The Curious Engineer

A Learning a Day

2010–2011

1,207 posts

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2011 549

December 2011

  1. The Reason We Live With Mediocrity.. Ostrich-ing
  2. One at a Time
  3. ALearningaDay Book Oscars: The 5 Books of 2011
  4. City of Dreams or City of Nightmares
  5. Weep Alone or Laugh Alone
  6. The RIGHT Way to Travel
  7. Merry Christmas
  8. On Reflection and 10 Questions
  9. Life by Calculation
  10. The Measuring Cup Principle
  11. 7 Hacks for A Better Next Flight
  12. Limited and Abundant
  13. Rolf Kuonen: Interview VII – RealAcad Mondays
  14. Segoe UI and Aaron Klein
  15. On IQs and Fake Weathermen
  16. Never mind your time. Give me your energy.
  17. 3 Holiday Season Thoughts
  18. It’s my life
  19. Trouble Tree Suggestions – Commenting Power
  20. Is the Trouble Tree Tale too idealistic?
  21. Write to be understood. Speak to be heard. Read to grow.
  22. On Black Turtlenecks and Einstein
  23. Wonder
  24. Framily and Lineage of Thought
  25. Picking Sides
  26. For those who make us think, and act.
  27. Find Heroes. Be a Hero.
  28. Positivity.. Bloody Hell
  29. Removing Try
  30. Taco Roest: Interview VI – RealAcad Mondays
  31. On David Allen and Actionable To do Lists
  32. Health, Slippery Slopes and George Best
  33. Being Indian
  34. 12 Drafts Only
  35. The Sharing Experiment
  36. The Today Pledge
  37. The Connection Paradox

November 2011

  1. Remembering Names – The Real Secret
  2. Or and And
  3. Clipping Wings Because They Are A Nuisance
  4. On Gollwitzer Action Triggers
  5. Memories
  6. Pen Pals
  7. Jobs. Sivers. Transformation.
  8. Infinite Inspirations
  9. Thank You and Happy Thanksgiving
  10. Nerve
  11. Everythings Amazing and Nobody’s Happy
  12. Shana Kad: Interview V – RealAcad Mondays
  13. On Jefferson County, Not Yet and No Failure Zones
  14. The LSE ‘Killer Presentation’ Workshop
  15. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Celebrate them, do.
  16. Using Analytical Intelligence
  17. Donations
  18. Files on Dropbox
  19. Stopping Censorship
  20. Dependability
  21. On Destination Postcards
  22. You are not your Past
  23. Easy vs Tough
  24. Reaction and Response
  25. Boyce Avenue
  26. Stepping Off The Gas
  27. Why aren’t there more Urinals in homes?
  28. A Spring in My Step
  29. Gifts Differing
  30. Hatch Those Eggs!
  31. Joanne Wilson, Angel Investor, Real Leader 4
  32. On Eskimos, Snow and Negative Words
  33. Building Fires
  34. 3 Questions For the Weekend
  35. How Can Anyone Still Hate Bill Gates
  36. Dialogue and Debate
  37. Finding the Real Problem
  38. Bias

October 2011

  1. On Saints, Jerks and Food Donations
  2. The Pursuit of Happyness
  3. Accounting For Every Penny (With a Bonus)
  4. Venga Boys
  5. Pecking Order
  6. Managing Time vs Managing Myself
  7. Joeri van Geelen: Interview III – RealAcad Mondays
  8. On Cookies, Radishes and Self Control
  9. The 24 Hour Challenge
  10. Yoda
  11. An Incredible Time To Be Alive
  12. Murphy From The Other Side
  13. Doing Our Bit
  14. Hidden Choices
  15. Practically Applying Elephants and Riders
  16. A Touch of Understanding
  17. On Elephants and Riders
  18. Switching Off
  19. Owls, Larks and Hummingbirds
  20. Contagious
  21. JLM Inspiration
  22. Short. But Meaningful
  23. Charles Schulze Philosophy
  24. The Snail and the Kick
  25. John Rubedeau: Interview II – RealAcad Mondays
  26. On Popcorn and Situations
  27. Broken Promises
  28. Advice
  29. We Are All Weird
  30. Expanding the Circle of Missed – Seth Godin
  31. The Stonehenge and Arrogance
  32. Mom: Interview I – RealAcad Mondays
  33. On Muhammad Ali and Sylvester Stallone
  34. A Touch of Geekery: Super-charging Your Outlook with Folder Sort
  35. The World From Our Eyes

September 2011

  1. When Protocol Takes Over
  2. Don’t Be Impressed By Experience
  3. Confusing Approaches with Principles
  4. Commit to Making it Work
  5. Kuppamma
  6. The Magic of Bookshelves
  7. On Great Disney Housekeepers
  8. Talker’s Block – Seth Godin
  9. Walk the Talk, Julius
  10. Disqus Ranks, Pseudonymity and ALearningaDay.me
  11. The Brighter the Picture, the Darker the Negative
  12. Prezi for Creative Presentations/Videos
  13. Hacking Life – Energy Drivers
  14. On Acceptance and Gravity
  15. Life – The Dirty Yucky Messy Chaotic Process
  16. What’s Your Favorite Email Closing Line?
  17. The Passport Story
  18. Install Disqus on your blog – Please
  19. Hour of Power
  20. Be Someone’s Hero
  21. Short Form Blog Temporarily on http://alearningaday.tumblr.com/
  22. 10 Years Since 9/11
  23. On The Sunday Night Blues Test
  24. To know and not to do is not to know
  25. Onam Day, 10 Years Since..
  26. Chris, the Inspirational Cabbie
  27. ‘Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason.’
  28. Why Ideas Show Up On Relaxed Mornings
  29. ‘Just taught my chidren about taxes by eating 38% of their ice cream’ | Conan O Brien on Twitter
  30. Weather and Patience
  31. ‘Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.’ | Phil Jackson
  32. Executing on ‘The Fred Wilson School of Blogging’
  33. That’s Why She is Thin as Wafer
  34. ‘I have insecurities, of course, but I don’t hang out with anyone who keeps pointing them out to me.’ | Adele
  35. Remembering 10 School Teachers and Lessons on Teacher’s Day
  36. ‘Competition is a fact of nature. We only collaborate to compete better.’ | Will Durant
  37. On Nomad Shifts
  38. Alexander’s Week on Planet Earth
  39. Making a Commitment is Easy
  40. The Man, The Elephant, The Crocodile and The Mice
  41. ‘Apologising does not always mean you are wrong and the other person is right. It just means you value your relationship more than your ego.’

August 2011

  1. Betty or Veronica?
  2. ‘My dad always had this little sign on his desk: “The bigger your head is, the easier your shoes are to fill.” He really drilled that in.’ |
  3. The Grass and Greener
  4. ‘Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.’
  5. The Definitive Guide to Your First Trip to Old Trafford
  6. ‘Most people are searching for a path to success that is both easy and certain. Most paths are neither.’ – Seth Godin
  7. On Approach and Richard Feynman
  8. Anthems
  9. Half
  10. John Wooden and Perfect Socks
  11. ‘His mid-life crisis lasted all of 3 months. Even in trauma, he was an overachiever’ – Alan Deutschman on Steve Jobs
  12. Connecting the Dots
  13. ‘The truth of the matter is that we always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it. ‘
  14. Phil Dunphy
  15. ‘A question not asked is a door not opened.’
  16. That Moment of Happiness
  17. The NUS Workshop: Thrill Your Audience with That Killer Presentation
  18. ‘Normally, a picture is worth a 1000 words. But with the the economy so bad, a picture is now only worth 200 words.’ :)
  19. Gifting Books
  20. ‘Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.’
  21. Change Your Questions, Change Your Life
  22. On ‘Even a Penny Will Help’
  23. The ‘Sent from my iPhone’ Thing
  24. Build Your Own Board of Directors
  25. ‘The Boss Phenomenon: Shows up late when you are early and early when you are late.’
  26. Keeping Perspective
  27. ‘Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.’
  28. Never Worry about the Permanent Marker Again
  29. Albert Gray’s Common Denominator of Success
  30. ‘All it takes to become President is to have 51% like you.’
  31. Google Images
  32. ‘As long as you’re going to think anyway, thing big.’
  33. ‘The way you make a difference in this world is the way you eat up an 800 pound elephant: one small bite at a time.’
  34. My 3 Biggest Learnings from RealAcad Stanford I 2011
  35. On ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’
  36. Making Friends With My Gut
  37. The World is My Family
  38. ‘Unfortunately for our hires, we only realize our own expectations for appropriate behavior only after they’ve been violated.’
  39. Who do you spend your time with?
  40. ‘Mastery Matters.’
  41. ‘If you’re not lifting others up, you’re bringing others down.’
  42. 8 ‘Lead Without A Title’ Thoughts
  43. ‘The secret of happiness is not always about doing what one likes, but often about liking what one has to do.’
  44. Washing away my International Driving Permit
  45. ‘People who say it’s not the destination but the journey usually travel business class.’
  46. Catching Up with.. Everything
  47. On the 12 questions
  48. California
  49. ‘Doing nothing is very hard to do…you never know when you’re finished’
  50. ‘It is when the pressures of change challenge systems and behavior that excellence is really demonstrated.’
  51. Writing Things Down – A Think Straight Measure
  52. ‘Think like a man of action and act like a man of thought’
  53. When you least feel like slowing down may be the most critical time to do it
  54. ‘Perspective is the most valuable commodity on the planet’

July 2011

  1. Hinohara’s Perspective on Life
  2. On the Red, Blue, Green notebooks
  3. Where Competition is Useful
  4. Your Greatest Strength is Always Your Greatest Weakness
  5. Difficult choices .. ‘Hard work has a future payoff but Laziness pays off NOW’
  6. Leadership is Overrated – Part II
  7. ‘The only reason people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory’
  8. The Noise from the Bad Stuff
  9. ‎’The old believe everything, the middle- aged suspect everything, the young know everything.’
  10. Leadership is Overrated – Part I
  11. ‘Life was a lot simpler when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits!’
  12. The World Has Never Been So Personal
  13. ‘Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.’
  14. On the Feynman approach
  15. Checklists as a Sign of Weakness
  16. Maa
  17. Your Keyboard – One ‘Spec’ to rule them all
  18. ‘Whenever one office door closes, 50 browser windows open.’
  19. Small hack when emailing or following up with a large group of people for information
  20. ‘The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another’ | William James
  21. The Chopsticks Story
  22. ‘The work will teach you how to do it.’ | Estonian proverb
  23. ‘If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.’
  24. The Asylum forward
  25. ‘When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the fire department usually uses water’
  26. Le Vie Est Belle
  27. On Changing the Question
  28. Setting Recurring Alarms to get Routines in Place
  29. Dealing with worry by writing things down
  30. Giving Condolences
  31. ‘A TV can insult your intelligence, but nothing rubs it in like a computer.’ :D
  32. On Chasing Themes
  33. The Dots always connect
  34. ‘A boat has one skipper at a time’
  35. Starting a Movement – Are you in?
  36. ‘Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.’
  37. ‘He who takes little interest in what is small will take small interest in what is great.’
  38. The Nerd Geek Dweeb Venn Diagram
  39. 10 Rules for Being Human by Cherie Carter-Scoff
  40. ‘In this world, things are getting worse and better at the same time, although the worse is more apparent because it makes so much ‘noise” |
  41. The sign of a great experience is..
  42. On Keeping and Visualizing Dreams
  43. Google Translate app power
  44. ‘We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse’
  45. ‘If you can’t you must. If you must you can’ – Tony Robbins
  46. ‘The silly question is the first intimation of some totally new development.’
  47. ‘I’d like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God is a workman..
  48. Do your GMAT early
  49. ‘A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.’
  50. On Merlin Mann and Inbox Zero:
  51. The Sweary Cab Driver
  52. Why ‘Caring’ is as hard as it gets
  53. Never underestimate the power of stories
  54. When/How do we learn best?
  55. 1 year of work-life
  56. ‘An “acceptable” level of employment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.’

June 2011

  1. ‘We feel productive when we are peace. And we feel peaceful when we accept that there is a limit to what we can do in a day.’| TGRR
  2. The Headphones Tangle Problem: (Solved!)
  3. ‘It is in self limitation that a master first shows himself.’
  4. 3 MUST Do’s when making a Home/Phone Video
  5. ‘I went to a restaurant that serves “breakfast at any time”. So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.’
  6. Choosing a Disciplined Approach vs Discipline
  7. ‘If I miss one day of practice, I know it. If I miss two, my manager knows it. And if I miss 3 and my audience knows it.’
  8. On the David Allen Framework
  9. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Home-mates
  10. How do you treat your body?
  11. The Big Action Challenge Report Card: A Paradigm Shifter
  12. ‘Evening news is where they begin with ‘Good evening’, and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.’
  13. ‘SWSWSWSW Philosophy: Some will, some won’t, so what, someone’s waiting!’
  14. Sport shoes enroute to-and-from work
  15. ‘Be steady and well ordered in your life so you can be fierce and original in your work’ ‘Be steady and well ordered in your life so you can be fierce
  16. ‎’Too firm a grip can cause you to choke a shot’
  17. 2000: Remembering the Why and Saying Thank You
  18. Bad Mistake
  19. 3 Simple GTD Ideas and a Tip for Better Meetings
  20. ‘We act as if comfort and luxury are the chief requirements of life when all we need to be happy is something to feel enthusiastic about.’ |A Einstein
  21. On ‘1 thing that gets in our way of being Productive’
  22. Learner or Judger?
  23. Emotional Recharge and an Annoyance
  24. Memory Lane
  25. ‘Remember when they asked George Washington for his ID? He just took out a quarter..’
  26. What would scare you more?
  27. ‘The longer the horizon the smoother our views’
  28. The age of Facebook
  29. ‘Prime your principles instead of policing your policy.’
  30. Kung Fu Panda II – The lovable super hero
  31. Habitual Impatience
  32. ‘People don’t change that much. Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out. Instead try to draw out what was put in. That’s hard enough.’
  33. ‘When you are 18, you spend 40% of your time wondering about what others think about you. When you are 40..
  34. Easy relationships
  35. The ‘I Can’t’ Strength Test
  36. The Post-Stumble Momentum Project
  37. The Uber Wallpaper
  38. ‘The average man doesn’t know what to do with his life but yet wants one that will last forever.’ | Anatole France
  39. 21 Small Habits that will help simplify your life
  40. ‘God forgives those who invent what they need.’
  41. Inbox Zero is in the mind
  42. ‘The world isn’t designed to evolve. We are.’
  43. 2 Factors that cause us to blow up
  44. ‘Your power is proportional to your ability to relax’
  45. The X-Men effect
  46. Track your expenses – Envelopes
  47. Maintain your Mental Well-Being – HBR
  48. Switch off Wifi and 3G when not necessary
  49. ‘I never understood the full power of ‘willpower’ until my grandfather threatened to cut people out of his.’ :D
  50. The whole privacy debate
  51. ‘Overwhelmed? Take the helm. No one gets car sick when they’re driving the car.’
  52. Paul Scholes
  53. ‘Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.’

May 2011

  1. The ‘too short’ song
  2. ‘Only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere does it begin to have meaning.’
  3. Alcohol, Full sleeve shirts and Gyms
  4. ‘If the fate of the universe depended on how i am and what I do, how would i be and what would I do’ | Buckminster Fuller
  5. Going to be a great week
  6. On Structure and Creativity
  7. Always the simple things – Learning from Barcelona
  8. The Joy of a Blip
  9. Employee talk: ‘When upper management talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.’ :)
  10. How to be a less annoying person
  11. ‘Early to bed, early to rise makes people healthy wealthy and wise.’
  12. The Room with a View
  13. ‘A map is not functional until you know where you are on it.’
  14. The Big Action Challenge: Acting on the Robin Sharma newsletter
  15. ‘Make decisions on stuff when they show up, not when the blow up.’
  16. How Many Hours of Sleep Do You Really Need? – Lifehacker
  17. ‘If you don’t rebel against a system by the time you’re 24, you’ll never amount to anything. And if you’re not part of it by the time you’re 30..
  18. 3 of my Biggest Learnings from Too Big To Fail
  19. He always adds value
  20. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and the 4 Stages of Competence
  21. Too Big to Fail
  22. ‘My wife says I talk while I sleep. But I’m skeptical. Nobody at work has ever mentioned it.’
  23. File -> Save as PDF (Never use a PDF creator for Word/PPT again)
  24. ‘Do what you do better, then do more.’
  25. Checking in on your Bucket List
  26. ‘He who ceases to be a friend, never was one’
  27. ‘The young and the ambitious share a common risk: appearing naive.’ – Scott Belsky
  28. ‘Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.’ | Albert Einstein
  29. PDT Part 2: On PDT’s i.e. Prioritized Daily Tasklists
  30. The Vietnam Experience
  31. PDT Part 1: The Values Test
  32. ‎’If you give a person a fish, you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use facebook and they won’t bother you for weeks’
  33. The man in the arena – Theodore Roosevelt
  34. ‘When you’re ready to quit you’re closer than you think’
  35. ‘Well done is better than well said.’
  36. Take good care of yourself
  37. ‘The mind leads us in circles, the heart brings us home’
  38. On Corporate & Paid vs Free & Unpaid
  39. Happy Mother’s Day
  40. Sweet
  41. I am in trouble. Please help me prioritize
  42. ‘Bad mistakes are the mother of ingenious excuses.’
  43. ‘When someone says they have time, there’s never enough and when they say they want money, the sum is too low’ –
  44. What’s the point of being popular? – Seth Godin
  45. ‘You meet the same people on the way down as you met on your way up. So, treat them well’ – A wise politican
  46. On the day everyone is pleased… – Seth Godin
  47. ‘Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us.’
  48. Transition
  49. ‘At one point in your life you either have the thing you want or the reasons why you don’t.’
  50. On Simple Checklists

April 2011

  1. ‘Why does a slight tax increase cost us $200 and a substantial tax cut save us 30 cents?’ :)
  2. ‘The only difference between an extraordinary life and an ordinary one is the extraordinary pleasures one finds in ordinary things.’
  3. The Rice Cooker
  4. ‘There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem.’
  5. When you work your butt off for something
  6. ‘In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.’
  7. Invest in your learning
  8. ‘Do not go where the path may lead, Go instead where there is no path – and leave a trail.’ | Ralph Waldo Emerson
  9. Rome was not built in a day
  10. On Tom Sawyer
  11. The Familiar Fight
  12. ‘Steve Jobs knows where you are, Eric Schmidt knows what you’re searching for, and Mark Zuckerberg knows whom you’re stalking.#Privacy’
  13. Belief, Hunger and Cheer
  14. ‘There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler who is foreign.’
  15. ‘We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we have stopped saying “It got lost,” and say “I lost it”.’
  16. As I opened up my email excitedly this morning..
  17. ‘We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves’
  18. Is it really important?
  19. ‘We have 2 choices – we can either be happy or be right’
  20. On 5 Dollars or 500 Dollars
  21. The Prima Donna
  22. Is it over after the romance?
  23. So you have started a blog..
  24. ‘Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!’ :)
  25. Inspiration from the kitchen friend
  26. ‘With an experience of pain, comes passion.’
  27. Back up using Dropbox for personal needs
  28. ‘The questions we ask are often more important than the answers we get’
  29. ‘It is easy to stand with the crowd, it takes courage to stand alone’
  30. The work is not done when ‘send’ is clicked
  31. ‘Look for opportunities. You can’t wait for them to knock on the door…You might not be home.’
  32. On ‘Experiences’ vs ‘Things’
  33. Before I shoot an idea down next time
  34. ‘Labels such as ‘NEW’ or ‘IMPROVED’ just mean.. the price has gone up’
  35. Team Sport
  36. ‘There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path’ – The Matrix
  37. ‘Can’t change the waves. Can learn to surf.’
  38. Email and Facebook
  39. ‘Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship.’
  40. Transitions
  41. ‘When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.’
  42. Distance and ‘Somewhere only we know’
  43. On the power of checklists
  44. Sporting Nirvana
  45. Songs and us
  46. ‘We live in a society where pizza gets to your house before the police’ :)

March 2011

  1. Already read it. Thanks anyway
  2. ‘There’s been nothing but discipline, discipline, discipline all my life.’ | Celine Dion
  3. ‘Being a professional is doing the things you love to do on days you don’t feel like doing them’ | Irving Wallace
  4. ‘Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.’
  5. Die Daily
  6. ‘What lies behind us is far less important when compared to what lies ahead. Why else is the windshield so much bigger than the rear view mirror?’
  7. On Innovation
  8. Imagine you were passing a construction site..
  9. Celebrating the genius of Paul Aaron Scholes
  10. ‘My father was a priest. I had to make up for the lack of sin.’ – Milwuakee mayor, on why he became a politician .. :)
  11. ‘Every artist was first an amateur.’ – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  12. Are you making something? – Seth Godin
  13. ‘Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.’ – Seneca
  14. Using momentum to our advantage
  15. ‘You can lead a boy to college, but you can”t make him think’
  16. NOT about time, ALL about energy
  17. ‘No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thought’
  18. Celebrating the world, diversity and life..
  19. On Mojo’s
  20. The Tale of 3 Restaurants
  21. Conviction
  22. ‘When is your birthday? 18th March. What year? Every year!’
  23. The human mind
  24. Musings on the news
  25. ‘The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.’
  26. The Flower Vase
  27. ‘To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.’
  28. ‘There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.’ – DC
  29. Seven questions for leaders – Seth Godin
  30. ‘Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.’
  31. On saying ‘No’
  32. A moment’s silence for Japan
  33. Another station, another guitar player and Breakfast at Tiffany’s
  34. ‘All the desireable things in life are… either illegal, expensive, fattening or married to someone else.’
  35. 30 things we need – and 30 we don’t
  36. ‘Everything will be fine in the end. If it’s not fine, it’s not the end.’
  37. The ‘Confirm your email address’ field
  38. ‘Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of.’
  39. ‘We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.’
  40. Some things are meant to be
  41. A motto for those doing work that matters: ‘We can’t please everyone, in fact, we’re not even going to try.’
  42. On Breakfast meetings
  43. Modern day oxygen
  44. A classic love story in the 1800s
  45. The Guitar player at Liverpool Street station
  46. ‘I went to the bookstore and asked the sales clerk, “Where’s the self-help section?” She said that if she told me it would defeat the purpose.’
  47. The thing that makes it popular… (Seth Godin)
  48. ‘You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.’
  49. U.P.O.D
  50. ‘A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles.”
  51. ‘What goes around, comes around’

February 2011

  1. Note to self – Thank god for small mercies
  2. ‘Balance is ensuring you take yourself seriously enough to take your dreams seriously but not so seriously that you can’t laugh at yourself’ – TGRR
  3. A weather musing
  4. On Barbarians, Civitas and Alexander:
  5. Emotions in 24 hours
  6. ‘Atheism is a non-prophet organization.’ – George Carlin
  7. When it’s done, it’s done.
  8. ‘The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.’
  9. Digging Deep
  10. ‘No one can possibly achieve real and lasting success by being a conformist’ J. Paul Getty
  11. ‘If we are all really alone in this life on this planet, then atleast we are all together in that.’
  12. Heidi
  13. ‘Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.’ – Eleanor Roosevelt
  14. On the man who loved to complain
  15. Reflecting on the weekend
  16. Just because they could
  17. ‘Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources’ – Rohan Rajiv
  18. ‘A goal without a plan is just a wish.’
  19. Have you ever had your patience severely tested?
  20. ‘People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost’
  21. The Paradox
  22. ‘Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn’
  23. ‘The difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary is the little extra.’
  24. On Finding Coaches
  25. You don’t need to always suggest a change..
  26. One who knows not, and knows not that he knows not is a fool.
  27. The magic of ‘Inshallah’ – Note: This post is non-religious
  28. Quality of a place = Quality of the restrooms
  29. ‘What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything’ – Vincent van Gogh
  30. ‘Your sh*t = someone else’s business’ – NH on watching a beetle industriously taking camel dung away to it’s home
  31. The Desert
  32. 3 out of 4 laptops in the browsing area at Changi Airport
  33. ‘Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance.’
  34. ‘The secret to success is to start from scratch and keep on scratching.’
  35. Demonstrating Courage
  36. The Dolphins didn’t show up
  37. ‘If it’s green it’s Biology; if it stinks it’s chemistry; if it has numbers it’s math and if it doesn’t work it’s technology’
  38. Organize, re-organize and organize again
  39. ‘Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.’
  40. What are we afraid of..
  41. ‘One-half of life is luck; the other half is discipline– and that’s the important half, for without discipline you wouldn’t know what to do with luck’

January 2011

  1. ‘Each misfortune you encounter will carry in it the seed of tomorrow’s good luck.’
  2. When you take that break, try Lumosity
  3. On showers and big decisions
  4. ‘We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?’
  5. The 100 metre sprint, the 400 metre dash and the Marathon
  6. CNN, Let your customers win
  7. ‘Those who wish to sing, always find a song.’
  8. The Hacking Work Manifesto
  9. ‘The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.’
  10. ‘The next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it.’
  11. Three ways to help people get things done – Seth Godin
  12. ‘The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.’ Bruce Lee
  13. Lyndon Johnson’s 10 point formula for success
  14. Unwashed Vessels in your sink
  15. Expectations
  16. Will this even matter in 10 years?
  17. Children:You spend the 1st 2 years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next 16 years telling them to sit down and shut up
  18. ‘Take your life in your own hands and a what happens? A terrible thing…. No one else is to blame.’
  19. The Blessings people
  20. ‘If everybody cleaned their doorstep, the whole world would be clean’ – Mother Teresa
  21. Joy
  22. ‘Find me a great leader who talks more than he listens’
  23. The Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock
  24. ‘Complaining is like vomiting. You feel better but the people around you feel worse.’
  25. 1 dollar every day
  26. 20 Tips for a Positive New Year
  27. Learning a ZERO error sport
  28. ‘When there’s a will…. there’s always 500 relatives.’
  29. ‘The difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective.’
  30. Style does matter
  31. ‘The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.’
  32. ‘The fish stinks right from the head’ – John Yokohama of ‘World Famous Pike Place Fish’ telling leaders not to point fingers at anybody.
  33. The Pebble in my Shoe
  34. ‘Better a diamond with flaws than a pebble without one.’
  35. ‘Being’ world class:
  36. Fully charged
  37. Building – brick by brick
  38. ‘Beginning a sentence with ‘Now, don’t get angry…’ will always have the reverse effect.’
  39. A Walk to Remember
  40. ‘Criticisms are like homing pigeons. They always return home.’
  41. The Sound of Silence
  42. ‘When was the last time you did something for the first time?’
  43. ‘The behavior that gets rewarded is the behavior that gets repeated.’
  44. The Gift Habit
  45. ‘Too many people spend money they haven’t earned ,to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.’
  46. Tweaking the ‘why’ question
  47. Looking back, and then looking ahead

2010 658

December 2010

  1. The Serenity Prayer
  2. If you are traveling with a child, please attend to yourself first, then the child.
  3. Putting yourself on the holiday priority list
  4. 10 questions to sync with ‘me’ – A review tool
  5. Time with Grandpa
  6. Disconnect to Connect
  7. ‘If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses ‘- Henry Ford’
  8. The up and down routine
  9. ‘You’ve got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.’
  10. ‘I have never read an obituary that says he surrounded by his golf partner, his accountants and his attorneys’
  11. Get back in touch with those old friends
  12. ‘To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.’
  13. ‘The first thing you do in a quality system is take the quality ‘checker’ out’ – CG
  14. The 7 Habits of Highly Rich Millionaires
  15. Ask, but don’t ask too much
  16. Irreverent Advice for Young Up-and-Comers:
  17. ‘Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac.’ – George Carlin
  18. So you’re having a lamp post day..
  19. ‘Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a Soul?’ – John Keats
  20. ‘While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.’
  21. Productivity and Work Outs
  22. ‘Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.’
  23. The plunge
  24. ‘You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea.’ – John Nuveen.
  25. On Empowerment
  26. Managing our leaders
  27. Alearningaday.com – Finally
  28. ‘The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.’
  29. 10 tips for financial well being
  30. ‘Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure can buy lots of things that contribute mightily to happiness.’
  31. Living life one day at a time – a conversation with me
  32. ‘Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself from the unacceptable.’
  33. Remember to be kind to yourself along the way
  34. ‘He who leads with no willing followers is simply taking a walk’
  35. ‘If you have more than 3 priorities then you don’t have any.’
  36. On dealing with resistance – The consulting way
  37. The world’s worst boss
  38. Whose life did you touch today
  39. The 5 most common regrets as told to a nurse
  40. ‘Why do people say “no offense” when they’re about to offend someone?’
  41. For slower internet connections – Solving loss of buffer in YouTube full screen videos
  42. ‘Remember that before someone will lend you a hand, you need to touch their heart.’
  43. How do you use your social networks
  44. ‘The key to success is fearlessness combined with a commitment to being open to learning new things.’

November 2010

  1. Energy drainers
  2. ‘The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret.’
  3. ‘The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady acceleration.’
  4. Time
  5. Why your real estate agent does not bother with the 10,000 dollar increase when you sell your house
  6. ‘The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.’ – Calvin & Hobbes
  7. Where do ideas come from? – Seth Godin
  8. ‘People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.’
  9. Don’t do work you love
  10. ‘Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.’
  11. The Cartoon network display pic
  12. ‘Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.’
  13. Human group evolutions and today’s corporate world
  14. ‘The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.’ Dag Hammarskjold
  15. Are you unsure about your next career step/looking to make it into consulting or a top B school?
  16. Don’t rush – Learning from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie
  17. Books!!
  18. Wishful thinking…
  19. ‘The only place you’ll reach if you follow the crowd is the exit.’
  20. Does an entrepreneur need an MBA? – From HBR
  21. ‘Never talk when you can nod.’
  22. The problem with ‘ideal’ diets
  23. ‘I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.’ – Muhammad Ali.
  24. ‘The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.’
  25. ‘It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.’
  26. ‘Hunter Gatherer’ pop quiz
  27. When did you last glance through a travel agency’s brochure?
  28. No one else knows better.
  29. ‘I could agree with you but we would both be wrong.’
  30. Success is not a dirty word.
  31. Disconnect to Connect – Life learning from a Thai ad
  32. ‘Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your convictions’ – Dag Hammarskjold
  33. Everybody is a venture capitalist. Yes, you too.
  34. ‘If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original’ – Sir Ken Robinson
  35. No point screaming, ranting or raving..
  36. Nothing endures but change. – Heraclitus
  37. 3 Things that will save you when all else seems to be going wrong
  38. ‘Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats’
  39. On random tasks and appointing bosses
  40. A little kid’s wonderment
  41. Don’t lose twice – a flight story
  42. Schadenfreude
  43. ‘Hard work spotlights the character of people. Some turn up their sleeves. Some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.’
  44. ‘Let him that would move the world first move himself.’ – Socrates
  45. Remembering Timon and Pumba..
  46. ‘If you keep rephrasing the question, it gradually becomes the answer.’
  47. ‘I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.’
  48. The Tip – An airport story from yesterday
  49. ‘I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.’

October 2010

  1. On different types of focus
  2. Signatures, autographs and The Bournvita Quiz Contest..
  3. What if royal was the new average?
  4. ‘If a man speaks his mind in the forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?’
  5. ‘Lonely and bored’ – Food for thought..
  6. ‘You find peace by coming to terms with what you don’t know’ – Taleb
  7. ‘Changing the plan is part of the plan’
  8. How ‘corporations’ came about..
  9. ‘How a man plays a game shows something of his character, how he loses shows all of it’
  10. ‘How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar’
  11. On clean fire trucks:
  12. The Whale – a story..
  13. TED: Do schools kill creativity? By Sir Ken Robinson..
  14. ‘If you’re good you’ll get assigned all the work. If you’re REALLY good you will get out of it.’
  15. How I (almost) never gave myself a chance – A struggle within..
  16. A 16 point list: It takes a bigger person to..
  17. ‘Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal, and I will give you a stock clerk.’
  18. ‘I’ve done more harm by the falseness of trying to please than by the honesty of trying to hurt.’ – Jessamyn West.
  19. In Fergie we trust..
  20. ‘From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.’
  21. ‘Character may be manifested in big moments, but it is made in the small ones’
  22. Break the day into segments..
  23. 140 countries done, 52 to go..
  24. Proactivity – The difference
  25. ‘By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll be happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.’ – Socrates.
  26. What hides behind laughter – yours and mine..
  27. ‘We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.’
  28. You’ve had a long bad day and stare into an unpleasant email..
  29. ‘The closest to being in control we will ever be is in that moment we realize we’re not’
  30. Practicing change..
  31. ‘People are like fine wine. They are generally an acquired taste and typically get better with age.’ – TGRR
  32. Applying ‘Action days’ to our lives
  33. ‘Life is such that we can finish our journey knowing more about others than about ourselves.’
  34. Why we are asked to raise windows just before taking off or landing..
  35. Touchdown Sohar..
  36. Friends..
  37. ‘Some of us learn from other people’s mistakes and the rest of us have to be other people’
  38. Just because I can..
  39. ‘So often we try to alter circumstances to suit ourselves, instead of letting them alter us.’
  40. The moving to do list – from GigaOm
  41. ‘If Columbus had turned back, no one would have blamed him. Of course, no one would have remembered him either.”
  42. On setting a worthy goal..
  43. ‘People don’t believe what you say – they believe what they infer from what you say’
  44. Difficult Conversations..
  45. The challenges never stop..
  46. ‘It generally takes about 10 years to become an overnight sensation’
  47. Sundays as planning days are phenomenal..
  48. ‘Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.’

September 2010

  1. Drivers, Creatives, Analytics and Amiables – How to Present your ideas super effectively..
  2. ‘The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time’ – Abraham Lincoln
  3. Blur of activity, Change and the Get it done guy’s book…
  4. ‘If the grass is greener on the other side, you can be sure the water bill is higher’..
  5. ‘If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.’
  6. It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech..
  7. Do it Anyway – Mother Teresa
  8. Make a system.. and never feel guilty again.
  9. Anything that’s not a yes is a no..
  10. The Lost Symbol, The bucket list and Prince of Persia..
  11. If you don’t like where you are, then change it! You’re not a tree.
  12. ‘The degree of one’s emotions varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts.’ -Bertrand Russell
  13. Ruthless email de-cluttering..
  14. If you look at life one way, there is always cause for alarm.
  15. Waking up to a nice sounding alarm..
  16. The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence – Vince Lombardi
  17. ‘In this life, we cannot always do great things but we can do small things with great love’ – Mother Teresa
  18. Tethering means you never have internet down time..
  19. Investing time in getting ourselves planned and organized – A story..
  20. When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one,
  21. ‘The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.’
  22. Are you an audio book, an e book or a paperback?
  23. ‘No matter which direction you start, it’s always against the wind.’
  24. ‘Worry, like a rocking chair will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.’
  25. Partly cloudy and boundin..
  26. ‘I am not young enough to know everything’
  27. Juggling blogs, writing a book and updates..
  28. Letting people be..
  29. Feeling alive..
  30. Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute..
  31. Set a big financial goal, not for the money, but for what it’ll make of you to achieve it | Jim Rohn
  32. Man in the Glass..
  33. 6 Ways to Supercharge your productivity – HBR
  34. Nine tenths of education is encouragement..
  35. Procrastination is living yesterday, avoiding today and ruining tomorrow.
  36. iPhone and Android..
  37. Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.
  38. On seeking validation..
  39. Obsessing about the end..
  40. If you are not living life on the edge, you are taking up too much space
  41. It is the weak who are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
  42. ‘Many people struggle at work because they want more authority..

August 2010

  1. Gold Medals are not really made of gold. They are made of sweat, determination and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.– Jesse Owens
  2. There is a time for everything…
  3. The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war
  4. Starting the day with 30 mins of reading..
  5. When I scream at someone..
  6. The paradox is that by the time you get to be senior, the decisions that matter the most are the ones that would be best made made by..
  7. Blogs and ‘What Perfect Is’
  8. Only those who are asleep make no mistakes – Ingvar Kamprad
  9. Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus when the limo breaks down.
  10. One bad apple ruins the bunch..
  11. The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.’
  12. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work
  13. Weekends are..
  14. Systems kick in slowly..
  15. Giving only helps..
  16. You win some and lose some, it’s part of the game..
  17. I can’t sell anything to anyone – I’m a salesperson, not a con artist – Zig Ziglar
  18. All sunshine makes a desert..
  19. Measure your success not by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished given your ability
  20. Would you like it done to you..
  21. What we fear the most is usually what we most need to do..
  22. Who is your crisis counsellor..
  23. Avoiding momentum – Seth Godin
  24. It is harder to be kind than clever – Jeff Bezos..
  25. Attention to detail, attention to detail..
  26. An expert is someone who has made all the possible mistakes in a very narrow field – Niels Bohr
  27. Leadership by laughing a lot..
  28. ‘You’ve told me this before..’
  29. Getting everything done is not always a sign of good time management, it can also be a sign of not having enough to do
  30. Many people don’t follow their dreams because they are afraid to fail. What they don’t see is that there is a big difference between failing and being
  31. Our most precious resource is not our time, it’s our energy. Manage it well.
  32. On loving work..
  33. Teaching is demonstrating that something is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself.
  34. Competition – Seth Godin
  35. ‘We try to convince people to believe in what we believe as we think doing so makes certain that what we believe is the truth’
  36. 2 day break, National day again and the comunity shield..
  37. Daily numbers..
  38. Success Is relative. The more the success, the more the relatives….
  39. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.
  40. Print out calendar and the To-Do list for the day..
  41. ‘My life has a superb cast but I can’t figure out the plot’
  42. It is better to strike a straight blow with a crooked stick than spend your whole life trying to straighten the darn thing out!
  43. The wake up music list..
  44. The best career advice: ‘Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it’
  45. Happy Friendship day..
  46. Joys of an absolutely lazy weekend..

July 2010

  1. Never stop dreaming – The Pilgrimage..
  2. How can we keep up the enthusiasm..
  3. Always do right! This will gratify some people and astonish the rest – Mark Twain
  4. Today was the day of the first pay check..
  5. If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
  6. Heaven and hell to the man, the horse and the dog
  7. 3 attributes of a great football player equated to..
  8. Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century. :)
  9. Most talk, few do and fewer just be – TGRR
  10. Am I taking the easy way out?
  11. You are sleep deprived at the very start of the day, staring at your work screen – go the admin way..
  12. Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought…
  13. Aaj ka yeh din hai mera din meri marzi ka..
  14. Aha! Notes..
  15. Conditioning, conditioning..
  16. Only you can take care of yourself..
  17. Starting the day w/learnings, impact goals, blessings and dreams etc
  18. ‘Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought’ -Henri L. Bergson
  19. Morning for execution and night for creativity
  20. Thanking god for the little things..
  21. ‘First we make our habits, and then our habits make us’
  22. Take ideas down..
  23. ‘We tend to judge others by actions, while we judge ourselves by our intentions’
  24. Errors do matter and carelessness does count..
  25. Why Starhub and Singtel make their customers wait 1-2 hours before picking up the phone..
  26. Mondays need NOT be blue..
  27. ‘Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.’
  28. A kick in the butt..
  29. Exploring Horizons – Zurich
  30. Have a nice life..
  31. Lark-ing away to glory – BNET..
  32. ‘Here’s the test to figure out if your mission on earth is finished. If you’re alive, it isn’t.’
  33. On being boring..
  34. ‘We must be willing to make an intelligent compromise with perfection lest we wait forever before taking action.’ – David J. Schwartz
  35. PIG and COW..
  36. ‘A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.’
  37. Counteracting brain fry..
  38. ‘Dont stop reading. One book out there has an idea that will transform your life forever. And you dont know which book that is…’
  39. The A380 flight and suite dream..
  40. Travel Checklist – Never waste time worrying about packing again..
  41. Change management guru..
  42. Answers to life in my very room..
  43. ‘I am thankful to all those who said NO to me, it’s because of them I did it myself.’ – Einstein
  44. Dell Support – Take a bow..
  45. ‘Laughter does not mean the absence of sorrow, it indicates the ability to deal with it.’ ..
  46. Starhub 018 – Call home and Tom Cruise/Megan Fox for free..
  47. A card castle in motion..
  48. Pondering..
  49. ‘Coins make sound while notes are always silent. So, when your value increases, remember to keep yourself calm and silent.’
  50. Advantages of spending hours traveling in a day..
  51. Why You Can’t Get More Happiness, Money and Love By Pursuing Them Directly
  52. “Whatever the hell happens,” … say, “This is what I need.” – Uncle Joe
  53. Do you believe in miracles? Yes..
  54. The Big Idea – Love your fate!
  55. ‘By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.’
  56. Learning by doing..
  57. Optimization – Seth Godin
  58. Curiosity..
  59. 5 Nice one line stories with morals..
  60. GMAT Debrief: 700(90,Q44,V41,5.5) and 720(94,Q49,V40,6)
  61. How to be the ideal employee – BNET
  62. “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it!! “
  63. Of expectations and speech..
  64. Success arises out of a steady accumulation of advantages..

June 2010

  1. Self Help books..
  2. We have very little time with people..
  3. The man who can’t dance thinks the band is no good.
  4. Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they’re yours.
  5. A flurry of activity..
  6. Rushing inevitably leads to mistakes..
  7. “A person who chases two rabbits catches neither – Confucius “
  8. Our body parts giving us life lessons..
  9. Thinking it away..
  10. Resolving an overwhelmed state in 4 steps..
  11. The one thing at a time rule..
  12. The law of heredity is that all undesirable traits come from the other parent.
  13. ‘The conductor of an orchestra never makes a sound’
  14. Endeavor to be a class above who you are..
  15. ‘A leader’s defining characteristic is that he does not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he’s leading to realize whatever he’s dreaming
  16. ‘Knowledge talks, wisdom listens’
  17. Once again – Benjamin Zander..
  18. The Interview with God..
  19. ‘It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.’ Dag Hammarskjold
  20. An engineering quote that best tells the story of my 4 years..
  21. Anger..
  22. Small courtesies do count..
  23. When we check our mail/facebook/blog first thing in the morning..
  24. Musings..
  25. ‘To be wise is not to let your victories go to your head, or your failures go to your heart.’
  26. Learning from betting..
  27. Do we leave people energized, sober or drained…
  28. Thank you..
  29. Let’s enjoy the world cup for what it is..
  30. ‘The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge/’
  31. Why brush our teeth before food in the morning..
  32. Why our opthamologist/eye doctor does what he/she does..
  33. Put that cat on the phone..
  34. ‘Laughing is good exercise. It’s like jogging on the inside.’
  35. When you’re happy, share it..
  36. ‘When your eyes are stuck on the prize, you’re going to keep stumbling and crashing into things.’
  37. And life throws a humbler..
  38. Setting a mental expectation from myself..
  39. ‘Grace under pressure is what separates leaders from the rest’
  40. Another interesting bunch of days..
  41. What a dancer..
  42. When you fall sick, it’s God’s way of saying ‘Dude.. take a break!’
  43. The Big Idea – 6 Human Needs
  44. Challenges and struggles..
  45. ‘If you’re not being criticized, you’re not doing it right, you’re only playing in front of family and friends’
  46. Football frenzy in Kerala..
  47. ‘That’s the thing about U2. The band always feels like its coming, never that its arrived’ – Bono
  48. The only losers are those who are so scared of not winning that they don’t even try..
  49. The new google docs – NICE..
  50. To Sam Kutty Sir, Subramaniam Sir and Balaguru Sir..
  51. Rest in Peace little one..
  52. ‘The strongest force in the universe is a human being living consistently with his identity.’
  53. Interesting day – a reflection..
  54. Staring at the rear view mirror..
  55. ‘Success is the result of good judgment, good judgment is a result of experience, experience is often the result of bad judgment.’
  56. Small joys – raiding refrigerators..
  57. 2010 Graduates: How to Become a Millionaire
  58. Of naivety, technology and burning bridges..
  59. The better you get, the ‘softer’ you get..
  60. Few of us can write great novels. All of us can live them..
  61. Surely not everyone – Seth Godin
  62. ‘Newton didn’t come up with his great idea about gravity while rushing to catch a subway. To be productive, relax and have fun..’
  63. Measure everything..
  64. 2 ways to think about something..
  65. So, should I be choosing NUS or NTU or NIT or IIT? The ‘which university’ question..
  66. ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The 2nd best time is today.’ – Chinese Proverb
  67. ‘There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which shouldn’t be done at all’ – Peter Drucker

May 2010

  1. The WIP folder solution..
  2. The a-connect journey begins..
  3. Rohanrajiv.com and Subscriptions to quotes, book learnings..
  4. ‘Every time you are saying yes to something unimportant, you are saying no to something important.’
  5. Meeting an Interesting Airport character..
  6. Slow and steady..
  7. ‘Effective communication is not talking and talking well. It’s just about being heard..’
  8. ”The very thing you most want to see more of is the very thing you need to give away’
  9. ‘Just for today, let’s be madly energetic and outrageously alive’ – Robin Sharma
  10. The Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma – Idea rich!
  11. The Blind Side – Loved the movie!
  12. ‘If you think you are too small to make an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room’- Anita Roddick
  13. Seatguru for seat selection during online check in..
  14. ‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do..
  15. The Mahabharata – Separating a few myths from reality..
  16. Which villain would you find scarier?
  17. ‘Don’t be serious, be sincere’..
  18. Choice between right and easy.. always..
  19. Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t.
  20. A Veterinary Doctor’s Fee.. hahaha..
  21. ‘A big part of being happy is learning how to subordinate what we want now for what we want later’
  22. 2 things to think about when things don’t go as per plan..
  23. ‘A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.’
  24. The Ultimate ‘Beat the Heat’ Recipe..
  25. Today my grandma asked me if I’d checked something out on facebook..
  26. ‘Every person gives his/her life to what he/she truly believes in. Those who truly believe in little or nothing give their lives to little or nothing’
  27. “The sculptor of a work of art does not derive his greatest satisfaction from the finished piece…
  28. Arrogant – Seth Godin
  29. Confessions of a serial blogger..
  30. Success breeds success – a story..
  31. Divorce after 40 years – a story..
  32. Stimulus: Here’s something new to do; Response: I can’t do it..
  33. There are many things in our lives that will catch your eye, But only a few will catch your heart…pursue those. – Anonymous
  34. Meeting my Math Coach..
  35. One does what one is; One becomes what one does.
  36. Vitamin String Quartet!! Sweet child of mine, Hallelujah, Hey there Delilah and more..
  37. Reason, season and lifetime – friendships explained..
  38. It’s the process, stupid!
  39. “I’ve heard of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. But I’ve never heard of Someday.” Revered lke
  40. The mistakes that are annoying are not the big ones..
  41. Life, about dancing in the rain – a story..
  42. 10 Leadership tips from women executives..
  43. Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.
  44. Val’s Sparkz-ian reminder..
  45. ‘Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats’ ~Howard Aiken
  46. You can take a horse to the water..
  47. Happy Mother’s day to every Mom out there..
  48. The Big Idea — Playing to Win
  49. Featured Song: Last Kiss by Pearl Jam
  50. Find a place for something and keep it right back in that place..
  51. From Disorganized to Organized..
  52. The statistics on sanity are that 1 in every 4 is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think, if your three best friends are okay, it’s you
  53. Breakfast @ Saravana Bhavan..
  54. The story of cool..
  55. ‘If a small thing has the power to make us angry, does that not indicate something about our size?’
  56. “Irreverence ran on both sides of my family… My parents brought me up to think that we could all change the world.”~ Richard Branson
  57. The Big Idea – Soak Your Mind
  58. Hey there Delilah..
  59. ‘Time sets the stage; fate writes the script; but only we may choose our character’
  60. Of excitement to fear, calm, life and formula 1 racers..
  61. Irony that Google Spreadsheets work better in Firefox than Chrome..
  62. ‘A smart man only believes half of what he hears, a wise man knows which half’ – Jeff Cooper..
  63. Meeting Mr.Anonymous..
  64. Meeting Marler, Tweed and gang..
  65. The Big Idea — Your Primary Question
  66. Back home, a different feel and many ‘maybe’s’..
  67. Of nuts and geniuses..

April 2010

  1. Life is a highway..
  2. ‘Many wonderful things happen right at the end’
  3. NUS: I will remember..the experience ..
  4. NUS: I will remember(XX) the walk (Photos only.. :))
  5. Last night in PGP as a student.
  6. There’s a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don’t take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates….
  7. NUS: I will remember(XIX) trips – Langkawi and Cameron..
  8. Lucky people are simply unlucky people who keep trying their luck…
  9. The big idea – CZ = WZ
  10. Sweet scent of ‘EE’ – less life ahead.. I’m DONE!
  11. The more studying you did for the exam, the less sure you are as to which answer they want.
  12. Random Thoughts – 20 years from now..
  13. NUS: I will remember(XVIII) the gang..
  14. ‘Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency’
  15. What you look for is what you see..
  16. NUS: I will remember(XVII) miscellaneous..
  17. NUS: I will remember(XVI) the R15 system..
  18. The ‘Ah Interesting’ Reaction..
  19. NUS: I will remember (XV) classes and professors..
  20. I intend to live forever. So far, so good….
  21. NUS: I will remember (XIV) ArtVibe..
  22. Listen to your voices..
  23. ‘If people are looking to bring you down, then it means you’re on the way up! Tell em’ hi and sail by!’
  24. NUS: I will remember(XIII) Sparkz..
  25. “The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” Moliere
  26. NUS: I will remember (XII) friends..
  27. Changing environment, schedules once a while works well..
  28. ‘All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again’
  29. The Big Idea — Fruits & Roots
  30. NUS: I will remember(XI) the return to book reading..
  31. Delay every email you send by 3 mins.. and avoid the ‘Oh no!’
  32. ‘Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.’ – Will Rogers
  33. ES2007s Blog Post 6: Looking back at the semester..
  34. NUS: I will remember(X) RealAcad..
  35. Perfect footballing weekend..
  36. NUS: I will remember(IX) the summer of 2009..
  37. ‘I will never say anything that couldn’t stand as the last thing I ever say – From a Jewish woman..
  38. NUS: I will remember(VIII) my goofs..
  39. Just attended my last university class today..
  40. Don’t argue with Idiots.. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience
  41. Plan, execute, follow up.. and the loop continues..
  42. NUS: I will remember(VII) Football!
  43. Life lesson from eating a pineapple piece..
  44. The more you know, the more you know that you don’t know
  45. NUS: I will remember(VI) ExpressionHappens, my talk show and a mockery group..
  46. Am I listening?..
  47. The Law of attraction – you’re going to get back what you put out’
  48. Tiredness makes us emotional..
  49. NUS: I will remember(V) trips back home..
  50. ES2007S Blog Post 4: Oral Presentation Reflection
  51. If we have to achieve something we haven’t achieved yet, we have to do something we haven’t yet’ ..
  52. NUS: I will remember(IV) PGPR..
  53. No amount of planning can save us from reality, the only thing that can is….
  54. To know, and not to do, is not to know..
  55. Pale blue dot – Putting things in perspective..
  56. NUS: I will remember (III) Nineo..
  57. NUS: I will remember(II) double rice and science canteen.
  58. 3 Learnings from the 8th Habit (continued)..
  59. Thanks Matthew, Richard, Bei Yi, Crystel et al..
  60. NUS: I will remember(I) my first semester – admission, orientation et al..
  61. “My Mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.”
  62. I was complaining to myself about the intense humidity when..
  63. The Nostalgia Series – 22 days left..
  64. Conquering Thursday morning blues..
  65. Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.| Mark Twain..
  66. “The world over, 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis..
  67. If the moon fell down tonight..
  68. The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.| Dag Hammarskjold
  69. Why am I doing what I am doing?
  70. ‘ All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.’ Charles M. Schulz ‘
  71. Never give up on people.. miracles happen every day..
  72. Only those who attempt the absurd can acheive the impossible.
  73. Nostalgia II: FYP Thesis…
  74. “I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career.
  75. Our hearts only get bigger..
  76. Hogging Bandwidth..
  77. The Big Rocks – Small Rocks dilemma..
  78. What happens when there are sudden interesting developments..
  79. Leader – The Dinner Time Test..
  80. ‘Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.’ | Bill Cosby
  81. Long weekend!!
  82. When in charge, ponder. When in doubt, mumble. When in trouble, delegate…

March 2010

  1. Context..
  2. So, what happens if we are direction-less on a written project?
  3. In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us. Dag Hammarskjold
  4. Bad results, good day..
  5. If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer. – Dag Hammarskjold
  6. The Hug..
  7. Some things take time..
  8. A lot boils down to acceptance..
  9. It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses. Dag Hammarskjold
  10. Don’t take it personally, it’s just me..
  11. Weekend Book Learning – The 8th Habit..
  12. A chat about values and beliefs..
  13. Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet! They’re about to announce the lottery numbers. – Homer Simpson..
  14. An unexpected call..
  15. Remembering RCS Sir..
  16. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing’ – Covey on prioritization..
  17. Never have regrets, because at one point everything you did was exactly what you wanted..
  18. “Always treat a famous person as if they’re not. And a person who’s not as if they were.” – Adam Lawrence..
  19. ‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’ – Pablo Picasso
  20. ES2007S Proposal Peer Review
  21. “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~Henry Thoreau
  22. Midnight walk and top of the table..
  23. Small thank you’s..
  24. Leadership lessons from the shirtless dancing guy.. (link below)
  25. What is about emotions that frightens us..
  26. Your Song..
  27. ArtVibe’s Olympic Art – An example of ‘Tough to let go’..
  28. Take baby steps – 1 at a time. First the right, then the left..
  29. United Bayern.. Le Arse Barca.. Wow!
  30. Leadership is simply about caring more than the next person – Jack Welch..
  31. Inside every older person is a younger person, wondering what the hell happened. – Cora Harvey Armstrong ..
  32. Start->Restart – Time to start anew in 60 mins..
  33. Question to organizations – are your people treated as expenses or assets/investments?
  34. ‘The problems we face cannot be solved at the same level we were at when we created them’ – Einstein
  35. Thoughts while sitting down and waiting for a shuttle bus..
  36. A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.~ Mark Twain
  37. Tribute to the Sparkz Team..
  38. The whirlwind that was the past week..
  39. Give it all you’ve got because you never know if there’s going to be a next time. – Danielle Ingrum
  40. Back to my laptop after a great 3 days..
  41. Sparkz on live stream on http://sparkz.expressionhappens.com/live ..
  42. ‘There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.’ Albert Einstein
  43. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.- Ralph Waldo Emerson ..
  44. 25 pieces of work advice..
  45. Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up. – Jesse Jackson
  46. 4 days to go for Sparkz and we are sold out..
  47. Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and sickness, to riches and poverty, to freedom and to slavery…
  48. Form is temporary, class is permanent..
  49. Thanks Joshua..
  50. ‘Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.’
  51. As Daddy said, life is 95 percent anticipation. – Gloria Swanson
  52. The ‘Seek to understand’ story..
  53. To think, re-think and act..
  54. First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win. – Mahatma Gandhi ..
  55. “Perhaps all pleasure is only relief.”
  56. ‘There’s always free cheese in the mouse traps, but the mice there ain’t happy.’
  57. Little productivity boosters – Texter, Mouse, Launchy and the like..(Predominantly Windows)
  58. If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same;
  59. The tough part is not coming up with an innovative idea, the tough part is getting rid of the old one.’
  60. Money talks.. mine always says goodbye.. ;)
  61. To some, life is a war to be fought. To others, life is a joyous journey in this world..
  62. “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”

February 2010

  1. Aaron Ramsey – I hope this makes you stronger..
  2. BNET: Top 10 reasons for Sales rep failure
  3. It’s the environment, stupid! …
  4. ‘Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.’
  5. The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.
  6. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar – It’s been a privilege..
  7. The willow knows what the storm does not: that the power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it..
  8. What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.- Zig Ziglar
  9. The Daffodil Principle – a great read..
  10. Money bags..
  11. ‘We will either find a way or make one..’ – Hannibal Barca
  12. ES2007S Blog Post 4: Evaluating Intercultural behavior
  13. Grandad’s Sunday Advice – The Secret of Success..
  14. Enjoyed my last NUS mid-sem break..
  15. Go on Tiger.. do what you do best..
  16. Do not condemn the judgement of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong.- Dandemis ..
  17. Hogging Bandwidth..
  18. Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something ..
  19. Do not look where you fell but where you slipped – Anonymous
  20. How to put your PC to good use while sleeping..
  21. Cannot wait for Man Utd vs AC Milan..
  22. The question is not what you look at, but what you see.- Henry David Thoreau
  23. Preparing for a Trip – Basic Checklist
  24. Many people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could…
  25. ‘A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.- Steven Wright’
  26. You can’t keep blaming yourself. Just blame yourself once, and move on.-Homer Simpson.
  27. There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.- Steven Wright
  28. Why is work considered a bad thing?
  29. What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now.- Buddha
  30. First things first.. Focusing on Quadrant 2
  31. ES2007S Blog Post 3 – Application Letter
  32. Never say yes when you want to say a no..
  33. We can avoid making choices but even that is a decision.- Anonymous
  34. The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing.- Eric Berne
  35. A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did very well under pressure. – Anonymous
  36. For inspiration – Federer’s US Open Shot of the Year
  37. Chronicling the 1000 beautiful days before I hit 30 – A Blog
  38. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” ~Dr. Seuss
  39. Balance..
  40. There is a time for thought and a time for action..
  41. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. – Nelson Mandela

January 2010

  1. ES2007S Blog Post 2- Resolving Interpersonal Conflict
  2. Watching Federer after learning to play a bit of tennis is a totally different experience..
  3. “Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?”..
  4. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.
  5. If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same..
  6. Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have..
  7. Aaand it’s time for the Manchester Derby..!
  8. Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal. – Henry Ford..
  9. ‘Quit now, you’ll never make it….if you disregard this advice, you are halfway there!
  10. If A equals success, then the formula is: A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut – Albert Einstein
  11. ES2007S Blog Post 1- Effective Communication
  12. 3 from Invictus..
  13. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
  14. ‘Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more. – Mark Twain’
  15. Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means. – Albert Eintein
  16. Of Nadal, Federer, Ronaldo, Messi…
  17. Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it. – Ella Williams
  18. Attitude and Spirals..
  19. Its 11 am in the morning.. and there is no place for early morning brushing in our cluster bathroom.. Welcom to NUS!
  20. ‘…the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it. – The Lion King’
  21. Some days you ‘feel’ like the pigeon, some day you ‘feel’ like the statue..
  22. I am different from [George] Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie, but I won’t.-
  23. Lessons from Tiger Woods and why he should go back to the green..
  24. How to Be Happier in 2010 – BNET.. :)
  25. When you are young, the feet are right but the shoes are wrong..
  26. It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. – Mark Twain ..
  27. Forgive everyone everything..
  28. Take a moment, live life..
  29. ‘Human beings are far more frightened about (spiders), speaking on stage than death itself. So basically..
  30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time
  31. “If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn’t call it genius.” ~Michelangelo
  32. Ethereal song – Book of Love – Peter Gabriel..
  33. A line of advice from a marathon great –
  34. ‘Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer’
  35. ‘Don’t take yourself too seriously.. no one else does!’
  36. To Family..
  37. 3 Idiots..
  38. India Road Trip: Chennai – Bangalore
  39. Alive..
  40. Celebrating Birthdays..
  41. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world..
  42. People are like stained-glass windows. ..
  43. Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. – Mark Twain
  44. Rocky Balboa’s Feedback Technique..
  45. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things..
  46. May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions. ~Joey Adams ;)

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