WITnessed : Women!

On facebook...

Rohit's status : "Women should have labels on their foreheads saying, 'Government Health Warning: women can seriously damage your brains, current account, confidence, and good standing among your friends." My friend said this when he was not in his senses... Does anyone agree...???

Sneha comments: I agree... that your friend was not in his senses! :p

Quick Links :
Erm... What exactly is "WITnessed"?
The full WITnessed series...

Quotes : Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing...

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
~ Helen Keller

I love this quote!
Hellen Keller so succinctly and directly acknowledges the oft ignored/dismissed/forgotten/hidden fact that life IS a like a theme park of roller coaster rides - anything can happen, to anyone, at anytime - which is part of the fun!

It's up to you to enjoy the ride or to get off, and find another ride you might enjoy - remembering the whole while that there are going to be ups and downs. Or you could just sit on the sidelines, complaining about your last ride & pretending to be helpless.

Updates - Work, Eurotrip, Puppy...

Lot's of folks have asked me why I haven't posted in so long. I find this both flattering and inspiring! : )

So I'll start my return to blogging with a quick update on what's been keeping me busy...

Work...
I've been crazy busy at work. I'm a Program Manager on Bing. This involves a LOT of thinking & writing - email, documents, specifications, which leaves me with precious little "thinking & writing energy" for blogging.

Eurotrip...
Then I also took off on a little Eurotrip. Frankfurt, Cologne, Amsterdamn!, Prague, Nuremburg, Bayreuth, Bamberg, Freiburg, Frankfurt. (I'll post some pictures soon & hopefully an interesting video too).

Puppy...
My girlfriend's got a puppy - a black labrador with white paws and a white patch on his chest. Very cute. Also very naughty annoying! That little rascal has been keeping me busy too!

But, I'm still ambitious about making time to blog - I've got some WITnessed and Fun Photos lined up in my drafts. Will finish and post some of of them this weekend.

Cheers, and thanks for reading! : )

WITnessed : Childhood "dreaming"...

After watching this awesome TEDtalk about tasty cooking and healthy farming...

Markus : If I had to do it all over again, I'd learn about international cuisine and become a master chef!

Sneha : It's not too late! There's this very inspiring talk called the Last Lecture about fulfilling your childhood dreams! Wanna watch it?

Markus : (opens the video) But this is over an hour long! : |

Sneha : It might be an eye opening experience for you Markus!

Markus : Its so long, it might become an eye closing experience for me!

Quick Links :
Erm... What exactly is "WITnessed"?
The full WITnessed series...

WITnessed : Life Insurance

An annoying telemarketer called me.

Telemarketer : Hi Sir,  XYZ company would like to offer you Life Insurance.

Pratik : I'm a student, so I don't need any insurance. Please take my number off your call list.

(this is my standard strategy to get my number off loan/insurance calling lists etc.)
Telemarketer : Oh ok. Can you give me your father's number? When can I call him for life insurance?
(I pause at his audacity - I am taken aback but also impressed by this guy's tenacity.)

Pratik : *serious + sad tone* My father is no more.

Telemarketer : Oh... Sorry sir!

Pratik : You should have called a year back, we would have been rich by now!

Telemarketer : *silence*

I think he cut the call before I burst out laughing.

FYI - My father's very much alive and kicking! He found this hilarious! : )

Quick Links :
Erm... What exactly is "WITnessed"?
The full WITnessed series...

The Advice Dilemma

I enjoy love reading about (or meeting) a variety of "awesome" people, and "checking out" their advice on how to be awesome.

I was checking out some great career advice today, and it is intriguing to find that amidst so many diverse points of views, lots of the advice agrees with/complements other advice. Whats even more intriguing is that oftentimes, some advice is very conflicting with other advice.

The habits/strategies/tactics/tips that one awesome person swears by just don't work for another equally awesome person. "Early to bed and early to rise" v/s "work when you're in the mood & sleep when you're sleepy" is a classic example. In fact, some people use both of these "strategies" very effectively at different times.

I also enjoy giving advice - figuring something out, by myself or from someone else, and sharing it with others.

If there is one "absolute" lesson I've learnt about giving and taking advice, it is that "everything is relative".
The only advice that's reliably true is "it depends" - on the person, his unique motivations, the situation, the time, the environment etc.

Which brings me to the Advice Dilemma -

How can one give (or take) good, true, generic, scalable advice when everything is relative?

I can think of 2 approaches :

1. Generalise : Distill the advice down to its first principles - the underlying principles common to all good advice on the subject. Trust the audience to apply the principles effectively.
2. Specialise : Tell your specific story, and how your approach helped you in your situation. Trust the audience to pick up from the context, the lessons relevant to their unique situations.

Between these two ends of the spectrum, we have many infinite different levels of abstraction. Which is the most effective? Or is it best to use both extremes to complement each other?
Once again... "it depends".

Nuggets...

I've got many little ideas and theories, that I'd like to develop and record.

But developing a little idea into a full blog post before putting it up is a barrier that I don't usually get past. So I'm going to start posting these little "nuggets" for us to chew on, and then develop them as we go.

The idea behind this "Nuggets" series is to
1. Explore ideas. (writing makes me think)
2. Start conversations about these ideas. (with all of you wonderful readers!)

[Inspired by Seth Godin. He never fails to post precious little nuggets every single day!]

These two previous posts qualify as nuggets :
Self Discipline and Sacrifice
What's Your Sentence

Quick Link :
The entire Nuggets series