inspire.clarity.insight

…die living or live dying?

                                  C

Just wanna feel alive

Em                             C

More than I’ve ever felt

Em                      C

Help me to revive

Em

Lust for the moment

F

Why just can’t I have

              Fm

Undying streams

                            C  Em C Em

Of love from thee

C

Why do all these walls

Em

Come crashing down on me

                                     C

Why do all these halls

Look just the same I see

Why have I fallen

Way down I’ve gotten

Far away from thee.

F

I’m trying to climb my way

G

From where I’ve fallen in

Em

The ladders torn apart

Am

And I am sinking in

F

I’m trying to find my way

Fm

Close to you I pray

C

Oh love

This post will move away a bit from the inspirational to something slightly more mundane. The issue I would like to highlight is on processes especially in light of process management. This past few years has seen a lot of changes in the industry I’m in (education) and management have become enamoured with the idea of THE PROCESS. Lots of times it is akin to some grand monotheistic tradition of THE ONE TRUE PROCESS. Processes like many things are human creations and many times we do not take into account the idea that the process themselves are flawed. The grand idea which I and many others have put forward is this; that we must always assume that the process is flawed.

The simple black-box model of a process is simply this

input -> process -> output

Here I posit 10 important things which I understand to be of import in the management and thinking into processes

1. Always assume the process is flawed.
2. Absence of proof of flaws is not the proof of absence of flaws.
3. If something goes wrong, blame the process, not the people.
4. Flawed top-down processes cannot be fixed (especially) if bottom-up feedback is not taken into consideration.
5. Cause and Effect is not always cut and dried (in fact, it almost always isn’t given human failings in understanding causality or lack thereof).
6. View all metric measurements with suspicion (Quasi-empiricism, always ask questions, how did this measurement come about, how was it measured, is the measurement valid, is the measurement reliable, what were the assumptions, what can screw up the validity of this measurement, what are the error rates, are the errors significant).
7. Good processes includes contingency planning.
8. (continuing from point 8 ) Risk management is important but not everything can be distilled as a simple probabilistic measure (The Black Swan effect)
9. Processes must take into account human needs, strengths and fallibility.
10. The process must allow for introspection or self-reflection and change management; a positive feedback loop.

Further Readings :

1. They Write the Right Stuff by Charles Fishman in Fast Company. (link)
   An article on how NASA creates mission critical software for the Space Shuttle.

The comfort zone is a safe place. A warm place. A place where we can be assured that nothing majorly untoward can happen to us. We can find it in the people around us, where we work, where we live and whom we love. We can find it in the things that we do; the clockwork regularity of our daily lives.

But the comfort zone can be an insidious thing. It cradles us in its warm embrace and keeps us safe; and yet, that safety occasionally comes at a price. It lulls us into a comforting slumber and dulls us into narrow channels; for some of us, into a deep state of experiential comatose-like flat-lined life.The symptoms do not come out all at once. It creeps on you from behind. At first, just a glimpse of a cool shadow that slowly envelops you and ever-so-charmingly, holds you in its reins. You find yourself going through the motions of life in all its aspects and finally it dawns on you, as you sit down in your comfortable chair probably in the midst of a crunch deadline of office work or sitting in front of your television with a cool drink in hand; you’ve become a simple cog, a small wheel nut, an inconsequential accessory to society.

The realisation that a problem exists is always the first step, as the cliche goes. It’s what we do next which is important. Do we grow roots and welcome this as an all-loving mother or do we move on to new vistas with a chance for failure at every turn? For a lot of us, change is a fearful thing; a multi-headed hydra that would consume us in its chaotic wrath.

The constant reminder that we need to have as a mantra is that change is good, it evolves us, makes us grow. It takes us to new places and new people. It brings to us constant new experiences from which we can learn from and hopefully, divine our inner selves. Adaptation to constant change improves our state of mind; makes it more flexible and helps us cope with the occasional downturns that life throws at us.

Make change your friend, allow for its infinite varieties of experiences and in time, it will be the biggest thing you would look forward to.

let me breath
and feel alive
and not be taken in by whims and fancies
of uncertain faith and wavering feelings.
let me be still
immersed in bliss
to be content of simple affection
for small mercies and warm solace.
let me be
and let me free
from complications and trivial desires
of drowning wants and unwanted needs.

let me breath
and feel alive
let me be still
immersed in bliss
let me be
and let me free

We all have experienced it before; that instinctive feeling when an opportunity flies into view. It shines its light on our faces like a constant lighthouse beacon. And somehow…..we close our eyes to it. And when we do that, we question ourselves; why did we let fear and doubt creep into our thoughts when something good can happen if we just let it happen?

Fear of failure, fear of change, fear of getting hurt; anyone or all of these can, and more, run through our minds and cripple it into severe inaction. Our self-doubts reign free; grab hold of ourselves, choking us into submission. We think of ourselves undeserving of something good or we are afraid to change the comfort of status quo. We make ourselves feel small and we somehow dim the light that we have inside. When we let that happen, we are our own biggest adversary.

If it happens long enough, we sit down brooding, glumly, of missed opportunities that have slipped through our fingers and passed us by. It doesn’t have to be that way if only we can let ourselves go; ride the wave, enjoy the ride and be keenly aware that, wherever the dice may roll, it is the journey and not the destination which will make the experience worthwhile. Phase transitions afterall can be chaotic, violent and an uncontrollable event; but after the end, we would have known ourselves better, maybe grow to be more substantial from the experience.

Ultimately, taking chances is where we maximise our own potential to receive the good things in life. We must constantly remind ourselves that we can be better than who we think we are. When we fear to take chances, we will never rise beyond our mundane selves. When we are afraid to do anything, we are condemned to do nothing. And when an opportunity comes along, take it, grab it, embrace it for all it’s worth. We’ll never know when something as good will come around again.

The winding path we walk on always crosses the path of others. Some run parallel to us, some never ever meet, some weave in and out of our lives, some move off at a different tangent and for the blessed, some walk the same path till the end.

Our lives are also akin to threads in the fabric of the human drama. As before, sometimes the threads cross, they weave in and out and so on and so forth. At certain points there will be times when we do need to resolve loose ends of our own thread. Unspoken love, never said apologies, answers to certain questions we have of someone; all these are loose ends that a lot of times we have to tie up or resolve to move on. Some loose threads are never resolved; like unspoken words to long lost loved ones; although believers of the karmic faiths believe these too can be resolved in a future lifetime.

The first step usually is the realisation that something needs to be resolved. This can, lots of times, provide the impetus to action. But even with realisation, sometimes we cannot come to the point of resolving them. This is usually because we cannot overcome our fear to confront them. We become paralysed by what we think is the outcome of that confrontation. One way to overcome this is with the quiet and firm acceptance of whatever that will come our way.

Delaying the resolution of loose threads has the effect of imbalancing ourselves. We become neither here nor there. Unable to walk in the present or to the future because the past hinders our way. To move on forward and come nearer to our potential, we have to try hard to clear this burden. We have to steel ourselves for whatever resolving the loose ends entail. Have faith in yourself that you can do it; overcome all fears, accept any consequences and be willing to listen.

Only with even a modicum of faith in our own strengths can we overcome our fears and put closure to the things that we need resolved.

Throughout our years we are identified by a litany of labels. These words somehow define who we are, why we are, where we come from and where we will be in times to come. These labels range from race, religion and culture to other more things, some more subtle than others, including the economic or social class you are in, the job that you do and even to the type of car you drive.

The danger in labels is that people act and behave true to what these labels imply; you are X, therefore you are Y. That self-fulfilment of the apparent predictive and prophetic power of labels restricts us from reaching our true potential. It can undermine our future happiness and can restrict us in our life choices. When we deem these labels to be true, we view ourselves and others as what those labels imply. We deem it highly irregular and many times are unable to accept when someone acts against the “nature” of their labels. We have to get away from that if we are to become a civilised and respectful people; mindful that the choices that others make, the things that they do, the whims, fancies and thoughtful deliberations that they act upon; these are all varieties of the human condition.

The prison of labels is the burden of expectations. Expectations of how we should behave, act and think; expectations which determine choices which can ultimately lead us to never evolving beyond our basic selves. Many of us live under this cloud. Many of us live through the guilt and the pain of having made a choice to believe in these labels. Many of us cite the responsibilities these labels entail; even if, many times, they are an illusory funhouse of smoke and mirrors which prevent us from getting to where we should be.

The only simple question is. How do we get away from the labels that define us? The simple truth is, we just have to be ourselves, be true to what we can become and be mindful that we can be an individual and still be a fully functioning part of society. We should not live under the heavy and unrealistic expectations of society and others who are caught in their own restrictive worlds. Be more than what we deem ourselves to be; and hopefully, we can all be more than our present dreams.

Having had at least three decades passing through life, one of the few insightful observations which one can make is that the the only constant is change. We ourselves go through different phases in our lives; the joys and innocence of childhood, the growing and angstful pains on top of the loss of said innocence of our teenage years, the formation of the self or ego through the 20s and the settling down of the self in the 30s.

Through each phase we have beliefs and expectations of how life should be, and of the change in contrasts between right and wrong. The blacks and whites of the right and wrong get greyer as we start to understand the richness and variety of the human condition. As we change, so do some of our beliefs, either through circumstances, experience or the evolvement of our own maturity, spirituality, intellect, knowledge and conscience.

With this in mind, I would want my readers, myself included, that whatever I write here, I do reserve the right to be wrong at that point in time where I pen my thoughts. It is a poor person never to admit that some conclusions that the person has could be wrong. And it is a poor person indeed for him or her not to admit being wrong. As for you dear readers, you have the right to point out any mistakes you perceive I have made in my writing. Whether I agree or disagree with your point of view depends on, as always, the underlying facts of our argument. One can never be fully right in all respects, but discussion and discourse can shine a bright burning light to the underlying truth.

Keep that caveat in mind as new entries are added. We all have our own opinions of things, some more right than others and vice versa. The hope is that what we write here will have an impact somehow, to push the reader into a state of critical thinking, to reevaluate our own views, perceptions, beliefs and prejudices. If that is somehow accomplished, we become all the better for it.

The cacophony and chaos of modern city life can breed a certain sense of cynicism, sometimes dullness and sometimes even depression. Dour-faced strangers passing by, the hectic pace of getting from Point A to Point B, the endless running of the rat race; we forget who we truly are; forget to feel that we are all only human.

Perfection is not something we can reach, but what we can aspire to. And to aspire to get to there, we have to want it. Very much. The hope is that, in some small little way, this site will help myself and maybe others to be inspired to rise beyond our own mundane perceptions of ourselves. To reach perfection and maybe, to even change the world, a little at a time.

I will end today’s entry with this free verse from an old Apple advertisement from their “Think Different” campaign (although some might see the cynicism of using a commercial message to inspire, it’s really hard at least for me to ignore the message that the verse has)

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, quote them, disagree with them
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing that you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can
change the world, are the ones who do.