Computer Science and Programming is constantly changing

The field isn’t constantly changing, this is a myth.

Python came out in 1991, it’s still in very popular use in 2019, well over quarter of a century later. Same for Java, almost quarter of a century after release, it’s the most popular language in industry.

People think the computer industry changes quick, it doesn’t, it’s actually very slow to move.

UNIX celebrated 50 years of existence this year, and we’re still using it, or copies of it for loads of different things. Half a century old!

This industry is very slow to move, it’s amazing how little changes every decade.

Even the new languages that come out like Go, it’s really not that different to C, and not very different at all to Limbo.

             -Garry Taylor

Do not lend money to a friend.

 Money has a way of changing people. Do not complicate relationships by bringing debt in. If you want to financially help a friend, do it but consider it as money gone. That way, your friendship won’t be bothered if he/she doesn’t return the loan. I lost a childhood friend once for a mere 1000 INR. Apparently, taking money was way easier for her than returning it.

-Srishti Kotiyal

 

This might look like an innocuous photo but it hints at a dark, insidious period in American history. This young woman was a radium dial painter. In the early 20th century, radium was used by manufacturing companies to create a glow in the dark paint. Young women, many teenagers and in their 20s, were hired by the thousands to paint the tiny glowing numbers with radium so they would glow in the dark.

 

In order to get the most precise lines, the women were instructed to utilize a practice called lip pointing. The women would place the radium-covered brushes between their lips before painting the strokes. This would be repeated again and again to ensure the brush tip was always pointed.

 

The women had no idea that the element they were using was dangerous. On the contrary, they were told that it was good for them, and radium had been shown to shrink tumours in some patients so the prevailing public opinion was that the element was a wonder drug.

 

It didn’t take long until some of the women began suffering horrific effects from radium poisoning. The element targeted the bones, their teeth would begin to rot inside of their jaw, the girls’ skeletons were disintegrating inside of them. There are reports of women having parts of their jawbones fall out into their mouth, and stories of dentists who with the slightest pressure were able to fully remove a patient’s jawbone. Some women had disfiguring tumours grow on their faces. The pain that these girls suffered is hard to imagine.

 

To make it all the worse, the companies responsible misled the women; when reports came out regarding the harmful effects of radium, the companies went to great lengths to try to discredit the scientists, the characters of the women affected, and to hide medical reports that contradicted their narrative. When I see photos of the dial painters and think of the pain that so many of them suffered, it just makes me so sad. It is awful to think of the human suffering caused as a result of ignorance and willful neglect.

 

It is hard to know the exact number of women who died as a direct result of radium poisoning. There are 112 confirmed deaths but the actual number who died as a result of their exposure is thought to be far higher.

 

-Shelby Cockhill

Do not hold grudges. 

 

 Grudges, hatred, ill-feelings, these are all just toxic sewage! React momentarily, if you have to, and then let it go! Block the source of the negativity and move on! You’ve got better things to do than dealing with shit!

-Srishti Kotiyal

This is How you become a Multidimensional Person

Here are few steps to become multidisciplinary person:

》Make it a habit to read.

No matter how busy you are in life, make it a point to devote at least an hour each day for reading. It doesn't means reading trash on Social Media but only from authenticated sources. They could be any good or highly recommended books.

After few months change the genre & subject of the book. Over time you will have good understanding of many fields.

》Meet new people.

Meet people from new places & with different ideologies. Adopt the ones that you like. This will make your personality dynamic.

》 Work-hard.

A pleasing & multi-faceted personality is the result of sheer hard-work. So, if you want an attractive personality thumb of rule is hard-work. Suppose you don't have good communication skills. So, improving it is in no way an easy task. Hence, it is the only the hard-work that can bring the requisite desired changes.

Always remember, हमे तो बस यह पता है कि बस मेहनत ही रंग लाती है।

So, go ahead & achieve what you want to!

》Never stop learning.

Keep leaning. Learn new skills, languages, technologies, tactics, etc. They make you cool :)

-Amit Yadav

Believe people’s actions, not their words! 

 

 My ex-boyfriend showed me multiple times that he wasn’t ready for a serious commitment. He did say that he only saw his future with me. What did I do? I trusted his words instead of his actions and ended up wasting precious time and going into depression. Don’t be me! I’ve learned my lesson now and made it a life-rule :)

-Srishti Kotiyal

This happened to me back in 2016. I'm an salaried person from middle class background, and at the time of this incident, I was 29. I'm too conservative in nature and so is my wife. We (me and my wife) had a saving of around Rs. 7.5 lakh together at the time of wedding. In next one year, we saved some more money and in total we had 11 lakh. This was all we had, no other assets, bank balance, shares, FDs, nothing at all. This is really a very big amount for us.

A new co-operative credit society, having head office in Nashik (Maharashtra) had open their new office in Nagpur that time. They offered attractive returns (13%) on FDs and I fell for it.

I invested of the money we had at in the society. I was aware of the fraudulent practices in such societies and how the money is looted by them. 

But then I thought, the society is newly setup in Nagpur and they won't make any fraudulent practice immediately after entering the market. I thought, they will require some time to earn fame and even if they're corrupt, they will show those practices after they're setup well in market, which will take some years. Considering this, I decided to invest there. I was very clear that I will keep money invested with them only for one year. 

This was crystal clear aim I had. But then within just few months, news spread about the malpractices in the society and and somehow society ran out of money, and entered into liquidation (details later in another story).

Me, wife and parents are till now in big trauma that we lost such a big amount, but we can't do anything now. Government officials working on the liquidation process are sleeping since 3 years and we have almost lost all our money (a current runs through my body even when I'm saying this)

So coming to ultimate question - What was your biggest financial mistake?

1. I fell for unrealistic returns. I had doubt, still I fell for it.
2. I trusted a co-operative credit society despite of knowing their practices (in India).
3. I invested all my the money in the same instrument.
4. I took a risk beyond my capacity.

Advise to readers:

1. Do not fall for the unrealistic returns, especially when they're promised by non-trustworthy sources.
2. Never invest all your money in co-operative credit societies, no matter how reliable they seem to be.
3. Never invest all the money in any single instrument.
4. Never take risk beyond your capacity.

As an adult, especially a woman, never be financially dependent on anyone else!

 

 The only true way of achieving equality and freedom is to earn your own money. I don’t earn a lot as a student, but it’s enough to support my lifestyle and then some. That’s all that is needed! My father taught me “As long as someone else is paying for your needs, you will never be truly free”.

 

-Srishti Kotiyal

 

Lower Middle Class & Middle Class

Pros of being from a middle class family:

1. I learned to value every penny, to this day I think a lot before I make a buying decisions and only buy something if that is an absolute necessity.
2. I developed inexpensive hobbies like reading, exercising and programming. I learned that you don’t have to spend money in order to do something enjoyable. One can find a joy almost in anything he does.
3. Being middle class gave me the motivation and drive to work harder, it is much harder to get motivated to do something when your parents are filthy rich and you don’t have the need to make any money.
4. Being middle class taught me that almost everyone in this world treats you good only when you are richer than them. Be it close relatives or friends, if they know you are not form money then they would treat you differently.
5. Being middle class taught me the importance of self-education. I realised very soon that if I had to improve my financial circumstances education was the only key, self-education to be more precise. I saved my coffee money to buy internet data so that I can learn from the internet. If I would have been rich, I would have used internet only for entertaining myself.

Problems I faced being from a middle class family were mostly financial.

How difficult is live a life of middle class family?

I honestly think that being a middle class person is the best thing to be.

You are not so poor that you cannot afford to do anything.

Also you are not rich either that you have no drive/motivation to work.

Being from a middle class family brings the best of both worlds, i.e you have enough money to be able to get educated and yet still have the middle class values which would encourage you to save money and work hard.

Most of the problems you would face being a middle class would be directly or indirectly related to finances.

However, there are (non-financial) cons of being form a middle class family as well, here are some of them:

1. Money is looked at as a tool used to just buy consumer goods and not to grow oneself.
2. The middle class cap their ability to move ahead by settling at their current job, even if they have potential to get ahead in life.
3. Middle class is risk averse, people avoid taking chances with anything and a safer side is always preferred.
4. Education is looked as just a means to get a job and not to grow as an individual.
5. Formal education is given more importance as compared to self-education. Although today a lot more middle class are becoming aware of self-education.
6. Thinking big is highly discouraged, focus is mainly on living a stable yet monotonous life.

If you are a student who belongs to a middle class family, here are a few tips from my end.

1. Finances are not the main issue being middle class, you will obviously get a decent job and make money if you study well. The main disgrace being a middle class are some of the false beliefs and values(one I have listed above) that are much harmful.
2. Being middle class, self-education is your best friend and there is no better thing than the internet to self-educate yourself. Hence make sure to use it to its max. Self-education is the 6 lane highway that can get you from where you are to where you want to be.
3. Educate yourself not to get a job but to grow yourself. Don’t just learn a skill so that you can work at an XYZ company, instead learn it for yourself to build something of your own. You’ll need to put a lot of effort into learning something and that is very valuable, don’t just rent out your skills to some company for X dollars, instead use them to your advantage and build something. When you have that attitude, companies would be willing to pay you a lot more.
4. Don’t limit your potential, more importantly don’t let others limit your potential. Just because a company says we will pay you X for a months worth of work does not mean you are just worth X every month. It just means that the company sucks at finding the true potential inside of you. Remember that a company’s job is to pay you as less as they possibly could.
5. Look at money as a tool to grow, money is not just meant to buy things, the same money can also be used to grow yourself. For example, instead of buying a jacket you can use that money to buy a book which will help you grow. Not just books, there are a multitude of ways you can use money to grow yourself, for example, you can buy a gym membership which can help you grow stronger. You can use the same money to eat healthy, get a certification etc. There are a lot of ways to use money to your advantage.
6. Take calculated risks, if you think that you have the ability to switch to a better job, move to a better city, take up a different career then do it. I know it sounds scary but if you are willing to grow you must be willing to risk. Just make sure that you take calculated risk and that the risk has a significant payoff.
7. Don’t look at work as some kind of a chore. For most of the middle class, work seems to be like a boring task which needs to be done for sake of getting that monthly paycheque. While it is true that you need to work to make money, but that does not mean you need to consider work as some form of torture. This is the very reason you need to work on something that is interesting enough which makes you feel like you are on some sort of a mission, a mission to build something or do something substantial. If you are finding your work to be boring and uninteresting means that the work you are currently doing is way under your potential.

-Saurav Sharma

Life is too short, don’t forget to love your family!

When I was a teen, I used to fight with my parents and siblings and stop talking to them for days! As we all get older, I’ve realized that no fight is worth wasting our precious time together on this planet. Now I call back my parents or husband minutes after any argument as I just don’t want to lose any time with them.

-Srishti Kotiyal