I've lost count of the number of times I've watched Steve Jobs convocation speech at Stanford on youtube. It's one of the most amazing speeches I've heard - it was interesting, inspirational, enlightening. It was perfect. This summer, when it was my time to don the 18th century convocation gowns, I was really looking forward to a similar speech. In fact, that was probably the only thing I was looking forward to at the convocation considering I wasn't receiving any fancy gold and my borrowed gown was a couple of sizes smaller making me look crudely slutty.

Unfortunately, the chief guest (I've blissfully forgotten her name in an effort to erase all memories of the speech), decided to speak about staying healthy, eating right, working hard and being professional (stop it! my grandma told me that when I was 5). If there was as award for most boring or least inspirational speech ever delivered, this one would've won both. Hands down.

In the words of a friend, a convocation speech is symbolic of the torch passing from one great of the present/past to a thousand greats of the future. If sometime in the future, you happen to be one of the greats and you are invited to speak, remind yourself that it is a memorable occasion for thousands of students. Don't screw it up.

Text of Steve Jobs' speech:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Top ten all-time best graduation speeches
http://www.gradspot.com/Lifestyle/Socializing/The+Top+Ten+AllTime+Best+Graduation+Speeches

Book Review - Getting Real

If you're the geek entrepreneur dreaming of starting your web empire, I highly recommend you start with Getting Real.

Writen by the same bunch that started 37signals (heard of ruby on rails?..they made it), the book offers a non-conventional and practical approach to small web startups - from planning and development to promotion, and launch. The message is simple- Get Real! - no fancy specs, no million tests, no boring meetings. Just do it.

The good:

The writing style is refreshing - light and sweet. The 180 page book can be read in 3 hrs (if you read at the same pace as I did). The chapters are sprinkled with quotes from founders of successful startups, giving different perspectives. The book gets you charged up!

The bad:

The book tries to be whacky and attention-grabbing in parts - (Say NO to customers, Nothing functional about functional specs, No Meetings) and says things they don't really mean. The second half is distinctly less interesting than the first.

Making e-mail smarter

Lets consider two scenarios.

1. You were on a vacation/ you were drunk and hungover too many days in a row/ you've been living at work or you were just acting anti-social.  It's been a while since you checked your e-mail. It's a nightmare. You've friends inviting you to a party, your boss wondering what the hell you've been upto, Saudi princes offering you their fortune in return for a few thousand bucks, Pills promising to enhance your experience and her pleasure.  You go through the pile, date-wise, not knowing if there's something that demands immediate attention.

2. Somehow you hit your 2 gig e-mail limit. Your communication with the outside world is blocked.  You have 2 options - you clear your junk or end up a 100 bucks poorer every month. You decide to be cheap, and settle for the the 2 gig task of sifting through your e-mail and deleting what you don't need. 

In both these scenarios, life will be simpler if you knew which e-mails demand the most attention, if your inbox had some way to intelligently estimate how important an e-mail is to you and present them to you in that other. Thinking about it, there's no real reason for your inbox to be sorted date-wise as it is done now (except that it's simple and obvious, and you assume the most recent e-mails are the ones you want to see first). It's more useful to sort e-mails by their estimated importance. That way, you first get to save your job, rsvp to your friend's party and chase after middle-east fortunes, in that order. Or delete prince's e-mail, your friend's e-mail and then your boss's, in that order. 

Off the top of my head, here's a list of factors you can consider to judge if an e-mail matters more than the rest.

1. Using history/stats:

(a) Does the sender strike a chord?  If you've been interacting (through e-mail or chat) with this person , then it's possibly because you have to do it (to get work done) or you enjoy it. In both cases, it's likely that the e-mail is important.

Post-reading ranking (ranking already read/checked e-mails) -

(b) The time you spent reading the e-mail. If the time-words ratio is high, you lingered over the e-mail long, which might indicate it said something important, 

(c) If you've replied/forwarded the e-mail or not. If you have, you give a damn. So it's likely, it's important.

(d) How soon you reply to the e-mail. I reply to the most important e-mails the fastest.

2. Analyzing e-mail content: This can get tricky.  This involves interpreting the text of the e-mail/ attachment and your reply to judge whether it's important. Is there a tone of urgency? Does it demand a reply by some soon-to-occur date? Does it contain topics that you've been texting/chatting/ e-mailing about a lot about recently? 

Go g-mail (or anyone else). Take my 2 cents and make my life easier and lazier.

Truth that kills or lies that flatter?

This note is inspired by a recent House episode.  A gist of it - Mr.X has a temporal lobe disorder, leaving him with a weird disability that forces him to say all he thinks, with no control whatsoever. Mr.X, who was earlier well perceived, goes on a rampage, telling his wife, daughter, collegues and doctors that they suck in their own unique way, ruining all relationships. This got me thinking - how important is it to be genuine? Is it wrong to bitch inside and flatter outside?

One would think it's better, in fact, to always be a sugar coated suck up or just be plain silent on the outside, whatever scornful thoughts your mind churns on the inside. Afterall, at the end of the day, it makes everything seem perfect. People fall for it, feel good about themselves, fell good about you for making them feel good about themselves, reciprocate in cash, kind or words. Everyone is happy (provided, of course, that you're good at deceit and people remain vulnerable).

On the flipside, it also means there's noone policing your thoughts. The idea that transparency and openness act as an effective check and balance, applies not only to governments or corporates, but to thoughts as well. Only if you've the balls to tell a friend when you think he's being dumb or ugly (the rule being - if you think it, say it), will it result in him being pissed off/ defend himself, which will most likely get you to retrospect on your opinions & thoughts and your friend on his beauty & brains, and possibly, the world ends up with two saner people or you with one lesser friend. In effect, this leads to, what I'd call, a moral evolution, with continual inputs from others, hopefully, making one a better person. 

I haven't reached a conclusion yet, but I am leaning towards brutal clinical truth. 

The universe conspires...

If you have read 'the alchemist', this will ring a bell.

"When you really really want something, the entire universe conspires to make it happen."

Thanks to many fortunate experiences, I truly believe in this. Your thoughts make your world. 3 express steps to get ANYTHING - 1. really want it 2. believe you will get it 3. obsess over it..and lo! it happens.

PS: This isn't meant to be a self help blog, but well, I thought I'd start out with a boring post so that later posts seem interesting :)