Thanks to the NET

This is a post where I want to thank the creators of the internet for it has changed my life in ways i cannot imagine.

How could I hang out with the likes of Seth Godin, Fred Vilson or Steve Pavlina if not for the internet?

How much would I have missed the experienced words of Joel or the head first way of Kathy Sierra?

How much the hacker and painter in me would have lost if not for the essays of Paul Graham?

How would I have missed the satirical takes of Atanu Dey on India or the touching posts of Rajesh for his kid, or the passionate posts of Rashmi and the well researched posts on Sastwingees ?

I am not even touching the increase in my productivity due to the various web applications which we use day in and day out.

Internet like never before makes it easy to hang out(blogs, twitter) with any person of our choice so easy and I am so happy for that.

Apart from being grateful for allowing us to learn from the experiences of the very best in their fields, I want you to point you to two great resources on the net which I am currently using.

I know youtube has lot of videos and channels for various things, but videos in these two places have inspired me very much.

1. TED talks: Ideas worth spreading.

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

Some of the interesting talks there are why are or aren't we happy? or why we do what we do?

Head over to Ted.com and browse the various videos out there, you will not be disappointed.

2. Stanford University Enterpreneurship corner:

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) Entrepreneurship Corner is a free online archive of entrepreneurship resources for teaching and learning. The mission of the project is to support and encourage faculty around the world who teach entrepreneurship to future scientists and engineers, as well as those in management and other disciplines. The site has been developed by a dynamic team of educators, entrepreneurs, engineers, and designers at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP)

Some of the popular videos here are The black swans of Energy Innovation by Vinod Khosla, Dont Kill projects morph them by Merissa Mayer

The whole lists of talks is here.

Dont you think internet deserves kudos for this. How on earth it could have been possible for you to attend those conferences in Stanford University if not for the net.

Thanks to the creators of the internet, you have changed the world definitely for the better.

What do you think the best thing about the internet for you?

Poems to Ponder

Image by kevindooley via Flickr

I would like to share with you two poems which I encountered during this week which impacted me...

One is about giving rather than taking.. About not being moochers of the world but being the value adders and value creators...

There are two kinds of people on earth today

Just two kinds of people, no more I say,

Not the good and the bad, for 'tis is well understood

that the good are half-bad and the bad are half-good.

No! the two kinds of people on earth I mean

Are the people who lift and the people who lean.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

I found the above poem in '21 Irrefutable laws of leadership' which I was reading.

Another poem is about how a good leader is like... I found that here

‘A good soldier does not inspire fear;

A good fighter does not display aggression;

A good conqueror does not engage in battle;

A good leader does not exercise authority.

This is the value of unimportance;

This is how to win the cooperation of others;

This to how to build the same harmony that is in nature.’

Don't know who wrote that but it is how a leader should be.

One interesting point which John Maxwell, author of 21 irrefutable laws of leadership makes about leadership is about the real test of leaders... It is 'influence'. How many can you influence for the better?

Welcoming a new day

All mornings are like a painting,
you need a little inspiration to get you going,
a little smile to brighten it and
a message from someone who cares to color your day.

Today I got up pretty early in the morning and got a chance to see the sun rising... There is no better way to start the day than listening to the chirping sounds, breathing the cool air and watching the colors around us change..

This is the first pic... Day is about to break... Sun is trying to sneak from the mountains ;)

The blues give away to the golden glaze as sun comes out blazing..

Night has ended for another day,

morning has come in a special way.

May you smile like the sunny rays

and leaves your worries at the blue blue bay.

If ... Roger Federer & Rafal Nadal Come together

'If' by Rudyard Kipling is one poem which never fails to stir me and motivate me. You might have read the poem many times . Here is a new take on it as read by the tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafal nadal.

Here is the poem

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Shared from IndiaUncut

Have you 'Bing'ed?

Microsoft has been trying from a lot of time to beat Google in the search game. Its latest attempt Bing has bridged the gap between google mostly. The results are as good as google. But is it is sufficient for me to switch from google to bing?

For normal web search I still prefer google search. But I found one thing for which I will use Bing instead of google. It is image search. It is not that it is spectacurly developed compared to google, but the presentation is very very useful. In google you have to click next after each page but in Bing it has infinte scroll down from which we can see useful images without having to click next. I like this feature so much that I have started making image searches mostly only Bing only. Will be happy if google can replicate this.

#Th!nkTweet - 140 bytes of wisdom in 140 characters - A Review

After reading the book 'Life Beyond Code' written by Rajesh Shetty, I was excited to review his latest book ThinkTweet, which contains 140 tweets on various topics..

I love Rajesh's take on networks, relationships, time and teamwork. I initially thought of selecting the best tweets and writing about them. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that each tweet made me pause, think and have an aha moment.

I just noted down a few tweets which hit me hard.. read them and you can understand the intelligent, witful but insightful message of the author.

One on relationships:

When it comes to
relationships, you hit a home run
when you stop keeping score.

This one makes you think on the direction of your life:

What will be
the title of a book
written about you?
What will be
its subtitle?
Why should
someone read it?

On the importance of journey:

If you are “faking it” so that
one day you can make it, you
are missing the point. It’s the
journey that counts.

Pick up this book for 140 such aha moments... which will leave you lot wiser than before you picked the book.

Its a small book with 140 such tweets on improving your business, relationships, networks, career, teamwork and life and will make for an easy read. Its an ideal gift for your friends. Anyway you will just be marvelled on reading the book. Thanks to @UpbeatNow for giving me an opportunity to read and spread this wisdom.

You can buy the book from here or here @ amazon

Changing inner self Vs changing the outer world.

Image by jmtimages via Flickr

As you can see from the posts I have been writing lately,

I have been mostly in a contemplative mood. This is next in that series

When something you want to do is not being done in the way you want, there are two options infront of you.

1. Fight and change it to be done in the way you want.

2. Adjust yourself to like the way it is done.

So which is the better way?

Generally if doing either ways doesnt effect you much you might prefer going in the second way... But what if you the cost of adjustment is too much?

I have a more adapting mentality but I am realizing more and more daily that we shouldnt adjust more than required and its better to fight and fail than accepting the outcome.

My friend Ketan, wrote a comment to my previous posts sometime back about the serenity prayer

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Looks easy but very difficult to implement. Dave Pollard, an Idealist has written the following lines here,

I've been talking a lot about my three latest self-improvement projects: To connect better with my own (largely suppressed) emotions, to become more empathetic, and to learn to live in Now Time instead of Anxious Time. I certainly believe that practice and exercise have value, but I'm increasingly convinced that any changes they provoke are likely to be modest, and perpetually difficult to sustain.

It seems there is a healthy level till which we can accomodate change but after that we should fight for bringing about the change we believe in.