Reminding myself of certain principles I seem to keep forgetting

You don't have to be first, you just have to be better at it than most people

Speak only when your contribution adds value to the conversation, otherwise hold your tongue. Don't get nervous about keeping quiet and start muttering things. Listen and absorb.

Your job is not to worry about the rewards, your job is just to do the thing well.

Your job is to think of creative things, how it gets used or whether you get recognition for it or not is none of your concern.

Are you learning and getting better or are you killing time? Always focus on how you can use the moment in front of us.

Keep learning. Keep reading. Never stop growing. Your education is your problem alone and this journey requires consistent effort and not just intermittent spurts.

You can learn from anyone, younger, older, less experienced, more experienced, doesn't matter. What is key here is actually LISTENING to people when they speak and not going in with a pre-conceived notion of what they are trying to convey. Always keep an open mind. Don't be self absorbed. Don't listen to reply. 

There are NO ABSOLUTES in life. There is no ONE RIGHT way. Everyone has their own perspective and approach. Appreciate each of them. When people tell you things that you do not like, don't jump to conclusion or judgement. 

Open your mind.

What if? What if all of it was possible? What if I have been wrong all along? What if I never thought of it this way? What if education on the subject constrained my thinking in a linear manner, effectively mapping a curve through a straight line. It just doesn't fit. 

What if there are higher order ways of looking at things and hence there are newer approaches that I have never pursued?

What if I am too egotistical to accept a random person/ person that I otherwise despise can be so much better than me at the topic and that is why I am rejecting their notion?

You know where I am specially going wrong? I want to be good, but not through sustained repeated effort over time, no siree. I want to be good immediately, with as fast a learning curve as exponentially possible. What I have forgotten is that true learning takes time, effort, discipline, rigour and the usual concoction of blood, sweat and tears.

Lights out Alice!

The more you have, the more you want

 Lights out Alice!

For the past few days I have been sleeping for over 7 hours, when my previous average used to be around 5 to 6. The revelation is that I do not feel any better sleeping longer. On the contrary, the more I rest, the more I want to rest, reinforcing the axiom that body requirements are a function of the mind. We feel what we want to feel. Yes, minimum rest is required, but if you keep listening and procrastinate around tasks, your body will make you procrastinate more. You will find a million more reasons and reinforcing indicators as to why you shouldn't do it. At that point, you need to shut up, get up and do it. Discipline should be the north star and not motivation. Motivation is a fad, discipline is the right teacher.

Man's suffering is relative

 Lights out Alice!

“A man's suffering is similar to the behavior of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the 'size' of human suffering is absolutely relative." - Viktor Frankl, Man's search for meaning

How difficult it must be to measure pain in an absolute scale or even put it in relative comparison. Pain requires background context, understanding of the underlying factors, mitigating circumstances, external environment and particularly the person's understanding and quantification of it. What is painful for one maybe joyous for another. What is soul-shattering for one might just be another Tuesday for another.

How do I justify, quantify or bucket how I am feeling. Since regardless of the type of pain, one finds themselves being absorbed by that painful thought. Does quantification only mean physical, uninhibited by emotional state? What if emotional state masks or amplifies the physical? What about previous exposure that leads to either heightened tolerance or reduced willingness to go through the same?

Update: 24 hours later: Coming to the context that prompted this line of thought, I had been suffering from wisdom tooth pain yesterday and although the pain was severe and all consuming, I didn't think it to be very bad. Just that I couldn't eat, chew or speak properly. Then the swelling became so bad that It was hard to close or open my mouth without my upper wisdom teeth piercing against the swollen area. Today there was a lot of pus that came out and after that there has been some relief. What was relevant to the above para was the fact that the doctor thought that the pain must be really bad and that given the amount of swelling, it should be hurting a lot more than it actually was. Similarly, another person told me that the headaches are splitting. I did have headaches, but not splitting ones. 

I don't know why, but I like these moments of pain. It gives me clarity. It reminds me that I am far too entitled and living a cushioned life. It reminds me that just because I am able to perform when the going is easy doesn't mean that I can perform when the real struggle begins and when winners are able to execute, regardless of their circumstance. I don't refer to winners as something that is about materialistic achievement but more towards a person who is extracting the most out of life. 

Post pain, when the relief comes, the transparency of motivation and relevant goals that is there in front of me is unparalleled and just a taste of nirvana. A clarity that one keeps searching for but never finds. A willingness and motivation that however hard you try, you can never reach in everyday life.

Lights out Alice!

I don't want it bad enough

 Lights out Alice!

The obvious is now becoming a bit more obvious given that I see myself letting a golden opportunity slip right through. I have been given a few days off and instead of utilizing it in catching up on the Analytics course I keep boasting to everyone about, I am procrastinating and doing loitering around wasting my time. Oh how I rue this bad habit of mine. I am absolutely certain that this lack of intent, dedication and application towards getting things done is what has historically been my downfall and will continue to keep me from actually getting anywhere in life. 

Oh how I hate how we let go and start becoming lazy in life and I especially hate how one just starts demanding things out of others and society like an entitled prick. I saw glimpses of this pathetic behaviour in me today. I hate myself for being a sellout, for being a prick, for boasting and for procrastinating all the good time away. 

Dude...stop boasting and start actually working on stuff and making things happen.

Don't be the pfaffer you so claim to despise.

Don't you ever forget what got you so far: HARD WORK

Those who rise to the top consistently work hard. They never stop pushing. They never get complacent. They always demand more. There is always things to be learnt and lessons to be completed. Stop making a list and leaving it there. Start executing the list. It all adds up. Every hour. Every bit. The more you waste your time, the deeper a rabbit hole of failure you are spiralling towards.

Break your habit. Break the cycle. Don't give in when it gets tough. Don't give up at the slightest discomfort, or at any level of discomfort for that matter. Just keep going. Just keep grinding. Do take feedback of the quality of work being done and increase it over time but keep going on. Make the tough choices. Live in discomfort, stop being comfortable. Keep learning. Nothing is given and certain but the only thing that will lead you to the success that you one day expect is by maximizing the opportunities every day, day after day, without fail or expectation.

Can I work harder? 

Can I break the cycle of being a procrastinator?

Can I reach the goals I set for myself daily?

Sorry for letting you down Alice!

Marketing in the Virtual World: Class of 17th Oct, Case on Hubspot

 Hello Alice!,

The case on Inbound marketing by Hubspot was taken up today in the Marketing for Virtual world class by Jaydeep Mukherjee Sir.

The key takeaways:

• Was hubspot doing anything different other than traditional marketing in different words? (No)
• The first step in marketing anything - DON'T FORGET - is creating a marketing strategy which would then go on to guide your STP and then GTM
• AIDA Model - Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action - Part of the marketing funnel
• Outbound marketing - Push marketing - Getting more people inside the funnel
• Inbound marketing - Pull marketing - When people are inside the funnel, converting them
• Inherently, you are efficient by design when doing inbound marketing compared to Outbound marketing
• Inbound marketing cannot work without Outbound Marketing because you cannot increase efficiency beyond a certain point, after which you just need more customers entering your funnel.
• Customer self selection means that you are not able to target the customers that you want and hence you end up getting a diverse set of customers with different expectations and requirements
• You cannot serve every type of customer.
• To filter out a certain set of customers in customer self selection environment, few ways are: Unbundle the product and let people choose or Price Discrimination - which creates a barrier that eliminates the unwanted set
• Remember to see the customer lifetime value for different set of customers but also don't forget to take into account the total addressable customer segment size for each of these as in totality the values might indicate a different picture
• Another angle  (Vishwanathan's POV) to look at inbound marketing/ DA portion of AIDA  model - is that it is more of a sales problem than a marketing problem - Getting more customers in the funnel in the first place is more of a marketing problem

Alice, what a learning adventure that this class is...hope I open up my point of view even more and see more than my current narrow POV!

Why do I suck?

 Lights out Alice!

The usual rant is back! It is not about the challenges I face that prevent success, it is my work ethic and my ability to actually focus on the work instead of skimping on it by giving excuses that matter. After months of sharing a room with a roommate, I have been fortunate enough to be given the empty room left by Yasho and Vihang. This felt like an opportunity, one wherein I would get a lot more done and become efficient to the power infinity since previously all I felt the root issue was the fact that I could not focus with all the noise around me and a space all to myself. Oh, how naive and dumb. The problem was more trivial, the problem was the fact that I was not willing to put in the work. The problem was that I am not disciplined enough. The problem is that I am just a pffaffer who gives big airs but does not have the work ethic to boot. All I have achieved in this room is increased sleeping hours, which is a bad thing, increased Youtube random binging hours and decreased concentration level. Productivity has not gone up. What the hell me?

DO BETTER!

BE BETTER!

Make better use of the opportunities given...hopefully I stop being such an idiot Alice...

A calmer state of mind 01.10.22

 Lights out Alice!

Today was the first day since I have been here on campus wherein I felt comfortable, if not at peace. No rush, no anxiety, no feeling like I need to be somewhere, do something or am slipping or falling behind. First time in a long time I was comfortable in just being. Standing still and watching the world wade by. Being content in the moment, accepting who I am, what I am, the fact that the only people that matter to me, my parents and sister, are far away from me and that it is okay. This Durga puja, it wasn't meant to be. I thank the lord above for giving me 25 Durga Pujas before this that I have shared with my parents, a decade less with my sister, yet awesome ones nonetheless and some very cherished memories of playing and visiting the mela in 77 home.

October rolls in and brings with it the sweet breeze of mild chill in the air, a happy omen of colder things to come. But the thicker air also brings with it a waft of earthy smells that bring along with it nostalgia and excitement that a season of fesitivites is about to bring. Durga Puja, followed by Diwali and then Chaat. Occasions thanking the lord as well as celebrating with family. Coincidentally, this is my first Pujo away from home, Kolkata and away from Parents.

Top Durga Puja memories:

1. Truck bringing Durga idol got stuck in the mud for which a rescue truck was brought and it got stuck too (this was around 7pm - 12 midnight). Then a third one was bought and it either got stuck as well or broke its driveshaft. Finally, people got together and manually offloaded the idol and then left the truck overnight to be rescued and removed in the morning. For a kid of around 6-7 years as I was at that time and somebody who was very interested in automobiles, this was super cool.

2. That Durga Puja when all my cousins were here in 77. We got 10 rupees in the evening to go roam the mela. I got cut-cuttee for everyone. Then we went and got rolls. Toy pistols and aloo patakas galore. Usual extended family friction and saas bahu kitch kitch ensued. But us kids were oblivious, in denial, determined to make the most of the joyous occasion, heedy in our goal of soaking in the revelry. One of my happier memories but again, this is rated by looking back through a rose tinted glass and hence might not be accurate.

3. That Durga Puja with Raj where we played for hours using aloo bum. Just pure fun. Spontaneous, frivolous, no care given to what people around us would think and just soaked into the moment and the feeling. I am pretty sure we tried replicating the feeling next Pujo with the crackers but that level of ecstacy could never be reached again.

Damn, I have lots of happy memories around Pujos. Roaming around khamalpara on my own. Roaming with Ranjan. Meeting with Shy. Getting kut-kuttee for parents and rolls as well. Going out with parents to Don Bosco and ghassbagan after the obligatory fighting and quarreling over trivialities. 

Don't interpret all of the above as the fact that these memories are all happy ones. Far from it. Most of these memories have abundant fighting, scolding, quarreling in it. Even tears and definitely long bouts of unhappiness with my mom not always being able to enjoy given that my sister was not there with us or my dadi would have made a snarky comment to upset her. But there were slivers of unbridled joy, of mirth, of moments when you would have an ethereal and extra corporeal experience and your soul would start recording every moment that would follow so as to store it in the cupboard alongside the very best of memories. Moments that made it all worth it.

Coming back to the present moment, the fact that I did not have to talk to anyone today other than my parents, the fact that I spent some amount of time actually learning something and the fact that I lay in silence for hours contemplating life, all contributed to the calm and serene headspace that I am currently in. Lack of people in the hostel definitely helped but the fact that I had an empty room all to myself. Thank you Yasho and Vihang for that. Pretty much the only thing I needed. 

People up above really lined it up for me. Thank you people up above. Please take care of the important people I am missing right now. Hopefully they feel less lonely. Hopefully I make something out of myself someday. Hopefully I can give them time and my attention soon. Hopefully I can share some more experiences with them and be there for them and just be patient with them and not force my opinion. Even if it is never the same again, I hope they are never too lonely and never feel too much pain and thank them from the core of my heart for their presence in my life.

I hope that I don't let them down Alice! Lights out!