I was told that industry is all about maximizing your long term reward with a constraint on cash in hand. All decisions in our career should be aimed at achiving this simple goals at the cost of short term rewards. Sounds simple, isn't it... well that is why I said "wat the heck".....
So the thing is as much as I accept this, I have to live with sacrificing things i hold dearest...The worst part is this habbit of sacrificing...after only two years in this stinking system I am used this aweful taste in my mouth all the time. Their are time when I give up some short term gains in line with the philosophy, but more often than not I use this analogy to justify my conscience whenever I am treated unfairly.
Its not that I am cribing about life not being fair, I mean I am ok with that concept, I call it zero sum game...sometimes you win and most time you loose cause you are playing against millions...right!!!
Its just that I hate this state of mind, basically as morpheus said "its one thing to know the path, totally another to walk the path.."
Friday, 31 July 2009
Friday, 19 June 2009
Relativity...how bad is bad...
how bad is bad.....this is something which has bothered me for quite some time now, the past week fortunately has given me enough motivation to pen it down.
We all have heard that joke, where an orator explaines the crowd that bad is when hundreds of you die in a bomb blast this very instance, worse is when He get injured in it.
Moving on to the story, like many other I am also dependent on my office CAB for my survival, every morning this is what I wake up for. (additional info: my office is around 35 km drive from my home and it takes around 50 minute to reach using our beloved office CAB, and God forbids if one ever uses the public transport system, it can take anywhere from 90 minutes to 150 minutes, with median being well above 120 min) .
Coming back to waking up at ungodly hours to catch the cab, I follow the routine with utmost sincerity, and have been quite successful, at least in this part of my life. I have never missed my cab in past 10 months and I don't really volley for superstition, but for this touch wood!!.
As per how one feel when one is inside the CAB is a different story all together, we all crib no matter one is qualified for that or not (I believe people with similar background as mine, can appreciate it easily), but any way, we all crib to an extent that we hold grudges (permanent ones) against our fellow cab mates. The thing is that one can fit 5 people in it easily, but following the massive cost cutting and all, the sacred admin has decided to fit 7 people in one cab. Now comes various issues of inclination of seats, tilts, preference of window seats and not to miss the SACRED seat next to the driver. But this being a routine, we all have kind of accepted it, or at least that’s what I thought. We all acknowledge it as bad but accept it as we hardly have any other option.
This week I had some important work at home and had to leave late from my place, so I was left with no choice but to rely on our super efficient public transport system. After around 30 minutes of hustle, I reached a point where I can get paid cabs to a place quite close to my office (~ 2 Km). I was the seventh guy in the shared taxi, which means no time will be wasted in waiting for this thing to fill in; hence I hopped on to it in no time. I enquired about the cost and found it unbelievable cheap (20 INR only). Thanking the Almighty, for the support extended & my luck, I felt real good.
This however lasted for hardly a minute when 3 more people got into the cab, so we are 10 now, I went to the driver complaining about this insanity but was back before one can say the word 'back', meanwhile, I missed my window seat. I won't share the response I got from the guy who sat on my seat as that kind of language is prohibited as per the rules of BlogSpot. (Apparently I realized that the cab mates I have in routine are not so bad & are rather quite friendly).
Well this is just for a day; I assured myself and sat on whatever little space was left after that massacre. The cab was still waiting, learning from my previous experience, I shouted to the driver to move the vehicle, to which I got a similar response as above, so we waited and was awarded with 3 more companions for the pleasant journey to office. Now we are 13 people sitting/ standing/kept in that thing holding on to each other so that we don't fall off the window or the broken but stuck door.
By now we smelt of each other’s sweat which I must tell you is not that good a felling. The mercury is around 45 C outside, so we all were sweating like pigs hence none had any complaint on another for the sweat parcel. This reminded me of the fact that yeh the CAB provided by the office is equipped with air conditioning and even after insane inclinations of my colleagues is quite quite comfortable. Well I reached office with the refreshed memory of my life which went pass my eyes every time we were on a sharp turn and my centre of mass probably out of the taxi.
Now it’s been over a week and I am finding my office CAB as the best part of the day without any issue and not feeling bad about it at all. I know it’s not going to last for long, but still I would like to believe this way for the time being, I like to remind me each time always that apparently bad is as bad as we perceive it to be.
We all have heard that joke, where an orator explaines the crowd that bad is when hundreds of you die in a bomb blast this very instance, worse is when He get injured in it.
Moving on to the story, like many other I am also dependent on my office CAB for my survival, every morning this is what I wake up for. (additional info: my office is around 35 km drive from my home and it takes around 50 minute to reach using our beloved office CAB, and God forbids if one ever uses the public transport system, it can take anywhere from 90 minutes to 150 minutes, with median being well above 120 min) .
Coming back to waking up at ungodly hours to catch the cab, I follow the routine with utmost sincerity, and have been quite successful, at least in this part of my life. I have never missed my cab in past 10 months and I don't really volley for superstition, but for this touch wood!!.
As per how one feel when one is inside the CAB is a different story all together, we all crib no matter one is qualified for that or not (I believe people with similar background as mine, can appreciate it easily), but any way, we all crib to an extent that we hold grudges (permanent ones) against our fellow cab mates. The thing is that one can fit 5 people in it easily, but following the massive cost cutting and all, the sacred admin has decided to fit 7 people in one cab. Now comes various issues of inclination of seats, tilts, preference of window seats and not to miss the SACRED seat next to the driver. But this being a routine, we all have kind of accepted it, or at least that’s what I thought. We all acknowledge it as bad but accept it as we hardly have any other option.
This week I had some important work at home and had to leave late from my place, so I was left with no choice but to rely on our super efficient public transport system. After around 30 minutes of hustle, I reached a point where I can get paid cabs to a place quite close to my office (~ 2 Km). I was the seventh guy in the shared taxi, which means no time will be wasted in waiting for this thing to fill in; hence I hopped on to it in no time. I enquired about the cost and found it unbelievable cheap (20 INR only). Thanking the Almighty, for the support extended & my luck, I felt real good.
This however lasted for hardly a minute when 3 more people got into the cab, so we are 10 now, I went to the driver complaining about this insanity but was back before one can say the word 'back', meanwhile, I missed my window seat. I won't share the response I got from the guy who sat on my seat as that kind of language is prohibited as per the rules of BlogSpot. (Apparently I realized that the cab mates I have in routine are not so bad & are rather quite friendly).
Well this is just for a day; I assured myself and sat on whatever little space was left after that massacre. The cab was still waiting, learning from my previous experience, I shouted to the driver to move the vehicle, to which I got a similar response as above, so we waited and was awarded with 3 more companions for the pleasant journey to office. Now we are 13 people sitting/ standing/kept in that thing holding on to each other so that we don't fall off the window or the broken but stuck door.
By now we smelt of each other’s sweat which I must tell you is not that good a felling. The mercury is around 45 C outside, so we all were sweating like pigs hence none had any complaint on another for the sweat parcel. This reminded me of the fact that yeh the CAB provided by the office is equipped with air conditioning and even after insane inclinations of my colleagues is quite quite comfortable. Well I reached office with the refreshed memory of my life which went pass my eyes every time we were on a sharp turn and my centre of mass probably out of the taxi.
Now it’s been over a week and I am finding my office CAB as the best part of the day without any issue and not feeling bad about it at all. I know it’s not going to last for long, but still I would like to believe this way for the time being, I like to remind me each time always that apparently bad is as bad as we perceive it to be.
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Increasing Pain/Pay ratio
A colleague of my once taught me the concept of Pain to Pay ratio, though not so evolved I do find it quite interesting not to mention useful in my life.
"Pain to Pay ratio (PP ratio) is simply the work (pain) an organization get out of an employee in return of the pennys (pay) it throws out at one. "
So being a true Indian and hence a honest follower, I set out in search of something with minimal PP ratio, constraint on significant short term cash flows. Luckily I found one that suits all my hidden constraints & as phoney as it may sound I was really happy for months to follow. I tried to convince myself that their exist some theory (PP ratio) which is complete and yet useful however couldn't succed for some reason ( I stress this part as following my academic training, I have long accepted the opposite view).
Its took me over seven months to realize the incompleteness of the theory above. As much sound a concept it is, PP ratio has much more to it bringing me back to my earlier : No theory is complete and pragmatic at the same time. In retrospect, this ain't that bad a feeling, I am back to what I have learnt in so called rigrous training, and thus justfying my goal of not learning anything anymore. So I have lost seven months against a what is close to a dacade of wrote learning.
So, coming back to the flaw in the concept of PP ratio, I have to offer a modification/ improvement, lets call it PP version 2, Adding on the defination above
PP2: The numerator in the ratio moves much like a geometric progression, following the law of ever increasing Entropy.
Well this can't be good, but the optimist (in all of us) would like to know more about the denominator. As much as it might hurt, (I plan to be honest here), The denominator my dear is more like a random walk. You may get far from where you started(riding on your luck or screwing you colleague) but rest assure you will be back. Its the same never ending rat race we all are runing with no option of getting out.
So what does it gives us, to me its more like another theory which need some work before being accepted (read discarded) by fellow researcher like us, welcome your comments on this.....
"Pain to Pay ratio (PP ratio) is simply the work (pain) an organization get out of an employee in return of the pennys (pay) it throws out at one. "
So being a true Indian and hence a honest follower, I set out in search of something with minimal PP ratio, constraint on significant short term cash flows. Luckily I found one that suits all my hidden constraints & as phoney as it may sound I was really happy for months to follow. I tried to convince myself that their exist some theory (PP ratio) which is complete and yet useful however couldn't succed for some reason ( I stress this part as following my academic training, I have long accepted the opposite view).
Its took me over seven months to realize the incompleteness of the theory above. As much sound a concept it is, PP ratio has much more to it bringing me back to my earlier : No theory is complete and pragmatic at the same time. In retrospect, this ain't that bad a feeling, I am back to what I have learnt in so called rigrous training, and thus justfying my goal of not learning anything anymore. So I have lost seven months against a what is close to a dacade of wrote learning.
So, coming back to the flaw in the concept of PP ratio, I have to offer a modification/ improvement, lets call it PP version 2, Adding on the defination above
PP2: The numerator in the ratio moves much like a geometric progression, following the law of ever increasing Entropy.
Well this can't be good, but the optimist (in all of us) would like to know more about the denominator. As much as it might hurt, (I plan to be honest here), The denominator my dear is more like a random walk. You may get far from where you started(riding on your luck or screwing you colleague) but rest assure you will be back. Its the same never ending rat race we all are runing with no option of getting out.
So what does it gives us, to me its more like another theory which need some work before being accepted (read discarded) by fellow researcher like us, welcome your comments on this.....
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