A Learning a Day

1. Disqus Ranks: Disqus has been testing ‘Disqus Ranks’ on AVC and Gotham Gal blogs. Essentially, it tags each commenter based on their activity in the community. Fred has gone for a ‘bar’ theme with him being the bartender and the rest being ‘instigators’, ‘regulars’, ‘familiar faces’ etc while Joanne has gone for a party theme.

I’ve personally found this feature fun and meaningful. It acknowledges your involvement in the community, encourages you to get more active and perhaps most importantly, it adds a feeling of ‘one-ness’ to the whole conversations.

This is a feature I am VERY excited about. And I can’t wait for Disqus to roll it out so we can have it here. I’m already thinking of a theme and am leaning towards a ‘flight’ theme with a steward (yours truly) and frequent flyers (i.e. you). Suggestions are welcome of course! :)

2. Pseudonymity: Mark Suster wrote a great post yesterday on the importance of Pseudonymity i.e the importance of encouraging anonymity and pseudonymity in communities. This was as a follow up to a short post by Fred on ‘Real Names’

I found this very relevant because I never understood the concept till a few months ago. I somehow associated anonymity with critics who didn’t want to say their real name. But, over the past few months, I’ve seen Anonymity/Pseudonymity on display (again at avc where we have a standard bunch of regulars – one great example is the Fake Grimlock) and I fully appreciate the positive effect a bunch of fun avatars can have on a community. And it’s been a nice learning to see how Fred welcomes it as well.

As I’ve said a few times, I visualize/hope we’ll have a learning community going here and I think the place to start would be to lighten the mood a bit. I’ve already requested a talented friend for a goofy avatar and I’m looking forward to that!

3. ALearningaDay.me: I finally have my ‘short form’ blog up as a result of my commitment to execute on the Fred Wilson School of Blogging and this completes the transformation.

And while it is obvious from the number of times his name shows up on this post, a big thanks to Fred Wilson for all the learnings I’ve had from watching him operate as a blogger over the past few months. Thanks Fred – I know you probably won’t be reading this but you’ve made a huge difference!

And here’s hoping these little changes will be the start of something very special..

The happiest people I’ve met have had tough tough experiences that have shaped them in the past.

They represent true success, in my definition as well.

Why else do we chase success, if not for happiness?

I’ve found myself appreciating life more after many failures and low points.

The journey’s too short to spend time sulking.

So, if you’re not happy today, take more swings. Ask that girl out, ask your boss for more responsibility, start work on that side project, commit to that crazy exercise regime, find a job that best uses your talents..

You probably will not be ‘successful’ in everything you try.

But there is a chance that you will  probably be that bit happier.

Joy wouldn’t be good if it wasn’t for pain after all.

Worth a shot. 

And then came Prezi. I had been waiting to test it for a long while and it was in July when I tried it for the first time, to great results. And post RealAcad, it was soon time for a 2nd attempt. This time, however, I ran into difficulties. The simple reason was that I needed a video file and Prezi doesn’t do that for you (runs contrary to their business model). The end result anyway was pretty enjoyable and definitely a welcome change from the traditional ‘video’.

And I’ve realized the priorities are as follows –

1. Sleep
2. Work
3. Play
4. Initiative-Work
5. Food

Now, this means a few things:

– Food doesn’t impact my happiness as much as I thought. As a result, I find myself finding a combination (eg: a couple of lunch places I like) that works and sticking to it. Not much variety required. No frills.

– As a result of this, one of my bigger challenges during the day is to make sure I eat (!). Once I get into a state of ‘flow’, I often forget to eat for long periods/postpone it and that’s resulted in more than a fair share of stomach trouble! As a result, I have alarms on my phone every 4 hours..

– Initiative-Work is very important to my happiness and keeps me going. However, I find I’m less driven if I’m not feeling ‘utilized’ at work. Much less driven actually.

– Play and exercise has a direct impact on all additional initiatives. Most of my ideas pop up during my early morning Hour of Power.

– But the biggest revelation of them all has been the importance of sleep to my energy. I have been pushing myself to sleep 8 hours for over a year. And, now my Sleep Cycle alarm clock confirms an average of 7hrs 30 mins of sleep.  The difference between a sleep deprived day and a fully rested one is pretty stark – during the former, the period following lunch in particular is less productive, I need to listen to high octane music and getting through some parts of the day can feel like a chore while during the latter, I feel myself literally powering through. And of course, I have numbers to back this up.

Essentially, this little experiment has been exciting as I’m beginning to understand what makes me tick. The results have led to conscious choices very regularly. For example, I was back home late last night and had 2 choices – sleep 6 hours, do my exercise and go to work or sleep 8 hours and go to work. And I made an informed choice. And of course, I’m willing to bet the day has been far more productive and happier than the alternative would have been.

What is also cool is that each person has their own ‘drives’. I know friends who don’t value sleep as much as I do and others who don’t value work (;)).

What are your energy drivers? 

Sheila was upset with her job. It paid well but she didn’t enjoy it. And yet, she needed the money. So, a change was out of question for the moment.

And hence, it was normal for her friends and family to hear her constantly complain about her unhappiness at her predicament. During one such complaint session, her dad took her aside –

‘Why don’t you complain about gravity?’
‘What do you mean?’ – she retorted
‘In many ways, gravity is a bit of a pain right. If it wasn’t for gravity, we could fly.. But the fact that it exists causes more inconvenience that we can imagine.’
‘But we can’t change that!’ – she responded exasperated.
‘Can you change the fact that you need to keep your job?’
‘No..’
‘Why don’t you think of it like gravity? Accept it for what it is. And move on.’

Often, the big reason for complaints and unhappiness is because we are stuck in a situation we don’t accept. Maybe thinking of these situations like we think of gravity would help ease the pain.
Besides, complaining is a bit like vomiting.. It makes us feel better but everyone else feel worse.

Here’s to thinking of gravity every time we have trouble accepting a tough situation this week!

A simple idea.. but potentially very powerful!

When a baby is born, the baby emerges bloody, dirty.. and it is the human reaction to clean it, bathe it, clothe it etc.

That got me thinking about all natural human ‘things’.

Sex is characteristically dirty, yucky, chaotic.

Love and relationships are, for sure, extremely chaotic.

Food is a characteristically dirty process. The making of food and the cleaning up are both very messy. Oh, and the consumption can potentially be very messy as well!

Play is naturally very dirty. Even those who escape ‘play’ in the normal sense of the word and head to the gym have sweat to deal with.

If companies are an essential part of human life these days, leading a corporation is incredibly messy as well. You are likely to be keeping board members and shareholders at bay while solving a plethora of people issues within your company and of course, dealing with dozens of personal crises at the same time.

Parenting is incredibly messy and chaotic as well, of course. Just ask your mom.

Thanks to rigid education systems, we are often tempted to ask for, and expect the same level of structure and predictability when we start living ‘real’ life. The reality, however, couldn’t be farther away. We are ‘made’ by our ability to deal with the chaos that life brings with it. The ones who make a difference are not those hanging around waiting for ‘structure’, they are the ones who are out there finding structure for themselves within the chaos.

That’s because they probably understand that structure and cleanliness is a personal need – it is a need that serves our desire to believe that things are ‘under control’, when they really never are.

Contrary to popular thought, I argue, it actually takes a lot of courage to embrace chaos. And then, of course, do what it takes to make us feel comfortable in the dirty, messy, yucky and chaotic process that is this wonderful life.

I walked into the Indian embassy passport services room last Friday to collect my passport. One step into the room and I could literally feel poison in the air and negative emotions in the general. Characteristic of Indian embassies all over, they were running 30 minutes late and people were upset.

There had been some delay on the part of the embassy and now that they were finally ready, they were announcing the passports slowly – 1 at a time. And he was going through a bad run – the guy announced 4 consecutive names that weren’t present, he repeated their names 3-4 times just to make sure. This only increased the muttering and annoyance.

And around then, one guy decided it was okay to hold the entire crowd up as he had a mistake on his passport.

9 times out of 10, I am sure this would have led to me withdrawing into my own shell, trying to keep myself busy and not let the negative environment affect me. That was not to be though.

Friday was a day that was very positive. And I wasn’t going to let the passport embassy ruin it. So, it was time to be proactive and take some action. I began by requesting the guy who was insensitively holding everyone up because there was an error on his passport to do so after everyone finished. (He refused and said he would let the counter guy decide! Luckily the counter guy caught on and told him so as well)

And then, every time someone wasn’t present, I let out a loud ‘Absent!’ like we used to do in our schools (in India atleast) every morning when our teacher marked attendance. A few loud ‘absents’ and ‘presents’ later, every one’s mood lightened. Within minutes, there were some jokes and very soon, smiles began breaking out. And then, a couple of others began crying out ‘Absent’.

Satisfied, I sat down and got down to typing out a blogpost (not this one, funnily enough) on my phone.

A few minutes late, my name was called out. And of course, I marked my own attendance with a loud ‘Present’ and as I walked up, I had the whole crowd give a cheer.. as more jokes and smiles ran out.

All well. Went home. Felt good.

Life is a game really. We can choose to play it and have some fun..or not. How often do we choose to play?