lunatechian (lunatech-ian)

I have come to a realization. Any project, no matter how small or big, should have a way to measure how sucessful it is. We should be able to define the metrics which would make a project sucessful and ways to measure those parameters. There should be a objective way to measure these metrics defined before we start the project. I am using the term project in a generic term - it may be something as mundane as learning chess (in which case the metric can be - I should be able to defeat the chess program at level 4) or something as challenging as losing weight.

Some months back, I had written down a list of the areas my life sucked. Here is the status on those things again

• Health - Getting better. Instead of just whining about how I was getting fat, I am taking steps to reduce weight.
• Volunteer work - I am not still satisfied with this. I am a lurker on many lists and irc channels instead of being an active participant. I need to think of ways to change this maybe just concentrate on just a few projects.
• Book reading - I am more than happy about this . My book collection has expanded a lot, to include fantasy and non-fiction books. More importantly, I have read most of the books in my collection.
• Hacking - Not enough hacking. There should be someway in which I can club my hacking and volunteer work together.
• Fun - One of my good friends has moved to Bangalore and I can now hang out with him instead of cribbing about how much Bangalore sucks

A good thing about having a short, but intense attention span is that I can work on many interesting things at once. It also means that I can sometimes concentrate only on the unhappy (or more precisely, worrisome) parts of my life with all intensity, making those 15 minutes quite depressing. Luckily, there are not many unhappy episodes that I have to dwell on, but this is something that I should watch out for.

One life - live it.

— Seen on someone's t-shirt

Today was my third day at the gym. I can see that going to the gym has become a part of my routine now and I don't have to make any mental effort to motivate myself to go there. There is one good thing about getting older (FYI, I am 27 now), it is quite easy to discipline myself. The process of getting into a new habit requires deciding that I want to do it, finding a good enough time slot for it and doing it. I was able to transform my habit of reaching at lunch time at the office to reaching at 9 AM just by deciding that I wanted to do it and then doing it. I can feel the difference from my college days, when I would make all kinds of excuses for not doing something.

Today completes my one year at Yahoo! Bangalore. This is the first time in my life when I am not thinking of quitting a job after six months. A big thanks to spoOnman aka Pankaj Kaushal for referring me here. Looking forward to another fun filled year here.

RFC 1984 is Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) Statement on Cryptographic Technology and the Internet.

The below is not my writing. I picked it from the comments left at " The Importance of Having Friends Who Disagree".

Somethings I have observed,which are indirectly related to topic (well more to the topic of ideas really) are:

• Now a days, more than ever, even if you implement an idea/prototype which you do not yourself believe in much or consider low-impact; people may find it interesting and find out a new way of using than what you could not even think. Somethings become popular just like that:(. (This is not to suggest that popularity is necessarily a measure of cool ideas)
• It is difficult generally in practice for people to reject an "new" idea which is implemented (tangible) and available to play with; than an idea presented in theory/verbally. I mean both can get rejected, but it relatively takes greater time to reject the former than latter unless someone has implemented very badly(in which case even a good idea can get rejected quickly).
• A good measure of finding a person which you mention, quickly, is how fast and right that person understands the concept of "po". After explaining "po", from the other persons reaction, you can make out how close he is to the perfect guy. I have seen that some guys do not bothered to listen; then there are those who nod their head and say they understood ; but the closest are those who just start building upon an idea from where you left or branch out from it or start another path. Basically, if idea has any inspiration/possibility they seek before giving it up immediately. It means they give due consideration before judging it black or white. Most of the times I have seen that both people involved come out with something slightly or completely different than the original.
• Some people develop "disagreement" as a coolness trait, assuming it to be a characteristic of an "independent thinker". They generally are successful in drawing a lot of attention. It is in my opinion, important to cross-check them, by looking at their cool ideas/reasons/explanations carefully and having your own opinion about it. It is sometimes easy to fall in the trap of pseudo-disagreement friends too:)