Avoiding bad situations, and preventing failures plays second fiddle to building and releasing new features and processes. For example, there is often low motivation or even discussion on improving legal, security, and compliance processes, as they are deemed boring and complex. However, engineering teams continue to pay high cost of proving compliance or firefight incidents that could have been prevented with better telemetry and alerting. Similarly, removing brittle product features and deprecating failed products are taboo, and users continue to deal with abandoned half starts....

Skilled and talented engineering teams often become “known” for the solution they provide successfully to customers. This is dangerous. Impact to customer value Once an engineering team comes to identify themselves with their solution, they inadvertently try to fit and adapt the problem to the solution, instead of the other way around. More worryingly, teams tend to discount better alternate solutions, even if they fit the problem better. Reasons given are higher amount of time to solve, unknown unknowns, low skills etc....

Maybe it is a placebo effect, but meditation makes me feel clear headed. I used to have dreamless sleep, but now I often have vivid dreams. In my interactions with people, I feel that I am able to get to the main concerns faster. I am patient in performing routine work. I have less fear, and know when my anxiety levels are rising. The twenty minutes meditation practice still isn’t easy....

A conversation with Vanya sparked this post. The Earth goes around the Sun in 365 days; and around 100 rounds is what we get to experience and exist. In comparison, the Earth has completed 4,543,000,000 rounds so far, and it is estimated that it will continue to support us for around 1,500,000,000 more rounds. My initial 20-25 rounds were spent in ignorant bliss, with only worries of homework and tests. All people and love around me was normal and forever....

I want to share people of the modern era who inspire and motivate me. Albert Einstein As a theoretical physicist, he was able to unearth relationships (space, time, gravity, duality of matter and waves) using the power of his thoughts. Then built a mathematical model for those thoughts to stand on. Later on, the model was validated experimentally by others! The ability to discover and understand fundamental universal relationships is nothing short of witnessing a miracle in human cognition....

Actor and observer. Waking Up from Sam Harris is asking us to realize that there is no observer “I” separate from our bodies, and what we call as “I” is an invention that we created while growing up. An interesting parable from Sam can help explain what we learn about “I” when we meditate. A north European tour bus is at a rest stop, and an Asian woman tourist, unaware of the customs and language, comes back to the empty bus and changes her clothes....

Probability and science are against getting old. There are proven higher chances of succumbing to debilitating diseases, lower energy to work, being out of touch with newer ways of thinking and working, and hence being out of a job. There is also the traditional happy retirement lifestyle of people pottering around the house, playing bingo, and other such imagery that is sold by the media and marketers. Scenario driven people Anticipating health issues, low or no work, and other unforeseen problems, people ensure that they have saved up adequate funds, and are relatively debt free....

Ladybird picture books were my childhood pals even before I learned to read a single word. I warmly recall cozy winter afternoon siestas spent right next to my mom, wondrously poring over lives of Snow White, Thumbelina, Rapunzel, Hansel & Gretel, Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty… My friendship circle widened over time, and I had many historical adventures with gods and kings in Amar Chitra Katha’s, accompanied with laughs in the company of Chacha Chaudhary, Sabu and Suppandi....

I have further questions than reasons given in my previous post on meditation. Questions like: Why is having a meditative state of mind better than a non-meditative one? Why does meditation or spirituality interest people my age? Information and good reasons from the book I found good arguments (that resonated well) while reading Sam Harris’s 2014 book: Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. Sam is a Stanford graduate, and has a PhD in Nueroscience from UCLA....

I feel blessed and deeply grateful for family and friends celebrating and showering us with love. It was an entertaining energetic evening, and a fabulous kick start for a rocking 2023! 6:30p was the time, and driving along the rain soaked highways made us concerned of being late ourselves. Settling into Amber’s lower party hall was a breeze, and the place resembled more of a cozy, elegant and comfortable living room....