Through this year, I have not been blogging. This is just in unison with my overall mood as well. I rather spent more time on introspection and internal reflection than on sharing anything outward. It has been quite a journey to calmly listen and truly observe the happenings around than to mouth whatever is your pov and whatever that is you are high on.
Coming back to the LFK moment with my son Adhi. We both were watching Shark attacks program in NatGeo channel. After watching a shark bite off a huge chunk from the sides of an elephant seal, I probed him on what he made out of all the bloodshed he just witnessed, becoming too worried. He simply remarked "who put the seal in the same tank as that of Shark?" and walked off. I didn't have an immediate answer for him. Actually I don't even know if that was a question or an answer by itself! It definitely sounded like an intelligent conversation to ponder about and thought of sharing it here.
Ra
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Year end musings and welcoming 2010!
Every year end, some go through the blues of new year resolutions. I definitely fall in that category - doing some serious introspection and trying to think of what should be done differently. There are a few items that I have carried forward without any action taken for quite a few years now like learning guitar / music. There have been a few that I did take action on and saw results too like getting fit, weight loss - but I missed the rhythm somewhere along the way. I need to sustain few things on a daily basis without getting bored. Gaining control over mind seems the overarching goal in any of these resolutions.
On other ambitions, there are a few items I should have done differently in retrospect. But the important thing is to keep pushing oneself do new things, get out of comfort zone to get to new learnings and more important than that is to move on.
Time is onething that moves on without any need for anyone to track. 2009 has been a drag, but an interesting one that challenged the status quo and provided a lot of food (or fodder many times) for pensive thoughts. I am glad to see the end of it.
I am sure 2010 will be a milestone year for me in the journey towards excellence that I would strive to achieve in all walks of life. Definitely thats an optimistic note to end 2009 with.
Wish you all a very happy, prosperous, healthy, safe 2010!
Ramesh Sriraman
On other ambitions, there are a few items I should have done differently in retrospect. But the important thing is to keep pushing oneself do new things, get out of comfort zone to get to new learnings and more important than that is to move on.
Time is onething that moves on without any need for anyone to track. 2009 has been a drag, but an interesting one that challenged the status quo and provided a lot of food (or fodder many times) for pensive thoughts. I am glad to see the end of it.
I am sure 2010 will be a milestone year for me in the journey towards excellence that I would strive to achieve in all walks of life. Definitely thats an optimistic note to end 2009 with.
Wish you all a very happy, prosperous, healthy, safe 2010!
Ramesh Sriraman
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Learning from Kids (LFK) Series
Many learning organizations are trying to understand Gen Y behaviour and their needs. Hence there is intense focus on "Learning from Kids". I am just trying to blog my thoughts on this topic (not in the context of business though) based on my observations of my kids and their world.
As part of family time around entertainment, I was showing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmdAF4ihedM Indian remix versions of nursery rhyme "Twinkle Star" song at home. My soon-to-be 3 year old son (Adhithya) immediately shot back almost screaming at the top of his lungs - "Hey, it is MY song"! It was as though others trespassed in an area that belongs to his world.
I don't think any grown up can so emphatically say the same statement with the same passion, ownership claim along with the same innocence. As grown ups, I think we tend to deny ourselves freedom in our thinking on our own account. Environment around us (depending on the company we keep) makes it harder to make one feel successful and might slight or undermine even genuine achievements leading to "Prick the balloon" effect.
I think this is a key attribute (boundaryless enthusiasm based on (un)limited wisdom) we need to learn from our kids.
Will try and grow this LFK series...
As part of family time around entertainment, I was showing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmdAF4ihedM Indian remix versions of nursery rhyme "Twinkle Star" song at home. My soon-to-be 3 year old son (Adhithya) immediately shot back almost screaming at the top of his lungs - "Hey, it is MY song"! It was as though others trespassed in an area that belongs to his world.
I don't think any grown up can so emphatically say the same statement with the same passion, ownership claim along with the same innocence. As grown ups, I think we tend to deny ourselves freedom in our thinking on our own account. Environment around us (depending on the company we keep) makes it harder to make one feel successful and might slight or undermine even genuine achievements leading to "Prick the balloon" effect.
I think this is a key attribute (boundaryless enthusiasm based on (un)limited wisdom) we need to learn from our kids.
Will try and grow this LFK series...
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Being Down to Earth in the Cloudy world
Don't think anyone can ignore the buzz around "Cloud computing" even if they want to be sorta normal (or should I say "new normal") and down to earth.
Similar to "down to earth", some businesses can also stick with the old wisdom of being in "clear blue skies" if they don't want anything do with "clouds". We only need rain bearing clouds at the right time and nothing more than that - definitely not the bits and bytes up there. We don't want all the data centers of the world to be hosted up in the clouds hanging precariously in a virtualized fashion obstructing the view of stars in the dark of the night!
Ok, so what will happen to Johari window! it will get transformed in a big way with all this happening. "Known to self and others" quadrant will expand at the expense of "known to self and unknown to others". With such open and unbridled growth, Your own Shadow will come back to haunt with "Unknown to self and known to others" and "Unknown to both" offering boundaryless possibilities for hackers to throw surprises disrupting equilibrium. There will be delirium all around!
Then people will want to command and control their destiny and collaborate only when needed. Its all cyclical anyway. Retrofit, Learn, unlearn, relearn and start the cycle over.
Similar to "down to earth", some businesses can also stick with the old wisdom of being in "clear blue skies" if they don't want anything do with "clouds". We only need rain bearing clouds at the right time and nothing more than that - definitely not the bits and bytes up there. We don't want all the data centers of the world to be hosted up in the clouds hanging precariously in a virtualized fashion obstructing the view of stars in the dark of the night!
Ok, so what will happen to Johari window! it will get transformed in a big way with all this happening. "Known to self and others" quadrant will expand at the expense of "known to self and unknown to others". With such open and unbridled growth, Your own Shadow will come back to haunt with "Unknown to self and known to others" and "Unknown to both" offering boundaryless possibilities for hackers to throw surprises disrupting equilibrium. There will be delirium all around!
Then people will want to command and control their destiny and collaborate only when needed. Its all cyclical anyway. Retrofit, Learn, unlearn, relearn and start the cycle over.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Beyond a point, there is no point!
If I ever start a company, I would like to keep this as a tagline. This is a good amphiboly and can be interpreted in many ways depending on the mood. Sigh and resign to the fact that enough has been done and nothing more is possible! Or kick into action now as one has waited long enough for things to fall in place! Or get into a Bhagavad Gita mode of everything that happens, happens for good. There can be other interpretations possible too - like mathematically speaking, astronomically speaking, atomically speaking etc... Think I've come to the point in this blog, where I can say: i've put fwd my point and beyond this point, there is no point in continuing further...
Ra
Ra
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Basic instincts!
Noticed a funny thing today morning while walking in the marina.
A seemingly rich man came to the beach with his dog for a walk. Dog found some garbage thrown on the road side interesting and started sniffing. It refused to walk along with the man. The rich man got so offended by its action, he started punishing it for its "bad"behaviour!
However rich the person may be, he has forgotten that a dog will always remain a dog - it doesn't the urge to adapt to the rich lifestyle of its boss. Basic instincts are waytoo powerful to undergo a change!
A seemingly rich man came to the beach with his dog for a walk. Dog found some garbage thrown on the road side interesting and started sniffing. It refused to walk along with the man. The rich man got so offended by its action, he started punishing it for its "bad"behaviour!
However rich the person may be, he has forgotten that a dog will always remain a dog - it doesn't the urge to adapt to the rich lifestyle of its boss. Basic instincts are waytoo powerful to undergo a change!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Onion inspirations!
May be it is due to the time spent daily to cut vegetables at home. Onion grabs special attention due to the special effects it creates. Makes even the tough ones like yours truly shed tears. I am not going into the science of this, but there are few learnings from onion processing!
Let us take the big onions first. I can't think of a better example to understand layered architecture than what onion provides as food for thought. Either you peel one layer after another or cut across to get a cross sectional view, one can witness all the great architectural attributes - each layer on top of underlying ones displaying wrapper pattern, perfect and snug fit with each layer adopting to quirks of underlying layers, bulb like structure that has a central control point at the top. May be there are more similarities and learnings to infer / apply, but I will stop here for brevity and leave the rest to reader's imagination.
Let us move on to small onions now. They are no less though they are smaller in size. But this gives the flexibility to understand mergers and acquisitions concept i.e. 2 (or sometimes even 3) smaller entities are subsumed into a bigger whole with the same wrapper concept in perfect unison and blend. Best part is, the internal entities retain their shape and structure though it is not visible to the external world. What a marvellous example for natural display of many (mostly 2) in a box and for identity management.
Now let us delve on the learnings that can be infered from rotten onions. One may notice that onions have tremendous resilience to contain the rotten mess to only one layer and not let it affect neighbouring layer. Imagine if the same independence can be achieved in systems architecture or in org structure - art of co-existing with other non performing departments in close proximity and still not get influenced by them retaining one's health in the pink.
Another wonderful thing about onion bulb structure is - each layer encompasses other in a full fledged fashion. There is no skip level concept at work here. I've not seen that yet. Yet, each layer is visible till the top. There is hierarchy, yet there are no hierarchical problems like suppressing downstream layers! Every layer unites at the top showcasing equality.
Onions themselves are pungent; but rotten onions really smell like a lot of trouble. They have the ability to attract attention and cry for help to be discarded away. That way they do their self appraisal in the most honest fashion! It is very easy to throw the bottom performing ( 5 to 10% ) ones out. Remaining rotten ones are very good at hiding their inefficiencies and get others to hide it as mentioned above.
In whatever way we look at it, onions are a great source of inspiration for offering guidance to thinking in many domains. In this blog post, I have attempted to scratch the surface on onion's contribution to system architecture, organization structure and performance management. But the possibilities IMO are endless. More later. Have fun till then.
Ha hahahaha
Ra
Let us take the big onions first. I can't think of a better example to understand layered architecture than what onion provides as food for thought. Either you peel one layer after another or cut across to get a cross sectional view, one can witness all the great architectural attributes - each layer on top of underlying ones displaying wrapper pattern, perfect and snug fit with each layer adopting to quirks of underlying layers, bulb like structure that has a central control point at the top. May be there are more similarities and learnings to infer / apply, but I will stop here for brevity and leave the rest to reader's imagination.
Let us move on to small onions now. They are no less though they are smaller in size. But this gives the flexibility to understand mergers and acquisitions concept i.e. 2 (or sometimes even 3) smaller entities are subsumed into a bigger whole with the same wrapper concept in perfect unison and blend. Best part is, the internal entities retain their shape and structure though it is not visible to the external world. What a marvellous example for natural display of many (mostly 2) in a box and for identity management.
Now let us delve on the learnings that can be infered from rotten onions. One may notice that onions have tremendous resilience to contain the rotten mess to only one layer and not let it affect neighbouring layer. Imagine if the same independence can be achieved in systems architecture or in org structure - art of co-existing with other non performing departments in close proximity and still not get influenced by them retaining one's health in the pink.
Another wonderful thing about onion bulb structure is - each layer encompasses other in a full fledged fashion. There is no skip level concept at work here. I've not seen that yet. Yet, each layer is visible till the top. There is hierarchy, yet there are no hierarchical problems like suppressing downstream layers! Every layer unites at the top showcasing equality.
Onions themselves are pungent; but rotten onions really smell like a lot of trouble. They have the ability to attract attention and cry for help to be discarded away. That way they do their self appraisal in the most honest fashion! It is very easy to throw the bottom performing ( 5 to 10% ) ones out. Remaining rotten ones are very good at hiding their inefficiencies and get others to hide it as mentioned above.
In whatever way we look at it, onions are a great source of inspiration for offering guidance to thinking in many domains. In this blog post, I have attempted to scratch the surface on onion's contribution to system architecture, organization structure and performance management. But the possibilities IMO are endless. More later. Have fun till then.
Ha hahahaha
Ra
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