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Riding the Rails of Progress: Exploring the Implications of India’s First HSR Corridor for Regional Development
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor, a groundbreaking infrastructure project in India, has sparked widespread interest and debate about its potential impact on regional development.
This blog post, informed by our academic research paper, aims to unpack the implications of this ambitious endeavor, exploring its potential to reshape the economic and spatial landscape of the region.
Transportation linkages (left) and District level population density (right) along Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail A Catalyst for Polycentric Growth
Traditionally, regional development models have often centered around a single dominant city, leading to an imbalance in economic opportunities and infrastructure development. However, the MAHSR corridor, with its high-capacity transportation network, has the potential to foster a more balanced and interconnected regional structure. The sources highlight the concept of a “polycentric megaregion” – a geographical area where multiple cities, each with its unique strengths, are interconnected through efficient transportation systems.
The MAHSR corridor could facilitate the emergence of such a megaregion, linking major economic centers like Mumbai and Ahmedabad and fostering the flow of people, goods, and ideas. This shift towards a polycentric model could lead to a more equitable distribution of economic benefits and reduced pressure on a single dominant city.
Hierarchy in the cities along the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail alignment Boosting Business Networks and Forging New Connections
The sources emphasize the pivotal role of business networks in driving regional development. The MAHSR corridor, by reducing travel times and enhancing connectivity, can act as a catalyst for strengthening existing business relationships and creating new ones. This increased interaction is particularly significant for sectors like finance, trading, and business services, which already exhibit a strong presence in cities along the corridor.
The research found that Mumbai, Surat, Vadodara, and Ahmedabad are already home to a significant concentration of firms in these sectors. The MAHSR’s improved connectivity is expected to accelerate the integration of these businesses, creating opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and increased economic activity.
City network formed among firms located in cities of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli From Sectoral Strengths to Functional Specialization
Beyond simply connecting cities, the MAHSR corridor could lead to the emergence of a functionally specialized region, with each city carving out a niche role based on its existing strengths. Mumbai, with its established financial institutions, corporate headquarters, and a high concentration of corporate secretary firms, is poised to serve as the primary hub of this network.
Ahmedabad, as a secondary hub, could witness a growth in branch offices and manufacturing facilities, complementing Mumbai’s role. Surat, with its expertise in textile manufacturing, and Vadodara, with its focus on chemical manufacturing, could further enhance their specialization in these areas. This functional specialization, facilitated by the efficient movement of people and goods, could create a more integrated and competitive regional economy.
Time-Space Compression: Reshaping the Region
The concept of “time-space convergence” is central to understanding the transformative potential of high-speed rail. By significantly reducing travel times, the MAHSR corridor could effectively “shrink” the distance between cities, fostering closer economic and social ties.
This compression of time and space can blur administrative boundaries, leading to a more integrated and cohesive region. The sources suggest that this could lead to a shift from a traditional hierarchical city system to a more interconnected network of specialized nodes, each playing a critical role in the overall functioning of the region.
On the left, Conventional understanding of a region based on the city-tier system. The figure illustrates an HSR line connecting a Tier I, Tier II, and a Tier III city. The figure at the center illustrates a sectorally specialized region, where, an HSR line connecting a Service-oriented hub city-region with a Manufacturing-oriented hub and other settlements with ancillary activities. The figure on the right illustrates, Networks connecting the sectorally specialized regions, where, the communication network formed by firms and manufacturing facilities located in the different regions connected by a HSR line. Mumbai: From National Hub to Global Gateway
Mumbai, as India’s financial capital, already holds a prominent position in the global economy. The MAHSR corridor, by improving accessibility to the region, has the potential to further elevate Mumbai’s status as a global gateway.
The sources point out that Mumbai already boasts a significant number of overseas branch offices, highlighting its global connections. The improved connectivity offered by the MAHSR could attract more foreign investment, facilitate international business interactions, and further integrate Mumbai into global business networks.
Navigating the Path: Addressing the Potential Challenges
While the sources predominantly focus on the positive implications of the MAHSR corridor, they also acknowledge the potential for uneven development and regional imbalances. It’s crucial to ensure that the benefits of the corridor are distributed equitably and that measures are taken to mitigate any negative impacts on less developed regions along the route.
Looking Ahead: A Transformative JourneyThe MAHSR corridor represents a significant investment in India’s infrastructure and holds immense potential to transform the region’s economic landscape. By fostering polycentric growth, strengthening business networks, facilitating functional specialization, and compressing time and space, the corridor could usher in an era of enhanced connectivity, increased economic activity, and greater regional integration.
However, realizing these benefits will require careful planning, equitable development strategies, and a commitment to addressing potential challenges. The journey towards a more interconnected and prosperous region, propelled by the speed of the MAHSR, is an exciting one, and its ultimate success will depend on a collaborative effort from policymakers, businesses, and communities along the corridor.
Lessons to self after thirty
Hey, I turned thirty-one, and I don’t know if I have experienced it all or not during this journey. However, I have learned a great deal and discovered a significant amount of abilities I never thought I had. In this blog, I wish to enlist thirty lessons in the so common, often laughed at — Thirty life lessons from thirty years format. But if you ask me, I look at this blog as a letter to my younger self – a letter full of lessons to self after thirty. If you think someone needs to read this, feel free to share it with them. Sharing is caring.
1. Thirty is not new Twenty!
When you are about twenty-five, you might observe a change in people’s perception of you, your actions, reactions, and decisions. Even if you don’t participate, your dinner table conversations will turn into adult conversations. At such homemade micro forums, if you are getting hurled at with phrases like – we didn’t expect this from you, why did you do that, how would you do it? And other similar ones, where the expected answers are absolutes… Please know it’s time to make a move. Often the simple moral here is not about obeying and containing the absolutes in life. It is about recognizing that absolutes exist. Being aware will save you a lot of time in your thirties. Your dinner table buddies are probably trying to point it out. Talk to them.
2. Your liking for yourself is enough to get through the day. You don’t need everyone to like you.
When people don’t like you, your work, style, food, culture, appearance, or presence, what happens? Nothing actually happens. Nothing changes for you or the world. We all have a tangible body and an imaginary body. Our mind loves to build scenarios in multiple dimensions, and this is the space where our imaginary bodies live. The imaginary body demands attention. It will keep distracting your tangible body from doing the real thing in the real world. But your tangible body needs real attention, and it needs nourishment. Never ignore your physical self. Remember yourself as a kid drawing stick figures? Who were the characters in your imaginary world? Think of them when you feel you are underappreciated in this world. Ignore the rest till you are back to rock your world.
3. Optimizing one area of life is maximization somewhere else.
Have you heard of the ‘butterfly effect’? It states that subtle changes in conditions can influence or cause seemingly unrelated results elsewhere. The flutter of a butterfly’s wings at place A can eventually develop into a hurricane at place B even though A and B are not related. It works in dealing with life, trust me! Do a little optimization today in whatever you want to achieve a year later. Small things add up.
4. Gaslighting! Some of you will soon encounter this. Be prepared!
Dear reader, if you haven’t discovered this by the time you are thirty. You may take some time to check and read an article or two about gaslighting. It is a fact, and it often happens at workplaces. Sometimes having your facts right adds big time to dealing with life and people. Be prepared!
5. Everyone has a problem. Talk about how you will take it as a challenge.
We are too many of us on this Mundo (Mundo => Earth (in Spanish). I like the word.). As I write this blog, the world population is ~7,864,000,000 and growing by the second. Let’s do some math for the entire planet. Earth’s total land surface area is about 148,428,950 square kilometers, of which about 33% is desert and about 24% is mountainous. Subtracting this uninhabitable 57% (84,604,502 square kilometers) from the total land area left is about 63,824,448 square kilometers. That’s about 15.77 billion acres of habitable land. Divide it by the current human population. You get 2.0 acres per person.
If we equally distributed all the habitable land on our Mundo among all humans present on the planet, 2.0 acres is the per capita share of land per person. Again, we have not included any amenities and infrastructure like highways, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, stadiums, agricultural fields, artificial islands, buildings, parks, etc. Also, we haven’t added accounted animals and the land they would need. Could you live on 2.0 acres without any service? I feel this is a challenge for our generation. A lot of us are already working on it. Why not join hands with them and save our home.
6. Make a choice that will help you live a happier life
Bad decisions are the birthplace of regrets of our lifetime. However, it is very difficult to ideate over — what is good, what is bad, and then make a choice to live with it. Take your time to choose; however, once you have made your choice in the unknown, try to be open to an experience. Openness, in common terms ‘being flexible’, offers opportunities, reveals discoveries, dilutes regrets, and sharpens your decision-making. My dad often asks us (me and my brother) on our long drives if we enjoy driving on expressways. Why are we disappointed when there are muddy roads? Enjoy the detours make them a part of the journey, he says.
7. Past condition ≠ Future conditions. Actions in the Present ≅ Future possibilities
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future. Concentrate the mind on the present moment — you will find this Great Buddha quote almost everywhere, from the internet to t-shirts. By the time you are thirty, you will know that the first law of motion (Law of inertia) doesn’t exist without actions. Take actions around the tasks you have been thinking of doing for some time. Do your thing and let the results find you shortly.
8. A relationship is => You + Me + Us.
Relationships are difficult. A relationship between two humans involves about seven entities — (1) you, (2) your partner, (3) your state of mind, (4) your partner’s state of mind, (5) your personal space, (6) your partner’s personal space and, (7) the relationship itself, this is where the ‘Us’ is. It is complex, and it gets messy. If you recall anyone saying don’t rush it, take your time; know that they probably want you to understand the dynamics of these seven entities. Take your time — don’t rush into it.
9. You will lose lots of friends and make a lot of new ones
As you grow older, you will realize that keeping friendships work like boolean logic. When younger, you may have many friends with all sorts of individual interests (OR-logic, All inclusive). Over time those close to you will have similar interests, and you say you have a lot in common (AND-logic, All exclusive). As you develop new interests, your friendship boolean evolves. The good part is booleans don’t implode. Life happens to each individual in different ways, and sharing those experiences keeps friendships alive. Those you lost often return as a new version of themselves – enriched with lots of experiences.
10. Sometimes relationships don’t work. It is not the end of the world. You can do all of it again.
All relationships are important – romantic, personal or, otherwise. However, sometimes things don’t work out, and it is alright. Know that when it didn’t work, often it would be misalignment in one of the seven entities that keep a relationship together. Fix your ‘Us’ than trying to fix another human being. One of the ways to fix ‘Us’ is setting precedents. Commonly known as setting boundaries in relationships, setting precedents is a sign of self-respect and allowing your partner to explore their self-respect. Remember openness? Be open about what you want and what is not acceptable. You will find what you are looking for.
11. Your job is not all that you are.
There is nothing wrong with hard work, as long as it doesn’t conflict with your health, relationships, and passion. If you are part of an organization, you are part of a system, and your job is to add value with your skills. You are not your job. You are more than that.
12. Leave pretending for the acting school. Pretending won’t make you perfect.
No one is perfect! Though, an attempt to perfecting something improves your ability to do that thing. With each consecutive practice, you’ll become better severalfold. Perfection is to be practiced, not to be pretended.
13. You will recover from pain if you choose not to suffer
‘I am okay’ is an easy mantra. ‘I am NOT okay’ paves a path forward. A path that takes you to the end of suffering. Staying hung up on something is fairly easy, especially in the early ‘independent’ phase of life, like your mid-late twenties. Know that not suffering is always an option. When you are not bleeding, but it hurts like hell, only you can fix it. Start with a declaration to yourself — I am NOT okay, and I’m going to fix it. And once you promise yourself that please respect yourself.
14. Practice writing. It’s a mirror for your mind.
Most of us are in a reactive mode all day. Our online life also asks for ‘reactions. When people write letters, they used to ‘respond’ and not react to a letter. A thoughtful response is what happens when you write. Writing is a stimulus to your mind. It mirrors your strengths and helps in nullifying weakness. Put that pen to paper.
15. Show your work, collect criticism. Revise and get better.
You write, paint, dance, draw, code, organize whatever it is that you are proud enough to call your work. Show it! Get comments! Reorganize, Revise, Re-present get better at it.
16. Understand hypocrisy. The sooner, the better.
Hypocrisy is a difficult subject. It’s terribly difficult to get through life without experiencing it here and there, shape, or form. Just by the nature of life, we learn and grow as we have new experiences. Perpetually, always failing to take the risk to take a stab at something new. Understanding hypocrisy sooner may help you navigate life while minimizing hypocrisy. Perhaps the only way to avoid it completely is to develop a system of beliefs that removes it from the equation- There are no universal truths, everything changes, and your values should be subject to constant scrutiny. Investigate before acting.
17. Riding the hype is dangerous
Hypes are like waves at the seashore. They soar high then dunk only to crash at the shore. Furthermore, a returning wave will sweep the sand under your feet if you are standing in the water. A hype does the same. It keeps dragging you until you are consumed in it. Take the example of sales, lotteries, instant relief, fast cash. All hyped schemes consume you in the end. Stay aware, Stay away.
18. Keep doing your work, and getting famous can happen on the way
Doing good work takes time. However, good work always receives recognition. Focus on good work recognitions and awards will follow. Show your work, and those who need you will get in touch with you. Sometimes it is ok to wait.
19. Feeling scared? Find the reason before pushing the panic button.
It’s okay to be sad, disappointed, lost. Even feeling scared is okay. Often we are scared in the face of uncertainty, times when we have no control over the outcome. When you are scared, ask yourself three things — What am I scared of? Why am I scared of it? And, How can I fix it to Un-scare myself? With this starter pack, you should be okay. Over time I have started doing this better. I sometimes go further to the extent of worst-case scenarios. However, I highly recommend not doing that.
20. Asking for help doesn’t kill you. Sometimes it saves you.
Asking for help can be challenging. Our perceived degree of expected response varies from person to person, and over time we know what to ask to whom. I know some people who have developed an internal ‘ask for help’ program for themselves, like ‘<Person name> is my go-to person if I need help with <task>.’ Communicate if you need help. Seeking help at the right time has saved lives.
21. Your sentimental items bear different values for different people
Our attachments to items that belong to long-lost dear ones are deep. These items are the source of memories of time well spent in the past. I lost my mother when I was 27. It was a difficult time, particularly to let go of her belongings. However, I realize that memories are within us, and there are several other ways to cherish memories than the preservation of belongings. For instance, I try to preserve her recipes and kitchen tricks by learning them and preparing food for myself and my people. Sometimes preserving skills brings happiness.
Another thing I recently discovered, someone you respect may not value your sentimental items the way you value them. It doesn’t mean you need to ‘react’ with disrespect. Perhaps a case where the item you are sentimental about bears lesser importance to the other person. Besides, at any point, if someone devalues your sentiments, the person will soon lose his importance in your life. All of us are programmed this way. Consciously or subconsciously, we end up snapping that irresponsible contact. Though, no matter what, avoid responding with disrespect.
22. Kindness will help find the meaning of your existence
Kindness releases the feel-good love hormone – Oxytocin. Some foundations are studying the science behind random acts of kindness and their effects on the human body and society. Some findings reveal that being kind is correlated to intelligence. Ancient texts and teachings offer readings that suggest leading a life with compassion leads to meaningfulness. Try doing an act of kindness. It gives a different kind of happy high. Besides, it may make someone happy as well.
23. Living beings have a finite lifespan. Parents are humans — remember that.
We are never told that one day you will lose your parent. Realizing and remembering that is important. Remember that they are as human as you are, and they have a finite lifespan.
24. Wealth might be a social indicator of status. But health is an indicator of abundance.
Being healthy is severely underrated. In the past few years, I have observed a drastic change in the way we consume. Expensive doesn’t always mean good for health, and cheap doesn’t mean bulk intake will make you healthier. There is a need to understand the fine line between status and abundance.
25. Jealousy will diminish you slowly, and it starts from within
Jealousy will broadcast your insecurities. Know that if you feel jealous, you are insecure about something. Often decisions taken under the influence of emotion like jealousy result in regret of a lifetime. Envy, jealousy, and bitterness often are the collective root cause of broken relations and eventually regrets. They are ugly emotions, and if you let them dwell on you, they will turn you unpleasant.
26. Patience
If you have read this blog till here, you have enough patience. You may skip this point. If you haven’t, go to the top and come back here. I am kidding. You may skip as well, but we will call you impatient. Also, I won’t tell you who is ‘we’ in the previous sentence.
27. Change takes time
By now, about thirty, you would’ve realized how important managing time is. However, refrain from managing change. Change is not a quick-fix drug that could be administered. Change takes time. Instead, you may choose to manage your energy allocation to particular tasks you value.
28. In a lifetime, you will live two lives. The second begins when you realize you only have one life
This one is a rewritten quote ‘We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.’ — attributed to Confucius. Everyone understands philosophers differently. For me, I believe it is spot-on about setting priorities. This hard-hitting quote has had an intense impact on the way I think, act, and choose. I guess some realizations are only brought by time.
29. Lists don’t solve problems. They only aid in initiating a process
Isn’t it ironic that I make a list of experiences and include this point? I realize the irony. The point is, do you? I feel lists are good to initiate a process like a grocery list would only aid the memory to remember all the ingredients, but it won’t help you prepare your favorite recipe. Too many of us read lists like this one, match it with our internal checklists, feel good for a minute or two, then move along in life unchanged, unmoved and, indifferent. The only way you will grow is to get out there, experiment, and put things into practice. Once you are done celebrating your list, start preparing your recipes.
30. It is okay if you haven’t figured it out yet
I don’t want to proclaim any of my opinions above to encourage you and put them into practice to lead your life. In several instances, you may agree or disagree. What worked for me may not work for you and vice-versa. It takes time to figure things out. I haven’t figured it out yet. I am just taking that time. Ultimately, all your deeds will accumulate and make a collection of memories close to you. You will call it my life.
If you have read till here. I applaud your patience and understand your zeal for making your existence meaningful. I don’t expect your approval to agree with what I have organized in this blog. These were just my lessons to myself after thirty. More importantly, I hope you do something with it, for yourself or someone. Take care of yourself and others.
Best,
Shreyas
A guide for career after PhD
A PhD Is Not Enough—A Guide to Survival In Science
By Peter J. Feibelman
Wouldn’t it be nice if all the PhDs got a career guidebook on the day of graduation? A book that outlines career after PhD.
I read an earlier version of the book – A PhD Is Not Enough—A Guide to Survival In Science and it felt a bit dated for 2021. However, it still has some solid advice. Particularly for those who want to pursue a career in science and are wondering about what a career after PhD is like? The text and ideas are written for a target group of PhD students in science and scientific environments (labs, test facilities, etc.). I belong to urban and regional studies, and I have a PhD in urban engineering. We do not work in scientific environments. Therefore, several sections did not apply directly to my context. However, I felt that perhaps I should have read this book way before I read it (1 Year after my PhD graduation).
Thoughts about the book
To summarize my thoughts about this book, I would say that this book is an excellent mentor from the point of view of a supervisor. The book, in several steps, argues the idea of how having a PhD is still not enough, particularly if someone wants to lead a career in academia. The book is around 110 pages short, cover to cover. Its arguments, wisdom, and bits of advice are distributed over in 8 chapters. The author draws a straightforward, no-nonsense path to finding yourself in academia. The author, Peter J. Fiebelman, is a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories. He received the Davisson Germer Prize of the American Physical Society for his outstanding research contributions in surface science. His research interest includes surface diffusion and electromagnetic fields.
The author does not talk about what it takes to do a Ph.D. or how is it like? On the contrary, the book starts at a point where it assumes that readers are PhD holders. Fresh graduates, ready for a career after PhD. I cannot isolate and outline one idea from the book because the whole book, through each of its chapters, gives an outline. Each section of each chapter is an easy read stepstone guide to visualize your career path into academia. Another motivation the author thoroughly maintains through the book is finer detail that may maximize the readers’ chances of continuing employment within academia and push their scientific achievements ambitions.
At the very core of the book is the focus on strategic thinking that every PhD candidate aspirant and graduate should have and nurture through a PhD and soon after receiving the degree. The career path in academia is hard and competitive. Therefore, as the cover states, this pocket mentor is definitely a constructive release and a mirror for the reader to explore what’s there to look into career shortly after PhD graduation. If you are doing a PhD in Sciences, I recommend you to take a look at it.
You may check the latest editions here:
A Ph.D. Is Not Enough—A Guide to Survival In Science
Title A PhD Is Not Enough!: A Guide to Survival in Science Author Peter J. Feibelman Publisher Hachette UK, 2011 ISBN 0465025331, 9780465025336 Length 176 pages Failures are inevitable
A failure can crop up at any stage of a process. In long processes like life, failures are inevitable. A setback of losing something or someone, failing to protect someone, or keeping a promise, realizing that you are not going to make it for a specific task. In all such events, we often tend to overthink, let the twisted spiral of complex emotions like shame and guilt take over while our logic takes a back seat, and, thus, get a taste of failure.
In any case of failure, there follows a whirlwind of emotions. Emotions make us react – take unnecessary decisions and end up making more mistakes. A series of failures often paves the path to a detrimental – negative state of mind. Usually, no good outcomes arise from such a negative state of being. Soon later, we get to see social seclusion, blame games, and addictions. That is a damage – Damage to the mind, body, and the people, you are connect to. No one loves damage. However, it is the human mind that tries to keep us safe in a situation where the potential outcome is negative. Moreover, to keep us safe and moving, at times, our safety loving mind does things that are not even required. A scared mind is always seeking for safety and is always in search of the shortcut route to haven.
There are several routes to reach a haven. However, in shortcuts, there often dwell regrets. In such times there is an opportunity to let logic work and set yourself into a positive frame of mind. All we need to do is step back and analyze the failure. Allow ourselves to take time, and then our mind offers us a glimpse of all the unreasonable decisions we took and where we further catapulted ourselves into a negative state of mind. Knowing the things that you ‘had no control over’ and acknowledging that things were not in your control is essential. However, do not investigate them as and when you find them.
Heard of the quote- ‘if you want to know the city, walk it’? Likewise, if you want to know where you went wrong, you need to walk the path, know the things at fault, acknowledge, and work on them. These are building blocks where you learn about yourself, where you start your walk towards a positive state of being and then comes the plinth from where you move. I do not want to say move on. I mean to say MOVE FORWARD. And remember, no one is stopping you from making a list.
This blogpost is about failures and moving forward with it. Through three microblogs below, I wish to share a few aspects, some realizations that came overtime and learnings I got having the difficult conversations with my guides, friends, and family.
From hindrance in moving forward to becoming the Samurai of your right IN Failure
Let us talk about hindrances. Our preconceived restrictions are often the mammoth hindrances in moving forward. These start with a simple ‘what if?’ in mind and grow on to become all the ‘I just can’t.’ Here, let us go back a little. In most situations of failures, the most common feelings are disappointment and embarrassment. However, we often tend to produce more than one emotion, such as the feeling of being a victim of circumstances, guilt, anger, and self-doubt.
There was an instance when I came across all of this at once. Once on a summer afternoon, I was driving home from another city in India. About 150 km away from my destination, a couple on a bike overtook me from the wrong side and went ahead. I could see the lady on the pillion seat with a bag on her shoulder. She held her husband, who was driving the bike at the same time she was also holding a baby on the other hand. All this while sitting sideways, as was wearing a traditional Indian saree, and the baby was partly resting on her lap. For a long stretch, there were no oncoming vehicles.
Soon as there were oncoming vehicles. The biker started doing stunts raising his hands, relieving the handlebars, gesticulated unpleasant gestures at the oncoming cars, and worst, driving on the wrong side of the road. The scene worried my family and me. We prayed for their safety, watching him playing crash dodge with oncoming traffic while riding along with family. Soon later, he went off-road, lost control, and all family and their belongings were scattered on the road a few yards away from our car. We stopped the car, grabbed the first aid kit, got off to help them, and a few others from both sides of the traffic joined to take care of the family. Luckily, no one got hurt.
Shocked by the sudden accident, the lady was dumbstruck, worried she held her baby close to her, while her husband dusted himself up and started blaming her for spoiling his amazing life where he used to be a rider. He kept yelling at his wife while all the onlookers tried to make him understand his irresponsible act and calm him down. The whole place was about to become a spot of road rage as frustrated onlookers were waiting for someone to land the first blow on him. All this while the man kept yelling suddenly, he received a flying shoe. We looked back to see where it came from, and to our surprise, it was his wife, who hurled it. There was pin-drop silence. With just one shoe on, she limped to her husband and asked him to start the bike and take them home.
When I thought about it later, the whole scene was a classic place to observe how emotions flow in different individuals as we notice the one same failure. Here, the accident was a failure, something that was not supposed to happen. Failure of not being able to take care of a baby and family. Failure of not being able to drive responsibly and failure to provide safety. The frustrated onlookers were waiting for the first blow to land, noticing the disappointment, all were angry.
My family was anxious about the safety and wellbeing of the couple and the baby. The husband appeared disappointed, blamed his wife for the accident, and went on playing a victim card. However, his wife demonstrated the broadest range of emotional expression I had seen until my age then. From being shocked to feeling embarrassed about the whole situation, she started apologizing for the husband’s mistake while crying, to hurling a shoe at her husband in anger. It was complicated. Whenever I remember this incident, I really wonder what the baby was thinking.
After a few readings and several years, what I realized is that the lady must have realized that she had no control over the bike and still was receiving all the blame for a near-death experience. Perhaps, she also recalled past events where her husband did blame her for his mistakes. The concerns of the onlookers as they yelled at the husband must have resonated with her. Assimilating the echoes of the crowd, she decided to hurl a shoe of discontent at him. What had happened was, SHE GOT CLOSURE.
Living with self-doubt is exhausting. Questioning yourself about the things you do not have any experience or knowledge about is an endless non-fulfilling exercise. The prolonged practice of exercises often results in confusion and loss of faith in oneself. Become one with yourself is a result of when the mourning of an unpleasant event ends; this is what is known as closure.
The Cambridge dictionary describes closure as the feeling or act of bringing an unpleasant situation, time, or experience to an end so that you can start new activities. Closure and the time it takes to be yourself again varies for each one of us. Thus, this variation in achieving closure is one of the factors why a few people die soon after their partner or best friend dies, and a few others get back to routine life in a few days. What differs in both is not only the capacity to bear the pain but the ability to end the suffering from the unpleasant experience and reach closure.
The path to success starts with a semi-ideal mental match.
Whenever we are attracted to someone or feel that a particular person will help us solve the burning problems in life, we often end up doing either of the two things. 1. Talk more to them to get to know them. 2. Chicken the hell out into a cave full of shyness and embarrassment. With the first one, you get an opportunity to know the person you are trying to know about. With the second, you just get to enjoy your cave, called yourself clumsy, and self-loathe in the process.
Questions are a friendly conversation starter. Start with a question, and if you talk more, you overcome the overwhelming feeling of running into your safe cave of shyness. However, in a conversation between two people, there are four individuals involved, you, and your mind & they, and their mind. These individual minds are what Seth Godin calls the ‘Lizard brain’ – the part of the brain which makes you wonder and initiates the thought process of ‘whether your questions are good or bad?’, ‘does he/she likes my questions?’ and all possible murphy’s law illustrations.
Please allow me to tell you- good and bad can be easily perceived as two sides of the same coin, and the coin is whatever ‘question’ you have. Never label a question as a good question or bad. What makes us think that ‘my question’ will be perceived as good or bad is the frequency of the person to whom you ask the question. Also, the question usually gets labeled ‘good’ or ‘bad’ only once you ask it to a person, a forum, or a system.
Now comes the exciting part; the person who DOES NOT wish to help you with your challenges is something that you have no control over. These are not bad people. Let us assume they are unaware of the global need for ‘giving things away’ to make informed future generations. In other instances, if the person you expect your answers from often tends to discard your questions, moreover makes make you feel like ‘you asked a bad question’ or plain and simple, make you feel stupid. Let me assure you, the question was never bad, neither you are stupid. Your questions were just not addressed to a suitable person.
Yes, it is that simple.
In most cases, the person you chose to answer your questions may not have an appropriate answer. However, this allows you to find a more suitable person next time what I prefer to call as a semi-ideal mental match (SIMM). These are the people who have walked the path you want to walk. They have lived or are living the life you aspire for yourself. If you have seen the movie Whiplash, you know what I am talking about. Your semi-ideal mental match will help you clear the clouds of doubt and nudge you to your success in the future.
Failures Are inevitable. so fail forward and take charge of yourself.
In the book Failing Forward, John C. Maxwell tries to help its readers on how to confidently look at the prospect of failure in the eye and move forward. I feel as a leadership coach and New York Times bestseller author Maxwell tried bringing together the following recipe for failing forward: Failure is inevitable, so embrace it; Failures lead to success; Learn from your failures, and; Set goals that will encourage you to take action, in this process, fail more and proceed again.
Let me try and put this in a different form. The process Maxwell has put together, if nothing, is a secret sauce of making a resilient individual. Casually, we often call these people’ strong women’ and ‘strong men’. These are the individuals that have accepted failure a part of the process, may it be learning, earning, or giving. Resilient individuals are easily the most inspiring individuals in the room. These are individuals that have the command to remain calm and steady in the face of tremendous losses. So how do they do it?
Resilient individuals take control of their situation. In the wake of a failure, firstly, they take control of their physical state. Meaning? They have mastered what their responses and reflexes are and have control over them. Secondly, they know and understand their psychological state. They rarely snap at people and seldom blame anyone for their loss. Even if they do, that immediately becomes something to be noted and rectified as a behavior. Thirdly, they manage their network well. Most importantly, they know where to invest their emotions, time, and effort.
The process of becoming a resilient individual is serendipitous. If you seek something of significant meaning to you, it will happen to you too. If you are chasing a goal, the process comes to you in time. However, you will need to embrace failure, repeatedly till you get used to it. As Maxwell puts it, ‘Because in life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how are you going to deal with them? Stop failing backward and start failing forward!’
Image credits: <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/vectors/people”>People vector created by upklyak – www.freepik.com</a>
What is it like doing a Ph.D.?
It has been almost a year since I finished my Ph.D. degree. Nearly the same time, I have been receiving requests from acquaintances to convince them of the worth of getting a Ph.D. So, I thought of putting together this note for Ph.D. aspirants. Before, I give away all the wisdom in this long post, here is a disclaimer:
- I am NOT trying to convince you or trying to sell you the idea of getting into a Ph.D. course. This writeup is just collective wisdom, which I feel is not available in public.
- I am not the Devil’s advocate. I am just writing this as an aid for some fellow futures of their countries and reduce the confusion.
- PLEASE understand, our perceptions in life are a function of our past experiences. For instance, if you had an unfortunate experience at an expensive restaurant and shared it with a friend that hasn’t been to one. I’m sure the conversation will soon transcend into ‘…are you mad, why did you pay $200 for a bowl of soup, in the first place?’ This writeup is just my perception from my Ph.D. experience. I share here the wisdom I distilled from it.
- If you would like to debate what your XX told your YY about ZZ degree at ABC university, please go to my Instagram and like my pictures, instead! Hey, I’m kidding that would be creepy, DON’T DO IT!.
- If you feel this post helped you, don’t be greedy! Please share it with someone who needs to see this.
This writeup has three parts that would answer the questions posed to me since graduation in early September 2019. In chronology, the questions I try to answer are as follows:
- What is it like doing a Ph.D.?
- Whether I should do a Ph.D.?
- Is a Ph.D. degree worth the time and effort?
I promise to give out the ideas as straight as possible without any glorification. Still, I will use some analogies that the reader, YOU, might have experienced, felt, or seen. So, let’s start with the first question:
What is it like doing a Ph.D.?
Let me first explain wherein the system of our planet lies the Doctorate – it lies somewhere in the middle. Middle of what, you say. Middle of two communities, one significantly larger in quantity the other significantly smaller and both are growing. Now that you have already figured that the smaller group is of Ph.D. holders, you also know that the act of getting labeled a Ph.D. happens in the middle. And the middle part is all together, a whole new world.
Now let’s talk about this new middle world to detail the answer to the first question. The new middle world works analogously to the functioning of Venturi. The two tapered ends have similar pressure conditions while there is a forced surge in the constricted space in the middle. Likewise, being in a Ph.D. course is like being in that conduit, where the velocity of the fluid is high, and the pressure is low compared to the entry and exit ends. Therefore, a Ph.D. is a process. However, here, the velocity signifies the pace at which your life moves, and the pressure is, of attachments with relationships and subjects. Both components though intangible yet, are a function of TIME. But if a Ph.D. is a process? What can it tell you about the ‘pace of life’?
Venturi Effect (Source: https://www.engineeringfact.com/venturi-effect-explained/) Think of the high velocity in the venturi conduit and let me give you a list of the components you will experience in the conduit of a Ph.D. process. You will-
- Learn and experience fascinating new things about the world, the people around you, and yourself!
- Learn to answer your questions at the same time, find the right people who can explain the tough questions.
- Know that you always have a more extensive knowledge carrying capacity than you believed you have.
- Make new connections between isolated knowledge to produce new knowledge, mostly for yourself and a few times for several others.
- Develop your path. Your life will move at the pace you plan to act and move!
Now let’s talk about ‘pressure.’ The pressure in a Ph.D. course reflects an individual’s capacity to CONTAIN & COMMAND his/her internal strength, desires, and urges. It is a system where external pressure is often negligible and does little to no change for the outcomes. Let me list these out for you, and this list will also compliment the five points I made earlier:
- While in a Ph.D. course you will learn about ‘Plan of Action’ and by the end, it will be a big take away! However, most of this will depend on how you understand your reaction time. Remember that ‘faster is not always better.’
- We all have heard the phrase ‘going inwards,’ trying to answer your questions without seeking external aid is one of the first steps of ‘going inwards’. Solving your problems is not always easy. Therefore, acknowledgment of the ones that can’t be solved independently is essential. This helps you find the right people and foster new relationships.
- Your knowledge is a function of your network collective, meaning, your knowledge and experience will limit itself to the network and relationships you will have. The more you network in your area of work, the more knowledge you will create and exchange. However, networking has its pressures and stress, and specifically, introverts lose a lot in the race of network. Yes, I’m calling it a competition! Let me explain this in the next point.
- When you network, you will realize that several networks and societies that work in isolation and your networking with them will bring good knowledge for you and them. However, networking is a race because we all are not trained to respond and act in the same way! (That is one big reason why interviews are part of standard intake procedure in offices, schools, and almost everywhere we work, and it is bound to stay so for a long time to come!). Networking works like multiple micro-interviews, and we find people whom we want to work with. But here is a catch, you don’t need to run the race you are not trained for. You need to find what you are good at and keep pushing yourself to the limits of it. For instance, if you know, you are good at writing and not good at making a first impression talking, this will make you sure that won’t break the ice for your meeting with a person whom you like, a prospective Ph.D. supervisor, or a company representative? Write a ‘first email’ to break the ice, share what you know, and ask what more you would like to know (Caution: Don’t send everything you want to do in your life in your first email, start slow and climb up the ladder.)
- Steps do not govern success but an ‘Original Recipe’ – your recipe. Your’ plan of action’ will have all the points I tried to explain above. It is your responsibility to make your recipe work. Therefore, your life will always move at the pace you plan to act and move forward with it.
The lists above are not exhaustive but a write up of experiences. So here we end with the answer to question one. People in an advanced stage of life would have more things to add to the lists, and I request you please to do so! You may drop your ideas in the comments or try and write the ‘first email’ to me.
The first question was a long explanation, but I did it intentionally so that it helps you understand the description in the next two questions. Let’s go to the second question-
Whether I should do a Ph.D.?
Well, short answer- No one knows, only you can answer this question, and you must avoid asking this question to anyone! Well, asking it is not prohibited completely, but still, ask yourself first!
Let’s do a long answer now, we often ask, ‘do you think I should….’ type questions to people whom you feel know you to your core, and these set of people change as you age. Until early adulthood, these people are your parents, soon after it is your friends. When you reach a certain age and start to network, you will ask such questions to a lot of people you think you can align your thoughts with. However, somewhere in the process, you will find your guiding light – A mentor!
A mentor could be anyone from a mountain goat to a book. However, in most cases, a mentor is a human embodiment of ‘frugal innovation’ in Hindi, a Jugaad. A mentor is beyond strategic thought for your ‘plan of action’ in a Ph.D. course and your life. They learn from you to make you better. Sometimes they are younger than you when they find you, or you find them. But be assured that they will drop breadcrumbs for you in the vast unknown, and don’t worry, if you have the right mentor, they will know where to drop the breadcrumbs because they know where you will look for them. A mentor will ask you a lot of questions not to bother you, but to know you better, mentors are team players, and they love to remain so.
Basically, mentors are excellent listeners. They ask you questions to understand you better. When you answer the questions, they know the limits of your knowledge. It is here where mentors get to know how they can help you to go beyond your goals in life. Talk to them to know yourself better.
So, what do you need to ask yourself before you can answer a prospective mentor’s questions? Before you ask anyone – ‘Whether I should do a Ph.D.?’. You need to ask yourself this – ‘Why do I want to do a Ph.D.?’. My unbiased advice would be, do not make a move until you have at least a sketchy answer to the question, it a simple ‘Start with WHY?’.
Once you have an answer to your ‘WHY?’, go out finding a mentor, talk to people, professors, prospective advisors about your ideas and things you want to do as a Ph.D. Candidate. Mind you, in this process, some of you will find people who can recommend you for your lifetime. All you need to ask yourself is ‘Why?’ and it will give you a direction of where to go next. All of this seems harsh, and it is, but it is one of the most critical steps to slingshot yourself into the Ph.D. process.
By the way, you can reach out to me if you need help here. I’ll be glad to help you ask the ‘why’. However, you need to develop your answer.
If there is the sun, sometimes there are eclipses too. If we talk too much of positives, where will the negatives go? They accumulate! Same as the fashion industry, a person may love to keep up with the latest fashion trend for their next talk as an environmentalist. Somehow, I’m sure they will have no idea what an effluent treatment plant does in a fashion factory.
Further, how the fashion industry is the most attractive yet responsible for one of the most severe types of pollution in our plant, you may have figured that I am now moving to the dark side of a Ph.D. process. But don’t worry, it is still an integral part. The dark side pretty much is an undiscussed, undebated area in research and academia. In the process of the Ph.D., as you evolve as a researcher, you will shed a lot of attachments.
Along with your sweat and tears, you will shed friendships, relationships, routines, habits, and people. In fact, lots of the last ones, people. But you will meet a lot of people, get into new routines and habits while adding more to your Facebook. Most of all, you will discover yourself and your inner circle of people.
On a phone call with one of my good friends, we discussed our experiences as Ph.D. candidates in different parts of the world. We also discussed how demanding it is and, of course, rant about it. However, over the long call, we concluded that ‘whether you can do a Ph.D. or not’ is a subject of three qualities you develop along the way:
- Willingness to sustain through the process (remember the venturi conduit analogy),
- Ability to push and ask yourself ‘why’(and find your mentor),
- Capacity to bear the losses, along an unknown path (and find yourself).
Relationship between willingness, ability, and capacity. These three qualities are interdependent and collectively support you in finding the answer to your question – ‘Why I want to do ABC in my life?’. In this case, ‘Why I want to do a Ph.D.?’ This brings me to the last question:
Is a Ph.D. degree worth the time and effort?
The answer to this question will always remain subjective and a function of how you weigh your efforts. If you weigh your efforts in terms of a higher salary or more perks, that is one way. If you consider a more extensive network and more knowledge at your disposal as gain brought together over time, that is another way, indeed. However, there is no one answer to this question. Several aspirants and their guardians ask me this question. And to my surprise, in most cases, this was the first question I got asked, even from total strangers when we met for the first time. Getting interviewed by an aspirant or their guardian is an exciting experience.
Listening to several, I have observed that the general perception about a Ph.D. is it serves as a golden pass to enter academia, become a professor. Then it is done, no further use. Little to nothing is known about the benefits and career options a Ph.D. graduate can look in to. Several of them are only open for candidates that have a Ph.D. However, almost all options are sensitive to the context your research is in and issues your Ph.D. work tries to solve. To give you a glimpse, I have tried to list a few options below:
- Independent Consulting: This, you may start right away. However, it is aligned according to the scale of your network. In this case, you will be advising firms and organizations that are working on the issue you are studying.
- Think-Tank Researcher: Researcher in an applied research organization. Usually, these organizations work on grassroots issues. Therefore, they are context-sensitive. For this to work in your favor, your Ph.D. should be directly related to what the organization deals with.
- International Organizations like World Bank, ADB, OECD, and others hire a lot of Ph.D. graduates. This is one big reason why their reports look stellar and are pinpointed on one or a few issues.
- The novelty of the research is of paramount importance in a Ph.D. Therefore, as a Ph.D. graduate, you get to know a lot about an issue, which a few have tried to solve, and only you have the solution. This may give you a significant opportunity to enter the world of start-ups.
- Scientific writing. Write papers, articles, start blogs, write your own books on the topic of your choice.
Is there a Proven path?
Above, I have tried to put together a map in words. Still, it won’t change the universal truth that ‘Ph.D. is a degree that trains you to solve complex problems,’ both in your career and life. Looking at it, this way makes it sound worth the time and effort. However, all of this will remains subjective to your willingness, ability, and capacity, until you devise your way and would put it to use. Any which ways, your zeal will develop along with your interest in solving difficult problems.
Also, please know that a Ph.D. degree is only partly about the institute! It is more about your relationship with your research, yourself, and your supervisor. A good institute will always provide your better outlook on your research but it doesn’t mean you will always get the best mentors there. There are several things that I haven’t talked about and this post is a generalist explanation for understanding the challenge of a Ph.D. While you are in the venturi conduit of a Ph.D. process, your life will be fast and slow at the same time. At the end of it, the experience will depend on how much you can carry, contain, and give away at the other end.
Send your questions here:
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
Why is coronavirus causing a recession?
An economy enters recession after two consecutive quarters (six months in a financial year) of negative GDP growth. However, the data for the first quarter will be out at the end of April and the second quarter in early July. In the absence of data, usually, one of the first places that signal a recession is the job market. How is coronavirus causing a recession? In recent weeks, oil prices plummeted to new depths. Moreover, global service industries such as hotels, airlines, the retail and commercial sector had to lay-off employees. As the businesses have stopped, and revenues are almost zero.
The COVID-19 pandemic has planted an unprecedented case in the history of global economics. The pandemic has left us with no resort but a panacea where – ‘to save the economy, the country needs to lock itself down first!’ A significant point is the majority of a country’s economy depends on consumer spending. For instance, consumer spending amounts to almost 2/3rd of the entire US economy. Moreover, we are not only shutting down factories, but we are also asking the ‘consumers’ to stay at home. In the state of a lockdown, a consumer is not spending on real estate property, consumer goods, and automobiles. But is spending the most on ‘what is essential’. However, only if the essential products and commodities are available.
Forecasting?
In any case, forecasting the length and impacts of a recession is extremely difficult. However, when lockdown ends, the course of the economy will depend on how soon the unemployed find jobs. Also, whether the financial aid and relief that governments provide will be enough for a speedy recovery. The bigger question is how quickly the consumers go back to spending and continue their ‘normal’ activities after the virus is contained.
So this is how coronavirus is causing a recession.
What is causing the cities’ economies to flicker?
Countries are trying to ‘flatten the curve’ by locking down and enforcing social distancing, but everything has consequences. The irony of the situation is such that- The more aggressively we mitigate the spread of the virus to save lives, the deeper the recession will be.
All economies work on the principle of ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ of goods and services. Preventive measures have emerged shocked, thereby disrupting both aspects of the principle. First, with factories and businesses shut, staff are working from home. A more critical area is borders around town, cities, and neighborhood levels are sealed, thus creating a supply shock. This, in turn, has triggered a demand shock, as industries stopped producing goods, they wouldn’t need raw materials. And businesses don’t need additional staff. As borders are sealed, so even if people could procure goods, it is a challenge to receive or distribute them. And there goes a full stop to economic transactions => NO TAXES ARE COLLECTED!. No tax collection also adds to the slowdown.
A lockdown has severe implications on the economy. One of the first countries to enforce a lockdown was China, where the virus originated in late 2019. In today’s global economy, China serves the world as a manufacturing base and, over time, has emerged as – ‘the factory to the world‘. Locking down the manufacturing base of the world has created a serious shock to the global economy. Manufacturing for the world requires procurement of several raw materials and services from the world over, and to reap economic benefits, it is important to ship the finished products too. However, international borders and ports shut with the lockdown, create a shockwave paralyzing global trade of goods and services. Thus, creating a GLOBAL RECESSION.
What is happening in India?
Cases in India are surging. India emerged out of a month-long lockdown on 3rd May and later intermittently locked down several severely hit states. However, locking down 130 billion people for over a month, where over 120 million are migrant workers who earn daily wages, means severe impacts on the country’s economy. Several of the migrant workers have lost their jobs. Such a surge in unemployment rates is alarming indicators of a recession. In the past few weeks, several unemployed migrants and daily wage workers were spotted walking to their hometowns, located hundreds of kilometers away from their former workplace. Such mass migration may accelerate the spread of the disease and is a potential threat to the lives of several.
Understanding the gravity is key
So we saw how is coronavirus causing a recession? But what do we need to bind ourselves with? The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how humanity functions as a collective ecology. We need to realize how connected we are. But as the human costs of the pandemic continue to mount, stakeholder actions are critical than ever. Policymakers and economists say that governments should focus on providing relief to workers. Also, plan financial aid to companies so that the economy can bounce back.
We need to understand, we really cannot compare the current situation with other recessions in history. The worst of all acts would be to compare efforts. Comparing which country did better and who provided the most massive relief package is not going to solve problems. We need to respect all forms of occupation as the present situation is hitting all of humanity. In this fast mutating situation, being humble is a key asset.
The whole point that remains – we must survive this together and come out healthy on the other side!
An earlier version of this article was published on my LinkedIn.
How to solve difficult problems?
When a problem becomes too difficult, we tend to lose interest. So, how do we solve difficult problems? It seems as if the level of ‘difficulty of a problem’ is inversely proportional to the ‘level of interest’. The more significant a problem seems to be, the lower is our interest to resolve it.
How to solve difficult problems? and how do we do it?
Difficult problems tend to drive us into confusion, and of course, you know what they do to our levels of enthusiasm. In reality, it is a world view challenge. In a conversation, we tend to aggregate several perspectives and come up with a set of statements or a question. Aggregation of perspectives gives us an ‘idea’ to solve a problem, and the flow of ideas keeps making our ‘world view’ complex.
All of us have perspectives that result in our very own world view.
A problem is an interconnected and interdependent network of statements. Within this set of statements, we usually know a few things about some statements and have no clue about others. Internally, within our mind, it appears like a battle between the ‘known’ and the ‘unknown’. More the number of ‘known’, the easier the problem is. Too many ‘unknowns’ increase the level of difficulty of the problem, and we lose interest.
And thus, it begins a complex conflict – a Crisis!
Governments, Researchers, and Academicians, within their discipline and domain, try to solve problems by setting up a narrow frame of a world view. The frame would be at the scale of a city, an area, a town, a community, a particular identified group with an issue, or a crisis. However, such a world view can only resolve a few unknowns at a time. Thus, problems cannot be understood within such a fragmented approach.
Where are we with solving problems?
As an experiment, I compared the frequency of use of the word ‘Problem’ and other closely related words used in books during the 20th century (1900-2000). The associated words were – Complexity, Complication, Challenge, Issue, Difficulty, Hurdle, Obstacle, Worry, Trouble, and Crisis. Some of these words, I have already used in the above paragraphs, so you how closely they are related. The experiment was run using Google Books Ngram Search Engine, and the choice of language was restricted to English.
How did we solve problems in the last decade?
It turns out, we love to talk about problems and crises in our books. We love to state issues and frame challenges. But we seldom talk about worries, obstacles, hurdles, and complications. These words are rarely mentioned in books during the 20th century. The interesting finding is, we are somewhat shy to talk about our troubles and difficulties. Both words describe situations and have been mentioned steadily almost throughout the century. However, their frequency remains low compared to other related words with similar meanings.
The critical lesson from the graph is while prominent words like problem, crisis, and issue, seem to near the peak of a bell-curve, the use of the words like Complexity and Difficulty is on the rise. Within the last three decades, the use of – Difficulty and Complexity has almost equaled, and the slope of the word Challenge has changed drastically. During the same period, the use of words like Problem, Crisis, and Issue is flattening. The overall trend has changed, perhaps due to the technological development in publishing. Does this mean good? Let’s just say- Globally, the Difficulty of Complexity is probably being taken up as a Challenge. Remember the complex conflict that creates a crisis? The medium for explaining the crisis mentioned earlier is called Complexity.
Conclusions?
Problems are complex, and Complexity is a difficult challenge to resolve. To resolve a complex problem, we first need to list individual issues involved. Each of these issues acts as a node in our complexity network. And each node (issue) is usually related to another. Resolving Complexity requires a collaborative approach, where each node of the complex interconnected network resolved individually at first. Then, each node in the network must be understood for its interdependencies. Once we challenge ourselves to draw the structure of our problem in terms of Complexity, the problem is nothing but a set of statements.
So how to solve difficult problems? Next time you have a big problem, try to break it into small statements and challenge yourself.
Further readings:
- Capra, Fritjof (1982). The Turning Point Science, Society, and the Rising Culture /Fritjof Capra. –. —. Simon and Schuster, C1982.
- Capra, Fritjof (2015). The Systems View of Life A Unifying Conception of Mind, Matter, and Life. Cosmos and History 11 (2):242-249.
Right-sizing is why I started this blog
Hi, I am Shreyas, and this is my first post. Have you heard of ‘right-sizing’? Exploring the idea of ‘Information Right-sizing’ is why I started this blog.
Usually, when organizations cut down the workforce to adapt to the current economic scenario. ‘Right-sizing’ is this process of cutting down the workforce or letting go. So what does right-sizing have to do with this blog? Let me explain.
We bought our first PC in the year 2000. By the time I was 15, I already had a profile on Orkut.com. In the meantime, I was a regular user of AOL.com, Yahoo messenger, MSN.com, Hotmail.com, and other feature websites. Those days, ASL meant bio, what’s up had nothing to do with the mobile application, and Internet Explorer was the fastest web browser. It has been fun to observe how technology has evolved and has been revolving around data. Mine and Yours.
In the past 15 years, data has become the center of all evolution. From the text recognition to the turmoils of an infodemic, data has brought both useful and harmful. During these years, I have actively expanded my social footprint, just enough to wake up in a pool of notifications every morning. Not very proud of it, but alas its life, eh? Thus, I feel right-sizing is a good way to organize the information and right-sizing is why I started this blog.
Today, on my 30th, I gifted myself with this website. The idea is to streamline my thoughts and summarize the learnings and experiences I’ve collected over the time and will collect in future. Perhaps there are parallel experiences with some strangers and this may serve to connect with them. Sort of a open-letter in the bottle experience in the digital age.
Anyway, I sincerly hope that this blog will serve as portal for me to share with those willing to serve the society though their learning and experiences. As an experiment in self-exploration, let us see for how long this goes as we reach the mid of the year 2020. Somehow, this year feels like the year of right-sizing. Letting go of what is not essential.
I hope you are keeping well and safe. Take care.
Best,
Shreyas Bharule
