Saturday 25 January 2014

Word cloud - 2

I've been reading two books which I guess I've already mentioned in the blog previously - Keirsey's - Please understand me and Briggs' - Gifts differing. I think I've also mentioned that my MBTI type is ENFP.

Based on my reading of the two books and some related journals, youtube videos etc, I did a SWOT analysis of the ENFP type. Obviously, the list was tailored to things that describe me best, things that I could relate to more closely. It is a SWOT analysis of the way I see things and the way I perceive myself.

I wanted to see how the word clouds come out for my strengths and weaknesses and see if they can tell me anything new. Strengths cloud I guess was fine and it did tell me a decent story, weaknesses cloud did not tell me much. Nevertheless, an interesting exercise and I thoroughly enjoyed the process.

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Strengths:



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Weaknesses:



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- Sandeep Kowshik
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Friday 24 January 2014

Word cloud

I first saw a word cloud a few years ago and I thought it was a really smart idea. A word cloud takes a bunch of words and highlights the most frequently used words in different sizes.

It's a great technique and I've seen people use it in different forms in different situations. I've been fortunate enough to be part of several projects that have addressed things like work process improvement, communication improvement, morale improvement etc etc. And typically in such projects you collect tons of data and analyze it to death and come up with your suggestions.

But there was one guy who did something different and he came up with this word cloud. I was impressed. It basically summarized all the data we had in front of us and gave us a good feeling of the most prominent mood in the office.

I would say it's a nice and easy tool if you want to look at a lot of data in a short time. It obviously will not give you the results of a deep dive, but it's a quick and dirty summary if you are short of time.

You can build word clouds in http://tagcrowd.com/ or http://www.wordle.net/. The one you see below comes from tagcrowd and is a list of words I've used in my blogs so far. Glad to see words like leadership, knowledge, books, agile etc. Also looks like I use the word "lot", a lot of times. Interesting!


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Tuesday 21 January 2014

Social media, Lol :)

Lol, I love this one. Answers one of my previous blog questions, to tweet or not to tweet :)




Source: http://xkcd.com/1239/
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Monday 20 January 2014

Top 100 websites

I found this on Ted blog, the top 100 websites that you should know and use. It is an interesting collection of websites and is characterized by themes. I have pasted some themes that interest me below. You can find the complete list here... http://blog.ted.com/2007/08/03/100_websites_yo/

I read hbr blogs frequently, I also have an app on my smartphone and I diligently read a tip everyday.
I have seen kickstarter.com and I think it is a collection of some brave ideas.
I have used coursera.org to do a couple of courses in finance.
I have seen khanacademy.org, but I didn't enjoy those lectures much.

Apart from that, I have never used the rest. Never heard of them. Considering the sluggish pace at which my money is growing, I definitely have to visit getrichslowly.org. Rest will have to wait, no chance of even clicking and opening them this year!

BUSINESS + E-COMMERCE
AUDIO + VISUAL
EDUCATION
CURIOSITY & KNOWLEDGE
ONLINE RESOURCES


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Top 25 books

I love my books and I thoroughly enjoy reading them. I have a small library of books in my house, not a lot, may be about 20-25 books. But then, this collection started only about 3-4 years ago. One fine day, I want to build my own wavy shaped book shelf and decorate the study room with my collection of books!

 Today, I stumbled upon time's list of top 25 management books of all times. I'm so glad that I've read about 7 of the top 25 and I can tell you that they are all fantastic reads. I own three more that and I hope to read by end of this year. I'm tempted to buy some more from the list, but I think that will too ambitious for this year.

 Here is the list. The books I've read are highlighted in Green, Blue is books I own and plan to read this year. The rest will have to wait :(





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Friday 17 January 2014

Silence please


A good friend of mine once told me that "The sound of silence can be deafening". Back then it sounded like a joke and all I did was laugh out loudly. 

Silence is awkward for most people. For me, it was definitely a challenge. As a kid, I struggled with silence. I was very uncomfortable and I always tried to fill it with some chatter. There was never a dull moment when I was with friends, probably because I never gave silence a chance! And if there was silence, I would usually fill it by humming a song in my awful voice. People who were knew me well noticed it, and whenever I hummed a song, asked me if I was ok.

As adults, a lot of us still struggle with silence. We have the uncomfortable habit of filling silent gaps with superficial talk. Or, we purposely avoid situations where noise is absent. We turn on the radio, play some music, call friends or family, or turn on the TV to fill this void. And the media makes great use of this by sensationalizing news and playing songs and videos that satisfy our senses. 

Smart phones and technology has made the situation even worse. They say that on an average, a person checks his phone at least 40 times a day. That's an average of 40 mins lost during the day. I think that is because we have lost the habit of staying silent. Of staying by ourselves.  

By silence, what I really mean is silencing the mind, calming down, slowing down. Giving the mind enough rest and putting it to use where it is absolutely needed. One of my goals for this year, (apart from fitness of course!) is to work on silencing the mind. Slowing down, stepping back and giving myself a better chance.

To put in the words of the great Bruce Lee: 

"Empty your mind, be formless. shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. Be water, my friend." 
 
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Saturday 4 January 2014

Sisiphus

Temperament determines behavior. Behavior is the instrument for getting us what we must have, satisfying our desire for that one thing we live for. The temperament has left us all with a hunger that must be fed daily.


Sisiphus was punished by Zeus so that he had to push an enormous rock to the top of a mountain, only to have it roll to the bottom while he rested. In a sense, we are all Sisiphus. Today we satisfy our hunger by our actions - which is whatever our temperament dictates. But come tomorrow and we must do it all over again. Yesterday’s achievement will not do!
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Wednesday 1 January 2014

Please understand me

"If I do not want what you want, please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.

Or if I believe other than you, at least pause before you correct my view.

Or if my emotion is less than yours, or more given the same circumstances, try not to ask me to feel more strongly or weakly.

Or yet if I act , or fail to act, in the manner of your design for action, let me be.

I do not, for the moment at least, ask you to understand me. That will come only when you are willing to give up changing me into a copy of you.

I may be your spouse, parent, your friend or your colleague. If you allow me any of my own wants, or emotions, or beliefs, or actions, then you open yourself, so that some day these ways of mine might not seem so wrong and might finally appear to you as right - for me. To put up with me is the first step to understand me. Not that you embrace my ways as right for you, but that you are no longer irritated or disappointed with me for my seeming waywardness. And in understanding me you might come to prize my differences from you, and, far from seeking to change me, preserve and even nurture those differences.

Well, stranger, there isn't any way you can really understand me, but if you stop trying to change me to look like you, you might come to appreciate me. I'll settle for that. How about you?"

- Taken from the book Please understand me

I am reading this fantastic book and the opening page just blew me away. I simply could not stop myself from writing about it here. And as always, if I find anything more interesting I will definitely share it here.  
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