Kuch bhi ho sakta hai.....

This song has been rising up the charts on my playlist. Its been made famous by Slumdog Millionaire.

The very first time I heard that it was sung by a female named M.I.A. I had made up my mind on who was MIA. She has to be an afro-american or an afro-british because the song sounded to me like a hip hop song.(I aint very good at finding genres of song though, have to admit that) but yes, the point was the song sounded like it had been sung by someone from the afro community. A few days ago, my friend did a wiki on MIA and guess what. MIA is apparently of Sri Lankan origin and her real name is....OK here it comes - Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam. What the....I was totally zapped. It was akin to maybe like....A sheikh by the name "Shin Jee lee"!!! or a Kathakali expert named Joginder Singh Barnala!! Arulpragasam sounds like a female whos an expert in carnatic music, surely not hip hop/rap(she has a Grammy nomination too). Its amazing how I make up preconceived notions of so many things. I must have formed early opinions of so people,things and even thoughts! A hip hop/rap song has to be sung by an afro-american or eminem, a sheikh has to be a muslim, u surely cant have a punjabi performing Kathakali.Phew, looks like anythings possible. Need to stop categorizing/typecasting. Need to stop being so judgmental. Need to open up my mind. Need to start believing that in today's world anythings possible. Adidas tag line now seems to be more appealing. Surely looks like impossible is nothing.

Note to Self

Rules for dealing with a geek freak

Rule 1) Never try to befriend a geek freak. The only reason to approach him is if you have a technical doubt. Ofcourse, in this case be ready for some condescension.
Rule 2) Geek freaks are robots in human form.
Rule 3) You build a better camaraderie with a dog as compared to 'it'.
Rule 4) One of the easiest ways of making a fool of yourself is to expect something from a geek freak.(Actually expecting anything from anyone, apart from self is a bad idea)
Rule 5) Never ever forget the above rules.

Jaded....

Another one of those days when I did no physical activity, but feeling all tired, energy sapped, drained. Getting over physical exhaustion is pretty eazy but this kind of mental exhaustion is kinda killing me. I think the cause is the constant commotion of thoughts inside. I wish us humans had this mental switch by way of which they could simply turn off this tiring mental activity, the continuous thought factory could be shut down for maintenance for a while. Life could have been just a wee bit more smoother and easier. Guess with evolution, the switch shouldn't be too far away........Infact we hear the medical term "Brain dead". How about inducing this state artificially for a while. Shutting down should be easy I guess, its the restarting that should involve some thinking :) Till then, I shall seek refuge in Gunda :D

Amru Prof's poems.....

After my failed attempt to write poems in one of my blogs, I have decided to spare my handful of blog readers(and that includes me:P) from this agony.......for now. Hehehe..... More of my such hideous works, later.

For now, check out a few favorite poems of a prof. I especially liked TTT :)...probably because, thats the only one I understood completely. There were a few that I understood nothing.

Extended Boot up

My Laptop has an extended boot up process.....

Login -> Open FF -> gmail -> ibnlive -> cricinfo -> orkut -> blogger -> gmail -> ....
The rest of the stuff(read studies) seem to be an ISR.

Directionless......

Sometimes you look at people around you and you feel-'oh man, such easy lives these guys have'. They have found all the pieces of 'their' puzzle of life and most of the pieces fit amazingly well. And here you are, forget about solving the puzzle, you don't even know what your right puzzle is! These are the thoughts that are running in my head right now.

I know this ain't jealousy or anything, its just plain frustration of not being able to figure what to do. I feel like a sailor lost in the sea, having no map. Even if I had the map, I wouldn't know what to do with it, coz I just have no freaking idea of where to go. Going along where the wind takes my dinghy. Some say journey is the destination. Kinda agree but I ain't that saint. I certainly wouldn't mind some stopovers.

Predictably irrational like me

These days I have been stumbling a lot(easiest and cheapest way to kill time). An interesting page came up whose page was titled Predictably irrational. The title sounded interesting. So I checked it out.

The article is essentially an outline of a book. The book deals with psychology of the human mind in decision making and how the decisions are affected by other factors. An interesting read. The experiments carried out by the experimenters are fascinating and the conclusions drawn from them are all the more 'unsurprising'. I read them and found myself saying "Hey, that is so true with me".

I especially liked the subject titled "The cost of Social Norms". It has an interesting take on start-ups. It goes like this:
"It's remarkable how much work companies (particularly start-ups) can get out of people when social norms (such as the excitement of building something together) are stronger than market norms (such as salaries stepping up with each promotion)."
I immediately could identify myself with it having worked in a start-up. Imho, an even greater challenge that a start-up faces is when it enters a transition phase from being a 'new born' start-up to 'teenager' semi mature company. Now, in a semi mature company, since the product has reached a certain level of maturity, new exciting work (a.k.a. cutting edge tech. or bleeding edge) may not be available to all. A few chosen ones get the 'new exciting work' whereas the rest get the mundane maintenance activity. The 'market norm' kicks in and the company starts treating a few on an impersonal level because the carrot of "good work" can no more be shown. This in turn gives rise to disgruntled and frustrated employees. The employee no more works for his company but for himself. This attitude is hazardous to the start-up as it invariably leads to poor craftsmanship. This condition is irreversible. So, once an employee is treated with the attitude that "This is the work you are going to get, take it or leave it", the employee even if given better quality work in future, knows that he is dispensable and keeps on under performing.
The article makes a very good point about Company-consumer relationship that -
"Companies that try to market based on social norms ("like a good neighbor...") but fail to follow through (e.g. imposing nuisance fees) end up in a worse position. Consumers take personal offense when a relationship framed as a social exchange turns out to be a market one."
I believe it holds true for Employer-employee relationship too and hence start-ups need to double think before treating anyone with the "market norm". Guess, there would be exceptions to this rule too.

Other interesting conclusions were:
"The Influence of Arousal" : Now we know the scientific proof of the need of a skimpily clad model in almost all the ads. Hehehe :D

"Keeping Doors Open" : How many times have I waited until the last moment to choose or until one choice has disappeared?

The article has some real life examples of each implication. Worth a read:)