Quote of The Day

There is only one reality. That is Code. Everything else (design, documentation etc.) is an illusion.

Why Small Parties Cannot Conduct Primary Elections?

Primary elections are the elections conducted by political parties to select the candidate for the main election. In US, the main political parties select the presidential candidate by primary elections only. In India, there is only one party which conducts primary elections to select the candidates.

When I came to know about it, I liked the idea, and thought that, all parties should do in big scale. Recently, I came to know that, there are many drawbacks to this for small parties.

To win in an election, generally the candidates do not require more than 15-20% of total votes. Average polling percentage is 60%, and if anyone gets 30% out of the polling votes, most probably they will win. With many parties participating in elections, if there is tough competition, people can easily win with 20% of the polled votes. It means, if 12% of voters vote for that person, they can win. Even otherwise also, if 20% of the voters vote for them, they are going to win.

If there is a party which can influence other parties fate, then other parties also would become active in the primary elections of this party. Let's take there is a party A which wants to conduct primary elections. Party B would lose, if a good candidate from party A contests. So, party B wants the weakest candidate of party A to contest in the main elections. If there are primary elections, then party B would help the weakest candidate in all the possible ways to win in the primary elections. In India, in the main elections itself, most of the people take money and vote. For primary elections, it would be very easy. They can go to slum areas, and if they give Rs.10, they will vote for whichever candidate they want. By this way, parties which have more money can influence the candidates selected by another small parties. If other parties can influence the selection of the candidates, there is nothing more suicidal than that.

However, if all the candidates in the primary election are equally strong in most of the dimensions, then there may not be any disadvantage. But, if atleast one weak candidate contests in the primary elections, then other parties will try to influence the winner and the party which conducts primary elections is at loss.

An Explanation to my post on Performance Review

Many people got different understandings on my post on Mail to My Manager Regarding Performance Review. Few people posted on the blog itself, and others talked to me separately on that.

In many companies, there are many problems with the Performance Review process. I wanted to post an article on that. I mentioned the same problems to my manager, and I posted the same in my post. I did not think that, mentioning about me getting bottom 10%, and posting the verbatim makes the reader to think in different direction.

The main thing is, there are no problems between me and my manager. I am very happy with my manager, and my manager also says, he is happy with me. If I give more details on the background, then the reader would get better understanding. But, I have already given more information than I should have. So, giving any more information is simply out of question.

Whether I continue in any company or not depends on 3 factors from my side.
1. Reasonable Compensation when compared to other companies that can offer to me.
2. Growth in the domain that I am interested.
3. No Negative Impact on Personal Life/Goals.

As long as, I am getting all the three, I don't try to find a new job. I left my first company, because I got offer with really significant increase in the compensation. I left my second company, because, they tried to push me towards management, and I was interested in technical work. Unless, I find a reason to move, I don't leave. Even if they give hints to leave the company, I don't leave. I wait till they officially ask me to leave. Because, changing the job is a significant effort for me. Many people change their jobs for 15% salary hike. But, for me, there are many problems with every job switch. If I change job, then I have to adopt to that new company, culture and many other things. I have to rampup on their projects with a completely different process. It takes significant time before I start learning anything (that is of interest to me) in the new company. If I move to a different city, then there would be many other problems. I cannot compensate all those for 15% salary hike. That's why, I continue as long as my expectations are met and they do not officially ask me to leave.

The company is paying me to put my best efforts for the growth of the company. Irrespective of what all I get in the review, my responsibility is to put my best efforts for the growth of the company. If anybody does not like the compensation or respect, they can always leave the company. My expectations are satisfied in the present company, so I don't have any plans to leave the company.

Cell Phone Caller Tunes by Advertisers

Caller tunes for phones have been for quite some time. What I am wondering is, why cell phone companies are not using that for giving ads?

If we set any caller tune, we have to pay approximately Rs.30 per month. If cell phone companies put ads as the caller tune, and in return if they give some talk time to the person, then more people would put the ads as their caller tune. By that the advertisers get publicity, and the cell phone users get talk time in return, and it would benefit both.

Working as a Team Player Vs Individual

When Kumble retired, he told how he used to play with Srinath. One of them bowls in such a way that, the batsman is forced to play defence. By that, the batsman is forced to play attack for the other bowler. Other bowler bowls in such a way that, they would get excited to attack, and in the process, they lose the wicket.

If we see their bowling scores, one score does not look good, but another score looks good. Still, the selectors are intelligent enough to understand that. So, they did not remove anyone from the team.

Late 2007, Ganguly was struggling to retain his position in ODI cricket. In one match, when India needed to make quick runs in less no.of overs, Dhoni instructed everyone to play quickly. Even 15-20 runs in few balls per wicket was more than enough. But, Ganguly ignored that instruction, and happily made a half century by taking enough balls.

Irrespective of what happened to that match, Ganguly did not play with the team spirit. He did not play to win the match, but played to score more runs for himself. He thought, by scoring more runs, selectors would be happy and select him for the next series also. But, what selectors see is, whether they are playing to win the match or to score runs for himself. And, he was not selected for ODI matches, and slowly he was forced to retire even from tests.

The same thing is applicable for any domain. For cricket team, we have experienced selection team, and they are taking correct decisions. But, in many other domains, management is not recognizing the team spirit, but recognizing individual performance. Because of that all the team members who want recognition are doing things which gives better points in their profile, and are ignoring everything.

If anybody is doing performance review and the process is comparing with others, then they have to be very careful. In the review, if there is comparison with others, then most of the employees would be tempted to show their individual performance. Managers should encourage everyone to work for the project rather than for self. If a manager is directly managing more than 8 team members, then it would not be an easy task to identify whether somebody is working for the team or for self.