Consuming sugar feels so good. Going by research papers, sugar causes so many disease. At the same time, it is very addictive.
Going by all the problem sugar comes with, sometimes I wonder why sugar is the center of our religious celebrations.
gatekeepers
Many jobs have a role of gatekeepers. It is a powerful role. Some get carried away with this newfound authority. It can be their inexperience, age or bias. The judgment of these gatekeepers makes or breaks an organization.
If you are in one such job, be very rational and take judgment with logic. Your act will shape the lives of many others and the profitability of your firm.
control
How many of us have got control over our life? How many of us are aware of our actions? Are we in control of ourselves, our actions?
We multi-task, run errands, listen to a self-help book or practice keto or mindfulness. Why are we doing this? Is it because we want to do it or someone told us to do it?
With the constant noise of the outside world, social media it appears our mood, actions, behaviors nothing is in our control anymore.
focus
Focus is the key virtue in running a successful enterprise. It takes a sec to lose focus or get carried away on some new idea.
Having a core and sticking to it instead of pivoting over the advice of outsiders is a disaster for failure.
Most of us in this era can easily get carried away with influencers or friends who have got no skin in the name.
A lot of self-belief is needed to stay focused. This is where a mentor comes to rescue, they keep reminding you about the basic aka focus.
Right
How do we know we are right?
How do we know that our history is not dubious?
How difficult it is to not have an opinion?
Can we not see this world as it is?
Why do we have to fight to prove our superiority on account of caste, creed, color, race or money?
How right are we in seeing everything wrong around us?
dog fooding
Products success hugely depends on understanding customers pain point. To get there the best way is to start using it internally or by ourself. It will help in making the team more empathetic with the end-user and delighting them.
product
1/ The biggest hindrance in building any product is noise from outside. It is from people who are not using your product but giving advice.
2/ Losing focus comes next to noise. It is very easy to get lost for winning customer and losing a circle of competence.
3/ Quick growth which means scaling, hiring, unpackaged product development and unclear moats.
4/ Marketing which should be the word to mouth by delighting customers turns into social media ads.
Buzzwords
I have lived through a decade of tech hype. I started coding with LOGO. Much has changed since then.
Every 2-3 years I get to hear new buzzwords: virtualization, IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, Containers, federated, Docker, Bitcoin, Blockchain, serverless.
I have my friend Ashish who has been running the same business of selling aluminum sheets in these 10-15 years. He keeps saying, in the end, it about how much profit you are making from a sale.
How many of these buzzwords have returned significantly to their stakeholders is yet to be seen.
famous
Why do we have this urge from within to be famous? It can be one being an influencer, thought leader or someone with many followers. Is it about feeling good or getting out and proving our worth to the world?
The marketers are thriving on it. Making us feel vulnerable, our quest for being famous is making them rich. We buy ads on Instagram, pay media to win founder of the year award.
I have never understood why and how this all works. In the end, it is about looking ourselves in our eyes, being honest with self.
meetup
My first Linux user group meetup was in 2001/2002. It changed my life forever. It shaped my career, got me a huge network and shaped me as an individual.
I can’t imagine where I would have been in life if I had not encountered Lug/FOSS. The network, mentoring and relationship have helped me in all these years.
I attended another Linux user group meetup after a long time. There were some familiar faces whom I had met via IRC, Twitter or other Linux events.
There was a 3ed engineering student as well in the room who reminded me of myself. My first meetup, I was clueless about what these people are talking about. The difference he had was Internet availability and better Linux distribution. He mentioned why these days meetups are not needed, the Internet has it all. I so wished to tell him how these meetups were more about connecting, meeting and learning life. Linux and technology was one part of it.