Summarized From: Decision Making by John Adair.
Nice book. Says that decision making involves using the following skills:
1) Analysis : You need this to evaluate the best possible outcome, or to define the problem itself.
2)Holistic thinking : Thinking about the whole problem and not in parts. (Getting a good deal on a 5 AM flight ? Have you wondered how you will reach the airport at 4 AM , and that you have to get up at 2:30 AM to be there ? )
3) Imagination
4) Valuing: This is about getting priorities right. If you know technology is more important to you than money, then its an easy choice between the mainframe company job and the modestly paying but high tech Java work. Valuing is important in choosing the possible options, and is an important step in understanding a problem, before you take an action
5)Intuition :Some people arrive at an answer without an analytical approach. However, this is susectible to our moods at the moment. Intutive conclusions reached under stress/fear (or even extreme pleasure/joy) are likely to be proved wrong. Under emotionally loaded circumstances, intutive solutions are best avoided.
6)Using your depth mind: Listen to the subconscious self. Sometimes you make a decision but its not commited yet: perhaps a job offer in a field that you have coveted for years. But after you accept , you realize that the 6 and half day weeks and low pay are completly mismatched with your personal life at the moment. you listen to your heart and decline the offer.
7) Generating options : This is the key step where all the skills mentioned before are used together. First, you must discover the options available-sometimes we mistakenly think we have only one choice. Imagination is useful here. At the other extreme, choose feasible options when many possiblities are available. Attempt to narrow down options to two choices by elimination alternatives. Its easier to eliminate an option based on a certain criteria rather than prove that the other ones will work. Valuing, analysis , using your depth mind are all skills that help in this process.
At times, no action is also a valid option. When all options seem equal, one that provides maximum flexibility/freedom is the best choice.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
That summer in Paris
I finished this book in one day and three evenings. The reviews for it in Amazon are good. I dont know if its my harsh third world point of observation, thats making it seem shallow and superficial. Sometimes a lot of my lifestyle in Boston seems superficial when viewed from here, but was not back there. I am intrigued by the amorality of the characters. Is this again my traditional upbringing ? Literary value aside, this writer is challenging my rules about what is moral and immoral, and I must evolve.
This book is about an old writer, whose past is a wasteland of multiple relationships and casual encounters that went nowhere, who finds love one last time.
Like its protagonist's life, much of the books pages are wasted on detailing the lives of a set of superficial characters that contribute little to its intensity. An aspiring writer Maya meets the celebrated Prem Rustum,a Nobel prize winner, on an internet dating site. He pursues her to
Paris where she is supposed to spend the summer on a writing fellowship. She's not getting much writing done- most of her time is spent obsessing about Prem and in banal Sex and the City like talk with her apartment neighbour. Prem divides his time between Maya and a great writer friend Pascal,a stereotype who conversations show no signs of greatness. The characters are all blessed with an acute sense of amorality,self indulgency and a keen ability for transient sexual encounters. After all they are great writers,aren't they ?
The book is filled with literary and artistic references in the middle which makes it feel like downloading a large file from the internet on a slow modem connection. While the author's initial attempts to adorn the characters feels like throwing color on the canvas and hoping some will stick, in its dying moments the novel picks up its threads to reach a passing grade. Somehow Prem Rustum comes across more real in death than when he was alive. To the author's credit, another technique that does work is the slow blending in of flashbacks. Its the lack of real feeling and depth that keeps this from getting a better grade. 2 and 1/2
This book is about an old writer, whose past is a wasteland of multiple relationships and casual encounters that went nowhere, who finds love one last time.
Like its protagonist's life, much of the books pages are wasted on detailing the lives of a set of superficial characters that contribute little to its intensity. An aspiring writer Maya meets the celebrated Prem Rustum,a Nobel prize winner, on an internet dating site. He pursues her to
Paris where she is supposed to spend the summer on a writing fellowship. She's not getting much writing done- most of her time is spent obsessing about Prem and in banal Sex and the City like talk with her apartment neighbour. Prem divides his time between Maya and a great writer friend Pascal,a stereotype who conversations show no signs of greatness. The characters are all blessed with an acute sense of amorality,self indulgency and a keen ability for transient sexual encounters. After all they are great writers,aren't they ?
The book is filled with literary and artistic references in the middle which makes it feel like downloading a large file from the internet on a slow modem connection. While the author's initial attempts to adorn the characters feels like throwing color on the canvas and hoping some will stick, in its dying moments the novel picks up its threads to reach a passing grade. Somehow Prem Rustum comes across more real in death than when he was alive. To the author's credit, another technique that does work is the slow blending in of flashbacks. Its the lack of real feeling and depth that keeps this from getting a better grade. 2 and 1/2
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
A cold man and a loving woman
In August when it pours in Mulund,
a lush green moss covers the walls
on the way to the station.
I had walked that road with you.
An hour of synthetically sweetened iced tea later,
you grew like moss around my heart-
a soft,gentle velvet embrace.
Your words danced like raindrops,
But I still remained confined,
in the plastic glass
of my synthetically sweetened mind
I dont know if these recent short poems that come to me are good or trash. But I know in order to get original work I must allow the writing to develop and not control it. Hence I beg any uinfortunate reader going through this to bear with me.
a lush green moss covers the walls
on the way to the station.
I had walked that road with you.
An hour of synthetically sweetened iced tea later,
you grew like moss around my heart-
a soft,gentle velvet embrace.
Your words danced like raindrops,
But I still remained confined,
in the plastic glass
of my synthetically sweetened mind
I dont know if these recent short poems that come to me are good or trash. But I know in order to get original work I must allow the writing to develop and not control it. Hence I beg any uinfortunate reader going through this to bear with me.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Unusual ways to meet a partner
1. A guy calls up a radio show related to Indian idol and leaves his phone number. A girl in a town far away responds asking if he has a contact number for the Indian idol. They start talking and one thing leads to another....
2. A co worker narrates how he was working in a software company in Delhi, and he liked a girl at work. One day he walked up to her and point blank asked if she would marry him. She said nothing. They never talked after that. A few months later she approached him and said whether he would like to meet her parents.
3. I love U: Two people of different communities meet at work in Delhi and start liking each other. But the guys parents prefers he select a girl from the south. Eventually he finds another job, moves away, and they stop talking, the emails die out. A year later, there is the I love u virus outbreak. The woman receives an 'I love U' message from the guy that he did not send. She writes back, and now they are married and living in Bangalore.
4. You stole my money: A girl is on the way to Modi nagar from Delhi on a project. She is a student, and has the last 100 Rs. in her bag for the trip. She sees a guy next to her who has a 100 rupee note in his hand. She checks her purse and it is empty. Her note must have fallen and he picked it up ! She asks him to return her money. He insists that the note is his.
2. A co worker narrates how he was working in a software company in Delhi, and he liked a girl at work. One day he walked up to her and point blank asked if she would marry him. She said nothing. They never talked after that. A few months later she approached him and said whether he would like to meet her parents.
3. I love U: Two people of different communities meet at work in Delhi and start liking each other. But the guys parents prefers he select a girl from the south. Eventually he finds another job, moves away, and they stop talking, the emails die out. A year later, there is the I love u virus outbreak. The woman receives an 'I love U' message from the guy that he did not send. She writes back, and now they are married and living in Bangalore.
4. You stole my money: A girl is on the way to Modi nagar from Delhi on a project. She is a student, and has the last 100 Rs. in her bag for the trip. She sees a guy next to her who has a 100 rupee note in his hand. She checks her purse and it is empty. Her note must have fallen and he picked it up ! She asks him to return her money. He insists that the note is his.
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