Re-training your gut reactions

FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2009 AT 11:50AM

Every day we face situations that frustrate us.  The author talks about the typical chain in which the event drives our reaction which leads to a certain (mostly unfavourable) outcome.  Instead of this if we could train our gut instinct to react to an unfavourable event by FIRST thinking of the outcome we want and letting the desired outcome drive the behaviour we can break the cycle.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/07/to-get-what-you-want-dont-go-with-your-gut.html

18 minutes to focusing your day

MONDAY, JULY 27, 2009 AT 12:26PM

In my conitnued search for productivity nirvana here is another tip that I found on the web.  The foundationg of productivity is of course... just doing the work, but tips like this can help in prioritizing your day.  My biggest problem is I tend to work on the stuff I enjoy, rather than the things I have to get done.

Link: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/07/an-18minute-plan-for-managing.html

Three Steps Every day:

STEP 1 (5 Minutes) Set Plan for Day.  

STEP 2 (1 minute every hour) Refocus.

STEP 3 (5 minutes) Review.

Read the whole articile, it's a great read.

The fallacy of comparing India to China

FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2009 AT 12:00PM

After my recent trip to China I've been extremely depressed.  I think the first time any Indian goes to China they must have the same feeling of despair.  We commonly say China & India in the same breath when we are talking about new world economies, countries that are going to drive the global economic engine going forward.  It's a lie!

The only people who can truly consider the growth and infrastructure of these two countries as comperable are people who have not visited China.  To say that India and China are at the same level of development is an outright fallacy, to say that we are a decade behind China would be a lie, and to say that we are a generation behind China would be optimistic.  In reality I doubt that our infrastructure will catch up with China within my lifetime.

Democracy, we have.  Roads, water, power... not so much.  How do you measure the value of having democracy and at what point do you say - screw democracy, I just want wide roads, continuous electricity and kick-ass infrastructure? I don't have an answer but as Indians it is time we remove ourselves from the complacency of self comparison and raise the bar to the level of competing with China!

To finish on a positive note I leave you with a quote from Nandan Nilekani, the founder of Infosys

India is at a strategic opportunity. This is a result of its demographics, its entrepreneurs, its technology prowess, its democracy, the fact that the world is ageing while we are young; the fact that we have English as a language. All these are unique attributes. If we make full use of this opportunity, India could be a role model for the 21st century.

Some productivity tips from Lifehacker

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2009 AT 7:29PM

One of my favorite sites is LifeHacker.com, proponents of the GTD (Getting Things Done) philosophy of productivity have a great list of ten basic productivity skills that one should have.  Wish I could say that I follow all ten tips religiously, but not there yet. The ones marked in bold I've found most useful.

Here is the link:  http://lifehacker.com/5303204/top-10-productivity-basics-explained

Their top ten:

10. Doable to-do lists
9. Ninja-like search skillz
8. Remind your future self (a.k.a. tickler files)
7. Ubiquitous capture
6. Timers and working in dashes
5. Quick searches (web)
4. Quick searches (local)
3. Inbox Zero
2. Keyboard shortcuts
1. Text expansion

Encourage you to check out the entire list at Lifehacker.com

Update on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 7:42PM by Anant

While I am on the subject of Getting Things Done (GTD) I thought I'd post the link to a great article on how to use a "lite" version of GTD.  If you've never heard of David Allen, or GTD then check out this link.  I've always struggled with being adequately productive, since at the end of the day it comes to do "just doing it"

http://lifehacker.com/335269/practicing-simplified-gtd

The new iPhone is out!

TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2009 AT 9:37AM

The apple World Wide Developer Conference came and went, bringing some exciting news on the hardware and software fronts for iPhone lovers across the globe.

As predicted by many the iPhone 3.0 software version is out and will be available for download on the 17th of June.  With it come additional features and tweaks to the current iPhones, breathing new life into them.

Much awaited cut-and-paste is finally here.  Leave it to Apple to have people cheering about a feature which is standard on all smartphones.  It will be a relief to finally be able to copy and paste information from emails & SMSs into other applications.

Tethering is also finally here, this will allow iphone users to use the iPhone internet connection to browse the internet from their laptops.  Not a big deal for us in India right now, but will be great once we get 3G!

There are a number of additional enhancements to existing features.  Landscape mode, stereo bluetooth and synchronizing of notes to name a few.  Go here to see all the new features in the 3.0 update and remember to download it June 17th! Best of all it is free to all iPhone users!!

New iPhone 3GS is out! 

People had been speculating about a new iPhone being announced but it wasn't till 24 hours or so before the WWDC that anyone talked about the iPhone being in stores this quickly.  Line up for your new iPhone on June 19th (USA). Most of the rumours I heard talked about announcing a new iPhone this week for release in the fall.

The S (in 3GS) stands for Speed, which should give some indication of the biggest improvement in the iPhone over the 3G.  Though in all fairness it should have been called the Video, since for most people that will be the newest feature.  In addition to the long awaited video capability the iPhone 3GS comes with an upgraded 3 MP camera that has touch focus, which means you can select the area within the photo frame to focus on.

For me the most compelling reason to upgrade to the 3GS would be the additional processor speed.  My current Macbook Pro is 5 years old and I've basically replaced it with my iPhone 3G for email and web browsing.  The MBP is now relegated to the music storage device and podcast downloader for synching with the iPhone.  There are times when the lag on the iPhone really irks me so I'd love the speed bump being promised by Apple.

The 3GS will also come with some additional goodies like a built in compass and a better case back that promises to be less of a stain magnet. In all other respects though the new iPhone will be visually identical to the previous model.

Specific to India, I've not seen a confirmation yet, but word on the street is that Vodafone and Airtel will bring the new iPhone to India in August and offer the MMS and tethering functionality!  I'm really stressed out since this only gives me 3 months to convince my wife that an iPhone would be the ideal present for a loving husband like me :-)

Countdown to the new iPhone

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2009 AT 4:29PM

Wow, so it's probably true now that Mossberg of the WSJ is talking about the new iPhone supposed to come out next Tuesday. I'm more excited about the 3.0 software update for exisiting iPhones, but that may just be a case of sour grapes since the chances of my getting a new iphone are less than 0!

So here is what Walt has to say

Apple already has announced it’s adding MMS, universal search, and copy and paste. And, although Apple hasn’t announced any new hardware features, I expect to see an iPhone with up to 32 gigabytes of memory, video recording, a higher-resolution camera, a compass, and greater operating speed. Plus, there are persistent rumors that Apple will announce at least one iPhone at a drastically lower price than $199.

However, Apple isn’t likely to match two of the Pre’s big advantages: multitasking and a physical keyboard.

For more information you can read Walt's review of the Palm Pre, where he makes these comments about the new iPhone. 

Stay tuned - supposed release of the iPhone will be at Apple's WWDC on Tuesday June 9th.

New online stuff that I don't understand yet

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2009 AT 4:00PM

There are a couple "new" techie applications out there. Maybe not new as in cutting edge technology, but more like new to me.  I consider myself one of the late early-adopters, which means I'm not the first to latch on to new technology but am not far behind the pioneers of the tech world.

There are three newish applications I've bene using which I'm still in the process of understanding.  Here they are, listed in my order of comprehension - Bing, FriendFeed and Wolfram alpha.

So Bing, pretty straightforward - Bing Is Not Google :-) I guess that says it all.  Bing is Microsoft's attempt at ratcheting up the competition with Google.  It's a search engine that has some pretty nifty features compared to google.  Of course as a die-hard google fan it'll take more than some fancy colors and over-mouse-hovering-graphics to get me to change, but I'll definitely be keeping my eye on Bing over the next few months. If for nothing else then the fact that saying Bing brings back fond memories of that long-gone TV show.

Next on the list of new online toys to play with is FriendFeed.  I've go to say, not real sure how to use this one yet.  It seems very useful, often mistakenly compared with Twitter, FF is more of a online feeds congregate-or.  One place to go where you can see most of the information you're interested in reading, but more importantly - one place where all your friends can go to see what you are saying on the web.  It takes feeds from most of the popular social news / blogging sites like facebook, twitter, digg, etc.  I guess my problem with friendfeed is that it just reminds me of how un-geeky my friends are.  One of the greatest tragedies of my life - I don't have enough geeky friends that are interested in the same soul-uplifting, heart-warming, techie stuff that I am.  If I did then FriendFeed would be the place I'd tell them all to go.

And lastly, but least understood by me, is Wolframalpha.  The bottom line is that as Leo Laporte said on one of his recent podcasts, I'm just not smart enough to use wolframalpha.  I can tell you what it's not, it's not a google, its no bing and it cant be called a search engine.  Rather than searching for pre-answered questions on the internet Wolfram alpha computes answers to questions based on data it has within its databases.  Like fine wine, WA is an acquired taste.  I've been forcing myself to try and use it at least once a day to understand what all the hype is about.

So there you have it folks, techy stuff out there that I don't understand yet :-)  While I'm still trying to figure this out I hear Google Wave is in the works. Am not even going to go there!

Indian Politicians using Twitter to reach out

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2009 AT 9:31AM

I recently posted a tweet about Indian politician Shashi Tharoor who has a Twitter account and has been regularly posting interesting updates in his life as a Minister. I love the feeling of voyeuristic intimacy that comes from reading in real time the actives of an Indian politician.

But is there a long term sustainable benefit to his tweeting or will the novelty wear off after a while? Right now he has about 3400 followers, which pales in comparison when you think of Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Spears with over 1,000,000 followers each :)

So while I am proud of Indian politicians making the effort to find innovative ways to stay in touch with the public, we need to do our part and listen to them. To bastardize a popular saying, if a politician tweets and no one is listening, have they really said anything?

--

References in this post:

Twitter is a social networking site that is simple and easy to use. Users share short 140 character status updates with people that are following them. Similarly you can sign up and read tweets from various interesting people and organizations like CNN etc. If you haven't tried it our I encourage you to sign up at www.twitter.com

Shashi Tharoor is an author and human rights activist. He's been part of the UN, was a candidate for Secy General and most recently has been elected to the Indian Parliament as Minister of State for External Affairs. You can follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/shashitharoor

Today is the day

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2009 AT 10:27AM

This day co-incides with a number of decisions I've taken. Call them mid-year resolutions, or just a desire for a second chance at New Years resolutions that I never made.  So in keeping with the theme of newness we've gone with a redesigned blog that incorporates all the old stuff, plus some new things like updated format for viewing pictures, a cleaner look and a seperate space for me to write stuff without clogging up everything else!

So stay tuned for more regular updates from me