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