Random Thoughts: On competing with self

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We are living in a competitive environment.  From time of birth to our death we are competing.

We are competing over materialistic things:

  1. Grades in your degrees
  2. Salary you are drawing.
  3. Girl/Guy you got married to.
  4. How well off you are in your life with all the possession, vacation and life long luxury .
  5. $$ will be spent on decorating you skeleton in graveyard or quality of wine served on celebrating your death.

I honestly have no clue about anything above, all I am busy these days is comparing myself with what/how I was last year. Competing with self to be better in life is best thing that has happened to me.

Give it a try, it will make you a different human being altogether.

Random Thoughts: Purpose of my existence

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I had few questions running through my mind, the prime being .

What is purpose of my existence. :

  1. Am I making the world around me a happy place?
  2. Are my contribution to community/world around meaningful?
  3. Are my actions and interaction with people around me keeping me happy?
  4. Am I  watchful to every decision of my life.
  5. Am I living in present, this moment of my life or building/dreaming on future castle while living a miserable present.

Do I have answers for these questions? Not yet, hopefully will find it over the time.

Random Thoughts: Dealing with toxic people

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We are all different, each one of us think and behave differently. We have our own opinion, prejudice and priorities.  It is not necessary that we have to buy into everyone’s belief and follow it.

But at many instances you would have seen a special kind of people:

  1. Who are just negative and everything they speak or do turns out pessimistic.
  2. Who are working with you or around you to just prove their point right even if that means screwing up whole system
  3. Who think they know everything and they are the centre of universe.
  4. Who try to dictate their agenda over entire group because it will benefit them.

Possible solution:

  1. Stay away from them and their ideology.
  2. If they are part of your team avoid as much directly dealing with them.

Our life is more important than dealing with toxic people or any kind of brain fatigue.

Random Thoughts: On EGO

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Our identity has a lot to do with what/who we are in eye of society. We create a fabric/mirror/boundary around us and respond to a situation or person depending on our Ego. [Unfortunately]

  1. He/She did not respond to my email/phone/sms/Whatsapp, I will block him/her now. [Might have been busy, can we not give some benefit of doubt?]
  2. He/She said things after getting drunk at a party which I did not like, okey not attending any party where he/she is invited. [How about talking next day when he/she is sober and sorting it out?]
  3. I know more than my teacher, he/she is just a loser knows nothing. [Yep, he/she graduated when you were crawling in your diapers. ]

Everything is about I and circling around existence of me. If it pleases me, my Ego is rising and smooth otherwise my blood pressure is hitting all time high. Not sure if any of this effects person on other side of table. We create our ego & burn/frown/rot in it.

Random thoughts: Apps will do the thinking.

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Thanks to the hyper connected world of mobile internet. All we have to do is to install an app and let it do the rest for us.

  1. Swipe left/right for  a date. [mostly on your bias]
  2. Find a wife [Of course only if your caste/sub-caste, color matches  ]
  3. What we have to eat depends on discount food delivery app has to offer.
  4. What to buy [forced on you] depends on your likes/dislikes from your friends shopping cart.
  5. Taxi app knows you won’t mind paying 2X for your fare because its urgent for you. [your past rides]

Are we thinking at all or decisions we have to make has been forced on us by these apps?

Random Thoughts: Life or Auto Pilot?

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Growing up in a middle class Indian family has its own set of limitations.

  1. Your family decides name for you.
  2. Society decides  your religion/caste.
  3. Your parents decide what you have to pursue in your career.
  4. Mom decides who you should marry & when you should have kids.
  5. The peer pressure on us drives us towards buying house, car or owning credit card.
  6. Friends decides where we have to go get drunk & screw our body/health/mind.

In the end, what are we doing? Living a life or sailing on auto pilot mode?

Random Thoughts: What makes us Unhappy?

Few weeks back, I asked a simple question on Twitter:

I ended up getting some interesting response.

  1. Ego: Most of us are driven by Ego, If it is hurt I have a new enemy and if  nurtured friendship continues.
  2. Expectation: We expect someone to act the way we want, we would expect things or situations to be in our sides. Most of the time it goes the other way.
  3. Greed: Who does not want to be a millionaire or retire by 30?
  4. Guilt: Long lasting sadness of what one could have done in past.
  5. Not living in this moment: We tend to over think about our future and bring misery or happiness of our past.  The present we are totally clueless about.

Get over these to get over unhappiness.

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Notes from reading : The 7 Day Startup: You Don’t Learn Until You Launch

Dan Norris in this book talks about his experince in building a startup. According to Dan, the most important thing is getting product out in no real time. Consider this book as a playbook if you are looking to start a web based startup, it is a small book with good piece of advice on each and every step.

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These are some notes/highlights from the book :

  1. Hustle for an early stage startup is generally about spending your time on the things that are most likely to bring you customers.
  2. Early on your main challenge will be getting people to use your product or service. If you can do that then you’ll start learning a lot about what you need to do to perfect it.
  3. Marketing is really just about getting your message out to qualified people as efficiently as possible.
  4. By comparing yourself to the best, you set higher expectations for yourself, and you will be better for it.
  5. Advertise on cheap easy medium, use growth hacking.
  6. Get product out of the door first.
  7. Do not worry about people copying your product, in the end it is all about winning customers and keeping them happy.

 

Notes from reading: The Way to Wealth: Ben Franklin on Money and Success (Franklin, Benjamin)

Benjamin aka Ben Franklin was one of the founding fathers of  USA. He was a self taught genius and made contribution in fields of  science, literature, politics and many more.  I am fascinated by him and it prompted me to read this book. Over the time, I will be reading more of his writings.

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These are some notes/highlights from the book :

  1. Laziness travels so slowly, that Poverty soon overtakes him.
  2. Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
  3. Drive thy business, let not that drive thee.
  4. He that lives upon hopes will die fasting. There are no gains without pains.
  5. Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.
  6. One today is worth two tomorrows.
  7. Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.
  8. If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
  9. when you run in debt: you give another power over your liberty.
  10. He wish’d to please everybody; and, having little to give, he gave expectations.

 

 

 

2016: some learnings

2016 is coming to an end and we are ready to welcome the next year.  These are some of my learnings this year.

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  1. Parents and family should get priority over everything else.
  2. Health is the key to a successful life.
  3. Brain needs more care than any other part of our body.
  4. Exercise, Yoga, and taking break from internet can do wonders.
  5. Having a small group of close friends is better than 1000+ followers on social media platforms.
  6. Avoiding sugar can do wonders to productivity.
  7. Reading leads to happy present and future.
  8. Having an ego free life changes perspective on everything and everyone around you.
  9. Running/Chasing for true love is like looking for black swan.
  10. Learning can come from every corner of society, not only from certain class of people.
  11. Social media, TV,  and newspapers are good reasons for depression. Avoid them as much as you can.
  12. Judging people or having prejudice can only ruin our relationships.
  13. Having some time for yourself can heal you and do wonders.
  14. Try to be in company of good, honest and intelligent people.
  15. Speak less and listen more for getting good at conversations.
  16. Time is now. Do what interests you and makes you happy.
  17. Be grateful and appreciate the life you have.
  18. Find mentors and seek advice.
  19. Be kind to everyone.