Goodbye, Nestaway...

Today, ended my stint as an "intern" at Nestaway.

I joined Nestaway on 20th June, 2016. 17 weeks is enough to make lots of memories.

The chief thing that I took away from this experience was that there are many things to learn. Or in other words, I am still stupid with lots of scope for improvement.

 The people I met were great. Everyone came from different backgrounds and were immensely hard-working.

The emotions I felt today were kind of similar to when I left school. But well, with time we leave a lot of things behind.

Moving on to Flipkart on 12th Dec. Hoping for the best.

A chat with a child

Before I left for Bangalore on 19th June(on flight 6E 637), I went to meet my cousin sister. She has two children - an elder son named Dev and a younger daughter named Paahi. My nephew is in U.K.G whereas my niece is enrolled in a playschool.

While my niece was busy studying me with curious eyes, my nephew instead wanted to chat. Here is a snippet:

Dev(to his mother): "Naam ki?" [What is his name?]
Me and sister(simultaneously): "Neel".
Dev: "Neel Aamstong? Je chaande gechilo?" [Neil Armstrong? Who went to the moon?]
Me: "Hae. Oi Neel. Aami o onek boro fan." [Yeah. That Neil. I am also a big fan.]
Sister: "Arey, tui aakhuno mone rekhesis." [You still remember?]

It is interesting how children's brain develop. My nephew has already realized that name identifies people. In some years, he will also realize that two people can have the same name. What also astonished me that his brain remembered the first person to walk on the moon.

The moon has intrigued him. Now, my nephew has truly become a human. He is fascinated by distant lands!

Review - Son of Saul

Saul Fia is the debut film of László Nemes. It stars Géza Röhrig as Ausländer Saul and won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2016. It has also received numerous critical acclaims among other prestigious awards.

Note to Self.

I came across this piece of advice from non other than Scott Aaronson, in this lecture:

We'll have a few problem sets -- they're useful for you, and also they give me feedback about how much you're understanding. But here's the rule: you won't have to solve all the problems. You're allowed to write down, "yeah, Problem 4's a real stumper. I thought about it, I don't know the answer. Here are some easier problems that I can solve." I'll evaluate that the same way I'd evaluate a research paper that said a similar thing. On the other hand, if you have no idea how to solve the problem but you pretend to know -- for example, if you write gibberish that goes on and on and on, hoping that something vaguely resembling an answer will be buried in there just by chance -- that counts negatively. You'd do much better by leaving the question blank.

I plan to implement this in my life from now on. Everything I question shall be filled with honesty. Everything I do will have a backbone and a real passion behind it.

The Four Years

These four years remain the most influential, difficult and interesting part of my life. It gave me an insight into the world like never before. The most important thing I learnt here was:

Computer science is not glorified programming. Edsger Dijkstra, Turing Award winner and extremely opinionated man, famously said that computer science has as much to do with computers as astronomy has to do with telescopes. We claim that computer science is a mathematical set of tools, or body of ideas, for understanding just about any system—brain, universe, living organism, or, yes, computer.

-- Scott Aaronson, Great Ideas in Theoretical Computer Science, MIT.

 

 

Mind Habits

I recently learned the eight mind habits of successful people from Dr. Duan Roen, who happens to be a Professor of English at Arizona State University. These habits make a person better in every corner of his/her life:

• Personal life: An individual communicates better with his family, friends and close ones. He makes meaningful connections with them which in turn enrich his life.
• Professional life: An individual is better equipped in his workspace. He does his work to perfection and is respected by his peers. He becomes a force of excellence and enjoys growth in his career.
• Civic life: An individual can take better decisions in his community and work with others in society's framework. He is better in making judgements and doing negotiations.
• Academic life: An individual is more inclined towards success and learning in academia.

 The eight mind habits are:-

1. Curiosity:  To be curious about everything. Ask questions as to why and how something happens. Our best role models are children. Being curious helps open new doors and paves way for opportunities. Moreover, the satisfaction of living increases tremendously.
2. Openness: To remain open towards new ideas and viewpoints. It also refers to considering other's opinion which might differ from our own. It doesn't mean to let go of our own opinions, but to be neutral and letting other ideas to shape ours in case we are wrong.
3. Engagement: To invest our full attention in whatever things we are currently indulged in. The duration of attention can vary - 5 minutes for some to an hour or more. It is tremendously important in execution of basically every type of activity.
4. Creativity: Its interpretation may differ from person to person. Some examples of creativity are: solving a problem using an entirely new approach, creating things from ground up, composing music, doing research and so on. It helps to keep thinking about world in new ways.
5. Persistence: Perhaps the most important one in all eight. The quality of never backing down and being true to one's own goals. Learning from failures, and welcoming new challenges form an important part of this habit. Dr. Roen shares a story from his own life - his wife and he are in the habit of writing daily journal entries for over 40 years of their married life. Each journal entry takes around 15-20 minutes. They have remained so persistent that the journal now contains over 16,000 entries! They view it as a treasure and a memory-corridor to the life they had led.
6. Responsibility: My favorite. The quality of showing credibility about the things you say and do. Meaning if you enjoy applause when you succeed, you ought to accept failures too. Humility is the chief attribute here. In failures, you should try to understand what went wrong and promise the affected parties of better performance in future. Promise keeping, disciplined life and an edge for excellence in every aspect of life are the chief skills to master.
7. Flexibility: The ability to change your thought processes easily as new ideas and knowledge come flooding in. The skill to interact with other people and take the best possible qualities and ideas from them. Allowing yourself to improve at each moment of time.
8. Meta-Cognition: It is about thinking and reflecting upon your actions and deeds. It is asking yourself how could you have done some things better and what are you lacking in. It is also about the analysis of results of the things you did or are about to do. You should have a clear idea about the paths you are choosing or are currently walking on.

I will be doing my best to incorporate these points in my life. Would also love to hear from you.

Review - Creed(2015)

Creed is a movie directed by Ryan Coogler. It features Sylvester Stallone(as Rocky Balboa) and Michael Jordan(as Adonis Creed).
  
I may be a little biased here. I am a great fan of Sylvester Stallone. Me and my father still watch reruns of Rambo and Rocky on TV. So, when I came to know that a boxing movie with Rocky Balboa has been released, I made up my mind to watch it. Eventually I did.

Jordan's performance is awe-inspiring. From the moment he leaves his well-paid job after his first match(as in the movie) to getting Stallone as an instructor; his struggle feels close to the heart. He is running laps, doing chin-ups and shadow boxing his way to what he thinks he should become.

Stallone as always steals the show. He has such a big presence on the screen. He unknowingly shadows Jordan(fans of Rocky will agree). When Creed finds Balboa, the latter has left his boxing days behind. With enough persuasion, Creed finally gets Balboa to coach him. One of the finest scenes from the movie is when Jordan and Stallone both hurl punches on speed bags. The boxer inside you jumps up in joy. It is also very much like a father-son film with some moving shots. One is when Creed and his biker friends give their respects to Balboa.

I will not comment much on the story now. The content is short in my opinion. Anyway, the fights and training scenes are beautifully filmed. Those with no boxing experience can follow the action quite easily.

I will give the movie, four out of five stars. How many would you give?