Watching the rivulets

The river flows. It just does.

It originates from ice, stagnant in its place for centuries before the energy within overcomes the pressure of the surroundings and finally bursts out. Instantly adopting its new nature, it spontaneously seeks out the lowest point to settle.

If you observe, the river is not one. It is but a multitude of individual moments of existence of entities which share the same source but not necessarily the same destination. Tumbling over rocks, gliding over mud, seeping into sand, most of them keep moving, seeking and often even making their own destinies..slowly..very slowly. Some end up as puddles, some make their own rivers, others reach the final destination of the sea.But in truth, most if not all, get to the next form of vapour and get on an even headier journey.

Among those that remain in the flow, some form tumultuous rivulets over rocks, while others silently pool up as puddles and set the stage for paths which are unseen from the main path. These paths don't exist yet. They won't for a century or two. But the droplets need to continue their motions without any concern until there is a new path there.

If distant observers were to interfere with their grand plan for individual droplets, they would be in for a surprise. For every drop they interfere with, there would be scores more that alter their paths to avoid interference and result in something unpredictable. Hell, that could even be the intention of the interference. One can only indulge in the mesmerizing and complex shifting patterns of multitudes of rivulets as they encounter new sieves and obstacles, put there by a distant observer.

Among the many rivulets continuously flowing in their own paths, if one were to pull out a fistful with the intention to changing the nature of the drops, one would find that almost all would pass through. The ones that do come to hand and submit to modification can be let back and tracked downstream. Your interference might stand out if it suits the mighty river, made of individual drops and rivulets fighting for their own paths. It might vanish in a breath if it doesn't blend in. But most often, you would thinking you can see glimpses of your change everywhere whereas the truth would be hard to decipher.

A collage of many worlds

This article has been in the drafts for years now and so the only way to push it out is to do a lazy edit.

Here I try to honour and spend a few moments appreciating a few books I read in the recent years. I don't expect to be able to do full justice to few mentioned and the many that aren't.

Why are they here? When I see these names and try to recollect their content, their emotional appeal and the overarching theme, I find those lodged deeply in my current world view, forming a collage of many distinct worlds.

Being super lazy to write detailed and exciting reviews, I am going to write only as much as I feel like, trying to point out what I gained from the book.

2021

Ivory Throne (Manu S Pillai) - The distinct nature of the Travancore throne, the royal system of the past and its remnants in the present. The Ammachis, the matrilineal system, the role played in the temple culture, British era, independence etc.

Prashnopanishad - A logical Q&A based treatise on some of the easier philosophical ideas covered by the Vedas.The very idea that Indian philosophy is just gods, rituals & chants is bullshit as some of these conversations point to highly logical body of intellectuals who do not succumb to emotional jingoism that plagues modern Hinduism.

Man's search for Meaning (Viktor E Frankl) - Almost a self help book, but strongly flavoured with historical aspects of the Nazi concentration camp days. It strongly resonates for its core message of creating a meaning for one's life. 

2022

Guns Germs and Steel (Jared Diamond) - A strong narrative setter for geographical determinism, which may even be seen as a poor excuse for colonialism. But definitely a great source of insights for obsessively curious folks who wonder why the world is the way it is now, and not any other.

Dersu the trapper (V.K.Arseniev) - This is a warm narrative of the wild human meeting the cruel civilization, Siberian winters, reminscent of the steppe nomad lifestyle. 

The Overstory (Richard Powers) - Deeply philosophical and often hard to understand. But the overall takeway is a deep spiritual connection to possibly one of the most important life forms on earth which we have learnt to ignore or disrespect: Trees.

2023

Anti fragile (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) - I didn't expect to enjoy such a book. But I did and found myself excitedly following convoluted arguments just because I could connect to them myself. Lots of new insights, ways to think and tools for dealing with risks in life. It is not exactly a reference book, but a great source of inspirations to argue and wrestle with.

Anarchy (William Dalrymple) - Possibly the last book I will read of William Dalrymple (I switched to podcast for rest) as he summarizes the whole English conquest of India. As always filled with details and wonderful arguments on why things happened the way they did, with lots of fingers pointing at chance and human fraility, rather than marked superiority of any race.

At the feet of living things - This was a wonderful set of small articles that introduced me to some Indian naturalists/wildlife researchers and their impactful work across the country. The articles cover various geographies and species around India and hence also serve as a travel inspiration. I don't recall individual stories readily anymore, but the images of snow leopards stealing from sheep pens in Ladakh, depleted fish species of Lakhadweep, social patterns of Bonnet Macaques in the Bandipur forest altered by human contact, dugongs of Andaman etc are some strong ones I retain.

Breath (James Nestor) - While reading it was occassionally repetitive, it contains some very solid recommendations which have found their way into our lives. In short, it takes a deep dive into breathing well, and at the end, you might as well find yourselves breathing in its contents deeply.

Lords of the Deccan - A historical bonanza, revealing so many details about the general region I occupy in India, that I wondered why this is not included into school curricula. We need to have a deeper understanding of our past kingdoms, rivalries and cultural pursuits which to this date defines modern culture and politics. Without that, the whole question of why the South is the way it is today, why even India is the way it is today is inexplicably lost, trying to rely on relatively unrelated events which have received a far beneficial treatment at the hands of subsequent power brokers and thus historians as well.

Space Odyssey (Arthur C Clarke) , Foundation (Isaac Asimov) & Three Body Problem (Cixin Liu); individually and collectively generate a very strong mental image of humanity going through technological and societal reorganization at the face of new challenges. 

Together alongside the "Rama" series, they continue to shine bright in our imaginations providing valuable insights into what we are capable of being.

2024

Chip War (Chris Miller): Gave a high level overview of the history of semiconductor industry and why US is/was the pioneer in this field, and how the economics and subsequently the geopolitics shifted. Very relevant for the state of the current world.

Naalukettu (MT Vasudevan Nair): A simple story set in rural Kerala undergoing a social shift that is affecting the matrilineal system of the Nair households, healing various past wounds and in the process inflicting new ones.

Salt Fix: A book hell bent on changing the narratives on the impact of salt consumption on health. It argues hard to stop demonizing salt and to keep consuming it in healthy amounts. I was amused and digged deeper on certain points and am convinced that salt is a friend, while sugar is wolf in sheep's clothes. The central role of salt in the highly complicated water retention and nervous systems is now a core part of  my understanding of how our body works.

Why aren't we dead yet?:

Another health related book which takes a deeply scientific (yet not too hard to imagine) view of why our body has evolved the way it has, and why the hell we are still alive in this world that constantly tries to kill us for food. I felt deeply grateful and appreciative of our natural systems and this world model always rises to action when considering administration of medicines of any kind on self or family members.

Lost Decade(Puja Mehra), Accidental Prime Minister (Sanjaya Baru): I usually don't find contemporary politics interesting as the narratives can easily be manipulated to suit various incentives. But I was attracted to the first book from a pure economical point after hearing about it in the "Seen and the Unseen" podcast. The subsequent journey down the rabbit hole, trying to find balancing voices led me to the next book. Together, these books create a few narratives of a period in my life where I wasn't really paying attention to politics as I was busy starting with my career. The arguments & events from these books help me navigate and understand more such narratives on political lines without losing objectivity.

2025

Honjin Murder series (Seishi Yokomizo):Highly acclaimed and out of curiosity, I picked this up. Not disappointed and went on to read many of the repetitive stories of the genre and still don't regret it (except maybe the high price). Won't rate it over the top, but it is still a decent murder mystery series to pick for a long journey.

Before the coffee gets cold series (Toshikazu Kawaguchi): Yet another popular Japanese series. Having read all of the books, I now feel they are overrated, repetitive at places and highly priced. But individually as books and stories, some of them are well written and cause deep emotional pain. No regrets picking it up and maybe the world view I carry from it is simply to appreciate and enjoy people around you while they last (or while the coffee is still warm). Alludes to some deep zen philosophy of being in the moment.

Empires of the Steppes (Kennel W Harl): I am a clinically diagnosed steppe culture fan, based on the number of books & YT videos I have consumed on the topic. I even use the Chinggis, Turk, Penchegs, Bulgar, Hun analogies and strategies in regular life very frequently. For me, this was a prize find at a Mathurbhumi offline store and I was in a flight of fantasy, devouring the insights about hundreds of unknown stories from the Steppes for weeks together. The content is so vast that this book takes a permanent spot in my otherwise fleeting collection of books to facilitate re-reads.

The Dawn of Everything (David Graeber, David Wengrow): This book aims to dislodge various mainstream ideas and arguments regarding the history of human freedom, self-determinism and military wielding governments using a combination of recent archaelogical evidences and reviewing past events in new light. I was impresed by to the sheer audacity of the claims. I constantly find myself wondering about the world, had the alternative systems actually survived and become mainstream. I can generate a verbal storm on this and still not cover much of the work as it is a big volume of researched work with socio-political arguments. But now very much part of my world model when I think about why some tasks work well with centralized control and some don't, why some people in some situations give up their freedom willingly, while some resist, what guides religions, governments and people with authority in general.

2026

The Fabric of the Cosmos (Brian Greene): I have always been at awe with the advances in theoretical physics, quantum physics and cosmology beyond what was learnt in bits & pieces in high school curriculum. But it was rather a hard subject to get into, until I got my hands on this book. It does a good job of explaining basics, and layering up to complicated findings and possible theories.

Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire (Alex Von Tunzelmann) : Only after I picked this book and read various passages did I realized that I knew almost nothing about the British view of the Indian independence movement. Tells a detailed story of the British aristrocracy and Lord Mount Batten before getting into the association between Edwina and Nehru,and then gets into extensive details about the nerve wracking process of Indian Independence. I appreciate the events and the politics of the day better now with more objectivity and less dramatic characterization of individuals.

Resilience needed indeed

 A week back, when a top leader in my organization talked extensively about 'resilience' to a leadership forum, I didn't realize I would be requiring those so badly today.

After a sleepless night, and confronting my worst nightmares, I did what I believe is the most mature and benevolent way to deal with an otherwise highly toxic behaviour by someone close to me. It almost means the beginning of an end of things being the way they are.

It was difficult to come to terms with the observation and its immediate implications. But thinking of future possibilities makes my heart sink at times, and boil my blood at others.

But now, after having having spoken openly and concluding the brief exchange in a seemingly civil way, I feel I am on the higher plane at all levels. And I badly needed this assurance, as in many other counts, I am on a slippery slope. This is indeed a shock which gives a well needed signal to the fragility within these systems that I believe I am part of.

Multiple paths lie before me. Not all cross paths, but many do.

One is to painstakingly re-envision my world outside this system.. I also need to seek ways to keep myself afloat and come back to salvage what is important for me from the ship wreck that is to come.

But the most delicate one is to seek ways to limit the damage, or even use these signals to fix the fragility. This is something I'd like to see myself doing and the resiliency would help here.

 Lets go through the basics:

a) Relaxation response: It is a struggle to bring oneself into a composed mindset when beset by confusing and contradicting emotions, each calling for extreme reactions which are toxic in nature. But do not give into your emotional whirlpool and hold steady using your own value system and morals as a compass. If it is an interpersonal conflict, it is important to not focus on the adversary's observed actions and possible reactions, but own our own. Similarly, if dealing with an organization, the same needs to be done.

b) Resolution response: Once the storm dies out for a while, use the calm to work out your priorities, solutions, and best case outcomes expected. It would be wise to leave out the worst case scenarios as they would only act as emotional triggers to take you out of the relaxed state.

c) Keep moving/ perseverance:  Easy to say but hard to do when dealing with cyclical thoughts about future and perceived insults/disappointments etc. But make it a point to try to check if after a session of thinking, you are moving ahead or getting back to same points. If you find yourself in a cycle, you need to find the cord that attaches you, and most likely it is an emotional one. Take your time to sever it and find replacements.

d) Know thyself: This is where any amount of prior experience in dealing with your own emotions comes in handy. Especially during significant positive and negative moments in life, if you know how you tend to handle yourself on autopilot, it helps a lot. You might either need some isolated moments, some actions etc or require help from friends/family or even professional help. Identifying this correctly early on makes a huge huge difference. For example, going on it by yourself for life changing decisions, when you have no past experience can be suicidal (literally too, unfortunately in some cases).

e) Growing out of it: If you got yourself to this point without significant mental harm, congratulations. Now you are looking at using this event in growing yourself either by fixing the problem by direct or indirect means. This is important to fix the scars and go the long mile in life. You would need all your tools and contacts to do this satisfactorily.

f) Take care of yourself: The most important, but often neglected part is to take care of your own health. Indulge in good physical activities, social interactions with compassionate and positive minded people, pursue hobbies that exert your creative muscles, and get a significant amount of water and good quality sleep.

Take care, and take time to be grateful, and be kind to yourself.

thinking and writing

 Someone talked recently about the project we were working on and how my contributions were leading the very core of the ideas.

I was named a deep thinker and driver of thoughts. I remember that I actually felt uncomfortable at what could be a normal reaction to praise. But when I reflected on it, I could see much more inside that event.

While I could see where the deep thinking is visible, I also could acknowledge that it is just a single minded activity that I can get myself into it. It of course has a lot of implications on my ability to do a lot of other things at that time, and even much later. I attribute my ability to think deeply to a lot of things, but more recently I can attribute it to an significant reduction of social media distractions, involving in non fictional and abstract topics requiring my full brain activation and a bit of intellectual interactions with like and unlike minded colleagues and relatives.

Some years ago, my mental model of myself had very little space for other people and the nitty gritties of their needs and contributions to my own thoughts and actions. At some time ( possibly around the time my son was born ), I started realizing how much a network can boost one's productivity, creativity, effectiveness and resilience.

Over the years, I have found many content on such lines very appealing and I have even managed to bring some interesting books like "Man's search for meaning" and "Anti-fragile" into my re-reading list. I couldn't have imagined of doing this in my past form. 

Of course, one's mental model doesn't change as a whole so quickly. I now am in a special place, where I know that I have changed  my preferences, reactions and beliefs and aware of the continuing changes. Currently I see many of the abstract patterns converge into more concrete actions and events, with surprising results at times. These are really interesting time, filled with possibilities for me to use.

Feeling grateful for being part of this huge machinery of life.

More on the foundation

 I wrote about the Foundation's first book.

But as I now am starting on the last book in the series Forward the Foundation, ( minus the complete robo series ), I find myself at loss when considering to write about all these. It is too much.

But I think I want to say something about it now.

There is a particular chewy, sticky quality to the story, especially when protagonists change dramatically within a book itself. But it didn't last long. It turns out that the original trilogy had this hallmark nature, when the author didn't have a clear background or ending in mind. But once he was coaxed by the publishers to connect the multitude of his work into a web of stories, it started losing much of what makes it stand out from the rest. I must admit, I haven't read a lot of science fictions, but I think you can get the drift already.

But it was interesting enough, to make me keep reading all the books, in the order of their publication, except of course the robo series, which I plan to read separately. You see there are certain events and threads connecting these series, and it became quite evident first from the Foundation's Edge. Having no knowledge of the robo series, made many references to it quite mystical for me. Maybe when I read those, that itch shall be scratched.

But so far, the prelude to foundation and the forward the foundation seem subdued, a kind of filler book. Still, the riches of a mind blowing connection to robo events, keeps me on the track.

Happy reading.

Following the clock

Typical day:

5-6 AM wakeup -> Afternoon rush

Evening

At close of work, either go to gym, or get to reading/helping with homework/cooking.

Post dinner, get school work done, get reading.

Put child to sleep, and if I survive, get back to reading

Else, continue with step #1, the next day.

I observe that books and some form of exercise are the regular habits, which can be classified as good.

The regular digital habits, on the other hand required some monitoring and introspection:

a) Twitter(X)

Scroll through a list of regular people whom I follow, with very very limited political exposure (unavoidable, unless I want to be proverbially living under the rock).

With interesting events happening, I might over 40 mins a day scrolling and retweeting. Otherwise it might be within the 30 mins window.

Main topics I find myself reading/responding are: Fitness, travel, wildlife, world events, very specific trolling incidents outside my lil echo chamber. I had over the last two years trimmed the list of people I follow significantly, weeding out inactive or toxic accounts for people who consistently post relevant, informative or creative content. Biggest examples would be Sandeep Mall, Science Girl etc.

b) Youtube

I don't use the standard Youtube app due to the ads, and rely on the Youtube Vanced app [boohoo, this is now gone, and I'm subjected to the horrors of watching ads] for my video binging which I try to also avoid when my son is around. After all, we are lecturing him to restrict his screen time, all the time. 

On a average, I find I use Youtube for 30-40 mins a day. Rarely it can go beyond an hour if I sit late night to finish watching some long pending ones, or get into a YT Shorts binge-until-burnout.

Again, the contents mainly seem to either personal finance (quality/novelty over quantity here), medieval history (mostly related to something  I am reading/playing/listening), documentaries of something being manufactured or cooked, and sometimes fitness/workout videos and comedies or movie based stuff. 

c) Finance apps

I have off late got myself out of the personal finance/investment whirlpool by removing the Stock broker and Mutual fund apps from phone main screen. This significantly helps with not worrying about markets, investment levels and missed opportunities. So these app take hardly 2 min on a average every day, considering that these aren't opened at all most of the time, and when opened for checkpoints, I do spend some time analyzing trends.

Apps: Kite, MyCams, KFintech

d) Chrome:

This is too generic, and its usage widely depends on what I am googling. Regular websites would only be Farnam Street Blog, HackerNews etc, which are bookmarked. Most others are irregular investment related ones or yes, one minor whirlpool known as LinkedIn.

e) Steam:

This is a relatively new habit of mine, by virtue of getting Age of Empires 2 Defnitive Edition on my laptop through Steam ( paid for, really!). Not only have I spent 120+hrs already on the game (with 2+hrs in each session, leaving me mildly numb in the right arm afterwards ), but I have been induced to find and install a few more time draining Free-To-Play games. Off late, I uninstalled all of those additional ones as these were just straining my arms and eyes and plainly boring/violent games which my young son gets inspired with. AoE2 is relatively benign/boring/exciting depending on level of play and time sunk into it. Playing with a context, and strategy makes it rewarding especially campaigns which provide some historical stories also. Plain fighting it out makes it a burnout game though.

Ahem, after which, I found the "Uncharted Waters:Origins". It was a craze, engulfing many hours of my life until when I reached Level 40, and the satisfaction is saturated.  I find myself more gravitated to the non-digital activities to cope with higher hours on the work side.

f) Podcasts:

This is almost exclusively reserved for use while driving ( that too when I'm alone ), but there are also podcasts which I need a OneNote to take notes with too. These I re-listen after the car episode to distill the information, in the good imitation of Farnam Street advice on good reading practices.

Some of the podcasts I'm listening are:

a) The Knowledge Project of Farnam Street fame. Not bad, but not daily digestible content either.

b) Huberman lab. Wonderful topics, but need dedicated attention, filtering and note taking, plus followup.

c) Empire. This is my favourite go-to podcast because of the history, adventure, facts, relatable events with unknown backgrounds, funny banter of my favourite author and the ability to travel all over the world in my mind. But I have been slow on catching up the pace at which they release pods.

d) The seen and the unseen. Again, a masterful show. I pick topics I want to listen, because these are 2-3 hrs deep dives, but completely worth it.

Monologue on leadership

 Pardon the unedited monologue

Q: What is transformational leadership?

A: Before we talk about transformational leader, "who is a leader?", your 5 year old asks. 

First answer : A leader is who inspires to take initiative, to be brave and forget pains/obstacles for time being to help focus on achieving a goal.

Often, in tough or uncertain situations,  a leader has to encourage to just take a positive action and trust the people to keep finding short and long term goals to pursue.

Many a times people just need that nudge to come out of comfort zones, and mental plateaus to be able to see the need to increase or redirect their energies and tactics to get to a goal.

Sometimes leaders are just good listeners who help employees recharge and rejuvenate on a long and arduous journey.

In military environment, leaders at the lowest ranks, NCOs etc are exceptional role models for the larger group of fighting men/women around them. They are expected to not hesitate and show case examples of initiative, bravery, perseverance and ferocity. Top commanders, on the other hand are expected to be visionary, flexible with decisions, and inspiring confidence and trust of sub-ordinates.

In a corporate environment, a leader at the top is mainly expected to display and communicate a clarity of purpose of the organization or an initiative. But all levels are expected to showcase fairness, openness to feedback and always gunning for victory. Sometimes leaders are personally relatable, and that bonds the team closer to them. This is not always feasible due to personality differences across cultures and geographies. In such cases, appealing to a common set of values is enough and the remaining is site-specific bonus.

It is also important to communicate the why part of any decision, process or policy at the top level. This reflects onto middle managers, without which they tend to close themselves to feedback from their sub-ordinates, creating a low trust environment. More often, it is the lower layer managers who have to face the feedback of the technical team which often doesn't align to the top management visions. This can be mitigated by direct access to leader's voice and forums, plus careful communications with expected resistance planned into it. Some of these expected resistance or pushback can be read from carefully crafted and regular centralized surveys. But often it is the lower layer leaders who need to be aware of the team pulse and key developments, and communicate a gist of it regularly up the management channel.

Such a channel should exist for managers to communicate to their managers about informal matters. It builds trust and encourages low level managers to be creative with their team's specific situation instead of losing out on need for homogenization.

Also, with all this rambling, I realize that leadership is not something that can be 100% perfect all the time. And I think I can see some factors that influence it, and that explains why there are so many different materials, forums, thoughts on this through centuries of civilization, and we still see a need to keep working on this.  Leadership is a fully human concept. It is not exactly defined, and the leadership qualities expected change based on the leader, the organization, the business, the times. 

Sometimes, everything is going fine. Then either the leader is changed or has a change of mind, employees change or have a change of mind, business changes or the entire world changes. It is in this vortex that we find a need for a shining beacon of leadership at all levels of an organization. While there are timeless principles and qualities of leadership that can be trained, coached and practiced by organization, the highly valued leadership skills are based on self-reflection and talking to people at a given moment. Leadership served for one instance shouldn't be forced to be used in all situations.

Negotiation and communicating fairly is a key skill to be learnt as a leader. Placing all facts for perusal allows opening up the trust, and you have avenues for negotiating to overcome mental blocks, and resistance to change. But this flexibility is also required of the manager when the blocks are factual or technical, requiring to rethink the whole approach and redirect the many pieces to fall in place.

Oh yes, another point in that is that leadership and administration are two different things. A leader can be a pioneer or a manager. Both require different skill sets and shouldn't be swapped freely unless the person involved is mentally ready for this. Pioneers hack through harsh jungles, seek new paths, lead the team, but their work isn't often neat or orderly or sustainable. But without them, we are lost. Managers on the other hand are good at organizing and administering multiple complicated pieces and sustaining an efficient operation. It might consist of challenges as well as repetitive actions and consultations, which might disillusion the pioneering leader. We also should accept the fact is that at times, a leader has to showcase both abilities, and so aspiring leaders would do well to observe both styles, identify the stronger side, enforce it and also work on strengthening the weaker one.

Another thought is about trying to classify your intended target for a change communication. There might be supporters, indifferent ones, cynics and open rebellious ones. Here is a strategy for each of those:

a) Supporters -> Talk to them privately and learn their reasons for supporting. If they align, use them as ambassadors if it helps within the team. Sometimes, their involvement polarizes the others for certain topics. You might also discover amazing reasons for support which you wouldn't have anticipated.

b) Indifferent -> Talk to them to identify their concerns. Often it is reluctance to change, stemming from past injustices. If possible address or correct those. If not feasible, offer them the benefits of moving on and encourage regularly to come over to your side.

c) Cynic -> This can be quite tough as usually cynics are well prepared. One can engage in an intellectual debate, inflate/deflate their egos and get them on your side, or go through the process for indifferents with an open mind to show that you care, and you should genuinely do so, if they have a weird and different opinion on how things should be. You might find some rare gems there.

d) Rebellious/Scared -> These are the folks who often expect the change to be damaging to their career, reputation or more. Care must be taken to calm their mind with active listening and genuine interest in resolving their problems. If issue is imagined, careful explanation is important without pushing on behalf of management or promising punishment. It might work in short term, but will fire back in the long term.

Leaders in tech

In tech, we value good approachability, ability to convince, negotiate and motivate. Ability to accept mistakes, reduce conflicts and maintain a positive outlook is also key skills for a leader. And not to forget, ability to motivate people to take calculated risks without fear of being judged harshly, and enabling a culture that inspires technical studies and using that input for leading the product and organization.

Managers shouldn't or needn't be always in a position to guide or coach technical experts. They need to collaborate more. This allows both of them to operate in a win-win model. This raises a question of whether technical folks can also lead, with the full spectrum of a manager, by providing leadership to other non-technical departments like HR, finance, quality and meeting legal criterion. That’s quite interesting to find where that boundary or overlap of skills, wide knowledge and attitude of allowing multiple opposing ideas to co-exist and shape the final decision exists.

Most importantly, in such environments, the key thing to note is when/how the individual experts/departments are able to come out of their limited role and perspective, and discard their feeling of self-importance to make some truly remarkable decisions for the organization. Can this be done without a central hinge point of a leader? That is, can a decentralized team of leaders pull this off, and sustainably so as an extended question?

Wow, this entire exercise is a challenge to the mind, science and philosophy.

Inspirations for this monologue written in a single sitting

a) Man's search for meaning Victor Frankl

b) Prince by Machiavelli

c) Built to last

        d) 7 effective habits Stephen Covey

Foundation-Part 1

' The Foundation Series' was originally a series of 3 books written in the early 1950. It was later on expanded with sequels and prequels after nearly 40 years of the original series' end.

I believe it is a hallmark series of science fiction, and millions of people in many generations were entertained and influenced by its storylines, technological predictions and underlying themes.

In fact, having read the very first book 'Foundation', I was surprised and embarrassed at not having read it earlier. Here I am attempting a re-telling of the story purely from memory, and I might miss or mix up things, and SPOILER alert for those plan to read this soon...

The story starts off in the city/world of Trantor, which is the capital of the now dying Empire. We are not given much context of when in the future of human race these events are set, but it is made to seem quite advanced into the future. The surprise is that human beings still seem to be the dominant species and have long colonized and settled multiple worlds(planets) across the Milky Way galaxy.

The Empire seems to be the central ruling power for almost every world in this realm, in spite of various political aspects involved. We are also introduced to the Harri Seldon, a psychohistorian who states that the empire is in a state of decay and that he was working on a plan to revive it sooner than it would be if he didn't interfere.

He set up what later comes to be known as the Seldon Plan ( known only to a secretive group of scientists ), and sends out young scientists to a fringe world, which gets named the Terminus.

Eventually, after many years, this fledgling planet (known as Terminus) is just a library of sorts that needs massive support of all neighbouring worlds. The only resource this planet is rich in, is the scientific findings and inventions based on Atomic energy which only Terminus controls. Soon this prosperity gets it into conflict zone with its neighbours  and thereby triggering the series Seldon crises.

The first of this crisis comes in the form of a neighbouring world Anacreon trying to annex Terminus to gain the Atomics. This crisis is successfully mitigated by an internal power shift and external alliance with other neighbours to prevent any one world being stronger by huge margins.

After many years, the crisis repeats itself with a much stronger Anacreon planning an attack with more sophisticated weapons acquired from the dying empire. By now, the Foundation has made itself a religion by forming a religious hierarchy for its technological advancements, and expecting strict obedience and reverence of the Foundationers. Using this influence on the soldiers and common folk, the Foundation manages a spectacular last minute victory by turning this fear of defiling the gods against the rulers of Anacreon.

The next crisis boils over once all other worlds become wary of the missionary power of the Foundation and either bans them altogether or in completely under its sway with no way to claw out. It is in this wiggle space that a conflict looms ahead, and Foundation defeats it by the charms of a Trader. This begins the deviation of Foundation from a scientific religion to a purely trading power. The aggressor Korell is purely restrained by the threat of an embargo of trade goods.

to be contd..

Missing text

 Its been more than a year since I wrote anything here.

We were long past the worst of all the experiences of the lockdown in those days, and things have only improved and come to a sort of plateau since then. So I have only rosy things to say apart from a few illogical regrets on things I could have done better, but aren't important in the larger scheme of things.

The lockdown started off surprisingly with lots of confusion, as it did for majority of the folks on this planet. While we didn't rush to markets or shops to join the throng for binge-purchases, we did suffer from a lot of anxiety on account of the 2yr old child left with his grandparents, across state borders.

From 2020 end to 2022 end, it remains a topic I thought I would eventually find interesting to write about, but I haven't been able to sit for it yet.

In fact, fast forward from that to 2023, I am more often reading a lot of books, playing Age of Empires games, and engaging myself with the household and work related activities. I myself don't seem to grasp a very detailed view of most of these things, and so if I look closely, they are a pain to recollect, re-arrange and then re-interpret to make sense to a reader. But then I guess this practice is what makes a 'writer', if I may claim that title by unfair means of just having a blog freely published on Google Blogger.

Steaming ahead

 After all these years, I have lost my personal laptop to a motherboard failure, lost both by huge external disks to failures, and all the mega collections of CD/DVD are either unreadable or have no device to put them into.

If one wants to be sad about it, there is a lot of content in there which I can never recreate ( photos from camera, phones, notes ), and some that would would be punishing to collect ( e-books, movies, music, games). So I am definitely not wishing to walk that path anymore.

And as part of the moving on strategy, or general passion, I have now re-activated by Steam account and even purchased  a title - AOEII Definitive Edition. Of course, it had to be AOE. I can play loads of new civs in wonderful new campaigns, great tutorials or just play online. I can share account with family also it seems from Steam. 

I will probably put up more stuff about this later, but at this point I am excited by my own action. 

The only challenge would be to find time to play these games in an immersive fashion, especially with my son peeking over my shoulders, and the ethics of spending more time with the laptop. Only argument is to help boost productivity during work hours and motivate a healthy balance. Of course being a history buff, I simply love the game for its content, and not just the gameplay aspects. It is like an extra accessory to my various books and podcasts.

So that is the full steam ahead..

going back for a while to Anno 1404

 The peasants need only a bit of fish to eat initially, which is fine given the human nature.

Then as the population increases, their wants also increase. Now, how is this logical you might ask.

I can consider this in light of needs arising due to presence of resources or technologies to extract them.

And once people have a taste of these new goods, it never goes off. It is very clear in the game too that if you take away any of the basic needs once the population has advanced, they get very pissed off quickly and start leaving or raising rebellions.

You feed the hungry lion once, you need to keep feeding. There in lies the challenge in raising huge cities with large populations, surplus stock of all stuff and good control of the multiple islands. If there is also a military goal, significant amount of resources get redirected in that side too.

Most of the time, the supply and smooth running of resources between various islands requires a lot of micro management, until there is enough cash and population to support enough trade ships, large and quick enough raw material productions, huge storage and a large enough set of war ships to protect your shipping lanes. Due to the imbalanced nature of resources and development level in each island ( resulted by our own decisions to direct attention and vision to particular aspects), it takes a few attempts and a few rebellions to get the tempo going.

Now I know that before raising the population for a given level, I need to ensure a strong supply and it is prudent to spend time and pile up materials and ships as required to keep the supply up and running for the expected higher demands.

Combining this with the impromptu missions requiring a variety of resources, one would start expecting production lines to keep every single resources at a level higher than its need. This is practically impossible to achieve because even raw materials which are abundant might often need to be redirected to its next level of production to get a very efficient generation of the higher valued product.

A sudden demand for the underlying raw material might be difficult to satisfy, and one might have to resort to buying for the needs while borrowing from the existing stock or shutting down a few production plants to get the raw materials piled up. 

There is also a risk with shipping products in excess of its use across islands. Ships tend to get filled up with goods that are not needed, and take away slots meant for other critical goods and suddenly you might notice a rebellion and it might be too late to take recovery actions. This is why constantly checking your stockpiles and cargo loads on key shipping lanes helps keeping the lanes healthy.

The fun part of the game is the ability to keep switching between raising the automated systematic shipping lanes and production queues while also doing a tiny bit of exploration, investments in resources and strategically raising population levels, wars etc.

walking through a bramble bush

 some sort of impasse seems to be built when things don't exactly go at the same pace as I wish them to.

The resulting frustration is sometimes responsible for leading me into various other paths. Of course I am not trying to absolve my own thinking, feeling and aware brain of its responsibilities in finding meaning, keeping up the tempo and trying to enjoy life.

But quite often, the multiple paths or intentions tend to get muddled up. Specifically, if you look at the simple goal of trying to be happy, comfortable and trying to be super productive, or even perfect. These are kind of built to conflict at various stages, as trying to do something or achieve something, often makes us move from a particular state of mind to another. And all movement requires a bit of stress, attention and focus to get it right. This is in contrast with the staple amounts of peace or comfort at staying in one point.

The feeling gets stronger and stronger that we are not going to be the perfect <anything> , as per any criteria of perfection defined without touching my very specific needs and persona. If anything, in order to get a fine balance between my own definition of perfections and the external triggers for action, there is a complex interplay between these two forces. It is not easy to state the importance of any one, or to predict how in a particular moment, a decision may be taken.

But the external practical world craves stability and predictability, and being actors on this stage, I too have developed a few skills in providing these to others, and am capable of judging the same of others, to some extent. To claim mastery on these, is akin to accepting the folly of accepting the need and the resulting abilities in living with those rules. It also gives and internally thumbs up to continue boosting those attributes. 

Let us be clear that I am in no way already favouring one side of things. I might be just going a circuitous way to say that these things require a fine and delicate hand to let each side take turns winning, or sometimes generate completely unique and wild things by combining with each other in various proportions and manners.

That unpredictability and the bound in the stride that it provides is afterall the elixir of life.

Am I too good for myself

Well, here I am, opening this Blogger interface after long long breaks and gaps.

The question in the title is the one I always find myself asking, when I am back here.

I end up browsing through my past articles and give up on writing anything.

I think I am holding up my past work to myself as the heights of my achievement. Some parts of me wants to believe that it is indeed the best I was. But I am now questioning that notion, because..well.. you know..I think I am the best in the current state always.

After all, I am here in the current state only after being in the past state, which naturally makes my current state a superset of my past states too. So why shouldn't it be better than the past state, which doesn't have the benefit of hindsight that my current state of mind has?

So here is to a new beginning..

Jungle diaries - First day ends

 I had got allocated to the Gopalswamy Betta range or GS Betta range. That range was controlled from the RFO's office itself, and not any makeshift camps. 

This is just one of the many ranges within the Bandipur reserve. And definitely not a good one for sighting animals, as it is situated just outside the park boundaries and meant mainly for administrative purposes than core wildlife activities. 

I got a different camp than the others I had got acquainted with by that time. There were a lot of haggling and transfers. I didn't feel like asking any, even knowing well that I was going to a weak buffer zone just outside the gate.

I was clearly dejected and devoid of any company or contact to improve my situation. I had literally given in.

The instructions were provided and the manuals shared were largely in Kannada with forms to fill. Had gone around getting the key fields translated at least.

At least I should make myself useful wherever it is.

4-5 people finally joined out jeep which is HQ for the entire park. There we heard that the beats are waste and Hangala nearby has better sightings. Two experienced guys in our batch immediately opt for it and are taken there, leaving me and Ravi Kiran here at HQ.

The rooms are bad. No water, no guards for company, and no one to cook. This isn't what was promised at the briefing which promised well stocked camps with guards and lots of responsibilities.

The room was basically a small one with a shelf to keep some stuff and a space to sleep on the floor. The toilets too were in an exterior building somewhere behind the HQ. This building was part of some kind of quarters for the staff, minus the furniture they had.

Hopefully, someone would come in soon. And the beats aren't promising either. But keeping hope that this experience would be positive.

By this point, I was regretting various decisions, starting from the very first one to enroll for the exercise to not asking for a better position. It took a bit more of mental affirmations to find the right attitude to bear it.

Ah, there is a lot of politics and inteferences. Sitting idly outside the room, I can see after all the shortlisting, people who just walked in also were being accepted. So much for the formal application processes we had gone through. I could have haggled and tried to get into the core zones, but I didn't even try. 

Keeping fingers crossed and making plans in mind to utilize opportunity to maximum.

Hope my other friends are getting a better treatment and are enjoying.

Signing off for now.

-Vivek

1st day at Tiger census Bandipur

a thought in the bottle

Savouring the past glory is not the best thing to do.

So get on with the writing, ok?

Ok boss.

But what do I write?

Who wants to see?

Earlier, I used to imagine readers waiting for some content which has elements of travel and adventure, of intrigue, or simple stories.

Now we are too tied up in our lives, and loads of entertainment options at our fingertips.

Who would want to read all this stuff?

Now, does that mean we are back to the old days of the internet ( famed, but never experienced myself ) where most people largely ignore small blogs. And if there are people coming up to read/comment etc on your blog, then you have an equally lost soul or someone coming out of complete boredom.

I mean how many people could be reading all these boring stuff when they have their own lives to deal with?

Such are my thoughts that I hereby commit to the note in the bottle and set adrift on the vast vast digital ocean.

Sailing through the ages over stormy oceans

The latest book I have been reading is "The Island Civilizations of Polynesia" by "Robert.C.Suggs". It was originally published in 1960, and I believe mine is that very same edition. I got it from Bookworm shop as a worn out second hand copy. Sad to say, the book came to parts while I was trying to read, and I plan to try and glue it back after I am done reading it. 

Now onto the key take-aways. I had later added some more content I could quickly research from Wikipedia and other sources to try and make this an interesting reference.

 The Polynesian islands were populated by people originally from around South East Asia.

The Melanasian islands, New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia had land bridges at some point, whereas the polynesian islands never had. At least this what I recall from the initial sections of how the islands weer populated. So this means the far flung Polynesian islands were majorly populated by a sea faring folk, braving unknown vast oceans and perilous shoals and reefs. The islands themselves were seldom hospitable, and so it must have taken many centuries of deliberate and accidental exploration to finally settle all islands worthy of being settled.

All this was studied on the basis of lots of data comprising of Anthropological data, Linguistic data, and finally lots of ongoing Archaeological evidences that is slowly setting the pieces in its right places. Of course, looking across such a vast swath of time, all evidences tend to have a huge margin for error, which is kind of taken for granted in this line of business.

Around the time of Word War II, the linguists of the world had researched and identified that the Polynesian language originated from Proto-Indonesian, and each island has since developed its own dialects. By figuring out the similarity between the various dialects, we have been able to underscore or sometimes question the different ages at which the different islands were settled and where the settlers came from.

Image source

Now I'll like to talk about some interesting tit bits I could remember about the various islands themselves:

The island known as Marquesas in the modern day, with the name attributed to its colonial discoverers, is believed to be the oldest settlement in the Polynesian triangle. By comparing various artifacts found on this island against those found on the other islands, a lot of migration path information has been derived by the archaeologists over the last century.

The Samoans ( I always read it first as Samosa ) developed a centralized village system with leaders claiming title rather than lineage, whereas their neighbours the Tongans developed a lineage based isolated family units. The Tongans were fierce warriors and often used as mercenaries in Fiji. This difference is mainly owing to the differences in the natural habitat of the two islands. While Samoa had huge tracts of fertile land capable surrounded by all other resources like clean water and quarries, Tonga had an its resources split across the islands. The split caused family units surrounding that area to become the sole source of this resource to the central authority, and they traded or fought for the remaining ones.

The Samoans ended up building huge fortified villages and large temples for their deities as the local leader was capable of feeding a huge number of workers for lengthy periods of time due to the huge surplus in food production. The Tongans were largely left to producing the bare minimum required and became adept at fighting wars.

Samoa and Tonga were the Western Polynesian islands from where the culture spread further to the east to the likes of Tahiti and Hawaii.

I didn't feel much elated about the Tahitians and Hawaiians as they seemed to build quite a good centralized society banking on good fertile lands, building large temples and fighting brutal wars for resources and politics. Every day civilization for you.. But of course the big islands had their own share of old stories of settlement, death and wars by which the dominant settlement was achieved.

The story of the Easter Islands is a complete different thing of its own. It has always been mired in controversy over the Moai statues. The wild theories themselves are so much fun to read. But the author here being a professional, quickly dismissed all of them and got to the business of using stratigraphic data to established the mode of settlement and probable ages. He quickly explains that unlike the other islands to its west, this eastern island was settled directly by the inhabitants of Marquesas Islands. Also, due to the lack of any proper vegetation and the islands being largely volcanic in nature, the unique statues and other petroglyphs paint a completely different landscape.

Then came the very interesting myths of the Moa birds and the Maori on the New Zealand, and their valour against the British colonizers. It all provided me lots of interesting topics to look out for further reading.

The varied stories of the Polynesians keeps telling us that the same set of people from the same areas or sometimes from the same family, end up in so many different ways, shaped by their land and their times. The arrival of the Europeans which we all consider as a major interruption in all such cultures wouldn't be the first, as they went through the cycle of discovering new lands, and often leaving old ones behind. But then they are not comparable as the former was more permanent, directed and intelligent erasure of roots. The journeying and discoveries only lead to expansion of culture in comparison. Needless to say, the arrival and settlement of the Europeans, often for the purpose of whaling, trading and general missionary purposes simply decimated the population with communicable diseases and forced eradication of culture.

I am not really exposed to any current day political elements or sentiments of the Polynesians. But seeing that some islands are still under the control of the British or the French, I can't stop wondering how hot things are in the idyllic vacation islands of the world.