Voter's dilemma

The state elections at Karnataka are around the corner. Thinking of myself as an informed voter and a responsible citizen invariably ends up tying me up in knots. This time around, a local community of volunteers in my area did a commendable job of inviting the candidates from major political parties, handing out a manifesto our local community needs and recording their responses to a common set of questions to assess the candidate's readiness. That is a great way of engaging in this democratic process. But unfortunately, all this has only led to more questions than answers !

I certainly envy the alleged mass of voters who turn up to vote just because they got some cash, alcohol, clothes (often all of these and more from multiple parties) or some other "incentive". You really do not care who gets elected as you just wait for the next round of elections (and the next set of "incentives").  With no such direct "incentives" , we only a motivation to elect a candidate who can save burning lakes, put roads, manage traffic on roads that exist, provide continuous and quality electricity, water and sewage. That is a short list of burning problems in our area. 

Turns out that while the democratic system has devised mechanisms to address all of these, we have also guaranteed that none of this is easily accomplished. Between a corrupt municipal corporation, endless bickering between the corporator, MLA,state level MP's and central ministries who invariably end up from different political parties and have no interest to work together on common citizen interests, we basically end up with no real change on the ground. 

Doing my homework on all the candidates, applying some parameters such as - minimum education, no criminal history, some track record of governance - if I pick a candidate, I would have the satisfaction of being an informed voter but if the candidate does not win, I end up wondering if all that analysis was worth the time and effort.

So the dilemma is - is it better to go out and vote knowing well that your vote, while it counts, won't have an impact on the final outcome or forego your duty and not vote. This frustration led to the introduction of None of the Above (NOTA) option which does not help much unless a majority exercise that option.

May 12 is the Election Day. A decision to be made by then. 

And then forget about it.

WHIBU

What Have I Been Upto.

This question has been posed by a few of my well-wishers. Probably many have the same question since my departure from corporate world last October. Some were plain curious, a few anxious and perhaps even worried. It has been a month and a quarter of my biggest life experiment.

When one starts with an open plan and not much of expectations, whatever happens becomes a wonderful surprise. My plans were pretty vague - exploring startup eco-system, making progress on a list of creative projects I had including writing. Here is a short update on some of those vague plans.

Startup Exploration
It would be nice to have a business card with the title - "Startup Explorer". Maybe I should get one and shrug off the feeling of weirdness. Pre-entrepreneur feels more accurate. Captured some of the learning materials that I found helpful in understanding entrepreneurship as a learning kit. Also completed the Udacity course How to Build a Startup by Steve Blank.

I was fortunate to get connected to three eco-systems - the iSPIRT, Amrita TBI and SID STEM.

iSPIRT is a group for Indian software product industry. They put out lots of good information as well as organise several events that help folks looking at building SaaS and other software products. While I did not yet participate in any event so far, some of the information they have put out has been handy including the workshop on Julia.

Signed up as a mentor with Amrita TBI. Had one mentoring session over Skype. Got an opportunity to participate in their 2018 Pitchiest that happened in February. An action packed couple of days with insightful keynotes and a slew of ideas across varied domains that were pitched. Ended up on the judging panel on Day 1.

The most exciting find has been the low key incubator at IISc. The Society for Innovation and Development, a non-profit independent of IISc runs a deep science incubator along with initiatives to work with large companies as well as SMEs. It feels like a "moonshot factory" to me - startups working on diverse areas covering space tech, health, energy and water to name a few. Working 3 days as week with one of the health tech startup to help frame their direction.

Creative Projects
Put out a couple of RFC's - request for collaboration. Realised that while I may have interest in doing many different things, working someone who is better at some of those areas would help make progress. Now waiting for the universe to conspire :-) If you are reading this and are interested to collaborate or know someone who may be, drop in a line.

The Mindful Engineer Program
Mindful Engineer Program was the most concrete project that I was hoping to get off the ground first. Sent out cold emails to a few college industry placement co-ordinators. Heard back from a couple of them but did not hear a strong yes. Through WhatsApp chats, got connected to a startup founder who is building a platform for college students to acquire skills necessary for a professional career. Would be sharing more over the next couple of months as to how this goes.

Reading
While not much of writing, except some of the outlines and initial drafts, the most satisfying activity that I have sustained so far is reading.  On the fiction front, I have been working through the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett in a random order for the past couple of years. Finished my 17th book. About midway point in this amazing series of books by a wonderful writer.

Two books from Thich Nhat Hanh - Miracle of Mindfulness and How to Relax - have been wonderful reads from my neighbourhood library.

Visits to IISc invariably implies a trip to the huge library there.
My alumni card worked surprisingly and started issuing books for the first time using that card since I stepped out of the campus back in 1999. Some tech does work after an 18 year gap. Bar codes in this case.
The gem that I stumbled onto was John von Nuemann's biography. Beautiful book that brought together wonderful tales around two of my favourite subjects - quantum mechanics and computing. What a story, what a genius !

It is biography season for me as I got hooked onto this genre after reading Johnny's life story. Have issued 2 more - Man who knew infinity and Journey into light - stories of two of India's great minds. My reading list continues to explode. It is already way past manageable.  Bought 3 paper and 5 e-books to add to the chaos. Added many more to the wish list.

Around home
A local businessman started some construction just outside the boundary wall of our house. This brought out some interesting community dynamics around my neighbourhood and offered me a chance to interact with some of the local governance personnel. Never a pleasing experience. As expected, nothing came out of going through a formal channel of complaint and the 2 floor structure is almost ready now blocking light and air to houses by the road side.
A very unfortunate building collapse that killed 5 people in a nearby area triggered some reaction from the authorities. Today there was a notice served to the businessman to stop construction and produce approval documents !

So that is the summary of some of the action from the past 4 months.
No plan ? No problem.
Or so it seems so far.

Better perhaps is The Pretense of Accident

Johnny Came Lately

Libraries can be labyrinthine mazes where one stumbles onto rare gems. I stumbled onto one such gem in the form of a biography while looking for another book at the IISc library.

John von Neumann is one of the legends of the modern computer. He was referred several times during multiple lectures in my post-graduate degree courses. So I immediately issued the book curious to know more about this genius. Turns out he has made several fundamental contributions to many fields. While computing was an area I was aware of, fields such quantum mechanics (one of my  favourite subjects from my undergraduate Physics course), economics and ballistics were few of the other other areas (that I did not know) apart from pure mathematics that Johnny left an indelible mark.

A number of other big names in science including Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg,Weiner, Oppenheimer are some of the characters that Johnny worked along in different capacities. Some other unknown (to me) names such as Theodore von Karman ( "accused of inventing consultancy") provided some additional bits of knowledge. Added another reason to respect the Hungarians. The author did an amazing job of setting the historical context of the time of Johnny's birth, early years and his time in America. Norman Macrae, the author of this book, has also co-authored a comprehensive book on the World War 2 - the research for the book would have helped for sure.

His early childhood and how his parents, especially his father, nurtured the environment is a great lesson. Even if your children are not genius, having such a rich ambience around you in terms of private tutors and illustrious visitors to his house provided a great start. More so for genius children perhaps as the author compares some of the other big names (Bertrand Russell for example) who childhood were less than happy. Of course it helped that his father was a wealthy banker.

Some quotes, points from the book that I found interesting.

" he sometimes added his hopes for the introduction of mathematical rigour (i.e. proper science) into the worthy but twittering faculties of economics and their even weaker sisters in today's social half-sciences"

"most important contributions - theory of self-adjoint operators in Hilbert space and on the mathematical foundations of quantum theory and the ergodic theorem."

"28% - portion fo all the mathematics that a person might aspire to understand today."

"What is the use of learning Latin ? It could give you a sufficiently tidy mind to grow up and invent something logical like the modern computer."

"Ex ungue leonem - spotting a lion from its claws. Bernoulli said about Newton. Same used by Prof. Herbert Fraenkel for Johnny" 

"Reasons for Johnny's effectiveness - his father Max's upbringing that allowed him to think relaxedly. sense of calmness and humour. Learning to laugh. Inquiring mind that finds inquiry fun."

Reading history, learning tough languages such as Latin, Greek. axiomatic thinking are some of the key aspects that I felt made Johnny formidable.

"Three stages of a mathematical idea. Practical/empirical -> Aesthetic -> Absurd (straying away from the source)"

"... since happiness is an eminently empirical proposition, the only thing I can do is to wait and see."

"In planning anything new ... it is customary and very proper to consider what the demand is, what the price is, whether it will be more profitable to do it in a bold way or a cautious way and so on.
This type of consideration is certainly necessary. Things would very quickly go to pieces if these rules were not observed in 99 cases out of 100.  It is very important, however, that there should be one case in 100 where it is done differently ... to do sometimes what the United States Navy did in this case, and what IBM did in this case : to write specifications simply calling for the most advanced machine which is possible in the present state of the art. 
I hope this will done again soon and that it will never be forgotten."

"Four groups of decisions - Generate enthusiasm, funding and find a place to operate from, devise and explain changes to logical design, build a working prototype and think about future applications."

The last two notes are worthwhile aspects for the current race to build a quantum computer. Johnny would have been best person, having laid the foundations to both quantum theory and computing, to lead the current work on quantum computing. Maybe there is a new age Johnny who is already busy at work though the breadth and depth of science and technical understanding required for such an endeavour is mind boggling.

Had a feeling of being late to the Johnny party. Better late than never though.
Really glad to have read this beautiful book.

सफ़र का ही था मैं

सफ़र का ही था मैं, सफ़र का रहा ...

Those are the lines from my current favourite song. The official video is interesting to watch as well with the play on on he word "safar" (Hindi word means journey while the English homophone suffer ...) coming out at the end. The movie (Jab Harry met Sejal) was a flop (already came on cable TV) but few songs are nice.

While being a perfect journeyman song, it also summed up my first week post the state change.

In total I ended up travelling a total of 2076 KMS between Nov 1 and Nov 9 !
Modes of transport included Ola/Uber cabs, KSRTC & SETC buses, Indian rail and an old ambassador. Three different locations - Neyveli, Kuttalam and Chennai with the travel back to Bangalore. It would have been easier to just go between these places in Tamil Nadu and come back to Chennai on 9th but could not plan it that way.

Reason ? Three weddings - two cousins on either side of the family and the daughter of a cousin - all got hitched within the space of 10 days.

Between the travel and the recovery from the travel, it has given a good excuse for delaying the start of execution of "Project 42".
With an unstated goal of "zero" commute, I already covered an equivalent of 2 months of my previous job commute within the first ten days !

So much for plans and goals.
Good luck to me !!

State Change

November 1 is celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava. It is a state holiday. I have been enjoying this as a holiday since 1995 when I landed in Bangalore. Incidentally, Andhra Pradesh also celebrates its state formation day today. One interesting fact that I got to know from a WhatsApp thread was that thanks to the continued fission of states in India, Hyderabad does not have a holiday today. As it is part of Telangana, June 2 is their "new" day.

A different state transition happened personally for me. I declared the first innings of my professional career on Oct 31, 2017. While it is difficult to come up an objective score of the innings, the wonderful farewell given yesterday evening tells me that I have accomplished something meaningful. Learned a ton. Got an incredible opportunity to work with some amazing team of colleagues and get inspired by a number of great leaders.


In the pavilion now. Need to get cracking on "Project 42".

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.” 
― Anaïs Nin

Floating Rocks

Last week, I read about igneous rocks along with Vidush from his Class 5 Science text book. While I remember reading about different types of rocks - sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic, limited examples of these types is what I could recall.

The current textbook had new rocks as examples of igneous rocks for example that I learnt about.
One was Obsidian that I encountered couple of days before in Terry Pratchet's Eric.
The more interesting was Pumice which was stated as the only rock that floats on water ! The description and accompanying pictured showed that it has a lots of small holes that leads to this surprising property. Quite an interesting property for a rock - guess sinks like a stone does not apply to Pumices.

For some reason, my mind immediately linked Pumice to Ramayana. Specifically to the Ram setu - the stone bridge across the ocean to reach Lanka that was built by the Vanar sena.
As the story goes, the monkeys wrote Sri Ram on rocks and threw them on water and lo and behold they did not sink !

While this is often shown as yet another example of the greatness of Lord Rama, could it be possible that, if this epic actually played out as believed by millions of Hindus, then the rocks were actually Pumice ?

Thought this was an interesting question. Some geological and archaeological research would be required to see if there was any volcanic activity in the southern parts of India in that era that could have made this possible.

S(l)o(w)Dexo

I have been wondering about the curse of modern retail. Had written a couple of pages in my diary few years ago.

Some of the experiences make me really long for the direct, personal and efficient purchases in messy, noisy bazaars.

The new modern clean, air-conditioned, neatly organized shelves in modern retail stores, loud music and big brands and offers staring in your face at every corner and wall distract you from your main shopping list.

The biggest frustration by far has been the check-out line.
While one can deal with indifferent staff, bored, often new and untrained check-out counter personnel, the payment process contributes most to the frustration.
Plain old cash was the only to transact in the bazaar.

With the plethora of options including credit and debit cards, innumerable mobile wallets paying sometimes more time than actual buying.

The worst offender here is paying by Sodexho coupons. I now call them "Perks for Jerks".  I would not join a company offering these coupons as perks. In fact I want to propose an official ban on these paper coupons.

If we measure the payment time of coupons versus other modes, I am sure coupons would be 3-10 times slower than cash payment.

The painful process starts with the customer waiting for the total bill amount to be told by the cashier. Then the mental math of breaking down the amount into different denomination coupons. After that the counting of the coupons and mental addition. In case of interruption, start over.
Once the coupons are counted and handed over, the number and amount are communicated to the cashier. The second round of counting starts with the cashier doing the mental math and entering the details on the system. Sometimes there is an error in counting and the whole process is to to be repeated. After all this mental gymnastics and finessing with fingers, there may be balance that has to be paid by other means.

Folks standing next in line should get a tax credit instead of those purchasing these coupons to save tax.

So here is a small tip. Next time you are in a queue at a retail store, ask the person in front of you on how they plan to pay for the goods.

If they waive a bunch of coupons, get out of the current counter and look for a different line.