Readability Index

I tried the readability index test on my blog and here are the results

Reading Level Results

            Summary                                                       Value

            Total sentences                                                 310

            Total words                                                     3157

            Average words per Sentence                            10.18

            Words with 1 Syllable                                       2249

            Words with 2 Syllables                                       572

            Words with 3 Syllables                                       227

            Words with 4 or more Syllables                           109

            Percentage of word with three or more syllables            10.64%

            Average Syllables per Word                               1.43

            Gunning Fog Index                                           8.33

            Flesch Reading Ease                                        75.64

            Flesch-Kincaid Grade                                         5.24

Basically the higher the  Flesch Reading Ease the better it is. The gunning fox index relates to what kind of content type you belong to. I belong to 'Most popular novels' category.

Try it at Readability Test 

Six Degrees of Separation- A unique experimentation on Orkut

I don't know, how many are familiar with such a term,well here is a short explanation. This theory was devised by Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy during 1920's, this theory states that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries.

Well I noticed something strange, Orkut which is a very popular networking site, shows a true example of this theory, here is what I tried, I logged into Orkut and chose a random community which I'm no way interested/related.

a) In my case I took up Photography- Sub Topic Digital Photography.

b) I took a random user listed on the side panel.

c) Once I clicked on this user, Orkut gives me a network on how I'm related to that user.

Well here is the surprising part, I got less than 6 people connecting me and the user.

I tried this on various other communities and various users, no way related to me, I always came up with a number less than 6, what does this prove, no idea, does this show the 6 degrees of separation works, well it is upto you(the reader) to experience this and write back to me.

More of Six Degrees of Separation on Wikipedia

orkut,people,networking

Conflicts.. Arrghhhhh!!!!!

We are very well trained by our society and families to avoid having conflicts, this approach affects our work life in a very large way. WHY????

We are always told not to question too much, to take in things for the good etc.. etc..

The problem of such learnings is, (a story)

We had some problems with the Builder, from whom I bought a flat, he had already delayed it by about 8 months, hence we(flat owners) approached him stating our problem. We fixed a meeting, and he did not turn up, another meeting the very next weekend, he turned up for 5 min and left. Another meeting, so on and on and on, and finally, the people who were frustrated started to dwindle, saying, its ok, someday we are going to get the flat, it dwindled to such a level that only 2 of us were left.

This incident made me wonder, why are we happy with 'chalta hai' attitude. We do not rise to the conflict that has happened to solve it, rather we keep quite. When it becomes extremely personal, we shout scream and fight, but not resolve the conflict. We do not see a win-win situation in any condition WHY??? 

Can’t do it!!!!Is it mind over matter???

"I can't do it", it is impossible for me to do this.

Well this is what most of us say, when somebody says he has completed a marathon, or cycled for 360 km, well here is a person who has done it. Sathish. Sathish, is a good friend, and I've learnt a lot from him, especially in the field of fitness.

He inspired me to start running, now (at-least I can boast of this) I run about 8Km on alternate days, so what have I learnt out of all this?I guess I can relate a lot of the learning's to real life, so here goes

• Alone:  When you run long distances, you run alone, at-least in the beginning, when you are not ready for a marathon yet.
  • Learning:So all you are doing is not competing with others, but competing with yourself. It is like trying to realise the potential of yourself.
• Giving up uring my runs, there are points when I want to give up and take a rick back home. It is not that I'm tired, not that my legs are aching, just that I'm bored. But completing it is a joy.
  • Learning:Keep a bigger picture in life as to why are you doing something? Say for eg.. why are you working say in Java? Why are you in advertising?I'm not talking about the long term goal, of becoming the CEO of a company, but why are you doing this? What is the penultimate goal, and are you doing the right thing to achieve it.
• Anti-Thesis to point 2(or semi anti-thesis): In total opposition to what I said in point 2, I say, when looking far, do not trip on your own shoe laces(this has happened to me ).
  • Learning: Look ahead to what you want to be, but at the same time, focus on what you are doing currently, else, well simply saying, you trip and break your jaw.
• WATCHOUT:With the Indian traffic you'll have to watch-out on the road.
  • Learning:Watch-out where you are going and what you are doing(I think this point is needless to be said explicitly)
• From One Telephone pole to the next: In Forrest Gump Tom Hanks answers to a question asked by him on how he ran so much "Well I just ran to the next telephone pole, then to the end of this town, then to the end of the county, then the state and then the nation". Something similar is what Sathish told, when I asked in awe how he could run so much. (this is for people who know the geography of Bangalore, else the previous example is good) "Well I run from Koramangala to Sun City, I push a little bit more the next day till the Intel office, then I push a little bit more to Multiplex, then a little more, and a lttl…".
  • Learning:Like Sathish in his runs, let us push a little more than yesterday. Let us do something better than what we did yesterday, let us take a risk, a little bit more than yesterday, let us love more than what we did yesterday.
• Relax, run slow:Every long distance runner knows, his limitations, he cannot sprint for a long time, so he takes it slowly, catches on a rhythm and runs(Thanks Sathish for this technique).
  • Learning on't hurry up in life. WE have seen an explosive growth of the Indian economy, but it doesn't mean to say that we have to hurry up, become senior guy in the first 3 years of joining a company, grow to managers in the next 5 years, become department heads within 10 years and so on.. remember, the guy who runs slow and a constant rhythm lasts longer in the race.

So these are some of the learnings. A very special thanks to Sathish to make me believe that I can run, someday I will participate and complete the marathon….. A dream as of now

Exist or Live

            

Baristta coffee, I was in deep discussion with Sushil my friend, when these words came "Do we exist or we live?" What is the difference? Well for starters….

Animals,plants,animate, in-animate, living, non-living, things exist

Living beings live, a much more deeper sense, we each breath we live, to see the wonders to nature, to experience love,hate, to laugh, to cry, to hurt and to be hurt, to be jealous, to be forgiving, to be crazy, to JUST LET GO. Sounds like a commercial punch, it is.

There in the quaint entrance of the coffee shop, with the music blaring into our ears, we realised, most of us exist, without knowing , feeling, experiencing life, the way it should be. Never we get up one day and say "I'm going to live just for today, I'm happy even if I cease to exist henceforth". Notice I said 'exist' and not 'live' . A person is alive even if she ceases to exist, if she has lived her life to the fullest. 

Getting caught in the nasty web of worries of, what about my job, why am I not earning more, what position am I going to be in, what about my marriage, what about my kids, what about my wife, what about my kids marriage, and finally what about my health? By the time these questions are answered, we have existed for a life and will be waning away soon, without even living fully. 

This is not about philosophy, not about religion, by the time a person realises, all this that he has to wake up, it is late, too late infact. My elders always say, you have not seen the world, thereby you have less experience, I say then it is time for me to see the world, go places, breath that fresh crisp morning air, eat that dish slow feeling every grain, every drip of it running down my throat, touch somebody like feather, feel the sun being naked running on the beach, getting drunk, eyeing that beautiful girl. Live a LIFE cease to just exist, but LIVE A LIFE.

So much so, the coffee was not too good said Sushil, the tea(Lemon Zinger I know strange name) was a zinger all the way,……………………………………………………. 

From Life Hack: Management Hack: Grow Fire

If you’re a supervisor or executive in your company, you also must play the role of farmer. It’s your job to cultivate and grow crops that will yield the next series of leaders and top performers. So, with that as the backdrop, I say to you: grow fire.

Grow Fire

Find the most passionate of your employees and give them extra care and attention, because though they might occasionally crowd the other plants with their quirks, their passion is what will ignite and move the company forward. Your fire crops are the kinds of people you want to cultivate into leaders that you can send into situations in your stead, and let them handle the task. Accept all responsibility for any problems they cause, but give all praise to them.

Managers and supervisors can sometimes feel worry that by giving their subordinates the spotlight on certain activities that it will somehow reflect negatively on their own perceived value to the organization. If my employee gets all the praise and spotlight, they’ll think nothing of me.

I disagree. I think that by growing out incredible talent within your ranks, their success comes back as a hallmark of what a great manager and developer of talent you truly are. It’s such a powerful message, to tell an employee, “You’ve got what it takes. Go ahead and run with this. I trust you.” When you mean it, and when they truly have the ability, it’s a powerful moment.

Giving your passionate and capable employees the ball to run with also tells the rest of the team that if they work hard and do more than just the required effort, they have a shot at something bigger than their current role. It’s far more motivating than free coffee out of the vending machines, or blue jean Fridays. And it’s also giving something back to the company.

Plan Tomorrow Today

You already know who the “fire” is on your team. The minute you understood the concept, you plugged in her name while considering this. Are you already working with this perspective in mind? Here are some tips to growing your fire.

• Share the end results requirements- Your talented leader-to-be has passion. Now, share the perspective from which you’re making your decisions. Not the “how to,” but the “what we need for a win” type information. Tell him, “It might seem like we’re pushing Engineering too hard, but if we make this deadline, we’ll get a $400,000 bonus to the contract.” Give your fire a sense of the dimensions from which you make decisions.
• Share boundaries- Letting an employee run with a project doesn’t mean throwing her to the wild and letting her figure it all out. Show the edges of the game board, the known hazards, the things that traditionally will cause an issue. And then let your talented star navigate the course.
• Announce and Coronate- Make sure more than you and your special employee know of this granting of extra power. Not in any weird way, and certainly not in a dynamic that will alienate or dishearten the remaining team members (”Yumiko’s really a star performer, so she’s going to handle the case. The rest of you would do well to learn by her.” — That would be the worst message ever to give.) But be sure everyone knows Yumiko’s working on your authority and that she can count on your support and hopefully the support of the entire team.
• Stay attentive for “switchers”- Occasionally, a passionate up-and-comer is really a despot waiting to happen, someone who waits politely for power before using it to strike out and execute his own agenda. Watch for this, and when you observe it (be certain before you act), pull the person aside as quickly as possible and assess together. Give feedback. Search for motivations different than your original assessment. And if necessary, revoke the opportunity for the time being. Just like prison, never take away hope for a better chance, but be clear that the actions you observed weren’t appropriate for the kind of leader you’re looking to cultivate.
• Broadcast success, shield failures- Give your freshly grown fire all the sunlight you can when she blazes a new trail to success for the team. Make sure your boss knows who your new superhero is. Give your peers an earful of her praise. Praising others often rubs off a little on you, too. It shows that you’re a gracious and appreciative person, and folks want that kind of energy around them.Now, the flipside. You know this. You’ve read it a million times. It’s one of the biggest lessons to learn, because often it seems almost natural to want to pile on criticism to someone who’s run afoul of expectations. But resist the urge. Stand up for their efforts and say that you imagine only better things to come. In private, take what steps are necessary. If he’s really botched things up, explain all the ramifications of his actions. Not, “You really messed up,” but, “By missing that deadline, we lost the bonus, we will have to spend more money on overtime and contractors to make up, and everything will slip downstream as well.” We always target the actions and their ramifications, not the person’s character.

Good Farmers

There are good managers in companies, bright managers who really contribute to the success of an organization. You’re one of those, right? But imagine just how much more effective you’d appear to an organization if, alongside your own considerable talents, you were producing these fire crops of talented leaders, who would in turn become future managers and leaders of greatness within the organization. Do I want a stand-alone great manager, or one who’s giving me growth for the future. All things equal, if I were in charge, I’d want the one growing fire.

From Search CIO: WIKIS AND BLOGS TRANSFORMING WORKFLOW

Why e-mail when you can wiki?Wikis, as well as the more established blog, are experiencing the same kind of grass-roots adoption within businesses that the Internet and e-mail did when they first emerged on the scene. more..

From CNET News: SAP co-founder sees only 3 potential buyers

A SAP co-founder and major shareholder said only three U.S. companies are capable of buying the world's biggest maker of software applications for businesses, Financial Times Deutschland reported in an article due to be published on Friday.

Hasso Plattner, who is also chief of SAP's supervisory board, told the paper that he could not see too many scenarios in the case of a merger or acquisition of the German company.

"There are only three potential buyers: IBM, Microsoft and Google. I don't see any more," he said, adding that there was nothing going on. more…

April oops May Showers and May Flowers.

Bangalore has cooled now due to good rains 

                                        

Cleaned the city of dust to a large extent, I'm really happy                         

Fairness!!!

"Use Fair & ****** cream, with its new fairness meter and you will be fair within 4 weeks".

This is the ad I saw on television a few days ago. One question struck me, Why in all my senses does one have to be fair. A lot of such ads have come in from various companies, showing a young girl, not getting a job, not getting married, a guy having a deep complex, just because THEY ARE NOT FAIR!!!!!

WTH, why should one be fair to get a job, if that is the criteria then it is the magical formula to get a job.

Who has set these standards? Why have they come in?

For starters, the society has started this trend. From time immemorial, we see that fairness is a mark of beauty. Romans used to do it, the victorian society used to do it. Indian culture had it, moreover todays generation has it equally. 

So why fuss over white skin. It was believed the fairness depicts purity, Greeks, got their virgins of the temples, to be fair and in white clothing. In the Kamasutra too, fairness is depicted as something to be seeked out. Well one thing is clear that fair skin, depicts purity and even wealth. A person who is fair shows that she has not to work in the fields, outside, against the elements of nature and has ample time to take care of her skin to be white and nice. Hence in the earlier days, queens went to extraordinary lengths to keep themselves white, activities such as bathing in milk, application of special lotions were a common occurence.

So it is nothing new to the cosmetic world of today, even men have now joined the elite bandwagon of fair skins.

Most of all it is giving a wrong connotation, that dark skinned people are not good enough to be married(if that was the case, I would be still single ))

In any case, this is a perception, if someone, some model, some celebrity who opts to be dark catches on, I guess dark skin is going to be the in thing. I'm sure I'll witness that revolution too, hopefully!!