What does it take to Convince a Manager?

What does it take to convince a manager that Flight is better than Bullock Cart?

10 Presentations over 20 days each with 25 slides and each presentation is accompanied by 50 pages documentation.


If a manager asks how do you go by flight from here to your home in Mumbai, then most of the people tend to give answer like this.

• Get a taxi to airport
  
• Take a ticket to Mumbai and board the flight.
  
• Get down at Mumbai airport and take another taxi to home.
  

But, if anyone answers like this, then the Manager would give the following feedback.

Where is the doc for procedure to go to mumbai? Is this the doc? How can you expect me to have these three points as the doc? How can you expect me to give this to others? This document is not usable. You have to learn writing proper documentation. You should not be like this. You should learn process. Let me talk to your Career Advisor.

Good Domain Name Competition

Around 3 years back, in my previous company, there was a competition for good domain name. All the employees were asked in a forum (of the company) to give good domain names which are available. If their domain name is selected, then, they would be given one good cell phone. Since, I am not very good at creative thinking, I did not bother about that competition.

But, after 3 years, I feel, conducting that type of competition is a very bad idea. Having registered more than 35 domains, I would love to know about that kind of competitions conducted in a forum. ;)

It's been 2 months since Elections. Still CPI does not forget Mangalagiri

TDP, TRS, CPI and CPM formed an alliance called Maha Kutami (Grand Alliance). Around 20 seats are given to CPM and 13 seats are given to CPI. Their alliance was in trouble since the day one and they never had proper co-operation among themselves. In the first phase of elections, in few places, TRS and TDP contested together and in another place TRS and CPI contested together. Eventhough they had formed alliance, still more than one party contesting was common.

In the second phase of the elections, both CPM and CPI contested together in Mangalagiri. General Secretary of CPI, Narayana says that, Chandrababu gave Mangalagiri seat to CPI, but, CPM violated the alliance policy and filed nomination there. Since that day, everyday Narayana is criticizing CPM for contesting in Mangalagiri. Mangalagiri became very popular by that.

Communists have strong base in Mangalagiri since Independence. First MLA of Mangalagiri belongs to CPI. Till 1975, CPI was always in first two positions in all the assembly elections. After that, Janatha Party, and then Telugu Desam Party won in Mangalagiri. Very soon, TDP got very strong base in Mangalagiri, and TDP candidate Dr.M.S.S.Koteswara Rao defeated famous actress Jamuna. After that, TDP formed alliance with Communists. Eventhough, TDP has strong base in Mangalagiri, and it can contest there, still it had to give it to communists, because that was the best place for communists. Since then, CPM has been contesting there, and it was in the first two places till 2003.

In this election, CPM and CPI got 25,000 each and Congress won with around 50,000 votes. I don't know when will CPI stop criticizing CPM about Mangalagiri. Till then, Mangalagiri gets free publicity.

If Microsoft Designs IPod

Insider Information

I heard from many people that, if anyone has insider information, then they can be very successful in trading of that company. I never paid serious attention to that, because, I don't have any plans to be in the senior management/finance department of any public company in the next decade or so.

I am a small developer at the bottom most level. So, I thought, I never need to worry about insider information, because, I will never know it. But, it is not always correct. Sometimes, even ordinary developers at bottom most level also get that information officially. It is just that, the developers have to use their common sense, whether it will impact the trading or not. I failed miserably in that.

I sold the shares that I have at a rate comparatively higher in the last 7 months or so. I thought I was at an advantage. But, if I had waited for some more time, I would have got atleast 10% profit.

If anybody is going to disclose the insider information or any direct/indirect hint as a comment, I would delete that comment.

Zoomin.com - Photo Prints

Zoomin.com is a good website to get photo prints of your photos. They charge only Rs.4 per print, and Rs.25 for postal charges, and courier the photos to your address in couple of days. It is definitely better than searching for a shop and ordering from there.

Triangles Optical Illusion

Vote For Party or Vote For Candidate

Many times, I have seen people voting for a person, because, the contestant is a good person. This is fine in Corporation, Municipality, and Panchayat elections. But, this is a not a good criteria in Assembly or Parliament elections. In Assembly and Parliament elections, the criteria should be how good the top 5 controllers of the party, and not the contestant.

All the members of Parliament (Loksabha as well as Rajya sabha) are supposed to join any ministry of their choice, and come up with policies that will improve their ministry area. Every MP gets some money for improving their constituency (For Loksabha) or area (For Rajyasabha). They are expected to raise the bigger issues related to their consituency/area or which impacts other constituencies/areas.

The duty of MLA and MLC is also similar to Loksabha and Rajya Sabha MPs respectively. But, unfortunately, most of them have degraded to very low level. MLA is not expected to solve the problem of water connection, street roads or other smaller issues. Local corporator/Councillor/Surpanch is supposed to solve those. If they cannot solve, then they should go to chairperson/Mayor. But, the present MLAs degraded to very low level problems and started taking commissions in every small thing.

Many people say that, I never saw MLA, and he never bothers about my problems, so, I am not going to vote for that person. That is not correct. For their small problems, they are electing councillors and chairman. It is their responsibility to solve. MLA will come into picture, only if the problem is very big. MLA's responsibilities include high level issues which impact the entire constituency/state, and not one family.

In most of the parties, the top 5 controllers control the entire Country/State. So, electing one person from a party as a MLA or MP, is nothing but supporting the top 5 people of that party. The duty of MLA or MP is to help the ministers in coming up with better policies for the state/country. Voting for a MLA/MP Candidate is nothing but, supporting their party.

Corporator/councillor/Surpanch are supposed to solve the individual's problems, so in that elections, we should vote for the person and never for the party.

Unfortunately many people do not know the difference between these two, and not electing properly.

Drivers - Timings

It is disheartening that 5 Infosys employees were killed in a bus accident.

What I observed is, most of the time, people miss very basic things. In many fields, people work more than the required no.of hours in their job. Eventhough productivity goes down by working more than enough, still the managers make them to work more. The same thing is happening even with drivers.

I know three accidents, out of which two are of car, and one case is of two wheeler. In both the cases of car accidents, the driver did not have enough sleep. Due to functions, they needed more time of the driver, and in both the cases, the driver had to work for more than 12 hours. When I asked them, why did not they get another driver for few days, their reply was, it was difficult and tedious to get a driver for few days. They talked as if, it was unnecessary to get a new driver or take a car for rent just for few days. But, the price they paid was very high for the savings. In those cases, they did not even wear seat belts. Had they wore seat belts, the impact would have been lesser. In the case of two wheeler, had the person wore a helmet, he would have been saved.

Most of the accidents and injuries would be reduced significantly, if everyone takes two precautions. The driver should not drive, if the he does not have enough rest. All the passengers should wear seat belts/helmets. These two simple things will save many lives and injuries. I request everyone to follow atleast these two basic points.

Did Loksatta split votes of TDP or TDP split votes of Loksatta?

For the last few days, TDP has been saying that, it lost because of the votes split by Loksatta. It is well known that, most of the people who voted for Loksatta has TDP as the second preference. That's why TDP is saying like that. But, I would say, Loksatta lost because of TDP. Because, many people voted for TDP eventhough they wanted to vote for Loksatta, with the only reason that, they did not want Congress to come back to power. Due to some external reasons, many votes went to TDP from Loksatta. That's why, I would say, TDP has split the votes of Loksatta, and not the other way.