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आवारगी

Airpocalypse! I hope this image shocks you as much as it shocked me. And I hope you will do something about this problem, like I am trying to do. We owe it to our children. At least turn your air purifiers back on. It might be the peak of summer, but somehow the air pollution is also at its peak. Enjoy!

We started out digging a compost pit. But we are now just having fun in the sun.

We are tired, but we're also excited that the vacations have begun.

This is why I chose to build my own company to do my research, rather than join academia or a lab.

People who can't read basic instructions on an admit card want to be doctors. Isn't the medical profession all about meticulously following process?

This you must watch da

I've eaten these as a child. I just can't remember where. It used to be super creamy. Now I want one again 😂

Google mined through my photo repository and made this animation using photos presumably taken by @[1071410012:2048:Sonal]. Applied AI.

My sordid stomatological saga continues.

My gums have grown to cover the dry socket (exposed bone) left behind by my molar removal. But, that socket has sharp edges. Like, really sharp. Sharp enough to continually slice my tongue.

So I had to go and get the edges of the bone smoothened. The dentist literally crushed the bone with pliers. And then sanded it down with a file.

And now I'm back to being on painkillers. The bone hurts. The gums that were opened up to crush the bone hurt. And the sliced tongue hurts.

Choose your dentist wisely, people.

Climate change is exciting!

Economics, and by extension the financial system, is an unmitigated disaster.

Let me give you a personal example. I am a director at Thinvent. I am (partly) responsible for running the company. I know that we exist solely because of the value we bring to our customers, employees and vendors. We generate intellectual property. We build processes. We understand customer needs and solve their problems. And we do all of this with our people. Our people, therefore, are our soul.

But the bank disagrees. In the ten years of our existence, we have not seen eye to eye with any bank. And that is because the bank is obsessed with our balance sheet and our profit. It fusses over our operating expenses - the money we spend continually to keep our employees and customers happy. Sure, we make and sell products. But it is the service we give to our customers, through our motivated and well trained employees, that keeps the orders coming.

The bank wants to see capital. It wants us to make a healthy profit. Which is to say, we should spend less ₹ for every ₹ we earn. In other words, we should spend less on our employees and on service. We should not hand out healthy pay hikes. We should not reimburse them for a cab when they can travel by auto.

This profit should then be channeled into generating more capital. Buy offices and factories. Buy equipment. Own stuff. The entire economic system is obsessed with stuff. Stuff has value. People are expenses. If the directors of the company own a lot of stuff, then we can mortgage that stuff to get a loan for the company. Provided the company uses the loan to generate lots of profit, then uses the profit to buy tons of stuff. The heavier the better - buy a piece of the Earth if you can. Capital!

The financial system also makes a strong demarcation between the "owners" and the "workers" in a company. Within our company, there really are no major differences between the directors and other employees. We are all there to work. We all get tasks assigned by each other. We all earn our pay, our raises, our incentives. When any of us screw up, the others give us a piece of their mind. But the bankers are obsessed with the "promoters" of the company. And the "net worth" of the promoters of the company.

The financial system tries to create two classes of people. The promoting class, which brings value to the companies it promotes through its personal net worth. The promoting class should buy and own more and more. It should use its wealth and its ownership of other companies as leverage to raise even more loan for ever newer ventures.

And then there is the working class. The nuisance that eats away at the bottomline and prevents companies from generating profits, capital, wealth.

Every April is a tussle between doing the right thing for your team, and keeping the godforsaken financial system happy. This year we are already in May and haven't been begun to decide on our pay hikes.

So, this happened, again ❤️🤘🎉

One of our products again made it to one of Amazon India's bestseller list.

Cuteness redux.

It's past Kavin's bedtime and he is Googling things like:

"how can UV light harden tooth filling"

Which takes us to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_curing_light

The very first line leads him to ask:

"What is polymerisation"

"What is a resin"

"What is a composite"

Between Google and Wikipedia, we can basically shut down schools, libraries and parenting. Knowledge is now in the cloud. Also, @[583438337:2048:Sugata Mitra] should be able to stop crying himself hoarse telling people this. People should just wake up and realise that the way knowledge is imbibed has fundamentally changed forever.

Well, there is still some role for parents. He is now standing on the bed explaining something about football to me. And I have questions for him, because he is doing something with his legs that he calls scissors, and I don't understand it.

We still need parents and teachers. To teach sports. And make sure they don't kill themselves and burn the house down when doing science experiments.

Now Kavin wants me to watch while he tries coke and mentos and fire. His next question:

OK Google, is coca cola flammable.

Before we point fingers at Saudi Arabia, we must remember that not half a century ago, a woman feared arrest for running a marathon in Boston. Arrest!

Newsflash! Some parts of the world have progressed much faster than others. Yes, there is still a lot of work to be done. But it is always the little actions like this that build the foundations for the big push.

What is unique is that the lead in the case of Saudi Arabia is being taken by world leaders. Michelle, Hillary and Angela have taken a stand by not wearing the hijab during state visits to Saudi Arabia. When the leaders start leading by example... that is true leadership.

Kavin: At what speed is the Earth rotating?

Me (trying to act smart): One rotation every 24 hours.

Kavin: No, I mean, how fast am I going because of the Earth's rotation.

Me (asks Google Now): 1600 kph.

Kavin (to Nilay): If we need to go around the Earth in one day, we need to travel at 1,600 kph.

I knew kids in grade 11 science who could not make that correlation. There are those of us who see beauty in mathematics. To us, these things come obviously. We also celebrate when a seven year old gets it intrinsically. If you're one of us, raise a toast to Kavin tonight.

@[100064606995009:2048:Apple], stop being a bully. India's phased manufacturing programme is an excellent mechanism to promote local manufacturing. Get with the program, or don't even bother coming.

If I had known this earlier, perhaps I would have been a scientist rather than an engineer. In secondary school, science appeared all solved. The juicy bits all taken. To do something new you need to build, not discover. Therefore engineer, not scientist.

Five years ago on this day.

Nilay doesn't quite like the guy in the fox dress :-D

Nice! UP has a mind boggling 42 public holidays in an year. This reduces the number by only 17. There is still a long way to go. Forget schools, how do offices in the state get any work done? And how do the parents of these children get any work done, with random holidays littered all over the school year? It is better to give vacations in a single block.

If you want to remember Chandrashekhar Azad, do it at school. He didn't sacrifice his life for you to sit idle at home and waste time and opportunity.

Some of the emails we receive at jobs@thinvent.in just make me so sad. What will become of this country?

Reproduced verbatim:

Sir
I am 2011 paasout mechanical engineer and I have no experience but I am very hard labourer and I am ready to work without pay.After seeing my dedication for 1 year u appoint me your permanent employee.I am very honest .If u consider me for this job then contact me
[two mobile numbers redacted]
Most imprtnt- Ready to work without pay

Your regard
[name redacted]

The hard truth is, this guy is most likely unemployable, from a skills point of view. But he is also very motivated. Sitting idle without work for six years takes a toll on you, as is evident from the tone of his email. If we employ him, we actually have to invest in this person first, before he can start paying is back. Not for an year, but surely for a few months.

But we have never hired someone for free (hired for free - oxymoron). We do hire trainees all the time, but we give them a stipend. Even the stipend is more than the prevailing minimum wage. Any candidate needs to have a minimum level of skills and motivation to be a trainee. This guy most likely won't make the cut in terms of skills. Motivation, yes.

I face such moral dilemmas all the time at work. I just don't know what to do...

Every individual has the power to make a huge difference.

If you are going to share my posts/videos without liking them first, I will judge you. Because I am petty like that. And I have nothing better to do.

Well I do have work. But I sat down to work and found some files were missing. So I am jobless and pissed.

Oh. Are you surprised that it's 2017 and I still work with paper files. Cue mirthless laughter. Governments. Taxes. Paperwork. Planetary destruction through bureaucracy.

I also have a toothache. Well, a toothless ache, actually. Oh, you can't read Hindi, so you don't know. Well now you do.

Hai Dang, you just liked and then shared my video. Good job, my man, good job. Following the right social media workflow like a champ!

At this point, it is basically just the painkillers talking. Maybe instead of painkillers and the internet, I should try shrooms and a typewriter. That way, when I go on a trip, I don't drag you guys along. Also, it is, like, a real trip, not this pathetic waddle across a park.

Psilocybin mushrooms are legal in India by the way. So many trips to Kodaikanal and I've never tried them. Damn. Waste, I say, waste.

Google for destruction through bureaucracy. The first hit is scholarly articles on the subject. Scholarly Articles! I am not going to tag my bureaucrat friends here, but you know who you are. And you are reading this; I know you are. Google for Vogons, you guys.

Chain of thought in my head, after I spot a Patanjali product that has 'Made in Bharat' on its label:

Oh so this was made inside Bharat. No man, that's dumb logic. What if there were a guy called India. Not everything Made in India would be made inside him no? Oh wait. If we had a guy called India in our team, we would get parcels addressed to Mr. India at our office. But the delivery guy won't be able to find him. Snicker snicker.

All within three seconds. My brain is twisted like that.

<rant>

Gurgaon based company Aspiring Minds, which does skills development, does a skill survey of fresh engineering grads and finds <5% of them can write a program.

Vested interest? Perhaps. Underestimate? Unlikely, going by my experience with fresh IT grads. Bad methodology? Definitely - for starters, I am sure the sample set was mostly from lower ranking colleges. But it's not like I didn't have classmates at IIT who couldn't code to save their lives.

This news has now been picked up by the American news cycle. It is helping convert the anti H1B hysteria to anti outsourcing hysteria. Which is good thing. There is nothing wrong with the H1-B program. It is being abused, is all.

I am going to get some hate for this. Especially since I am good friends with a lot of former Infy, TCS and Wipro people. But the sooner the Indian outsourcing industry transforms into something better, the better it is for all of us. I can scarcely recommend what it can transform into. But the whole model of billing software development by person hours is just shameful. It is even worse that fresh graduates with literally no skills are routinely billed to paying customers.

I don't know why the right wingers don't pick this up? They are always so concerned about Indian prestige and India's image in the eyes of the west. If there is anything that drags global perception of Indian abilities in the mud, it is the IT outsourcing industry.

May this also accelerate the demise of poorly run engineering colleges, both public and private. Professional education is tough work. If you're not up to it, shut shop rather than cheat people. It is also expensive. Doing a shoddy job at half the price is not a good business model.

Most of the ex-outsourcing people I know, are doing remarkable work in their lives. Did they need that initial boost that their first job gave them? I think not. It is just a waste of good talent and a young individual's genuine interest in making the world a better place. These people formed the 20% that actually get any work done at such places, carrying the dead weight of the remaining 80% in the team (and invoice).

My first job at Samsung was borderline outsourcing. I was at a captive development centre. We were building products. But the mentality was of billing hours, not billing work. It sucked. I can scarcely imagine how badly it sucks for the freshers we send to the marching field of IT outsourcing.

</rant>

यह गंजा हुआ वो तो ठीक है। पण यह गंजी में क्यों घूम रहा है?

आज एक dentist ने मेरे दो दाँत उखाड़ दिए।

दाँतों का कोई कसूर नहीं था। वह तो अपनी जिम्मेदारियां बखूबी निभा रहे थे। बस नीचे वाला दाँत कुछ टेढ़ा उगा था। मुझे तमीज़ से brush करना भी नहीं आता। सो उस टेढ़े दाँत के नीचे गन्दगी इक्ट्ठा होने लगी।

Dentist ने नीचे वाले दाँत को उखाड़ फेंका। अब बताइए ऊपर वाला दाँत क्यों निकाला गया? अरे वोह बेचारा तो दोस्ती में मारा गया। नीचे वाला दाँत के जाने के बाद, यह भाई साहब मसूड़े को काटने लगते। सो इन्हें भी अपनी जान से हाथ धोना पड़ा।

मेरे जबड़े ने बड़ी कस के जकड़ रखा था इन्हें। Dentist को अच्छी मेहनत करनी पड़ी। अखिरकार उसके हथियारों के सामने यह निहत्थे कुछ ना कर पाए।

अब आलम यह है कि मैं शराबियों की तरह बातें कर रहा हूँ। वोह local anesthesia जो दिया हुआ है dentist ने। आधा मुँह तो सुन्न है। बस इंतज़ार कर रहे हैं, खौफ़ भरे दिल से, कि anesthetic का असर उतरे और असहाय दर्द शुरू हो।

बारह साल से पाल के रखा था इन्हें। बारह साल पहले, मद्रास की मेरी पुरानी dentist ने बता दिया था कि बेटा यह तुम्हें बहुत दुख देंगे। अभी अभी निकले हैं, wisdom tooth हैं, निकलवा दो। उन्हें मेरी फिक़रत पता थी, कि मैं कितना डरपोक हूँ। हाथ पकड़ लिया मेरा। मैंने भी कहा, डॉक्टर साहिबा toilet तो जाने द। फिर जो करना है कर लेना। उन्होंने हाथ छोड़ा और मैं बिना fees दिए वहाँ से भाग खड़ा हुआ।

+1 science

RIP lab rats

This is the kind of education the world now needs.

Everyone should see this video, and literally just meditate on it. Especially in poor countries like India. We should gather around at watering holes and discuss this ad nauseam.

Maybe education will save us. It is therefore vitally important that we put all of our children through school. As a society. And actually impart them an education. Real knowledge. Real skills. Real creativity and independence of thought. Because menial jobs are all but gone.

Yes, we are still a country that sends our youth to the killing fields of underground sewers. Something that was automated a century ago in the West. But notice the street cleaning machines in the big cities. The machines are coming.

And more are on their way. Something has changed. China is making robots now. It is making them cheap. It is making them by the wagon loads. It is using them, and therefore perfecting them.

While China is automating manual labour with robots, the west is automating desk jobs using AI. You think your middle class white collar job is safe? Face the facts. More than half your time in the office is spent doing inane administrative tasks. Filling forms. Getting reimbursed. Clicking through a maze of ERP and CRM systems. With all of that gone, productivity will shoot through the roof. And employment will fall through the floor.

If you have children, you have to think ten years ahead. Twenty years ahead. This isn't science fiction any more. Skills are passé. What abilities and personality traits can you impart your child? Creativity. Empathy. Courage. The ability to listen, communicate, educate, lead, visualise.

Here is my opinion. You can automate the job of a surgeon (or build robots and systems that make a surgeon 4x more productive, thereby reducing surgeon jobs by 75%. Same thing.) But can you automate the caring touch of a nurse? MOOCs only eliminate professors; you still need the teaching assistants to help those left behind. Those jobs that require you to connect with other humans, either through empathy, understanding, or art, will survive.

The rest, as they say, will be history.

The Heritage School is exhibiting Baroque Art on their campus starting today. The quality of much of the work is quite exceptional. Gurgaon-waasis, it would be worth your while to attend.

Wow. Madrasi friends, do attend.

Story of my life... Till recently.

Only serious brain damage can result in the creation of such policies. Obviously none of the morons involved in drafting the policy have ever even shipped a pencil from one place to another.

Yes, we are hiring across India! If you know anyone looking to build a career in hardware and system administration, do connect them to me through Facebook or on saurabh@thinvent.in. Qualifications and degrees are not important. However, a diploma in hardware or Linux, or work experience in these areas, is mandatory. And of course, we only hire people passionate about technology, who are willing to work hard and learn on the job.

Tax discovery is as important as price discovery. Governments tend to base tax rates on politics, or worse, on how much they can squeeze out of the public without a revolt. They often do not rely on economics. With a decrease in corporate income tax to 25%, I expect higher overall corporate tax collection too. But what is the right tax rate? What is the sweet spot at which a government can maximise tax collection? Is that tax rate also fair? Economics is a fun subject 😀

We spent over a week in TN in January. Turns out we didn't even scratch the surface.

Something good is happening to the Internet. Organisms with poor immunity are being killed off. It is a darwinistic purge. Rejoice - and turn off your modem's telnet port while you still can.

Sales of Thinvent products on Amazon.in are at an all time high. Sales on Flipkart and Snapdeal have all but vanished. The tide started turning towards the end of 2016, and the polarisation was complete in January 2017.

Dear Flipkart and Snapdeal, merge if you must, but don't you quit. After all, it's not like you're burning your own money on all this ;-)

कुछ भी 😂

Wait for it...

Very well enunciated. Most Indian startups, especially the prominent ones, are not technology companies. They are retailers or service providers or some such. But they are run by engineers, and filled choc-a-block with engineers.

Often people accost me with the question, "why aren't you doing what startup X is doing?". Or, "domain Y is so hot. Why don't you pursue that?". Here is what I tell such people:

1. I'm an entrepreneur because I want to do what I want to do. If I wanted to do what others were doing, I'd be an investment banker by now (and be bad at it and miserable in life).

2. I see problems and I want to solve them. I see new problems all the time. (Some of you, I've bugged regularly with new product ideas). I don't see retail or technology services or AI as good problems for me to solve.

3. Which brings me to the most important point. What do I bring to the table when starting to solve the problem? The only thing I'm really good at is building embedded systems.

For example, I'd love to 'solve' rural healthcare. But do I understand healthcare? No. Disease? No. Cure? No. Maybe I can build some good remote diagnostics devices. But that isn't solving healthcare by a long margin.

Today's startups completely underrate the value of domain knowledge. Without decades of understanding of retail or healthcare or finance, how do you waltz in and shake things up? Especially when all you're armed with is code.

Hurriedly checks the names of all state capitals... :-D

I attended a beautiful wedding today and couldn't get any decent pictures. When you buy a phone, make sure it has a good snapper. Life happens when it happens; you can't always be armed and ready with your camera.

Meanwhile in Pakistan, even Sufis be killing each other. I mean, Sufis! Rumi's people. The universal love gang. The original hippies.

Anyway. I'm trying to imagine a whirling dervish with a sword. Tarantino would be inspired.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtabharya

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_wives_of_Krishna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasa_lila

Alternative Facts invade India!

So much fun for the kids! Thank you Jaspreet for the lovely workshop. As usual it helped build their confidence and public speaking skills.

An eclectic range of clothing, beautiful and bold. A refreshing change from the usual run of the mill boutiques.

Vacation fun with friends

@[636590252:2048:Barry], it is time to bring it all back!

Today, I fought email.

Tomorrow, I will fight a fuel pump vendor who charged my credit card thrice for a single tank of fuel.

Modern times.

Scary. Scary. Super scary.

The only action game I've every played, to my memory. Does anyone else remember the game and its name?

Friends in Delhi, let's go. This is going to be awesome and epic. है ना @[585671756:2048:Ramit]?

Mahindra Tractors is the largest brand of tractors in the world. They own half the Indian market, and 4% of the US market. 4% is a big deal given how entrenched John Deere and New Holland Agriculture are in the US. They assemble tractors in five plants across the US, and are the nation's fastest growing tractor brand.

Now you know.