My interview with a career advice blog - and "Survive a Year"!

Keeping with my goal of keeping a career advice/suggestions approach to my blog, here is a podcast I did with my friend Kevin Gao over at Management Consulted. Do check out his site and see the pearls of wisdom he has accumulated!

On related news, I was reflecting on my old work colleagues in Houston at my prior employer and where they have all ended up and it's quite tremendous to see the breadth. I'll tell you my old tales over a coffee someday if you ask me nicely =)

Dear existent or virtual readers, a very happy new year to you and I leave you with a gorgeous image my friend Vikram sent me -


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

To know someone

What is knowing someone?

As I consider how effectively I can tweet, Facebook link and read blogs of people, I have a sense of "knowing" that certainly belies the actual act of getting to know someone. Can I go up to someone I just met a week ago and say "we should go for a Coldplay concert when they come in town cos I know you and I love Coldplay"? I say not - it seems like in today's world, this connection has to still follow the decorum of olden days.

In contrast, I argue that seeing that someone I just met and knowing their interests lets me have a more meaningful conversation vis-a-vis a "get to know you" conversation.
What wikihow tells you is not going to be as effective if you already know a lot from the stalker-esque life.

CIO Hits the nail on the head - that stalking is too bloody easy these days and you got to wonder, how do you develop true depth in a relation/friendship and "know" someone.

Anyhow, the crux of the world today is, there is still a tremendous "creepiness" that comes from knowing a lot about someone from Facebook and to some degree, you still have to develop a slow friendship/communication to make the information something you use.

Thus, go speak, and develop stronger relationships beyond the general tidings about weather and sports and start developing an understanding of people, their mindset and how they actually think.

Out of focus - millenial stimuli

Friends and strangers who came across this blog, I am sorry for the lull - been a bit busy with work and the abundance of sensory inputs - this brings me up to my topic of focus today!

I think my generation suffers from a lack of focus or more precisely, a over-abundance of communication devices. This has been written about many a time. If you cannot find more...

 

But where I think the common media might be missing the point is that the reason for distraction / lack of focus is not as much about the "new" phenomena of the mind and rather, us reaching a deeper level of satisfying our minds' wandering focus! 

Allow me to elaborate - the reason we are absorbing and consuming more in way of communication, news and tools; is that we are finally able to offer our mind the breadth is occasionally seeks! There will always be people who are too fickle/jump too often and conversely, people who are too slow to change/adapt and are not exploring and taking the opportunity. 

Those that gamble and test capacity and ability of our brains to process multiple inputs in certain situations can take advantage of our generations' opportunities - for example, a lot of us are listening to music on headphones as we study; others are running with music to their ear; from these simple examples to working on excel with a google talk conversation or two on the side is de-facto normal now! I think this allows you to take a momentary break when you want to and get your brain re-charged. I will say, there is a balance, if your time on the chat window is way longer than excel, you are not able to prioritize (GUILTY AS CHARGED SOMETIMES!)

In summary, realize that plethora of sensory inputs does not necessarily always mean you are losing focus, but you could be improving your processing ability!

In random irrelevant news:
I love washington DC - beautiful town, great young population and a new-york esque walking with purpose in people, but blended with a breadth of options to slow it down and see the world around you!

I am growing to appreciate Atlanta - lots to do here, variety of small neighborhoods with unique cultures and abilities in each! 

Work is providing a great learning opportunity and ATL has been phenomenal as a career opportunity so far - I'm thankful for it.

Finally, tell me what you all are interested or intrigued by so I can perhaps blog on it too!

MillenialsRus

Are we part of this crazy new revolution or are we just normal kids?