F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Off late, I have been watching snippets of the sitcom, FRIENDS again and again.
Well,  I have a lot of time to kill and nothing worth while to do. (sarcasm intended)
Seriously,  I can watch FRIENDS again and again. It is funny and not at all boring.
This also set me thinking what are the types of friends we (and i have observed) have in general!

No matter what, They are there for you. Good times bad times ugly times. They always stand by you. Rock solid support.

They care for you. Watch out for you. Give you the bitter medicine to make you well.  Kick you up when necessary.They guide you to greatness.

I am lucky that I had friends mentioned as above. I have also been unlucky to have/seen the following fake friends types too!

Parasitic Takers: They hang out with you always expecting something out of you. They are the needy types wanting one thing or the other, never giving back anything in return.

Backstabbers: They are being friends with you only to screw you back at the most inappropriate time.

There is one more type which is actually worse and one should turn these fake friends in to enemies ASAP. They dont do any of the above mentioned either good or bad things. Even if you are in the wrong path, they neither cheer you nor steer you. They happily tag along, eventually ruining themselves along with your downfall.  The sad thing is many people never recognize these types of people. People wrongly assume they fall in to the first type of being there for you always.
Lets pray for the souls of people who have these types of friends!

Wait a minute! Does friendship needs such pyscho analysis? Isn't friendship comradeship, companionship, fun, unconditional etc etc? Well, what about the following sayings. "Show me your friend, i will tell about you." "You are nothing but an average of five friends of yours"

Our friends are reflection of ourselves, our character, our attitudes, our choices, our aspirations. Be wise in choosing them!

p.s
This was due on friendship day. My laziness took over me. You know about my friends by now ;)
The parasitic reference was an inspiration due to a recent intellectual chat! ;)
Another inspiration was a wisdom from another friend:"The person should make your life better and add value" yeah, you know it's you ;)
What the heck is wrong with me? why such philosophical posts? well MBA is making me realize that it is all about people, soft skills, fine tuning your instincts yada yada.

 

The Difficult part!

Sometimes you are confronted by problems with out any apparent solutions. [Well, one can argue, if there is no  solution and nothing to solve then it is not a problem at all].
Sometimes you do know the solution but execution is not simpler [As one of my friend recently quoted, real life is not like solving cases in class or in paper]
Sometimes the problem is not worth solving at all!
Sometimes you have bigger problems to solve!

No matter, what state of above mentioned probem you are in, Logical approach in analyzing the hard empirical evidence and data will always tell you what needs to be done.

The difficult part is actually following the logic against your gut feeling!

Liar Liar

There are very few things that gets my goat! (Well, definition of "few" depends!)

I just cant stand hypocricy and hypocrites. Next comes liars. (Actually, there is a very fine thin line that differentiates both.Let's ignore the technicalities for now!) Oh and please, diplomacy and hypocricy are two different things.

It is not that I am the direct heir of  Shri Harichandra, a holier than thou cow or something like that. Then, why do I hate  Liars?? It is a two-part thing.

For one, It is utter stupidity to lie.People usually think they are pretty smart and they can get away with a lie. In reality, One must be stupid to think, they can lie and get away with it. Eventually the truth comes out. When it comes out, it looks bad on the person, the credibility is lost. Not only the past is questioned, on what are all the things you have lied? It also makes one wonder can i trust you in the future? How can i be sure that there aren't any more lies? This is the reason I prefer to hear the hard truth rather than a sweet lie. I prefer to speak the truth (most of times) cause, i dont want to look so embarassed and defend/explain why did i lie at the first place.

The other  thing is the most important one. When I am being lied to, It insults my intelligence. One lies to me hoping that I would believe it and would never find the truth. It is one thing for a person to think they are smart but altogether a different thing to think other person is stupid.  Thinking that I am stupid and I could be lied to is what pisses me the most!

Thou shall not lie to me. Thou shall not face my wrath!Amen. Let peace be with me ;)

Darn You Google!

Nothing gets my goat than "Smart people being so stupid and silly"
Yeah, How can smart people be so stupid?

Googlers are considered to be smart. They do work on Space Technology, Internet Balloons, Cars that drive by themselves. (

Yet, they dont have a google talk on Apple Store. (Well, Hangouts cannot be installed if you do not have a front facing camera i.e iPhone 3GS)
The messenger in Google+ just doesn't works.

FB has messenger that works seamlessly across devices. Viber does that. But you Google! Shame on you.  [Skype doesn't have a seamless integration but it is understandable as they are owned by Microsoft now]

Hope the Product Managers at Google get their act together or may be the top management should do a realignment like Apple er like what Microsoft did ;)

P.S
They shutting down the Reader while having Currents is a post meant for another day.

P.P.S
Nothing has changed in Google Talk from 2008 as mentioned here. I have changed a little bit. I would love to take a shot at building the next Google rather than just making their perpetual beta products .

P.P.P.S
Inspired due to missed pings in Google Talk ;)

 

அழகான இராட்சசி!

காபி குடிக்க
காலாற நடக்க
ஐஸ்கீரிம் சாப்பிட
மழையில் நனைய
தோள் சாய
அரவணைக்க
கை கோர்க்க
படம் பார்க்க
வெறுமனே
முகம் பார்க்கவாவது
நீ
வேண்டும்
இத்தருணங்களில்!

அழகான இராட்சசி

காதல்
காமம்
குரோதம்
கோபம்
காவியம்
காப்பியம்
கவிதை
கண்ணராவி
கலந்து
கட்டி
கோலாகல
கொண்ட்டாட்டம்
கள்ளியின்
கண்களில்!

அழகான இராட்சசி

வீழ்கிறேன்
நான்
உன்
விற்புருவங்கள்
உயர்ந்தால்!

அவள்

அழகு
அறிவு
அரவணைப்பு
ஆதங்கம்
ஆனந்தம்
ஆத்திரம்
அதிகாரம்
ஆசை
அனைத்தின்
அகராதி
அவள்!

Why Why Why!

I am not a drinking person.
I am not interested in hitting on random strange women.
I am not good at boring small talk.
I can't shake my leg or hands in the name of dance.
I don't even understand the songs that are played.
Why the hell do i go to clubs!

No, He was not an "A"!

You are one of the best in what you do. I mean the very best in the world. Any company who would want your expertise will hire you right away with the top money you demand.

Now will you choose to work for a company which can't even let you talk about work to any one in the world.
Worse sometimes you don't even know on what exactly you are working on. No we are not talking about CIA!

To top it your boss happens to be the one who is perceived to be the "A". It is not a random statement. A management professor from Stanford wrote a chapter on "the virtues of assholes." greatly inspired by him.

Yes we are talking about Steve Jobs and Apple!

I find this very contradictory. If Jobs was a "A" as portrayed why would the so called best in business work for him? Why would they even tolerate him? Why would they give their very best to him? Why would people who worked on Mac describe that as one of the best time in their lives? 

How come a "A" went on to create history in computers, movies, music and mobile, even retail and e-commerce.? Even on a personal level he had a successful marriage with four kids. Why would a successful smart woman live with a "A"? Well the relationship with the first kid was turbulent. I think it was cause she was just like his father. The apple doesn't falls far from the tree. does it?

So who are all these people who call him the "A"?  Why do they call him so?

People who did not leave up to his standards. People who just don't understand him but misunderstood him pretty well..

Many people confuse Job's success was a result of his behavior. They also tend to think just because he was a "A" (from their perspective), people gave him the best. People who worked on Mac do accept that each and every time he rejected, they came up with something better and do accept their earlier work was best. It was just that Jobs was passionate and wanted even minute things to be perfect. [Jobs called Vic to fix up a yellow gradient in the Second O in Google on Sunday]

So being an "A" will not make you Jobs, cause he was not an "A" in the first place. I would also go out on my limb to say Job's managerial or leadership style was no different from most of the other successful people who created history. Job's behavior was greatly exaggerated in the very own reality distortion field created by others.

Stanford professor also contends Jobs was too singular to offer many usable lessons. In Jobs case, many is not necessary. The 14 leadership lessons from Jobs as distilled by Isaacson in HBR is more than enough to distrupt an industry or two.

p.s
FB page on book about Steve Jobs by me
You can buy it here