Comments (0)

By Krishna, July 5, 2009

One of the easy ways to “read” a lot of books is to get their audiobook versions and hear them while commuting to work. Since you cannot typically do anything else while driving, the time is well spent. But there are a few things to watch out for in audiobooks.

The quality of an audiobook depends on how good the narrator is. And this has less to do with how good the narrator’s voice is than how well they know and like the material. Sometimes, a narrator has a good voice, but they fail to put emphasis or show enthusiasm at the right moments. The best narrator is usually the author unless they are terrible at speaking. Assuming that the reader is familiar with the material, their voice, accent and other speech patterns play an important part in how you will enjoy them.

Most of the time, you will not hear the audiobook at one shot, it being spread across multiple commutes. This is also a problem with hard-copy books, but you have the luxury of flipping back the pages of a book easily if you forget something. In an audiobook, that is not easily done, so the better audiobooks are the books that have themes and ideas that last longer and anecdotes that are shorter. This also helps if your attention is diverted during driving.

Some people recommend increasing the audiobook speed to listen faster. This works only if the reader was not speaking quickly to begin with, otherwise you get distorted words and meaning. I find even normal speed difficult for fiction audiobooks, because fiction is more complicated than non-fiction with complex plots and multiple characters. Unless the novel or story is presented by multiple voices representing the various characters, it is difficult to make out what is going on.

In non-fiction, books dealing with topics of business management, projects, innovation, etc. have good audiobook versions. Even though you miss some of the tables and charts that comes with the regular book, it does not prevent you from understanding the book. I haven’t heard any books on software topics, but I suppose with the greater use of visuals, they may not be as accessible in audio format.

Comments (4)

By Krishna, June 30, 2009

If you have a dream about achieving something, one of the biggest illusions you can have is to wait for the right circumstances to open up so that you can start working on your dream. This includes stuff like:

• I will do it when I find the time.
• I will do it when I don’t have any other responsibilities.
• I will do it when the stars are aligned.
• … etc.

The problem is that you will never find an opportune time. There will always be work to do, bills to pay, responsibilities to attend to, family members to take care of and a million other things. As you keep waiting, days go by. And the days turn into weeks, weeks into months and suddenly years fly by and there is a different face in the mirror.

Instead, try to make some progress every day. If you are writing a program in your spare time, try to complete something on a daily basis. Maybe it could be a simple screen, or it could be a database method. Or it could be refactoring or a test case. Or checking if the labels are aligned or have the right spelling. Every bit you do counts towards the final goal.

Second, realize that nothing comes without sacrifice. If you want to lead the exact same life that you had previously, the new venture will not fit in. If you still continue to sleep 9 hours, keep the TV on all the time and spend the rest of the time partying and enjoying life, don’t be surprised if there is no progress. You will have to give up activities to achieve your greater goals. In some cases, you may have to give up some of your friends. In simple terms, there is no free lunch.

Last, the present trajectory of your life is determined by factors such as your job, and your family. And if you have a different dream, that, by definition, has a different trajectory. The point is, how much effort are you spending on each path? And are the efforts on the first path taking you closer to or farther from the second one?

Comments (0)

By Krishna, June 22, 2009

I am an advocate of programmers starting their own blogs so that they can share their thoughts on programming and software development. But this is not necessarily a natural thing to do because writing is different from programming. The natural thing for a programmer to do is to write programs (duh!). So when you interview a programmer, a good judgment of whether they are good programmers is to ask them what kind of programming they do outside work. Do they have a hobby project they are working on? Are they contributing to some group project (open source or otherwise) online? If they also have a blog, that is a plus because it shows a passion for communicating with others, but it cannot be a filter.

On the other hand, when somebody is paid a salary for writing, i.e., they produce documentation or do some sort of technical writing, it just feels wrong when they do not have a blog or other outlet for writing. A person who likes writing will do it even if they are not being paid, because they have the need to put words to paper or the screen. So the equivalent interview question for such a person would be, what kind of writing do you do outside work? It doesn’t have to be technical stuff. Maybe they are writing a poem or a children’s story. But whatever it is, it demonstrates how much they love writing.

Similarly, a graphics designer without a personal website seems like an oxymoron. Does the person do the work only if they are paid to do it? Are they not interested in exploring design layouts, HTML, CSS and all the interesting stuff in the graphics world? Also importantly, how confident are they in showing the world what they have got in design skills?

So there you have it: The single most important question you can ask in an interview is about the natural thing for a professional to do outside their working hours? If they don’t have anything remotely connected to their profession, it is an indication that they don’t value the profession so much.

Obviously, there are exceptions. If a person is working in a sweatshop and only going home to sleep, or they don’t have the resources or are forbidden by law to tinker outside the workplace, that is fine. But in the normal course of events, you would always want to look at people who maintain their interest and use their time outside work.

Comments (1)

By Krishna, June 4, 2009

Matt at 37 Signals writes:

The term entrepreneur feels outdated. It’s associated with people who work brutal hours, invest their life savings, and risk it all on a dream.

But these days, you can do a ton with just a little. You can build a business by working just a few hours a week. You can keep your day job and start something on the side. Software and technology that used to cost a ton is now free (or very cheap). You can easily work from home and/or with people thousands of miles away.

In this new landscape, people who would never think to call themselves “entrepreneurs” are out there starting businesses, selling products, and turning profits. [...]

These people are thriving without risking it all or leveraging their lives. They’re succeeding without MBAs, business plans, and all those other credentials you’re supposed to have before starting a business. You just don’t need that stuff to build something great anymore.

The point is that you no longer have an excuse anymore for doing nothing. You cannot complain that life didn’t turn out to be great because you didn’t have money, resources or time. As Matt explains, you need just a little. So the biggest obstacle to achieving your dreams is you. How much priority have you given to chasing your dreams?

Those who complain are never serious to begin with. They need a scapegoat for their lack of achievements. And they point to whatever or whoever is available: their jobs, employers, family, friends, education and so on. But the real culprit is plain old laziness and lack of passion. This doesn’t mean that you are going to make a million dollars tomorrow by pursuing your dreams. You may very well do that, but maybe not – it depends on many factors beyond your control.

But the question is, are you trying? And are you spending some fraction of your time thinking about and contributing to your dream?

Comments (2)

By Krishna, February 28, 2009

I first came across the phrase “screen sucking” in Edward Hallowell’s “Crazy Busy”, an otherwise forgettable book. It is an apt term for how we spend hours online surfing without any end instead of getting on with our work. Not simply idling away in the office, but also at home, when we could be doing something more productive.

This kind of behavior existed before the Internet too. People would browse tabloids and magazines. They would sit glued to the television watching any show that happens to be on it. However, the Internet is different because the supply for your addiction is unlimited and easily available. It is like TV, but with hundreds of millions of channels to switch to, and a very convenient remote in the form of Google.

If you want to kill time, you can pick any topic you are interested in (sports, news, movies, politics, arts, stocks, etc.) and visit different sites to satisfy that interest. With RSS subscriptions and email newsletters, you can get them delivered to you: a slight productivity gain in not having to visit websites that is obliterated by the huge time loss in processing the delivered information. We are also seeing heavy increases in more rich information in audio podcasts and video streaming sites.

Let me be clear about one thing: This information overload is not because of noisy information. That is a problem in a different context, but here the problem is that there is too much GOOD information. Any average person has the tools and knowledge to differentiate between good and poor sources of information. People migrate towards sites that provide high quality, relevant, meaningful and authoritative content. The problem is that there are too many of those sites.

For example, if you are a conservative, liberal or moderate, you will find many tens or hundreds of political sites with highly competent writers providing commentary tuned to your views. You may not have enough time in the day to process all the information that they collectively produce every day. The average person’s reading speed is around 250 words per minute. Let’s assume 250 words is the average length of a blog post (this entire post is more than 750 words). You can perhaps read 60 blog posts every hour. Now add video content, podcast content, Twits, daily news on TV, etc. You just cannot catch them all.

Of course, few people set out to waste their time like this. But the quality of available information is high and people get drawn into spending more time than they had planned to. I talked about politics, but a similar case can be made for any subject, because almost every niche has websites and blogs on the Web. Some people may be spending time on content related to music or movies, others may be doing so for gardening or mystery novels.

How to get out of this kind of addiction. Some ideas.

1. Disconnect yourself from the network while using your computer for offline tasks. Shut down the TV and audio sources when you are working. It also saves energy and is good for the environment.
2. Use RSS effectively to get information sent to your reader (such as Google Reader) and only open it at a specific time during the day. Treat your feed reader as a 30-page newspaper. Just like you would never read the entire newspaper, you don’t have to read every single word you receive.
3. Online conversations can be useful, but understand your purpose and how much time and effort you can spend. If it is not worth it, stop using Instant Messaging and services like Twitter except in special circumstances. Display your status as offline in IM clients so that you don’t get interrupted.
4. If there are sites that you visit manually (such as your personal email or bank account), designate a specific time in the day or week for such activity. Stop continuously checking information on sites that you can do nothing about. An example would be checking on your stock portfolio every few seconds.
5. Close your email program and check it only at regular intervals. This is usually practical only at home, but even at work, try not to check non-urgent emails while you are working on your regular tasks.

Now that everyone is moving towards greater Internet use on the phone, some manifestations of screen sucking will come into existence for smartphone users. Wasting time is the same whether it is on a large monitor or a 2×3 inch phone display. Use your phone not only for consuming information, but for producing it.

Comments (0)

By Krishna, February 16, 2009

Self-help techniques often ask you to come up with a schedule that works for you. Go to the gym “x” times a week. Set apart 1 hour daily for some self-improvement activity. Only spend so many hours on this and only so many hours on that.

In my experience, such strict scheduling only works for tasks that you like doing. If there is an unpleasant task, using a schedule might get you started. But when unforeseen events upset your schedule, then the first things that get cancelled or postponed are the tasks that you don’t like doing or you are not used to doing regularly.

To give an example, let’s say that you don’t find time for reading books. So, instead you try reading 1 chapter every day, so that you can complete two books in a month or so. But let’s say some guests come over and you miss your reading for the day. Suddenly you are under pressure to read 2 chapters to catch up what you missed. And if you miss it again, then you have 3 chapters pending. And suddenly, it becomes a huge burden.

In such cases, it may be more useful to get rid of the schedule and instead set goals tied to a longer time period. For example, you can attempt to read 20 books this year and not set weekly or monthly goals. So perhaps one month, you may get more time and finish off 5 books. And another month, you don’t do anything because you are still on track.

What this does is allow you to balance many different goals at the same time. So, maybe you start the year by making a few resolutions like losing 10 pounds this year, writing that book you have been thinking of, blogging regularly, etc. If you make a schedule that requires you to do some task for each of these resolutions frequently, then it becomes a chore and chances are that you will fall off the bandwagon pretty quickly. Of course, if you are the type of determined person who will always stick to their resolutions, then more power to you, but most people I have seen exhibit initial excitement, then quit within short time.

So, instead of a schedule, just focus on your resolutions and use idle time and unscheduled time to catch up on them. You could catch up on your reading through different means: audio books in a CD or on an iPod, e-books delivered to your Kindle, the paper version while on the can or trying to fall asleep. You could get some exercise while watching TV, or walking or cycling instead of driving. You could write some code for your forthcoming game whenever you feel like it.

I know this doesn’t seem like a very “professional” time management technique, but practically it seems to work for me for some activities. Instead of being under pressure to adhere to a strict deadline, I manage to make some progress on a variety of tasks and, over time, they get completed. Although the work is not being done on a regular basis, this method does result in both minor and major accomplishments.

This is obviously not a technique for every single thing you do in life, but sometimes I wonder whether it can apply to work too. It is kind of ridiculous to expect that people, especially knowledge workers, work exactly 8 hours every day in the same manner. Sometimes, it may be more useful for them to work 10-12 hours at a stretch when they are in the “zone”, and, at other times, they are better off not working than producing substandard products.