Frost Bite: Rainy Day Soliloquies

Ethics and the individual

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:13:54 GMT

Anand Shah blogs about "The Ethics of Individualism" the jist of which is "The challenge in world ethics is not so much about structures and rules, but about the tendencies of people to do what is right at times of great consequence."

Righteousness and honesty

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 05:01:11 GMT

I am, over the course of a few discussions, left to ponder what is the difference between righteousness and honesty. The difference between what I want to do, what I can do and what I am going to do brings up so many conflicts in so many lives that are intertwined in complex strains. Its riding the wire that is so daunting and its so ironic that the primary reason you want to ride the wire is to please everybody at the same time. Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) so rightly said - nobody is happy when its a compromise. Everybody feels like they have lost something and aren't too happy at that. What cause or higher purpose does one have to (wants to) stay true to? oneself? society? ideals? others? love? What is the 'right' thing to do?

The interplay between theme - story - story telling Pt. 1

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:22:43 GMT

The other day I was partly thinking out aloud and partly talking this over with a friend of mine - what differentiates one movie from another, a book from the other. It all started from my criticism of J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter series - it was, is and will be my point of view that she hasn't revolutionalized the realm of children's literature.

I am not entirely sure of how to decouple the details of my reasoning from the specifics of the case of J. K. Rowling but I shall try to present my general theory of what makes a good story and cite examples to reinforce them.

So what goes into making a good novel/series of novels given that the final aim of every artist in every genre is to sell. We also very well know that a promotional blitz the likes of which have never been seen before can transform a mediocre effort into a best selling one. "The bigger the lie, the greater is the number of people believing in it". Forbes.com had this to say of the sixth edition of Harry Potter, that created records of sorts by selling 10 million copies in its first 24 hrs, "Enormous sales are not a sure-fire sign of literary merit.....". I tend to agree whole heartedly but a discussion of the power of marketing is outside the scope of this exposition and will be skirted.

The elements that go into creating a lasting impression in one's mind must aim to connect with the user on a level more significant than just an shock and awe campaign. How exactly does one do that? By connecting the viewer/reader (henceforth shall be refered to as 'user') to meaningful, significant events in his past. These events encompass those that have occured in the past and have had a profound effect on the user, those that haven't yet occured but are on the wish-list of the user, those that the user wishes would happen to him but knows that they aren't likely (these are those that incite the feelings of escapism, exhilaration). The use of powerful symbols/images in the medium (books, movies etc) make this connection possible. The appeal of the medium lies in its skill to make this connection possible and an easy one at that. Once this is done, the medium takes on some personal meaning to the user - each user connects to the medium in his own way thus leading to varied perceptions of the medium - the biggest reason that some people happen to like a particular medium and others don't. Most, if not all, users are like fish in the ocean of emotions (pity, love, hate etc) and movies/books (medium) are like fishing trawlers that trawl through these oceans with long trailing tackles of all possible sizes, colors, shapes (signifying the entire spectrum of human emotion). Fish usually are pre-disposed to a particular kind of tackle and on sight of it, they bite. This is analogus to different people being attached to different emotions and latch onto mediums that appeal to their sensibility - the reason why some people love mushy romatic movies while others would rather go watch a horror movie.

Watch out for part 2

How flexible are you?

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 21:44:45 GMT

No, I wasn't refering to body positions but acrobatics of the mind - a sort of mind over matter topic for today.

I work in this small but very enterprising start up company (technically we have out-tagged ourselves as startups as most startups fold within the first three years and we are still going strong and expanding even). But at the end of the day, we are small in size and resources are precious. What does one do when resources come at a price one cannot afford to pay every time? Improvise, innovate and invent. Therein lies the secret to those million dollar acquisitions that you so often read about.

But the point I was trying to make is that a small of group of highly motivated individuals all driven by a common vision assume multifarious roles in their professional and non-professional lives to attain their unifying goal. I am just so impressed with the diverse roles they play all at once and so effectively. The company has (very rightly so, in my opinion, considering the size of teams) done away with most distinctions of program manager, tech lead etc etc. Everybody is as important and nobody shirks away from the 'menial' jobs of system administrator, handy man and any other job specification one would tend to look over when working at a big company. And this just doesn't stop at sewing needle kind of jobs (as compared to a sword wielding one). One has to make important and useful contributions at a managerial level regarding business strategies, contribute on the technical direction of the project and donning the mantle of marketing professional, read up and be knowledgeable on the competition and other things that people from this division usually do.
Doing all this on a daily basis, I find, requires great mental discipline. Once the wild steeds of your mind are under control, great demands can be made of them and all of them will be met. A disciplined mind is flexible. At one moment, you are thrashing out the nuances of implementation and the next you are thinking on the level of making gross/big picture decisions. Putting the mind through these paces and the ability to think on various levels almost all at once while maintining each level in isolation requires mental discipline.

So, am I saying that I have disciplined my mind. Hardly. Though I have learnt a great deal since I was here, the rigidity of my mind and my fascination with details (because I think small, think of details, think like a developer) often has resulted in me being out of sorts at times when I am required to add my two cents to a business/broad technical discussion. And this often has put me under a lot of work to catch up with and the result - you guessed it, long work hours. I am getting better but the progress has been slow.

Does anybody else want to share similar thoughts?