Books Review

Tackling Thin Skinned Self Image

2019-11-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

Importance of focus in a crazy environment

I stumbled across the book ‘Psycho Cybernetics’ by Dr Maxwell Maltz. The following paragraph had me awestruck and I kept thinking about it for a long time.

When you habitually personalize every slight, every overheard conversation, even things you read or hear in media, you reveal a very thin-skinned self-image with the weakest of immunities.Be bigger than such things. Have bigger fish to fry, as the saying goes. The person in hot pursuit of meaningful, rewarding goals and a calendar of important things to do has little time to obsess over trivial slights and offenses. Most dumb, insensitive remarks are dumb, insensitive remarks; they have no hidden meaning, and searching for it -- certainly being offended by it -- is an utter waste of time.

Its something I do (can’t say about everybody) and it looks like the author is talking about me. The thin-skinned self image destroys the whole body function and makes it really hard to focus on what matters.

As I discussed in another post, figuring out what matters is also not simple. However even without having any crisp goals to hunt one should stop destroying self-image and as a consequence setting goals would get much needed time slice.

There are many other techniques discussed in the book but this one caught my attention.

Learning from failures

2019-11-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

How to tweek your life to use failures to succeed

I am reading Scott Adam’s ‘How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life’. One of the most important messages in this book is ‘always use failures to reorient your life for success.

Its easier said than understood. Its easy to feign understanding it and its extremely difficult to implement it in your life. I believe the author has done a great job in explaining. I would like to break it down to the following steps.

When have you failed?

Most important part of the whole cycle is that you fail to understand when have you failed? Life is a continuous process and it never stops. So the clear signal of failure is never there. There are symptoms and indirect evidence. However its very late to realize that the we have failed. If something is failing the first attempt is to salvage and don’t allow it to fail. People who have anticipated failure early in the work and developed parameters / benchmarks to identify failure, are in a better position to cope with failure. So its important to understand both aspects what will success and what will failure mean in terms of benchmarks. Quantitative analysis come handy but should not be the sole criteria. Sometimes in businesses one can foresee the failure and change strategy well before the impending failure.

Once it has been determined that the project has failed, efforts should be made to minimize loss and move on.

How to get out of the victim mindset?

‘Stop digging’ is the best way of getting out of a hole. The victim mindset has the tendency to keep the person in a comfort zone, where one can blame everything and its soothing. There is no way anyone can really help except the person himself. Every kind of failure leads to victim mindset, it could be severe or mild or manageable but its always there.

Stop digging means to stop thinking about the failure all the time. It can be achieved by engaging in other healthy activities like sports, exercise or prayer/ meditation. Yes, binge watching Netflix does not help rather makes the situation worse by adding the guilt of wasting time.

What lessons to learn from failure?

Another aspect of failure is that it clouds judgement, especially when one has done a lot of effort not to allow failure. Even after the failure one is still under the impression that either it can be salvaged or rebuilt. There is no harm in rebuilding after a catastrophic failure but it should be done with a clear mind. Since its very hard to accept failure, learning from failures is a very complicated task. The easiest way to gauging the lessons is to write down a journal of how the endeavour panned out over the years / months and how it spiraled towards failure. The journal will not be perfect in the first attempt (because of victim mindset described above), however one has to continue re-reading the journal and continuously trying to make it objective. Once we have reason(s) of failure hammered out it becomes easier to convert them to learning outcomes. These outcomes can then be used to invigorate the process and help in rebuilding / starting afresh.

Winning in daily habits

2019-11-15T08:08:00.002-08:00

Daily habits that can help winning the battles to ultimately win the war

Photo by Ana Juma on Unsplash

Its been more than three decades since I gained the wisdom to take care of myself. This indeed has been a roller coaster ride and with its ups and downs. There were more ups than downs but we tend to remember the downs more than necessary.

In the years I have cultivated a plan to go about my daily chores so as to ensure that my goals are met and I am happy domain. It works most of the time but sometimes I falter in these habits. The side effects show up much faster than I anticipate and I have to set the sails again.

Control your mornings

Photo by Carli Jeen on Unsplash

Self help experts have a clear cut templates for suggesting morning routines. I would tell mine and encourage you to create your own morning routine based on experiments on what works well.

First and foremost ensure you have a routine. This means that you should be able to do look forward to a set pattern. There is no constrain on the order of things but just that there should be a pattern for the body to look forward
Secondly ensure you have around 1 to 2 hours before you start your daily routine (it could be the time you start off towards work). This makes the mornings hassle and urgency free. Everything looks normal hence having a positive impact on the body and mind.

Control your thoughts

Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash

This part is mostly either over simplified or over complicated. Thoughts cannot be control rather they could be channeled. So its important to have something to think about in case your thoughts wander towards negativity. Most successful people love to dream about their goals and how they would look when fulfilled. They even like to keep chalking plans for the goals all the time. This helps in channeling the thoughts. Key point is to give your mind something to think instead of forcing it not to think.

Control your body

Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

Exercise is probably the biggest catalyst of procrastination. It took years to actually build an exercise regime. The whole time I was trying to follow some coach’s manual or trying to find a gym / schedule my time for gym. It always failed because it never works this way. Gym is for professionals whose work involves going to gym. People like me with taxing routines cannot fit it in the routine. The best way forward to just start some exercise and stick to it. It should be preferably one which does not need any equipment. My personal favorite is push ups. Its a full body exercise and needs no equipment and takes very little time.

Control your food

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

Body and mind need food to grow and remain active. Food plays a big role in how we respond to daily emotional, physical or psychological challenges we face. There is no recipe for what is best for your body. Here are some of the suggestions.

Protein based diet like Keto Diet
One Meal A Day (or intermittent fasting)
Vegetarian or even better vegan diet
Atkins Diet

Control your sleep

Photo by kevin laminto on Unsplash

Sleep patterns determine how much activity you can perform. There is no magic number for hours of sleep. However one should ensure to sleep as much as required to wake up on your own and be fresh in the morning. Medical research has been saying 8 hours is a benchmark but I believe one needs to find one’s own mark.

Important note: This article is the result of years of reading the giants like Charles F Hannel, Napolean Hill, Benjamin Franklin, Alan Watts and many more classics and modern literature. In another article I would attempt list the sources of my knowledge in the area.

Systems not goals ...

2019-11-15T08:07:00.001-08:00

Scott Adams discusses building systems in detail in his book ‘How to fail at almost everything and still win big’

So what is the difference between a system and a goal. The goals are future states that we aspire mono-maniacally, while systems are our daily habits that we do to ensure that we are moving forward.

As pointed out by Scott Adams, one can easily confuse or interchange these two but the gist is that one should build a daily routine and stick to it. While goals are important to motivate but its more important to consistently work so as to move forward. The daily routine could be built around (not limited) to the following key factors.

What makes me happy?
What can I do on a repeat without being frustrated?
What can help me learn more skills?
What can give freedom to invest more into my family relationships and possibly contribute to society?

If one is able to build a system then it will be sustainable and progress is guaranteed. Also it comes with the fail safe mechanism of ability to pivot whenever needed.

Game of Thrones | A song of Ice and Fire

2017-10-11T04:12:00.000-07:00

I asked about recommendations of how to watch the GOT HBO series. Some one really cool advised me to read the books. I had no idea that the books existed. So in the next one hour I had purchased five books and they happily landed in my Kindle.

I avoided watching any trailers, episode prequels, intros or anything remotely related to the GOT TV Series. I only knew who played the dwarf {Thanks to Facebook Memes} and that too became a permanent visualisation whenever I read the novel any thing he was doing or saying, the real person would come up in my imagination.

I had read the Harry Potter Series all together in one go and then watched the movies. It was a wonderful experience (both the books and movies). Also reading God Father after watching the brilliant movie told me that there is no replacement for beautiful novel.

Anyhow enough of preaching Books over Visual Media, the novel itself was very long and that turned out a bit of turn off in the beginning. I knew I would never be able to finish it but finish I did and that too in only one month (during a time when I was extremely busy in other tasks).

The characters development and the plot is very slow. So slow that you can actually crawl with the horses. The slowness did not hamper the canvas of characters that the novel introduced. Every person's persona was complete and one could see them clearly in the mind's eye. Even the guards of the castles or personal servants were throughly described.

The plot itself and the idea of Ice and Fire were central theme. Whenever I thought the plot will move in this direction it always surprised me and things went altogether different. Until the last sentence I was spell bound and hooked.

I can't go into the details because I don't wish to spoil anybody's imagination.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown : An odyssey through time

2010-07-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

Long after Da Vinci Code reading Masonic mumbo jumbo from Dan Brown would be a totally a wastage of time. The sheer size of the book also kept me away from the book. Compared to other books this is a huge volume (133 Chapters). It took around five nights to read it speaks about its gripping story line. The beauty of Dan Brown's novels is that one is exposed to such elaborate half-fact / half-fiction that one is amazed at how he manages to maintain consistency and interest is maintained. Such is the power of Brown's narration that one is made starts to make a movie in the mind. Thanks to the movies now one can only imagine Tom Hanks for Robert Langdon !

1. Historical Perspective

The Lost Symbol's major strength is that history is discussed at a flashing speed. One moves from century to century and then back and forth in the matter of sentences. So seamless is continuity that the frequent back and forth between historical references (which Brown at times goes to great length to narate) is unable to affect attention rather acts as a stimulus to read on and on.

2. Knowledge Ad-ons

Also adding to knowledge is the reference here and there of classical art. Mathematics and Computer Science are Brown's forte. Digital fortress is one case in point. Lost Symbol continues to introduce the user to hi-fi technology and mysterious (often secret) organizations.

3. Autonomy

The Lost Symbol is a long winding road where twists happen at almost every instant so much so that when the climax arrives one is ready for it even though its not expected.

4. Captivating Masonic Rituals

Another reason to read the novel is the description of masonic rituals in the book. Different degrees in Freemasonry hierarchy and rituals are described vividly.

5. Close out

Compared to other novels this time around it seems that Dan Brown did not do well at the end. The ending rant is probably the only part of the novel which one is better off not reading.

In the end this novel turned out to be another enriching thriller by Dan Brown.

Mandelbrot on Fractals and Roughness

2010-07-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

Benoit Mandelbrot sits down at the TED Talk and talks about fractals for twenty minute. The legend talks about Fractals so beautifully and simply that one is astonished by all the fractal designs. The Julia Sets in four dimensions are simply amazing. Fractals are extremely complicated objects that are defined by extremely simple formulas. The examples of clouds and valleys being created by inputting a number (the roughness number).

Daniel Pink : Motivation goes beyond rewards

2010-07-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Daniel Pink surprised me with the statement that "Money does not motivate rather is counter productive to creativity". The first question that comes to mind is that what motivates then? The answers to this question has been explored / researched by Daniel Pink over the years. What he comes up is in the video and wonderful books. The idea of rewards works for mechanical tasks, working in the carrot-stick reward-punish system. If you work well you will receive rewards otherwise you will be punished. As soon as the work required rudimentary cognitive skills the larger rewards actually bog down the creative mind and resulted in negative impact on performance.

The corner stone of Pink's motivation philosophy are the following.

1. Mastery
Mastery is the human instinct to get better at things. No matter if there is a reward associated or not with it. One needs to become better at the skill. For example all the open source developers have been writing tons of code just to get better at it instead of getting pennies / dollars per line of code.

2. Purpose
Purpose derives the development of Wikipedia which has overtaken encarta as the number one online encyclopedia. There are no monetary rewards but only purpose. The higher purpose of helping others.

3. Autonomy
Autonomy improves self-direction and helps people work in a better way. This is the Google model. Let the engineers work on any thing they want to work as soon as that is not the regular work. This led to brilliant ideas being developed. ROWE(Results only work environment) people don't have schedules they have to show progress and what they do when they do depends on themselves. The productivity and creativity goes up.

Interesting quotes from "Why I am so wise" by Friedrich Nietzsche

2010-04-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

Perhaps one of the most thought provoking books ever. Every line is full of ideas that one has to stop reading and start thinking about the idea. For example it took me hours to figure out the meaning of the following.

For pay heed to this: it was in the years of my lowest vitality that i ceased to be a pessimist: the instinct for self recovery forbade to me a philosophy of indigence and discouragement.

This one is also particularly touches the heart.

My reproach towards those who practice pity is that shame, reverence, a delicate feeling from distance easily eludes them, that pity instantly smells of mob and is so like bad manners as to be mistaken for them- that the hands of pity can under certain circumstances intrude downright destructively into a great destiny, into a solitariness where wounds are nursed, into a privilege for great guilt.

The following touches a topic which has been topic of thought. It so very well shows how important it is to vent the feelings.

It also seems to me that the rudest word, the rudest letter are more good-natured, more honest than silence. Those who keep silent almost always lack subtlety and politeness of heart; silence is an objection, swallowing down necessarily produces bad character- it even ruins the stomach.

100 ways to motivate yourself by Steve Chandler

2010-03-31T15:08:00.000-07:00

Reading Steve Chandler's book feels like Napolean Hill meets Robert Kiyosaki. The serenity by which each tip is introduced and elaborated in the most concise manner allows one to keep attention as well as to think about incorporating that particular tip in life. The amazing manner in which the book starts grabs one's attention. "You have no personality" ... Hearing this makes everyone uneasy and stand up and listen. This brand of attention seeking missiles are launched at the start of almost every tip. Get on your deathbed, Tell yourself a lie, Kill the Television, Make a relation-shift are some of the thought provoking as well as attention getting tips.

The best part is where the author relates Arnold's story from the body builder to movie star. How his vision was created and how it was achieved.

The book demands action for as per the psychologist and author Dr. Nathaniel Branden has written, "A goal without an action plan is a daydream."

DREAM-PLAN-ACTION is the mantra that is taught by the book. The rest are motivational methods and the ways to achieve this goal. Its important to realize one's potential before one can set a goal and achieve success.

Architecture for Change by Robert M Tomasko

2010-03-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

Tomasko's architecture for change is an attempt to send across a very serious message that the change we strive to implement might as well result in problems. Therefore its imperative to analyze the three steps of change in Resize-Reshape-Rethink. These three phases are explained in the book. The book draws parallels between architects and organization planners. How the architect looks at the the building and what parameters are considered to bring about a change. Similarly in designing an organization its necessary to keep the principle of "form follow function". That is to say that shape of the organization is determined by the kind of functionality it is supposed to perform. Just like architects in school are taught the basic guidelines and mechanics behind loads and how to design structures to withstand the tests of times. Organization planners need to be taught the ways and means to Resize-Reshape-Rethink the organization. The author is critical of mindless usage of buzzwords to defend changes. For example downsizing never worked as a change agent. Rather at times the very people needed in the stripped down enterprise tend to leave the company either voluntarily via some golden handshake scheme or come down the cut.

Resize is the attempt to cut down the company's to size. The best way is to identify the work which is being done in a company instead of looking to simply cut down head count. Resource allocation need be done with the end in mind. The end being getting the maximum competitive advantage.

Reshape the organization means getting rid of work fragmentation, i.e., to get rid of the notion of dividing the work into multiple departments. Trying to complete the work and restructuring organization to maximize "form follow the function" principle. Instead of making change an end instead of a means to achieve the end.

Rethink phase of change asks the management to spend time trying to temper the hierarchy and keep on evaluating every job for its effectiveness in terms of work and upward movement.

On the whole the message sent across is that CHANGE is not an end but a means to achieve some goals. Focusing more on the goals and then selecting the means always ensures in better change management. The author's emphasis is summed up in the story of Temple of Ise, Japan which was built in eight century AD and dismantled every twenty years and rebuild to keep it a replica of the original without wear and tear. The author says "The regularity of its rebuilding also represents a view of time and change that says these are not enemies to be resisted, but realities to be accepted and adapted to".

The Religion War by Scott Adams

2010-03-01T02:11:00.000-08:00

If God's Debris was an insight into man's inside then Religion War is a commentary on current social atmosphere. The character of Avatar continues to amaze the reader with pattern resolution and extraction. However there is a change here the old avatar is long dead and taken over by the delivery man of "God's debris". The stakes are much higher and Muslims vs Christian-Judea Alliance are at the verge of war. This is not going to be just another war but a war where billions will perish. In this scenario the avatar comes forward and tries to resolve the conflict between the two parties. But before that the avatar has to go through a long process of developing confidence in the two parties that avatar can be trusted.

The Religion War is about how Al-Qaeeda will grow unless the West re-thinks its policy towards Muslims and how the Al-Qaeeda is using bad methods to solve deep rooted issues. Reading through the book you don't start liking either party but at the same time you don't simply hate them. It becomes clear that both parties are there because of very heavy historical baggage they carry.

A very well-written and fast moving story line which results in astonishing revelation and insights for the reader to continue thinking long after reading the book.

God’s debris by Scott Adams

2010-03-01T01:57:00.000-08:00

One of the most absorbing books read it in three days. Avatar’s dialogue resembles that of Socrates as per my dad. The powerful discourse leads from one topic to another without the reader feeling that really deep topics are being dealt. The author through the avatar comes up with probably the most simplistic but astonishing argument against the theory of evolution. Most importantly the book does not commit any blasphemy while introducing the core idea of God’s debris.

The avatar comes across a man of unique talent able to process information and unravel patterns associated. The patterns give the avatar insights which lead to profound responsibility towards other humans. After reading the book reader is unable to dissociate from the ideas presented and continues to think about them.

Experiences of avatar at one point seem paranormal but then when the process of reaching those experiences is revealed the reader starts to identify with the avatar. The avatar then becomes nothing else but simply an extension of the reader. The difference of course lies in processing information and drawing conclusions.

Winning it the Jack Welch way through Candor and Differentiation

2010-02-20T11:03:00.000-08:00

Jack Welch the amazing CEO, who turned around General Electric’s attempt to become a white elephant into a role model of efficiency for all industries. The ideas presented in the book are not old wine in new bottles rather thoughts of one of the successful leaders of last century. All of the book is worth reading and worth implementing (if situation allows). Differentiation and Candor are two powerful ideas presented in the book.

Candor
Candor means quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech. This powerful trait is what it takes to untangle complex knots. Implementation of candor is easier said than done. Candor should be used in two different ways to praise one who is working well and to call a spade a spade. Once candor becomes the modus operandi of the organization the employees know exactly what is expected of them also exactly what is lacking in them at the moment. The continuous appraisal leads good results because all stakeholders are clear in their mind that if something is wrong they would be the first ones to know.

Differentiation
Differentiation means discrimination between things as different and distinct. The idea of differentiation actually goes with candor. Differentiation would not be in negative connotation if its used with candor. Differentiation actually would lead to effectiveness and fairness leading to efficiency.

Jack Welch's success lay in the ruthless implementation of these and other idea.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

2010-02-18T07:12:00.000-08:00

Hill's 1937 Book sold 30 million copies in 70 years . Reviewing a book that has been around for over seven decades is both easy and difficult. Think and Grow Rich (TGR), is also claimed to be the Genesis to most of motivation literature of last century. So whats so special about the book that deserves a review. Yes everybody knows almost everything the book brings to the plate. What makes it worthy of precious reading time specially in this age? Is the book still relevant, when we have Kiyosaki's wide variety of books dealing the same theme in a much more modern environment? The answer to both the questions is "read the book and you would know I was correct". Since that would be too late here are some of the reasons why Hill's book is a sure to impact.

1. The emphasis is not on tricks but rather on mindset
2. The book helps analyze life / career
3. The book helps in incorporating / building character traits which go a long way

What are the three words that grab attention after reading the book? "Harness your desires". The book is all about finding , creating and achieving desires and banishing fears.

Max & Max:: Movie accompanying the eighth habit by Stephen R. Covey

2010-02-17T10:36:00.001-08:00

A very interesting movie featuring dog and customer service representative. How both intend to make a contribution towards life by trying to satisfy/ follow the how-to manual of the superior. In what seems to be mostly contrived set of similar situations between Max (the dog) and Max (the man), one is made to think that the situation is not out of this world. Everyone has felt similar feelings during one or other time of the career/ student life.

Pelican Brief - An insight into the mindset of large companies

2010-02-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

,Pelican brief a well written piece by John Grisham. The book revolves around clueless murder of two judges and its short-term long-term implications. The key elements of the plot are well hidden until the climax. The book was made into a movie but the depth of the book cannot be portrayed in the movie.

The book deals in detail about the travails of the character Darby Shaw investigation. The company's coming after her. The pelican brief (the brief itself) take backstage in what becomes a mouse and cat race in the movie.

The Pelican Brief speaks out now global the distrust of multinational companies / large corporations about the laws of the land and their ability to muscle through anything of their liking. However the silver lining presented by the author is that one voice of truth is enough to ensure that the law of the land is upheld. The fact that the voice is heard at the highest echelons of power is a bit absurd / Utopian but on the whole the book lives up to the billing.

Why Avatar is re-packaged Frank Herbert's Dune?

2010-02-09T05:16:00.000-08:00

Frank Herbert's contributions to the genre of science fiction are under appreciated. Herbert's lack of popularity is attributed to the lackluster performance of Dune Movie and the three-part miniseries.

The latest movie Avatar by James Cameroon has a similar story line to the Dune novel by Frank Herbert published in 1965. The following table illustrates the corresponding characters etc.

Dune	Avatar
Planet Arrakis	Moon Pandora
Fremen People	Na'vi People
Paul Atreides / Muad'Dib	Jake Sully
Chani	Neytri
Lady Jessica	Dr. Grace
Spice Melange	unobtainium
Baron Harkonnen	Colonel Miles
Dr. ~~Wellington Yueh~~ Kynes	Dr. Grace
Sand worms	Exotic Animals in the forest
Shai-Hulud	Toruk

The story development is also similar like fighting against own people and unifying the whole fremen (na'vi) community. Jake's special spiritual status is almost similar to Paul Maud'Dib. The community's special bond with environment and its effects on religion. The use of unconventional weapons against the much more powerful enemy.

The movie looks more like a tribute to the great Frank Herbert than a classic movie in its own right.

A similar review is also given here.

The best novel of Harry Potter Series by J K Rowling

2010-01-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

Harry Potter series written for kids by J K Rowling is an extremely interesting story line. Rivaled by the Lord of the Rings in terms of exotic imagery and thrill. The following Harry Potter Series of seven high quality novels.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone / Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

All these novels are well written and the plot keeps thickening but the pinnacle of the novel comes in Half-Blood Prince. That is probably the best novel of the whole series. The reason being the fact that the whole story line takes twists at every instance in the novel but more importantly due to the dominant role played by Severus Snape in this novel. The best character after that of Harry Potter is Severus Snape. The character development by J K Rowling is possibly the best part of the whole series.

Like all good novels which have been filmed badly. The Harry Potter movies suffer from the same problem. The immensity of the novel could not be grasped by the movie. Even though in the case of Harry Potter the movies are far superior than other novel-movie adaptations.

The Dead Past By Issac Asimov

2010-01-30T07:37:00.000-08:00

Issac Asimov’s 1956 “The Dead Past”[1] is a good story by the fabulous story teller. In this story he deals with the issue of forgetting the past. In my opinion forgetting the past is probably the biggest gift of god to mankind. Let me quote the story “... who on Earth has a past that is absolutely clean?” The clean past also needs to be dead. Asimov also focuses on other issues but the forgetting the past is the primary one.

The story was written in an age when physics was blossoming and it shows while reading it. The only thing that made one realize it was old story was the fact that Asimov failed to foresee the advent of internet. Not that one expected him to foresee it but that is something which is in the back of one’s mind while reading it still but it fails to diminish the thrill. The advent of information technology in the current form and the medium of information access has changed a lot. One other thing that is problematic while reading the novels by Issac Asimov is the mechanical nature of the robots in contrast with the electronics/ computer/ mechanical robots of today.

[1] Wikipedia the dead past

Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress"

2010-01-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

A nice book by Dan Brown. Digital Fortress, as the name implies is about a fortress in digital domain. A nice plot with an uneasy climax but the trade mark powerful narration of Dan Brown makes it a pleasure to read. Digital Fortress bring to fore how Dan Brown researches the story and its background. If I add anything else it would simply add spoiling the fun of reading the novel.

Dan Brown's Deception Point

2010-01-23T12:56:00.000-08:00

I read Dan Brown's Deception Point. Dan Brown's style carries over to this book and like always the plot is thick and the villain is kept secret right till the end. Deception Point relates to the NASA's funding cut. NASA is about to release some profound research which will not only be able to let it keep its funding but also have wide scale repercussions for all of humanity.

On Complain

2009-11-30T21:34:00.000-08:00

Men, inspired by desire to achieve great things in life, have accumulated fortunes sufficient for generations. This very desire can lead a man to a state where he complains about all the things around. Complaining about the things around is a very convenient escape route adopted by people facing struggle in life. The rigors in life tend to disappoint and then push into this abyss. The beauty of life is in the hardships and struggle for success not in the comfort zone of complaints. Complaints are most likely to be directed at friends, peers, parents or employers, who have some degree of interest in one’s life. Now the employers or peers might have a reason to have vested interest but all the others don’t have. Therefore it is imperative to realize what could be the problem. The rest are mostly sincere people. Sincerity is a double-edged sword. Sincere advice is often thought to be equivalent to correct advice but the advice may or may not be correct. Such complaints generally arise after thoughtlessly following sincere advice and thinking it would most likely lead to good results. Interestingly one cannot blame the person as well and hence the leading to the abyss of complaining about one’s own life. The scapegoats could be government, employers or even at times family members. It’s extremely difficult to cure since one cannot address the root cause of the problem which is following sincere advice without giving it a proper thought.

Background complexity into the fore

2009-02-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

Mood transferred to canvas

Courage Tenacity Clarity towards goals

2009-02-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

In the lonely and dark evenings of Abbottabad, one begins to feel the warmth of the heating system (be it gas heater or electric heater) is beginning to diminish after every passing moment. The following quotes remind one to move forward.

"When desire is mixed with faith backed by massive action, the probable becomes possible, every time. No exceptions. -Tina Su"

"Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart truly desires must come to you." -excerpt from Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain

Courage

Courage is the strength required to go after the glorious goals set forth in the youthful years. Even the education from the finest schools and universities of Pakistan or the world over fails to breed the spirit of the courageous. True they say strength and courage can never be taught. Is it something built in or does it require one to go through a modern curriculum of human psychology to build?

Tenacity

When tenacity is sprinkled on courage the fruits which delivered are second only to Adam's (Eve's) Apple in terms of desire. If courage is the fuel for change then tenacity is the vehicle. Tenacity is determination to achieve the goals. Courage kick starts the process which can only be culminated via steadfastness and belief in those goals.

Clarity

The second quote talks of boundless endowment capabilities of the universe. All is within reach and all one has to do is to put forth a request. The word request is qualified by a very interesting adjective "clear". Clarity of thought , courage , tenacity of these three clarity of thought is extremely difficult to attain.
Human mind is designed to forget if one loses this capability one might not be able to rise from the depths of sorrow or pain. Clarity of thought is possible by using this faculty of the human mind. Forgetting everything, banishing every thought out of the mind and then focus only on the task at hand leads one to dream up the goals and then once the ideas have been imagined clearly then all that is left is execution.

More on execution later.

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