Party is Over. It’s Time To Get Serious

My answer will hurt… but this is the truth.

Party is over. It’s time to get serious!

Why?

• You’re facing a world of unimaginable change because of accelerating technological innovation.
• A world with a global population reaching 8 Billion people — each one of us demanding extensive needs.
• The monetary policies that have supported the global growth for decades is not working anymore because of irresponsible and ambitious leaders that have abused it — today our economy depends on debt to grow. Not sustainable!
• You’re facing a world where the current educational system is NOT teaching and training you to face these tough realities.
• You’re the most distracted generation in history. Your distraction is your biggest enemy because without focused actions you won’t stand a chance to make a good living.
• You’re facing a world that is full of painful surprises that school has been hiding from you — like the fact that Baby Boomers are about to retire and they don’t have enough financial support to make a living.
• Only 22% of Baby Boomers believe they are doing a good job of preparing financially for retirement. [1]
• Only 27% of Baby Boomers believe they will have enough money for healthcare expenses.
• Do you know who will pay for this liability? Correct, you guessed it…

To answer your question; this is my best advice:

1. Eliminate your social media apps on your smartphone and everything else that is hacking your attention.
2. Start planning your future with full focused intention and strategy.
3. Become an expert on any area that you enjoy and are good at.
4. Develop the habits and discipline of hard work and constant learning.
5. Develop your mindset to become a leader and NOT a follower. Don’t trust what everyone is doing! Don’t follow the crowd!
6. Have fun :)

Footnotes

[1] 10 Statistics That Prove Baby Boomers Are in Big Trouble When It Comes to Retiremen

 

-Hector Quintanilla

Engineering Drawing Vs Benefits in Real Life

 

When I was in the 1st year of engineering, we had a paper called Engineering Drawing. (I guess they still have it in the curriculum).

That paper would give me nightmares, it was hard for me to imagine things from different angles.

You see, I wasn’t that creative!

I remember in the 1st lecture, our teacher showed us an image and asked, ‘What do you see?’

‘A rectangle!’, the class shouted.

With a different image in hand he asked again, ‘What do you see now?’

Some said it’s Sofa, while for a few the image made no sense!

He finally showed us the image of a machined block and all the previous images were different views or angles of the same object.

‘It’s neither rectangle nor sofa, they are just different views of the same object.’ and he started explaining it with the E.D Terminology.

Pic Source: Google

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If you ask me what habit of mine I want to get rid of, it would be ‘Sticking to a view or an opinion.’

Opinions are hard-wired like a ‘top view’ or a ‘side/front view’ maybe!

We believe what we see, but the reality is much much more than what our eyes see, and our senses perceive.

It’s always the sum total of all that has happened.

Effects are easy for anyone to see, but looking closely it’s harder to pinpoint at one cause, ‘Look, see?’ kind of way.

But we still do it!

And then sticking to it, we fight, argue, turn baneful, oppose, and shout.

‘Opinion’: The day I will stop sticking to it will be the day I lose the anger, pride, ego, and everything that holds me back from real ‘ME’.

P.S: Here is something I learned today, ‘Baneful’ which means ‘Harmful’ or ‘Hurtful’.

-Ankita Sinha

Working as hard as Elon Musk

Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Cell, Geometry, Coding Why they are Taught to Children & Teenagers ?

There is actually no reason to study those if you wish to work at manual labor for the rest of your life. You probably don't need them if you are going to be a sales clerk, or a waiter, or a truck driver. Those are all honorable jobs, so if that is your goal, there is no need.

On the other hand, if you want to be an engineer, a data analyst, a scientist, or an architect, then those skills will be part of your everyday life.

If you want to go into business or computers, then you need the ability to think analytically, and to become a problem solver. Very few subjects studied in high school teach those skills; the predominant one is mathematics. If you find math difficult, it is likely for precisely that reason: it is the only course you are taking in which you are asked to solve problems that are not absolutely identical to problems you have previously seen. The key to learning math is recognizing that you are learning approaches, not facts, and think of those approaches as tools towards addressing new ideas.

The skill to "problem solve" is one of the most highly valued skills in all careers.

 

-Richard Muller

Every Moment I Just Want to Change My Past

There is an anecdote on this.

A young man was going to meet his lady love and to her parents. On the mid way he took little rest and he put his horse in a grassland for a while.

As soon as he woke up he found the horse to be missing. It was one of his favourite horse. He searched the horse like a mad man. At times he regretted that why he took rest and all. Days passed by. He wondered for the horse for days. Later he found out there is a wicked landlord who has captured the horse. He tried to pursue the landlord to give him back his horse. But it did not result anything. Later in the mid night he hatched a plan to steal his horse, but caught by the guards of the landlord and he was badly beaten.

In the mean time he totally forgot that he had promised his lady love and her parents to come. He promised his own mom to come back as early as possible. And here he is with broken legs and hands lying under a tree.

Often our life is like that. We are working to achieve a goal. Then a distraction or external agent comes. We get swayed away. When we get beaten there, we forget the first goal even. When we start regretting we often lose the things that are with us or that could have come in our way. Whether it comes to your love or career or anything else remember life is much bigger than this. Love may happen many times in life. Career can be resurrected from dust. Everything in this world is not worth in front of life itself. Stop regretting.

  

-Abinash Mishra, IAS | IIT-KGP

                     { Bloggers's Note : Try to learn from your past and also from past of others. Read and teach yourself Psychology & Sociology. Start to make your life better. Read the book " As a Man Thinketh by James Allen " & also the book   " You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hall  "  

Make yourself better & work smart & hard }

Why They are Middle Class?

Because they buy glossy branded shoes with their credit cards and wear them over the overwashed cheap-torn socks.

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The poor person has nothing to hide. His status is clearly evident from his lifestyle. So he is not bothered about what others would think of him.

The rich person has everything at his disposal. He needn’t care about his image. His wealth will do the talking. So even if he is dressed in non-branded wear or has an old car, people would consider him as an epitome of simplicity.

Between these two categories lies the middle-class.

They want to be associated with the ‘rich’ image rather than ‘poor’ image.

Hence, they are more concerned about showing that they are rich rather than being rich.

I will give a very simple example.

Many middle-class people are fascinated with owning a car. They prefer a brand that is usually beyond their financial status and put aside good chunk of their monthly salary to pay this EMI.

But from the moment they have car inside the house, they think thrice to take it out for a drive. They get scared thinking about the fuel expenses, parking fees, toll gate fees etc.

And by the time they painstakingly clear the EMIs, they would have drove that now-depreciated car less than a hundred times.

Same logic goes for weddings, gifts and celebrations. A rich person has the liberty to have a budget wedding but a middle-class person doing the same treats it like a prestige issue. Hence, he uses all his savings, borrows if necessary, and then puts up a grand show. He then spends rest of his life working hard to repay the expenses for that evening’s celebration.

In one episode of Neeya Naana, a Tamil debate show, a lady said

My husband bought me a gold necklace and earrings. I felt excited and wore it for a family event that day. And the next day, he took that jewellery, mortgaged them in a bank and took loan to repay the money he took from a money lender to buy them. He paid hefty interest to him that day. Till today, he is still paying the dues to the bank.

This summarizes the grave mistake middle-class people make.

In an attempt to match the ‘rich’ tag in the society, they buy most of things on loan, end up paying more than their value, and live from paycheck to paycheck. And at this time, if some unexpected expense knocks their door- a fatal disease or pandemic or loss of job or a dent on car, they are finished.

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The rich take great care managing their assets and investments, while the less well heeled go into debt buying cars and televisions they don’t really need.

The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’"

― Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

   

 -Srinath Nalluri 

My House

 

If there is something that I am extremely proud and happy about, it is my house. I have been living outside my state of Kerala for many years. The pandemic has allowed me to be back in my house, and has made me realise and appreciate the sublime beauty of my state, and the unparalleled serenity of my house.

My parents built our house in 2007. We were badly affected by the Kerala flood in 2018.

The house has since been repaired and repainted.

My parents wanted a house that could capture the essence and simplicity of the traditional Kerala architecture, without compromising on the needs of the present times. Thus, our house has an open courtyard inside, around which different rooms are built. It is truly bewitching to watch the rain inside the house, and the entire house will be filled with the earthly scents and petrichor.

Kerala, being ‘God's own Country' (both literally and figuratively, in my opinion), is so green and lush. My house is no different. Even though we have space-constraints, my mother has created a beautiful garden.

Of course, the beautiful climate of Kerala helps in keeping the plants so healthy and green. It is like eternal spring in Kerala.

Few more photos:

Our cute little gate:

Pictures taken by a professional photographer during a family function:

Overall, not a bad place to be quarantined and locked down, eh?

   

-Gayathri Venu