Excerpts from - Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

 Elon's "Algorithm" (Page 283)

• Question every requirement. Each should come with the name of the person who made it. You should never accept that a requirement came from a department, such as from “the legal department” or “the safety department.” You need to know the name of the real person who made that requirement. Then you should question it, no matter how smart that person is. Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous, because people are less likely to question them. Always do so, even if the requirement came from me. Then make the requirements less dumb.
• Delete any part or process you can. You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you didn’t delete enough.
• Simplify and optimize. This should come after step two. A common mistake is to simplify and optimize a part or a process that should not exist.
• Accelerate cycle time. Every process can be speeded up. But only do this after you have followed the first three steps. 
• Automate. That comes last. 

The algorithm was sometimes accompanied by a few corollaries, among them:

• All technical managers must have hands-on experience. For example, managers of software teams must spend at least 20% of their time coding. Solar roof managers must spend time on the roofs doing installations. Otherwise, they are like a cavalry leader who can’t ride a horse or a general who can’t use a sword.
• Comradery is dangerous. It makes it hard for people to challenge each other’s work. There is a tendency to not want to throw a colleague under the bus. That needs to be avoided.
• It’s OK to be wrong. Just don’t be confident and wrong.
• Never ask your troops to do something you’re not willing to do.
• Whenever there are problems to solve, don’t just meet with your managers. Do a skip level, where you meet with the level right below your managers.
• When hiring, look for people with the right attitude. Skills can be taught. Attitude changes require a brain transplant.
• A maniacal sense of urgency is our operating principle.
• The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation.

Polytopia based "Life Lessons" (Pg 426)

• Empathy is not an asset.
• Play life like a game.
• Do not fear losing. “You will lose,” Musk says. “It will hurt the first fifty times. When you get used to losing, you will play each game with less emotion.” You will be more fearless, take more risks.
• Be proactive.
• Optimize every turn. In Polytopia, you get only thirty turns, so you need to optimize each one. “Like in Polytopia, you only get a set number of turns in life,” Musk says. “If we let a few of them slide, we will never get to Mars.”
• Double down.
• Pick your battles.

Other Quotes

• "The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation."
• “Wanting to be everyone’s friend leads you to care too much about the emotions of the individual in front of you rather than caring about the success of the whole enterprise—an approach that can lead to a far greater number of people being hurt."
• "Precision is not expensive. It’s mostly about caring. Do you care to make it precise? Then you can make it precise.”
• “You have to have fear and love for the leader. Both.”
• “I’m a big believer that a small number of exceptional people who are highly motivated can do better than a large number of people who are pretty good and moderately motivated,”
• “This is how civilizations decline. They quit taking risks. And when they quit taking risks, their arteries harden. Every year there are more referees and fewer doers. When you’ve had success for too long, you lose the desire to take risks.”
• He would often go into "surge mode". The goal was to shake things up and “extrude shit out of the system,” as he put it. “There’s no forcing function to succeed other than us.”
• "It's not the product that leads to success. It's the ability to make the product efficiently. It's about building the machine that builds the machine. In other words, how do you design the factory?"

Excerpts from Randy Pausch Time Management Talk

Randy Pausch's video on time management:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0

Here's the slide he uses:
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy/RandyPauschTimeManagement2007.pdf

My take aways:
- Time shortage is a systemic problem and needs a systemic approach.
- You don't FIND time, you MAKE time.
- Learn to say NO.
- Don't approach life like you have all the time in the world.
- Do the hardest thing first. If you have to eat a frog, don't spend too much time looking at it. If you have to eat 3, eat the largest one first.
- Prioritize based on your 1 hour time value.

Tools:
- Make a TODO list - Quadrant.
- Work desk - multiple monitor, speaker phones
- Thank you note
- Group your phone calls. Call at lunch. Hang up on yourself mid sentence.
- Delegate - don't be vague. assign specific thing, specific deadline, specific penalty/reward.
- Delegate - assign task and give them authority and trust.

Excerpts from Warren Buffett videos

Your most valuable asset is your earning capacity.

Habits are very important. Form good habits early on, as it's harder to change later down the life.

When we hire someone we look for 3 things - intelligence, integrity and energy.

Don't do anything with the rationale that everyone else is doing it.


Q: What do you do when you know that what you love to do, does not pay well.
A: I've never met someone who's chosen what he loved and regretted it.

Excerpts from the audio book - Rich Dad Poor Dad By Robert Kiyosaki

Note: - This was an audio book that I listened to. And the below is what I remember of the top of my head.

42. Financial aptitude is most important. Your biggest wealth is your mind and how fast you can learn. A fool and his money are soon parted. To increase financial IQ you need skills such as - accounting, investing, understanding the market and understanding the law (i.e. the tax breaks and such. Corporations spend first and then are taxed, individuals are taxed first and then spend).

43. There are three kinds of income - salaried, portfolio and passive. Salaried income is exchange of money for time. It's a short term solution to a long term problem. Portfolio income is money in paper - stocks, bonds. Passive income - is real estate rent, fixed deposits, etc money working to produce more money.

44. Habit - Pay your yourself first, then your creditors and then the rest.

45. Habit - Buy assets not liabilities. The poor accumulate consumer debts the most (credit cards, personal loans), the middle class accumulate liabilities the most (fancy car, house, electronics), the rich accumulate assets the most.

46. Habit - Hire people smarter than yourself. It pays to have the best stock broker, the best attorney, the best real estate agent, etc. It is way cheaper than loosing money making wrong decisions.

47. Habit - Discipline to apply. Discipline is the number one factor that delineates the rich from the poor. Most people listen, only a few apply what they learn.

48. Habit - Choose your friends. And choose them well. More of those who you want to be like and some of those who you do not want to be like. You can learn from both.

49. Skill - If you want to sell something you need to learn sales. I recommend you join a multi-level networking company.

50. Skill - Play money related games such as Cash Flow 101

51. Recommended book - Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill, The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason, The 16 percent solution  by Joel Moskowitz

52. Quotes - The gem, mirror and the sword are the three sacred symbols of a japanese warrior. The mirror represents self inspection, and is the most treasured of the 3. Ask yourself frequently if what you are doing today will bring you closer to where you want to be tomorrow?

53. Quotes - "Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't" - Eleanor Roosevelt

Excerpts from the book - "The Question Behind The Question"

(Pg 15) We always have a choice. Always. Even deciding not to choose is making a choice.

(Pg 26) stress is a choice, because whatever the "trigger event", we always choose our own responses.

(Pg 53) When he sent me out to the mat, he'd always remind me I had three people to beat that day: my opponent, myself and the referee. That I had to beat my opponent was obvious. By "myself" he meant I had to overcome the fears any athlete naturally has. About beating the ref, he'd say, "It doesn't matter how close the match is, John. Even if you lose in overtime by one point, even if he makes a couple of questionable calls, you cannot blame the man in black and white." He'd conclude by saying, "If you want to win, you must be good enough to beat the ref!"

(Pg 97) As my mentor, W. Steven Brown, always taught, "Leaders are not problem solvers but problem givers." They let others tackle the problem, design their own solutions, and take action. How else can people learn? How else can leaders serve?

Excerpts from the book - "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" by Richard P. Feynman

(Pg 33) I thought one should have the attitude of "What do you care what other people think!" I said, "We should listen to other people's opinions and take them into account. Then, if they don't make sense and we think they're wrong, then that's that!"

(Pg 59) By that experience Tukey and I discovered that what goes on in different people's heads when they think they're doing the same thing - something as simple as counting - is different for different people.

(Pg 122) It's the only way I know to get technical information quickly: you don't just sit there while they go through what they think would be interesting: instead, you ask a lot of questions, you get quick answers, and soon you begin to understand the circumstances and learn just what to ask to get the next piece of information you need.

Excerpts from the book - "The Dream" By Gurbaksh Chahal

(Pg 33) I began to see that perception was reality. Many of the most successful companies were making no money whatsoever, but everyone assumed that the Internet was on the verge of exploding and that before long everyone would be rolling in cash.

(Pg 50) In an effort to make sure I understood the intricacies of the business, I started calling around to see what I could learn from anyone who was even remotely connected to Internet advertising.

(Pg 82) What kind of fool was I, that I had let a greedy programmer bring me to my knees? The experience taught me another valuable lesson: Never put yourself in a position of vulnerability.

(Pg 91) You must always negotiate from a position of strength.

(Pg 97) When you make decisions, it's fine to listen to the people around you, but the final decisions need to be yours. If you can't trust yourself to make decisions, you'll never succeed.

(Pg 101) Don't chase the money. Chase substance. If you have substance, the money will follow.

(Pg 110) Pick your battles.

(Pg 140) The market (share market) wasn't in my blood. You need to know what you're all about if you want to succeed. You need to play to your strengths, otherwise you're going to settle for mediocrity.

(Pg 160) Being cheap is good for the company and for the shareholders, but don't be too cheap. Never by cheap with your employees, for example. If one of them is a rock star, pay him or her a rock-star salary. This is very important. When staffing a company, you should always hire people who are smarter than you.

(Pg 178) Failure is not an option. Anyone who even entertains the idea of failure is already doomed.

(Pg 234) Grow a thick skin - a very think skin. People will question your ability to succeed, and the loudest among them might make you doubt your own talents, so you'll need a thick skin to drown out the noise. 

Excerpts from the book - "Wings of Fire: An Autobiography APJ Abdul Kalam"

(Pg 12) Iyadurai Solomon used to say, "To succeed in life and achieve results, you must understand and master three mighty forces - desires, belief, and expectation.

(Pg 17) There were setbacks, disappointments and distractions, but my father's inspiring words anchored me in those periods of nebulous drift. "He who knows others is learned, but the wise one is the one who knows himself. Learning without wisdom is of no use."

(Pg 28) I would enter the assembly shop leaving my other problems outside, just as my father used to enter the mosque for prayer, leaving his shoes outside.

(Pg 29) So far, I had believed that the sky was the limit, but now it appeared that the limits were much closer. There are boundaries that dictate life:  you can only lift so much weight; you can only learn so fast; you can only work so hard; you can only go so far!

(Pg 38) What makes life in Indian organizations difficult is the widespread prevalence of this very contemptuous pride. It stops us from listening to our juniors, subordinates and people down the line.

(Pg 51) ...these lines from a little-known poet of the nineteenth-century crossed my mind: For all your days prepare, And meet them ever alike, When you are the anvil - bear, When you are the hammer - strike.

(Pg 58) I have always considered the price of perfection prohibitive, and (instead) allowed mistakes as part of the learning process.

(Pg 73) Beautiful hands are those that do, Work that is earnest and brave and true, Moment by moment, The long day through.

(Pg 80) I preferred exiting workable solutions which would be the best options. Nothing that is new comes into time-bound projects without its own problems.

(Pg 89) Do not make rocketry your profession, your livelihood - make it your religion, your mission.

(Pg 112) I still recall quoting Ronald Fischer at one of the meetings, "The sweetness we taste in a piece of sugar is neither the property of the sugar now a property of ourselves. We are producing the experience of sweetness in the process of interacting with the sugar."

(Pg 175) Take this from me, the more decisions you can make avoiding external pressures, which will constantly try to manipulate and immobilize you, the better your life will be, the better your society will become.

(Pg 176) As Pythagoras had said twenty-five centuries ago, "Above all things, reverence yourself."

Excerpts from "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out"

My favorite excerpts from the book - "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" on Richard Feynman.

(Pg 11) They [must have] expected me to be wonderful to offer me a job like this and I wasn't wonderful, and therefore I realized a new principle, which was that I'm not responsible for what other people think I am able to do; I don't have to be good because they think I'm going to be good.

(Pg 24) I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.

(Pg 86) And the one thing that Von Neumann gave me was an idea that he had which was interesting. That you don't have to be responsible for the world that you're in, and so I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility as a result of Von Neumann's advice.

(Pg 146) We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain.

(Pg 179) I finally figured out a way to test whether you have taught an idea or you have only taught a definition. Test it this way: You say, "Without using the new word which you have just learned, try to rephrase what you have just learned in your own language."

(Pg 182) I learned then what science was about. It was patience.

(Pg 187) Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

(Pg 231) And that's one thing I did learn, that if you have some reason for doing something that's very strong and you start working at it, you must look around every once in a while and find out if the original motives are still right.

(Pg 245) In this age of specialization, men who thoroughly know one field are often incompetent to discuss another.

OnlineSBI Remit Vs ICICI Money 2 India

Recently I did a small experiment to compare money transfer from US to India.

My priorities were:

• Money Value (Exchange Rate + Transfer Fees + Service Tax)
• Remittance Speed
• Trustworthiness of financial institute.

I decided to try SBI Online Remit and ICICI Money 2 India. The reason being that SBI is the biggest bank in India, and so it was promising in terms of my 1st and 3rd priorities. ,On the other hand, ICICI being a very big private bank too seemed like a fitting match to SBI.

Here is my finding:

	SBI Express Remit	ICICI Money2India E Transfer
Transfer Requested	100 USD	100 USD
ACH Debit From US Bank	100 USD	102 USD
Money Credit Into IN Bank	4820 INR	4891 INR
Time Taken	4 Business Days	5 Business Days

Each of the banks did offer multiple options of remitting(Using ACH, Using Wire Transfer, Using Checks, and what not). My experiment was with ACH type of transmitting options only. Because it is usually the cheapest means.

I also had an eye open for fastest means of transfer and was quite impressed by the claims of Western Union to transfer money within hours.

In terms of cost effectiveness, if you are sending large amounts (More than 1500USD) then do check out Xoom (https://www.xoom.com/sendmoneynow/india/fees).

-----------

Updated on Dec 4, 2011: Apparently for larger amount, the result is different.

	SBI Express Remit	ICICI Money2India E Transfer
Transfer Requested	600 USD	600 USD
ACH Debit From US Bank	600 USD	600 USD
Money Credit Into IN Bank	30,549 INR	30,634 INR
Time Taken	5 Business Days	5 Business Days

features only a mother could love

I love it when geeks turn their humor on :-)

"Marsala" in hindi roughly translated means "die you damn" :-)

How to file ITR for free?

Filing of taxes can be done free of charge in two ways:
Method 1 - Entirely on your own
Method 2 - Using a free service

IMP- I do not bear any responsibility for the accuracy of the below given information. Please act on your own responsibility.

Initial Preparation (Common for both methods):
1) Proof Documents: Have all the necessary documents (Like Form 16, TDS Certificates, Interest certificates, Pension certificates, etc) in hand.
2) PAN: Know your PAN number (Besides the PAN card this information can be found in your proof documents and also from this link - Know Your PAN).

3) Government Website Registration: Register with the Indian Government E filing website - https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ (With this you can avail services such as – filing your returns online, checking your e-filing process status for a particular assessment year, checking your returns (ITR-V) for a particular assessment year)

Method 1 - Filing you returns entirely on your own:
1) In order to choose the correct ITR and to download its respective ITR-Preparation software go to this link: https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/downloads.do (This is an Excel tool so you would need MS Office or similar software to use this tool). Relevant instruction about the form can also be downloaded here.

2) Open the ITR preparation software and when doing this, make sure you enable Macros.

3) Refer your proof documents and fill the ITR form completely and as accurately as possible. Some confusing fields are:
a) Designation of assessing officer: You can get this from this link – Know Your Jurisdiction. Eg. ITO, WARD 1(1) In this opinion with the advent of efiling and with the centralized submission of ITR-V(we will discuss this later) this field is largely un-important. So don’t fret about it much.
b) Tax payable on Aggregate income (8a): In case your only source of income is your salary/pension then this info can be got from the Form 16 itself. However if you have some pension or interest income details that has not been mentioned in your form 16 but you have included in the ITR form entries 2a and 2b then go to this link and calculate your applicable tax: Tax Calculator
c) Resident Status: Many would assume that just because they are currently in India while filing their returns then they would qualify as residents. This however is not entirely true. If you are an Indian citizen who stayed 182 days or more during the particular financial year then you are a resident. For others please check this link -- Resident Status.
4) After completion of form. ‘Validate’ (available macro button) the form and then click ‘Generate’. This will generate and xml file.
5) Go to Efiling website and upload this xml file.

Method 2 – Using a free service:
These providers offer a variety of free tax filing services:

1)E-Lagaan – Web Based. Free for folks with less than 3.5 lakhs INR annual income.

2)Economic Times – Web Based. Free for ITR 1 and 2

3)Saral Income Tax – Thick client to be installed (around 60 MB size). Free for ITR 1, 2 and 3.

Final Step (Common for both methods):

1) You will be receiving an ITR-V form, which you need to take a print out of.

2) Sign on the ITR-V hard copy and enclose it in a A4 size envelope (without folding) and send it to “Income Tax Department – CPC, Post Bag No - 1, Electronic City Post Office, Bangalore - 560100, Karnataka” by Ordinary Post(NO Speed Post and NO courier). This should reach them within 30 days of filing the returns online.

Lok Sabha Election in India - 2009

So finally, its that time of the year when we choose who would hold the reins of this country for the next 5 years. I'm assuming here that nothing nasty blows across to make the coalition fall like a pack of cards(fingers crossed).

Anyways, lets do our part and make sure to vote. I believe that every vote counts and the choice of candidate should be an informed one.

If your not sure whom to vote then do make sure you do some little research on the parties and candidates standing in your constituency before taking a call. Some of these links would be helpful in making you decide:

> http://in.elections.yahoo.com/manifesto.html
> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/lok-sabha-election-2009/electionspecial.cms
> http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/
> http://www.indian-elections.com/
> http://www.socialwatch.org/en/fichasPais/97.html

I hope everyone takes the pain to stand in the sun for one day to decide the fate of the country for the next 1826 days!

Those TEN Minutes!

[A fictional story written by me]

Ten minutes ain't supposed to last any longer than ten minutes.. Unless ofcourse, your seated by the window side with a honey bee on the pane. The pane is shut. And yes - the bee is very much on your side of the pane!

This morning, my rendezvous with Mr.Bee lasted that very ten looooooooong 10 minutes!

Lets begin with the beginning..

When you happen to board the office bus in the wee hours of the morning with a long journey (and I'm using the word L-O-N-G here) ahead of you, you'd have a natural inclination to plop in on the first empty seat and plug yourself back to dreamland. Unless ofcourse, you crashed a production build the previous night and your manager has nice pair of biceps (yes. we all have our share of black eyes!).

So there I was - slouching on the front-row single seater and snoring away when all of a sudden..

Buzzzzzzzzz.. Buzzz.. Buzzzzz

Ugggh.. Now what ? I slowly opened a single eyelid and caught a glimpse of this vague black-and-orange blot, buzzing about on the window pane. Couple of seconds later, when my vision cleared, I finally saw it(need i say it ?) - a bee!!

Yikes! I dropped my jaw.

They say, in the face of an eminent threat the third natural reaction is to shield yourself (the first being - denial of believing the threat's inevitability; and second being - dropping your jaw in shock and acceptance). So, I jerked myself up against the seat and pulled up my bag against my chest (as if it's cover would do me any good).

Right. Now that the defences are all set, I started evaluating the alternatives out of this predicament...

Me-I could open the window and let it find its way out.
Myself-Yeah right! At the speed with which the bus is zooming ahead, opening the window would blow the bee smack on my face.
Me- Ooops.. ok how about I smash it to pulp with my bag?!
Myself- Hmmm.. good idea. But then, it has an inherent risk- you got just 'one' shot. You miss, and you got a pissed off bee thats hell-bent on just one thing...
Me- Yeow.. no way! We'll keep that as the last option.
Myself-How much time to reach the office?
Me-Ten minutes..
Myself-Ok. The way I see it you got two options.One, you jump to your feet and get way away from the sting.. er.. bee, as far as you can.
Me-Huh.. you crazy? I'd draw attention. Wouldn't wan't to be called a scaredy-cat! No way! (When it comes to bugs and bees, we guys have big fat ego of putting up a braver front)
Myself- Ahem.. righ then. That brings me to your second option. Sit tight and don't take your eyes off it. And yes, While your at it...do pray!

Tic toc.. tic toc.. tic toc..

My eyes are glued on to the bee for a while now. Too busy to even check the time. I watch it buzzing about, banging against the pane every now and then, as if hoping to break it open with its fury. (Sigh!.. Of all the bees in the world I had to get this wild one..)

And then it happened..

The worst part of a hitting a speed breaker is the potential of being air-borne! I still recollect that fraction of a second when I was in mid-air grabing on to my hand-rest with one hand, the bag with other and clenching my teeth in fear as I watched the bee swing to my side (I fancy picturing it in matrix style, three dimensional slow motion). It did a 360 maneuver in mid air , half an inch from my nose.. before it swung back to the pane..

Phew! That was close.. I gulped in fear and pulled myself back up to position.

Wiping the sweat beads of my forhead, swearing the driver silently by the side of mouth I went back to my business of wait-and-watch.

[20 minutes later]

As I sipped my cup of coffee at my desk I smile and ponder- how effective a theistic influence, fear can have.. i pause the thought..

i take a deep breath.. place the cup down.. and take time to..

rub the 'bump' on my left cheek.. before completing the thought- ..and how futile 'opportunistic-theism' can tend to be!

The devil stung me on the eleventh minute :(

Wrong room!

Squueeeeeek!

I wonder if there exists a physics law (with a fancy name ofcourse), that explains the unnatural spike in the acoustic ability of a door-hinge, in the event of your entering a wrong room! While the hinges tend to be mild on occasions that your entering the right room, they do nevertheless hit an insanely high note when you have goofed up. So there I was, standing dumb, facing a room full of we-are-all-so-important people staring right at me.

NO IDLIS please !

Some people just loooove idlis. Idli-addicts - I'd call them. A mere fleeting sight of its royal presence in the company of its loyal compatriots -sambar and cocunut chutney, makes them drool all over the plate.

Some other people are idly-pacifists. They aren't that ardent lovers of idlis. But nevertheless, wouldn't mind if Mr.Idli paid a visit to their tummy once a while.

And then.. there are those who hate idlies. I repeat - HATE idlis. Got it ? Good. And yes, incase you haven't guessed it already - I fit this bill.

Now, imagine an idly-hater (Yup! Even our lot has got a name!) opening his(Or 'her' for that matter!) snack-pack for breakfast.. And..Wham! He gets hit by the ever-so-innocent gaze, of a bunch of no-gooder idli's, staring right back at him !

Get the picture? Yes, it was me! (Boy! Aren't you brilliant!)

It must be said at this point that an idli-hater's biggest traitor has to be none other than his loving health-conscious mom. (And boy aren't they pro's at tricking ya!) No matter how many times you try to get your 'NO - IDLIS' point across to them , you'll never get across their mind's Pro-Health Firewall!

Sigh... Anyways, so here I am, breaking my head and trying to figure out how to make those idlis go down my oesophagus(Er.. thats what the call your food pipe).

Anybody game to trade snack-packs ?

My website launched!

I've been sitting on my laptop for 2 days now, neck-deep busy in designing my personal website and the way it is coming out is so exciting. I had bought this domain way back in January 2008. The hassle of setting up hosting, mail, blog etc with different service providers put me off. I wasn't willing to shell out huge bucks to host my site. After all, it is just a simple personal forum.

Couple of days back i bumped across the Google-App service. Man its awesome! It seems this service was launched in April 2008. Lucky Me! This service combines everything into a single package. And the best part if -- its FREE!

The sudden heavy downpour of rain in Chennai, resulting in my staying indoors for 2 days has been most fruitful to this purpose. Sometimes when you sit back and look at the events weaving around you, you'll get a feeling of a preset scheme.. At least I do.

I do realize that I won't be getting any huge number of visitors for this site. Still.. I love owning my OWN corner of the internet. If not anything else... Its a real good SHOW OFF!