I don’t know what is more difficult to get consensus on a definition – “meaning of life” or “strategy” . And I am only partly kidding here 🙂 Vast majority of the literature and talks on strategy are about what it is not , as opposed to what it really is . This was true…
When you are powered by good espresso !
Some of you may know that I am a big dog lover . I also used to compete actively in dog shows with German shepherds , labs and goldens . As career started taking more and more of my time – I gave up on dog shows . I actually don’t care very much about…
Nuking code and starting over – revisited
I had an extensive debate recently on why monoliths are not universally such a terrible idea, where a young developer told me “Most of the code you would have written in your time as a developer is now what we call legacy code” . I don’t blame the young man for thinking “legacy = bad”….
Three snippets from my year end conversations
As 2019 is heading to its last few weeks, I had a chance to catch up with a lot of friends, mentees and my own mentors and also take some time to reflect how things worked out for me this year . The consultant in me immediately started grouping and classifying the common themes, apply…
Three disastrous interview stories
A young engineer I met last week asked me “Sir, you have had an impressive career since the time you left college . Did you always ace every job interview? ” That question took me back a couple of decades and I realized I only aced one from the first four interviews – which was…
That is just how I like it !
This weekend I ran into an unusual problem – I did not have a single book to read . To the best of my recollection, I have never had this situation in my adult life . Now – the rational thing to do would be to get a book on kindle . But that’s not…
Three ways to NOT to handle war time pressure in business
Pressure is a fact of life – especially so in businesses. You cannot eliminate it, but you can probably minimize it with good preparation and training and so on. But whatever you do – you are bound to end up in high pressure situations from time to time. It could be your boss promising more…
Blocking and Tackling
“Football is two things. It’s blocking and tackling. I don’t care about formations or new offenses or tricks on defense. You block and tackle better than the team you’re playing, you win.” – Vince Lombardi Just like in football, there is a perception that blocking and tackling has no glamor and it is beneath us to focus on those activities…
Who killed Hadoop ?
Yesterday evening, while flying from PHX to JFK, I had a chance to read this excellent blog by Arun Murthy . If you have not read it yet – pls read it first before you read my rant below. As always – these are strictly my personal views . First – I think Arun is…
How many chiefs do we really need ?
Having “Chief” in your title is pretty awesome . I am friends with several people who have “Chief” in their title and they are rightfully proud of it – and I am very proud of them for getting to those important career milestones. I have my own ambitions on this matter – some day I…
