Why Intel i7 is no Good

I’ve been hearing a lot about the latest laptops with Intel i7 processors, they really seem to be very fast and efficient; I am impressed for sure! But the million dollar question is whether a person who uses computer for simple stuff such as surfing net (including blogging, visiting social networking sites, tweeting and all those fascinating stuff), reading documents, making presentations and checking mails etc. needs such a processing power.
Cut-to 6 years back when having a laptop was a privilege and no one felt that more than 256 MB RAM was required for efficiently using day-to-day applications; My laptop had 1.4 GHz celeron processor and I could install oracle on it. I couldn’t have asked for anything more and the fact that the laptop didn’t give any trouble and even after using so recklessly made me fall in love with it! I am still using it and I don’t plan to get a new one unless I am sure that I need to do something that is not possible with the configuration mentioned above.

Screenshot of Kubuntu desktop

For those geeks who believe that they need the latest and the most powerful processors to show off or for whatever weird reason, my colleagues invented the term “Enterprise Laptop.”  though I was not present at the enlightening moment but I heard them credit this to a customer who wanted everything to be done with a single really powerful system. My colleagues were like, “take the enterprise laptop and install SAP, it will be portable as well!”

If you are planning to buy a laptop then first think about the utility, which among the zillion features that would be used, number of simultaneous applications and various softwares to be used because though those compelling, powerful and more efficient processors are worth the price tag they have, they are not worth if you can manage the show with lower configuration; proud owners of  i7 who think that they have the most powerful laptop on earth would not be so elated as soon as something better comes which is not going to take too long considering the exponential technological advancement. Even i7 would be obsolete some day.

After answering the million dollar question (you know the answer by now), I did think about things that can not be done on my outdated laptop:

• Can not install Windows vista: I don’t care, that’s a flop product anyways.
• Can not install Windows 7: I don’t want that since I am a fan of Linux and I already have the latest version of Kubuntu.
• Can’t install latest version of Oracle: We got servers.
• Can’t play games: ah.. I’d rather like to surf net or blog.

If your work is not restricted by the above limitations then choose to spend your money over the new laptop wisely!

Why I didn’t make millions in stocks

K: Hi Sir, We have a call for DCH with the target of 146.
I: What’s the current price?
K: 138
I: Is it an intra day or delivery?
K: Delivery, we’re expecting it to go to 146 by Monday.

If I go by my stock broker, in theory, I’ll double my money every 3 months. One fine day I asked him what does his portfolio look like and he was shocked as if I asked about his extra-marital affairs! “I don’t have a portfolio sir, I just advise people based on research;” he hesitatingly replied. Eureka! Eureka! I just discovered why my money was not growing. Not that I rely on him for stock advise or blindly follow whatever he says but it’s good to have, as IT world puts it, an SME (Subject Matter Expert) and I believe if someone doesn’t have his own portfolio, he shouldn’t be allowed to give any advise; just like if we want to join a gym to become fit then the gym instructor should already be fit. It’s all about credibility!!

Have you ever gone to a grocery shop looking for a book? No, because that’s not the correct place. Likewise we need to be aware of where to find reliable advise or correct information. I recently met a person who believed he could talk about financial literacy. Upon asking which all books he was familiar with and would recommend for financial literacy, he said: “we don’t really need a book, that’s not important.” I proceeded to ask whether he attended seminars or lectures about finance and got disappointed again. You are no good, I said to myself, I’ve at least read a few books on that topic and I don’t call myself a financial adviser.

This is so common in our daily lives that more often than not we take suggestions or advise from wrong people, who claim to be experts, and end up in trouble. The other day I was talking about risk taking and the its pros and the other guy was dumbstruck; he never took risk in his life and believed only in security and all those good stuff he had learnt since ever. So next time when you require an advise or information or a tip, think about the credibility of the source because that can make all the difference. Not talking to a poor guy on how to make money is pretty much common sense.

I like the way Zig Ziglar puts it, “If you want to lose weight, go to a skinny doctor!”

Move with the Cheese

Thought of a change is perhaps more scary than the change itself but avoiding change is no wisdom either! When I was wary of the recent changes of the life, Spencer Johnson’s words, that he sold years ago, flashed through my mind (The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese) which made things a lot easier. When I read one of the best books about changes a decade back, I had no idea it will pitch in at a later point of time like this; I don’t remember anything about the Hem and Haw story now but the central idea of adapting to the changes continues to be Life’s panacea. I decided to move on believing that everything will work out okay, things look good so far!

Changes gives virtue and fortitude to endure adversities and lets us find ourselves. It allows to see things from different perspective thus giving meaning to life; there is no point avoiding life’s one of the greatest tools of wisdom by sticking to the comfort zone because there is no comfort zone in reality. Comfort is a state of mind and the earlier we understand the fact, the better we enjoy the changes! It expand the horizons as well, being at one place makes us think about life in a definite pattern; once we move on, we see the other side of the coin. Having said all this, have you ever thought whether changes or options presented to us are random or they follow a pattern? My friend, trying to be politically correct, said: “Most of the times it depends on the what we chose previously and the way we reacted to changes in past but they can be random as well.” Whatever may be the case, we can not opt for a change looking at good or bad, profit or loss because of the very fact that everything is relative. Many a times I’ve been reprimanded for not picking the option that made more logical sense but I was happy to follow my intuition.

So next time when a change knocks the doors, think of it as an opportunity to move to a different chapter in life’s book and enjoy the progress!

Introspection

“You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.” Those words were one of the motivating factors for me to start reading! But Charity begins from home, before we learn from others’ mistakes, we should learn from our own.

When we were kids growing up, they always taught to avoid mistakes and be a perfectionist (I want my money back for they taught things not applicable in real life!) Trying to avoid mistakes is like avoiding new and different things which we can’t afford to.

Do you believe in power of mistakes?

Mistakes are blessing in disguise, the key is to avoid repeating them. We need to get into introspection mode and find out what went wrong, why did it turn up like that, what was missed and how to avoid it in future. Remember how Edison discovered 1000 ways to NOT make a light bulb!!

Recently, for the records, I was jotting down things I did well in the last year when I thought, “shouldn’t we be writing the mistakes as well?” Alas! we don’t do that because it doesn’t project a good image of us. I like De Bono’s  thinking Hats method in those kind of situations (white hat lets us concentrate only on the facts and avoid making any judgment; Red hat makes us explore the gut feeling and intuitions etc.) Why can’t we wear white hat while discussing the mistakes and how NOT to repeat them! probably because we are not used to that and our prejudices prevent the free flow of ideas.

A day will come when we’ll be rewarded for making mistakes earlier in our lives because we get better with each one of them and do things the right way when they are more important!

Amen.