When High Priority ≠ First Thing to Do

Like a rational mind, I had my plans in order of priority for this ongoing vacation. Things which I thought of high-priority were put on top and things with medium put on bottom. Sounds perfect, right? Well, I don't know about you but I have discovered that vacations are not same as regular days. Vacations are time when if you pick up boring stuff, you could go on and on w/o coming to any conclusion until it becomes dire need. It needs lot of discipline to do boring stuff early in time and no pressure. I have yet to reach that level but for now let's consider I am normal normal.

I started reading a subject (Let's call it S-2) which I like, in the beginning of the holidays and I thought, wow, I am actually utilizing my vacation. I was able to utilize around 50% of the time. One day my roommate suggested that I should rather focus on subject S-1, considering that is higher priority than subject, S-2. That put me into thinking and I started loosing time. I thought that my roomie has a point and I should indeed do S-1 before S-2 at the start of vacation. But there is a caveat. None of them have deadline before start of college so I could play around the schedule and still reach in time. (S-1 is connected with college course while S-2 is an independent study )

I took his advise, moved S-1 on top and kept S-2 away. S-1 didn't had great start and I was fine with it. Slowly I was loosing interest in S-1 and eventually I was dragging myself, losing days. Simple reason, I don't enjoy S-1 as much as S-2 but to take up S-2 over S-1 was tough. You see, I invested time in S-1 and couldn't go back to S-2 just because I like it. But, today I should say, during vacation its better to start with things we like to do than things we don't enjoy. That way we would not waste time on some mundane thoughts of priority as it hardly matters when in vacation. I have decided to record what I have learned & explored in S-1, keep it handy so that when I resume it after finishing S-2, I will have a background and not clear puzzled head.

So, after all this, the plan of action is, I am going to spend coming two days preparing myself for upcoming conference in computational geometry and after I am done, start with S-2, finish that up and then take up S-1, since I will be pushed not by interest but by deadline to finish S-1. As always, don't know if this is going to work but let's try it out and I will come back with how it went.

Giving an example of a sailor who doesn't have modern compass, its only with time he will know where did he go wrong and the sooner he change his direction, the better are chances he will not be laughed at through generations for his foolishness.

What do you think could have helped me realize that before or how do you think I should have drawn my initial plan? Do let me know.

Take Care.

Happy Holidays with Video Podcast.

Do let me know if you liked it. Not sure how it came out as I can see the image blurred :P.

Bbye.

Waiting for Holy Onsite Opportunity for Years.

If you don't understand what the title means, possibly you wont understand what I am going to speak below, but if you wish, read on.

ONSITE, chance to work on client position which is usually US, UK or other developed countries, is portrayed as the coveted Champions Cup which each IT Professional needs to win. For many first timers, the lure is of visiting these so-called developed nations where the general perception is, that robots will be seen flying in sky and everyone is super happy as shown on Hollywood movies and it is easy to hook up with the opposite sex and then a small interest in some corner of the heart is to save some money(1$=50). From 2nd timer and above, it is the lure of money.

For both 1st & 2nd timer their bosses use this lure of ONSITE as golden pot which he or she is promised of either in the interview process or after slogging in job for months. Interestingly the distance between the gold pot never seems to increase. It is intelligently placed either the same distance or brought in close proximity to raise goosebumps and Managers will pronounce "You were too close this time, never mind keep trying".

You might observe that some of your friends are indeed getting the gold pot which bolster your confidence in the words of your manager and you keep going round and round and round in some infinite loop until one day you are awaken by a slap on your face. The figure could be rejections in marriage proposal due to low salary, your wife (lucky you.), your mirror reflections when you toothbrush sitting on toilet seat and in no hurry. For many, the realization is painful because it has costed them more Time than the goodness the ONSITE would have brought. As a result of which the employee is disgruntled, will get into arguments with boss and management and finally leave the company.

I am not going to talk about how much he is missed and managers eye opening experience but from the perspective of candidate. Now, coming back to our protagonist, he fails to understand many things like how not every manager is your father like and why he don't give damn to your career progress but is just interested in his/her own which means he would like to go Onsite before he gives you the opportunity (for reason read above). Second, the novice fails to realize that if the manager is dilly dallying ONSITE, then probably he is not worth the company's money which should actually ring a loud speaker to his ears that his skill knife has gone blunt and needs sharpening. He need to seriously look towards taking more challenging projects and move on with life. Getting too comfortable in one chair is understandable but even the chair is tired of your butt marks and wish to get some change. Take chance at least once in Life and you won't regret your cowardly self.

To me, Life is not "A Risk, A Success" but "Series of Risk, Series of Success".