Monday, June 30, 2008

A world of roles and job descriptions....

In my company, every now and then we all get into what we call as "Cross functional meetings".. a bunch from US, some from France, some India, some Israel... and lot of discussion... dialects, "pardon me"s ...

My first time-s:
1. Work with a person and NOT see him/her AT ALL and is a non-Indian
2. Work to plan a release with people who can easily say "I don't care a damn" .. :)
3. Extensively discuss some intricate strategies with someone who is a matrixed manager to me .. and again not seen him AT ALL..

I get uncomfortable at time to live in world of roles and JDs, but the good part is I have nothing to judge the person on other than his thoughts! I guess that creates an intellectual relationship... But then sometimes talking to a phone can become slightly non-interesting...

Monday, June 02, 2008

All knowledge is within oneself - 2

This post will be a continuation of what I started pondering over while I was in ISB. I sometimes feel this need to write things down at my whim and as they occur to me. So this will be one that sort of post.

The driving factor
What is the driving factor behind the working of anything including humans? Its a set of parameters that exist in our environment, that our brain processes based on its property to absorb or grasp those parameters which drive our actions. To extrapolate, everything in universe ultimately is driven by some parameters. Heating always increases energy level of electrons, hot air always rises up, cells in our body repair themselves etc are some basic laws that are never violated or are not dependent on ability. But as things become more complex with interaction of the basic building blocks, only dominating property rules. This is exemplified in almost every sphere. Fire can either overcome water or vice versa depending on which has more mass. But this is straight forward or logical. Let us add some twist to the already very abstract tale, the gene angle!
My mom loves to talk, my dad loves to be silent. Coincidentally, I 'like' to be silent, but don't want to be left out of a crowd! Ultimately, though I remain silent and let it become my nature. So what is this showing? That when things become complex like emotions our brain becomes the basic building block of what property our body shows. A mob running with stones in hand makes (a) a common man run for refuge (b) a policeman more aggressive to hit anyone in the mob with lathi. How does this happen? That's the miracle of this "property" thing in our brain. A couple of highly charged atoms switching on some chemical reaction that creates an emotion termed as "outrage" or "fear" depending on which one you allow yourself to take over.
So if we abstract ourselves out of this situation, its just this brain, our thinking machine in combination with our genome that is deciding what route we take in our life. Can't we master these folks? Yes we can! and how?
Think of 2 basic properties in yourself -One that allows you to observe with total silence, and one that makes you react. Now think of them as 2 kinds of atoms that are kept on a heater. One of them depending on where he is in the space above heater will get charged and will probably become vapor or something before the other. Similarly depending on your genome you will choose either. But just imagine if you don't have the heater below! then the choice isn't essentially a choice. then the parameters no longer bother you. then there is no domination or recession.

This state is bliss. I am not saying that you won't get burnt if you touch the hot vessel, I am saying understand that its the nature of your skin to burn, the nerves to trasmit pain signal, the brain to process it, the genes to decide how tolerant you are to pain and then your mouth to give out the sigh. Once this is clear, you will realize that you are not master of you, but something else is. Because when you will be the master of your own, you will realize all this equations and just enjoy the fun that is this universe. :-)

Good night!!