January 2006 Archives
I "experienced" republic day first hand last night when I had to spend THREE hours in a traffic jam on the Delhi-Gurgaon border due to heightened security. That too at 11 in the night. It was the most frustrating 3 hours!
I think republic day this year is in many ways similar to our very first republic day back in 1950. The mood of the nation at that time was optimistic and full of hope. The world had great expectations from this country and there were able leaders at the top who were expected to make India a force to reckon with. Today, after more than 50 years of false starts and missteps, we finally find ourselves in a similar situation. The recent economic boom has shown us a ray of hope, our leaders, though not exactly exemplary, are definitely not the bottom of the barrel material we had to put up with in the past and the world definitely expects India to emerge as a major power in the coming years.
We floundered badly the first time around. But will we deliver on the expectations and potential this time around? Only time will tell, but here is wishing all fellow Indians a happy Republic Day!
Almost exactly an year back, I learnt a very important lesson in entreprenurship from Dr. Jhunjhunwala. He is on the board of dozens of companies and he actively helps many more startups in getting on their feet. And of course he also teaches Electrical Engineering at IITM. So I asked him how he managed to do so much in so little time. His answer was that the key to growing as an individual or growing as an organization is to constantly be able to find or grow people to replace yourself in your current responsibility.
This, however, is easier said than done. Of course just finding or growing people to do what you are doing right now is hard. But it is even harder to stop doing what you are (or at least you think you are) good at, let alone trust somebody else with that responsibility! My first manager in Microsoft used to tell me how hard it was to stop writing code and be a manager. In fact Microsoft insists that any manager with more than 3 reports should never have direct ownership of developing product features. Letting go of what you love to do and what you are used to doing is hard! Contrary to what Dilbert might want you to believe, delegating does NOT mean being lazy and getting others to do your work!
Another tip that the Dr. Jhunjhunwala gave me that day was on training freshers. He said that the biggest hindrance in getting somebody trained is your own urge to just do the work yourself rather than teach somebody else how to do it. This is especially true in software development. Writing good code is way easier than teaching somebody how to do it. It is imperative to give significant responsibilities to freshers right from their first project. In my experience this is the best way to get somebody on the ground running. If you raise the bar, people usually rise upto the challenge. I guess it is somewhat like how some swimming instructors teach you by pushing you straight into the deep end of the pool.
Earlier this week, we were in Chennai presenting Tekriti's progress in front of the TeNeT group. While we have a long long way to go, these two lessons have served us well!
The official Google blog must be the most boring blog ever. It reads like a series of press releases. Google has this "incredibly fun place to work for" image but the blog doesn't reflect that at all. The posts are so formal sounding and adveritisory (sic) in nature that its no fun reading that blog. This is one area where Microsoft has scored over its rivals. They have really harnessed the power of the blogosphere to the max. Microsoft bloggers also tend to write many more anecdotal posts about working at Microsoft. Lot of hard core techies also blog which makes for excellent reading for developers outside of MSFT. Lastly, many MSFT bloggers have openly questioned internal policies and decisions publicly on their blogs and not gotten fired for doing that!
I did write an email to Google complaining about the boring nature of their blog but never heard back. So maybe this post will catch their attention ;-)
Disclaimer: I am ex-Microsoft so my views could very well be biased
You can "design" software, you can "architect" solutions and you can "optimize" systems to your heart's content. You can create specs. You can develop information architectures. You can blog about software. You can sell software. You can speak about it. There are a million and one things that go into software development.
But, at least once in a while, you just have to roll up your sleeves and dive into code. Because nothing beats cranking out code. Late in the night. That is the biggest high for any self respecting software developer. And that is what gets your respect from other developers. A project manager who doesn't understand code often has a hard time managing a strong development team. So, no matter if you are "designing" or "architecting" or "optimizing" solutions - don't fall for your own hype and every once so often, crank out some real code!
December-January is the time when most NRIs in US visit their homes in India. This year I have come across/heard of many many many people planning to return back to India. And guess what, most of them have entrepreneurship on their minds! That is great news! For once, I was ahead of the curve and R2Ied somewhat before it became fashionable :)
If you are looking to return back to India, feel free to write to me (gaurav at tekritisoftware dot com). I will be happy to help in whatever ways I can.
It looks like some NRIs are going to get voting rights. What a waste of government resources and taxpayer money. Firstly, it is wrong in principle to allow NRIs to vote. Why should somebody who doesn't live in India have a say in deciding the destiny of those who do live here? Secondly, the argument put forward by Dr. Singh to consider giving voting rights for NRIs is laughable:
"Most people of Indian origin have immediate families back in India. These people cannot participate in the governance process of their host nations. Hence, their demand for voting rights is a convincing political request to be considered," Singh said.
Those immediate families that Dr. Singh mentions already have voting rights because they live in India. And the second argument that since they can't vote in their host nation, they should be allowed to vote in India is just plain embarassing, coming from the learned professor. Voting is not a game that if they are not allowed to play abroad, they can come back and play in India. Finally, when the local electorate these days barely cares to vote, why would the NRI living thousands of miles away care?
So, I hope the PM was merely giving lip service at the Bharatiya Pravasi Diwas!
Looks like all the sinning and paap that happens in the power corridors of Delhi finally caused the hell to freeze over. 'Coz its friggin cold here! Coldest in 70 years! brrr.....0.2 C! Colder than New York! I wonder if it will ever snow in Delhi. That will be the day.
For the last 2 years, my new year's resolution has been plain and simple - "if I don't like something, I will change it. If I can't change it, I will shut up and not crib about it". That's easier said than done (I mean, if I stop cribbing what will I blog about?) but I have tried to follow it as much as possible. This year is going to be no different and I resolve to keep whining, cribbing and procastinating at a minimum. I think this outlook towards life keeps things simple. There are a million and one things that one doesn't like about their life or surroundings. But of those there are only a handful that you have any control on. To be able to focus on those handful out of a million is key to getting things done and in general keeping you sanity.
As an entrepreneur, avoiding to procastinate is especially important. Hours, days and weeks can be wasted in thinking about and planning for imaginary what-if scenarios. Being able to cut through the chase and focus on the right problems is a key skill every entrepreneur needs to develop. So I am hoping my two years of practice will come handy in 2006 which is undoubtedly a very crucial year for Tekriti!
