"Why should (people from top institutions) have all the fun"

I wrote this as an answer to a recent post on Quora: What makes it possible for BITS Pilani CSE students to fetch an average annual placement package (27.07 LPA), the highest in India for any undergraduate CS course?"
 
Well, I believe the answers here only tell you how the figure of 27 lacs is an outlier. I strongly contend that we move one step ahead to identify what exactly makes these guys get high pay packages than doubting the veracity of the claims. The fact is they do get high placements.

What makes them do it?

A close look at the impact that these people are creating at their respective jobs position is something where you can start you research at. Higher the number of people you are touching, or higher the monetary impact you create, higher will be the renumerations. This falls in line logically. E.g. "Facebook touches over 1 billion users regularly. That is why people are pumping money into it, with facebook going public and everything. Now you see why facebook makes money. A person in their Engineering department, working as a developer is going to impact 1 billion lives by what he does at Facebook. The money the developer makes is hence proportional to the money facebook makes."

How could "you" do it?

Find an industry/sector/company that creates the sort of impact that is proportional to the renumeration you wish to receive. Identify the skills, values & attitudes they value. Develop this attitude & skills over time and apply. Yes, it has got a lot to do with the institution you attend, but most of these aspects can also be developed virtually, more so in a world that is connected as we are today.

Why do companies only frequent premier institutions for top-notch jobs?

Simply because a work that creates a comparative impact needs developed all-round skills with a seemingly good aptitude. Premier institutions have churned good students in the past, and they have an environment that helps students develop these skills. Hence, this is like a self-sufficient cycle.


What do you think?

I am so in love with the concept of ideas, that I could sleep with them ;) : Internet of things - my new crush

Internet of things – the phrase seemed rather obfuscating at first.

But when I thought closely, it fits in so well in the direction the world is headed. Imagine your television communicating with your doorbell to turn on the TV to the Euro Cup Final that you ran from the office to watch. The concept, “Internet of Things”, has that power.

We are proud to present you 'DriveSafe'. What it does is, it determines how well you’re driving based on how fast you’re driving and how quick you steer that wheel in your hand. The idea is, if you’re turning the steering wheel at a faster speed than stipulated at a given speed of your vehicle, you’re driving dangerously enough for your fellow drivers. That is to say, we don't judge how you drive, your car says if you're driving her good or bad. And dare you turn bad on her!

Courtesy: http://t1.ftcdn.net/jpg/00/24/68/52/400_.....jpg

While this not only gives the law and administration a better insight into a driver before they charge him with reckless driving, it also helps a driver perform better by indicating where did he go wrong. This is something that a large auto manufacturer was trying to do with its beautiful android application, i.e., to understand how drivers interact with an ITS that guides them on improving. Of course it is not the entire thing behind reckless driving, but is one of the few that go behind the science of safe driving.

With all these “DriveSafe”s put on in every car, you could have interesting things done. If you’re a driver yourself, you would know the ease that you’ll be at, while driving, if you know how well the person in front of you, or even behind you, drives. E.g. if I have bad drivers around me, I need to drive cautiously. I could be at ease otherwise. Tell me that you haven't felt a difference when you and your friend were racing down that lane, weren't you more aware of his possible responses just because you knew him as a person.

Now the product DriveSafe, maintains a log of your driving activity and gives you an overall rating 

of 1 to 100 as to how well you drive, determined by the higher this number. While driving your windscreen changes to a digital panel, with the car in front of you, branded by its driver’s score. Now you know that a #40 driver could make a sharp turn while if it’s #98 in front of you, he most probably will be driving safe. Hence you could make that effort and overtake him safely. Following image may help you at visualization.

A challenge as Sameer clearly identified is to evaluate this information really quickly for in smaller lanes, traffic moves really fast. Well, Sameer, I have answers to your questions. How we do it really fast, is what I answer in my follow up post. How we do it for smaller lanes is something that I answer right after the next paragraph.

This will do two things. It will make driving a whole lot safer and can ease off the frustration of individuals when they are befuddled taking the risk of overtaking the car in front of them. I am not saying this is all that it could do, but the example above is indicative of the scope of the product, and also incidentally, its mother. And yes, of course, you will have the power of turning the feature on or off. Turning on, though, will make your driving much more fun and game-like. I incidentally am a racing game freak myself and have always thought of such things.

Courtesy: http://images.gizmag.com/inline/cmovie-6.png

This picture is interesting. If you divide the image from where this person’s head is, you know what is a possible problem with this product, from a user experience point of view. It is that it would be a pain looking at those flying numbers in front of you. That is where the guy is looking. The solution lies on the other side of his head.  Instead of a numerical score we give the driver an aura, his DriverAura that is indicative of his driving behaviour. E.g. Red for <40; yellow for 40-70 and Green for 70-100s. Now this turns into a Call of Duty MW game, where your screen is all red and green and you could locate that sweet spot to drive your vehicle.

 

And now before you go about "this is utter nonsense" and "the man is too imaginative" mode, like my friend Prateek here, hold your horses. For I have a surprise for you. In my following post, I will walk you through how exactly is it possible. Leave a comment below and I will follow up with the post. This is not only possible but envisioned here in New Delhi on October 13^th, 2013. The only concern is how long before we see this happening. Thanks for the feedback Prateek for having me re look at the idea to answer your questions

I’d request you  to write how you think about the idea below this post & vote & share if you’d like to see it happen.

It was your birthday a few days back and the father’s day at the same time. I could not have found a better point in time to say you this Papa.

When I sat down to write this article, the earliest my mind could go to is a photograph, probably hanging on our walls at the house. The photograph is one of my earlier birthdays, with me in your arms, and mummy is standing right beside us and you two are looking at me, while I look at the camera. Looking at that photograph, I always thought you sported a pony until I grew older, looked at that photograph closely to realize there was a lady in the background whose hair seamlessly merged to give an appearance of a pony. I found it hilarious when I first realized it and now I am amazed at what I used to see in the photograph earlier.

And then followed the time at Haridwar and Dehradun. You helped me find all the answers in a beautiful way, logical and simple to a child. You never sounded ridiculous nor did you make up supernatural stuff to address my doubts. I do have a question remaining since that time though. You never took me inside a railway engine as you said you would. :P But at the same time, I want to thank you Papa for picking me up in your arms every single time (atleast 8-10 times a day) letting me see the train whenever the engine whistled from around the corner.

I do remember when you have helped me with my first steps. It was the bicycle in Haridwar outside our house. Also, when I was afraid of the water, at Sahastradhara or Hardwar, you took my head and make me take a dip to show me that it wasn’t such big a deal. This inspires me now to take the wildest leaps and keeping you informed so that you can take me out just at the right time, like you did back then.

You helped me inculcate a habit of reading, and learning all the time. With those big number of encyclopedias coming in, you read them along with me, helping me where I could not get a clue. You kept yourself updated to bring in the latest information from whatever I had been reading or doing it, at school or at leisure. You have continued to update me with some of the most important information at developing our startup.

You let me take the front seat in the car as early as age of 6 or 7 with your hand over mine. You were there laughing and enjoying when I first took out that steel plate from the kitchen and went all over the house assuming I was driving a car.

You always stood there between me and mummy when we engaged ourselves in a strife as to what each of us considered right. You knew each of us heartily and knew exactly how to calm each of us simply by your words. You never got mad when I came back late from play, or took my bicycle all over the cantonment without telling you or mom. You simply told me why I was supposed to tell you and to follow it in the future. This has made me tell you every single thing knowing that I would get counselling and not a rebuke. This was more evident when you had to skip offices to because of my nonchalant acts in class XI and XII.

You always said “I will always let you do whatever you like, monitoring so that you don’t venture out so far so that it’s difficult for you to get back”. By telling you everything I do, I get the mental solace that you are there to watch over me, and hence I can be more confident at what I do.

Moving on, I could think about the time when you took me to IIT Delhi at the time of KVPY interview in January, 2008. The pride and happiness with which you showed me the place, I count it as one of the key drivers that kept me motivated for the exam. Thanks Papa.

You have always trusted me in taking the final decision at important junctures, after providing me with the right information required to take the decision. Be it when I chose my first school as Brightland’s after seeing a couple others, or choosing Industrial Engineering at IIT Delhi even when Alok chacha mentioned IIT Bombay aeronautical as a better branch, or to trust me with my leap of faith with my venture, AGE. And when you found that I was interested in starting my own business you found the right mentor for me, Abhay Chacha. Thanks again.

                          

I have heard this song only for a while now, but everytime I hear it, I think of you and what a tremendous support and love I am blessed with.

Old Man, Look at my life, I'm a lot like you were.

In a way papa, I am just like you. And my faith in this idea, and of evolution and genes, just get reinstated when i see pics of your school and college days and hear stories from Rani Bua and Vibha Bua. And now that I reflected on my life spent with you, I found that to be resonating too with your life.
I don’t know if i am right on this or not, but you did your graduation in Physics against baba’s choice of Roorkee University. I went to pursue a branch impromptu, which we did not ponder over while discussing my admission.
I have always been mischievous, but a part comes from you, doesn’t it? You put a charcoal in Abha Bua’s mouth when she was sleeping. I poked Yash with a compass. :D

The spirit in which I want to have a conversation with you when anything new happens in my life. this all makes me miss you everyday papa.

Wish you a very happy father’s day and a very happy birthday!

JEE, Social Networks and the Shit about them.

To warn you beforehand, the topic is much more serious and the post, comparatively a longer one.

I had an interview this evening on a news channel, not popular though. The topic was "अश्लील सोशल साइट्स". I know many of you would think of the topic is really obscure, at least I thought it was. You may credit it to the lack of knowledge about what political buffoons in this country are cooking up.

However, there are a couple of points that I would like to re-think and share with you.

1. The debate on banning Facebook, Google, Youtube and the likes (21 sites in particular) for having malicious or abusive content on their network.

2. JEE or no JEE.

First of all, as I have earlier said it on the show and on facebook, that when the society faces increased traffic accidents or murders, you simply don't ban use of cars or gunpowder. What they presently do is to punish the convicted. However, I would like to discuss the much less explored option of going to the root cause, and eliminating it, that caused the convict to commit the crime.

There is a famous proverb, "With greater power, comes greater responsibility". When you are handed over the license to drive a car, or trigger a gunshot, you are considered responsible enough to use it wisely. Considering the social websites as a similar instrument, people who have been endowed with the privilege of connecting to their known ones at their ease, they are also entrusted the responsibility for the words they speak. I wish to address this topic to four kind of people : 1. People bothered with adult content, 2. People who think that the country is moving in the right direction, 3. People who think that social websites are playing a damaging role, and lastly, the policymakers (if they ever lay hands on this work).

Now, for the people who are bothered with the adult content, can you force the court to ban physical social interactions because there are people who are cunning, who say abusive things to your son/daughter? No, instead you don't make your children enter the society, or keep them under your supervision unless they attain a particular age. The same goes for the social network sites. Banning them is logically not the correct thing to do.

For the people, who think that Mr. Kapil Sibbal or whomsoever, is responsible for this action, has done the right thing, and thinking about him as a hero, working for the cause of the nation. Guys, if he was really interested in improving the society, he would have gone far beyond the call of his duty to analyze rigorously the reasons behind the use of this language. The language that has now developed is a result of several complex social phenomenon, and a large group of experts is needed to analyze it, and not a political figure. (this indicates the need of social scientists) Understanding these phenomenon, and then dealing with them if they are right or wrong, or how could it be corrected, is not such an arduous task that cannot be completed in his tenure. So please stop believing that he is doing the right thing. Because believe me, he is going to repeat the same damn thing, during his campaign in the following years. You need to develop an original thinking, and not merely believe what is being portrayed.

For the people, who think that social websites have a role to play in monitoring the content on the website (though I think this is a small minority), please understand the role of terms & conditions that you agree to while joining the above mentioned sites, and give your slightest attention to the powers that you have been endowed with. E.g. On Facebook, you have privacy settings, where you can restrict the people who have access to your photographs or comments or personal information. Heed to it. Moreover, understand the role of "Report Story, or Spam". Instead of saying, this person doesn't need invitations of Farmville, report it. This goes for any content that you think is malicious, adult or inappropriate for your children or parents to see. Be responsible.

For the policy makers, if there is a remote chance of them reading this, rather than blaming Facebook or photoshop for this, realize why the people are doing this. You have continued to ask the question, "who has given you the right to abuse a person/religion online". I would like to raise a cross-question to them, "Who has given Manmohan Singh, or Sonia Gandhi the right to assume position to ask for respect and what on earth do you understand by the meaning of the word Democracy? Last time I read about it, everyone, including the President herself, is a citizen of the country, and are equal. If they have the right to preserve information about their Swiss bank accounts, or the reasons behind their actions (or inactions), we have the full right to demand that information, or abuse you if you don't help us with them. Don't start with "We are providing you security and you have to respect the Bureaucrats or the people who are running this country" I am sorry to say but we are paying our taxes in lieu of the security and apart from our duties we have a fundamental right to equality and expression, and forming groups PEACEFULLY. If you consider these things, people can say anything about anyone or religion as long as it is peaceful. Raising a subjective question of a content being abusive is not an intelligent thing to do, in a country of 1.2 billion people having such diverse views.

I leave the discussion open regarding JEE or no JEE since it is a kind of topic where you all know a lot of stuff already. I consider that drawing parallels would not be difficult then. Still comments are welcome again for any discussion.

Think Responsibly and Originially

Cheers!

You are the 99% : Well you're to blame.

Reading through the newspaper today, I could not fail to notice that Occupy Wall street movement has made it to the buzz words in 2011. The persons who haven't found the subject worth a read, the movement is against the economic inequality extant in the United States. Though the same follows for a major part of the world, the movement is focussed entirely in United States, as of now.

I could not stop but wonder, if there is a distinction between these people asking for more and better jobs, and a newbie asking to be made the next player to be included in the Indian test team. Both of them don't have the much needed ability to handle the pressures, be it a job or being a test player. Instead of protesting, I would rather ask these people to change themselves a bit, equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and think along the lines, which the so called Rich, do.

If the top 1% control 40% of their wealth, they have earned the god damn right to do so. They know how to handle that money, and how to use it in their favors. Only if people could not see them as plunderers but motivation to get going. These are not hard turtle shells, difficult to break through. Whenever you start playing a game, there are always good players ready to burn you out right from the beginning. Do you ask Microsoft or Sony to change the rules of the game so that you all start from square 1 again?

So be a sport, and play the game. It's fun.

Pride or Disgrace?

A national daily read, “India sent 80,000 students to universities in the states, the largest number in the world; China ‘only’ sent 65000”. To me this came as a surprise, in the way that it exposed the paucity of opportunities to study further here in India itself. Agreed, that the universities in the west have a glorious heritage to bask in, and so do the students who prepare voraciously for admissions into these institutions. However, this does call for the attention of the policy makers in the field of education to look at the figures and reflect upon the infrastructure that has developed over the years. I do not contend that it may be exigent to change the system drastically in our favor, but a candid reflection would show that this may not be the purpose the structure was instituted there in the first place.