Category Archives: philosophy

books, philosophy, spirituality

Man’s Search for Meaning

Leave a comment

Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl is a difficult book to read – if you are the types who get sucked into it. I typically read before sleep, and I could not go to sleep while reading this book.

Victor Frankl is a Psychatrist by profession and he and is wife are picked by the Germans and sent to the camps.

The first half is all about Victor’s experience in the Nazi camps. How the prisoners are shepherded from one Camp to another in train – with no knowledge if they are being sent to the Gas Chambers or to another camp.

I strongly recommend this book – will give a new outlook to your life.

“He who has a why to live forcan bear almost any how“

“Mental health is based on a certain degree of tension – between what one has already achieved and what one still has to accomplish“

“What man needs is not a tensionless state but rather striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal“

“Live as if you are living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now.”

“No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. “

“Man is ready to suffer on one condition – to be sure – that his suffering has a meaning. “

“He is not only unhappy but also ashamed of being unhappy. “

“Lying on your death bed ask your self – was your life meaning full “

philosophy

The One vs The Many Heroes

1 Comment

I started reading a Sci Fi novel – Dune by Frank Herbert. I have not even crossed 30 pages and already the characters in the book are analyzing if the hero ( a kid as of now ) is the one? It kind of put me off a bit..but I will persist with the book. Curious to know if he is the one 😉

Coming from an eastern civilization where there is really no “one hero” it does sound a bit funny initially. There are 1+ million Gods, in Mahabharata there are 5 heros, and there is a hero who is part of the dark side too ( Karna ), in Ramayana actually the bad guy is projected to be on the good side ( Rama – who else.. haha 😉 he plots the downfall of one of the monkey kings, suspects poor Deepika…better known as Sita and burns her etc. ).

Switch to the Western world – there is Matrix. After snazzy graphics, exploding cars and trucks, and 3 parts – it is determined that Neo is the One. In Lord of the rings the ring chooses a sad looking Elijah Woods as the One. In the latest movie too, Avatar, there is some legend among the Pandorites and our hero happens to be – not surprisingly – the One.

Its fun – being part of both worlds. I grew up fascinated with the Mahabaratha, and Ramayana – it  helped me identify shades of grey in the world, and that there is not one, but many heroes – and they are on both sides.

Then Hollywood movies and American politics showed how things are really not as complicated as we Easterners think – but it is quite simple – as either a red or blue pill/vote and how there can be “the One”.

I can sense there is something deep here – but I am a superficial blogger so I won’t bother digging deep. Like the Inception ending, I will let you draw your own conclusions on what impresses you the most – The One vs Many heroes concept.
philosophy

IQ, EQ, CQ, PQ

Leave a comment

After reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book – Outliers – I have started looking at things with a different perspective. Here is my hypothesis on the elements that can make one successful in life. 
IQ
Whenever we see someone who has “arrived in life” we presume they have a high IQ – but this is not the only criteria. Having cart loads of IQ is good to have, but it does not guarantee success if the below 3 are not present in good measure
EQ 
Emotional Quotient :  The person who laughs at the face of danger; the one who lost badly but has the courage to try once again, or take a different path; the go-to guy at work when the experts give up and report sick on crisis situations; this is the guy every project manager wants in his team. EQ is a must have – not just a good to have. 
CQ
Creative Quotient :  The guys with a high CQ spruce up dull meetings; their emails are all a joy to read; their stand-up updates are fun – and the team tries hard to match him – and the whole team bonds & has fun day in and day out. When our man does not turn up for work – the project feels like a funeral home ( ok I am over stretching a bit here 🙂 ) – but I guess you get the picture.

PQ

Political Quotient : Bite your lower lip & accept the fact – you have to play the game ( there is a better term for this – hehe). In large organizations – PQ determines if you get a cubicle near the window or a seat next to your boss’s boss – it is a hard life and it gets harder for the ones with zero PQ.

In startups politics is non existent – who has time for such games anyway – however having a good PQ is essential for customer relationship management – and also to see the team through during some tough times.

In summary – the schooling taught and measured our IQ – post schooling – the real world expects EQ, CQ & PQ – in some combination or the other – and this will decide how far one can go in life.

Success = a(IQ) + b(EQ) + c(CQ) + d(PQ)

And the above formula is open sourced under GPL – use it freely, improve the a, b, c & ds  and enjoy sweet success. You are welcome 🙂

[Img courtesy : http://malefis.u-strasbg.fr/site/images/homer-brain.jpg ]

philosophy

How to make a decision?

Leave a comment

The last decade of my life has been very interesting – I had to take decisions at various points in my personal life as well as in my career – a few times the choice was very clear, at times both the choices looked equally attractive and at times both looked equally hard and difficult.

So how do we decide which one to take?
The thumbrule I have is – take the harder path. By harder I mean – I might have to work harder, educate myself on something new, might have to let go off my comfort zone, let go off things I love. But this might not be the case always – at times the easier option was also the best option.

So how do we know if the choice we had made is the right one?
The answer is – we will never know. If there was something called time travel then perhaps we will know. So I tell myself – the decision I took was the right one – always. I never regret on any decision I had taken because I know just around the corner I have one more decision to make which will be harder than the previous one. These things just keep coming 🙂

How about instincts & gut feeling?

Absolutely go for it – this works 9/10 times. From my personal experience and what I have found out from others – listening to your inner feeling, your heart – has a good success rate. I recommend reading Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – which will help open your ears to this heart/gut feeling of yours.
The Usual disclaimer : This post cannot be held responsible for the decisions you will be taking in your life 🙂