From Wikipedia, "Adaptation is the change in organisms that allow them to live successfully in an environment. Adaptations enable living organisms to cope with environmental stresses and pressures. Adaptation can be structural or behavioral. Structural adaptations are special body parts of an organism that help it to survive in its natural habitat (e.g., skin colour, shape, body covering). Behavioural adaptations are special ways a particular organism behaves to survive in its natural habitat."
This is the most natural phenomenon in living organisms that forms the basis of Evolutionary Biology. But metaphorically it very much applies to us as well. Yes, aren't we living organisms too? In layman terms, adaptation can simply mean change. But there is a significant difference in the terms change and adapt. Change is so involuntary, so natural - it just happens. No one makes change happen. It just happens. Situations, circumstances change overnight with no super-force seemingly taking control of the whole process like a one-man army.
But adaptation is different. Adaptation is very much a voluntary process of a living organism. A living organism adapts itself to adjust to the changing environments. This is how it "evolves". Ditto with human beings !! Unless they adapt themselves to the changes that constantly occur around them, they won't evolve, or grow. Adapting ourselves constantly to new situations is the only way to our growth as an individual and as a civilization. Yet it can also send negative signals to us...if we allow ourselves to constantly change, where are our convictions, where is our integrity that binds us , that makes us who we are as a person??
I saw this amazing movie called "Adaptation" starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep...quite a thought-provoking movie as you may have indeed gathered by now [:)]
Computer Science is a very beautiful science that will always continue to awe a layman beyond her/his imaginable limits. Some of its manifestations have completely changed the way we shop, search, watch videos, look for directions, listen to songs and so much more..
However, ever wondered why the curriculum can be so boring ! Being a computer science student trying to make sense of all the material, I would always wonder where in the real world would such problems have an application.
A thought just came to my mind with regards to this issue - Since most of the technologies get invented with a view to addressing the real world's problems , wouldn't it be nice to have the computer science curriculum follow a case study pattern similar to the MBA curriculum?
Introducing case studies to address topics like Web Search (Using Google's Search example), maps (using Mapquest, Google Maps), Distributed Systems (using Amazon's or most of the financial companies' working example), file formats and efficient transfer of file formats including streaming (using Adobe Flash and Youtube's example) and so on...
Taare Zameen Par is about a dyslexic kid, Ishaan Awasthi, who is unable to comprehend the rigors of a typical formal Indian education system that is so mindless and abnormal quite so often. However, instead of correcting itself to be able to adapt to the poor kid, all the participants [teachers, parents and the like] in the system deem the kid to be abnormal, making his life nothing less than miserable.
Everyone can relate to it, especially if you have grown up in India where most children are labeled as worthless if they "can't" become engineers , doctors or MBAs. Even this I do not blame much, because if one were to see the other side of the coin , it is precisely these professions that has helped India as a nation to accelerate its economic growth during the last decade. Science and technology are usually the tickets for a "developing" nation to propel their growth and stand up in the face of global competition. Even within a nation, it is the ticket for the lower and middle classes to climb up to the next level in the class ladder, because the next levels always represent more economic prosperity. Indulging in creativity, arts and humanities can usually be a privilege of the more wealthier classes and nations.
But what initiates the most angst is, it is even this making of "good" engineers and doctors is what the system cannot get right. What good creativity and innovative thinking can a system achieve that promotes an extensive amount of "rote" learning. It is simply churning mindless graduates based on lame exams wherein "rote" answers are the only ones accepted to the questions asked. Forget creating something, it even nips an average thought process, rendering the brain dyslexic even if it wasn't to start with.
I copy my sister's views here :) - Education does not mean scoring high marks good numbers high elite degrees in exams and certificates. Life is an exam where the syllabus is not defined and there are no pre-known question papers nor there are any most likely questions.Instead there are challenges , questions coming from all directions.
What matters most is the confidence within us which needs to be persistent in cuting the challenges like a sharf knife :) !!
There was an article in The New York times about the Japanese envying India's schools. It mentions that Japanese are amazed with the way Indian schools teach counting at the age of 2 yrs, computers at the age of 3-5 yrs etc. Why, why , oh why? What in the whole world is going to collapse if the 2-year old toddler doesn't know the numbers? That is an age where children ought to be doing nothing but playing, and not be pressured to learn such stuff at all.
Sigh !! :(
An occasional visit to Barnes and Noble is something that I often look for as one of my pastimes.
They sure have a winning marketing streak ! Anyone with even a faint passion for books can succumb to their strategy and walk out with a couple of books.
In addition to carving out a hole in my [read - husband's] pocket [;)], I often leave with a wishlist of books.
Come what may, I am determined to read the following books during 2008.
- The World is Flat [Thomas Friedman] - currently reading.
- Complications [ Atul Gawande]
- Guns, Germs and Steel [Jared Diamond]
- The Lord of the Rings [J.R.R. Tolkein]
- Shantaram [Gregory David ROberts]
- Blink [Malcolm Gladwell]
- The Tipping Point [Malcolm Gladwell]
Weeks before 2008 dawns, the extreme planner in me tries to make a wish list of my resolutions for the New Year. And it just doesn't end. Albeit such TODOs can be stressful , but they have always helped me accomplish at least something instead of nothing at all. I recently stumbled upon Zen Habits blog and it is a good piece of advice for all of us who really like to dream big but fall short when it comes to actions. The real problem is when there are too many things on the wishlist, achieving any one , atleast one of those items too can get daunting. I have always been of the kind where I wish like doing all things at the same time, which is definitely not pragmatic [:D] .
So amongst the copious wishes, I try to make some [loose] priorities as such -
1. Write blogs on a regular basis.
2. Learn the Web2.0 drama and all that gets encompassed within its umbrella - Web design, Ajax, Social networking, Search Engine Optimization, AdSenses et al.
3. Be in sync with health,nutrition, food and lifestyle. Exercise atleast 3-4 times a week.
4. "Create" ample time to be able to focus on my passion - reading.
5. Tinker a little bit with my new obsession - Travel & Tourism Industry Trends Research
As 2007 comes to an end, I am more than just happy and content. It has been a very great year for me, quite eventful and quite productive - both personal and professional.
It was a year of parent visits - my in-laws visiting sometime between April and June and my dad visiting sometime later during the year, it was a year of travel and a year of some good goals.
A year of lotsa travel !!
Tapan and I decided to make the most of our vacations by traveling to quite a lot of places this year.
It started off with a trip to Sanibel-Captiva Islands just off the west coast of Florida, in January 2007.
In March 2007 , we visited California (San Francisco, Monterrey, Big Sur, Lake Tahoe and Sacramento).
In May 2007, we looped around the Grand Circle (Las Vegas, Grand Canyon - North and South Rims, Zion National Park, Bryce National Park).
In September 2007, we visited Atlanta and the Smoky Mountain National Park and in October 2007 it was a trip to New Jersey and New York.
Of course there were a couple of trips to Orlando's theme parks - SeaWorld, Epcot and Magic Kingdom.
A year of goals !!
Learning to swim was a major highlight for me this year especially so when it took more than 2 weeks for me to shed off my fear of water. It was a very determined effort although it would be frustrating at times, but it gave me a sense of accomplishing something above all fears and inhibitions.
Professionally it has been very very fulfilling and that kind of calmed the restless soul in me. I switched jobs in March and since then it has been no looking back. I love my job (it took almost 3 years and 3 job switches to find this one) and I look forward to achieving even more than I think I can with it.
And finally the most easy to do, but most difficult to achieve results ! It's none other than shedding off your pounds ! After a lot of persuasion by Tapan, I was finally convinced to exercise regularly and maintain a good fitness level. That included frequent jogging for a mile, Pranayaam, and of course working out at the gym pretty regularly. Albeit slow, the results were somewhat comforting - I lost about 5-6 pounds from September through December.
Finally we started to blog. I had been wanting to do this since quite some time, but never had the "Do it now" attitude to get it started. I now hope to be regular at blogging and grow it into a professional venture for 2008.
And there were quite many small goals too, but the above qualified to be the best of all.
A year of some good books !!
During the start of 2007, I happened to be a part of a book club. However that fizzled out during summer - [:(]. Some good books that I read during 2007 were Serving Crazy with Curry (author: Amulya Malladi), Memoirs of a Geisha (author: Arthur Golden), The Indians, This I Believe (Dan Gediman), The Secret (Rhonda Byrne) and The World is Flat (Thomas Friedman).
Definitely a rich 2007 [:)] With this I look forward to a great and richer New Year with new dreams, aspirations, books, goals and much more !!!!
[Title adapted from "Brave New World" - a very popular work of Aldous Huxley]
There is definitely an evolution in the way workplace and work are being perceived in the everything2.0 era, and the ideas of workplace and work will still evolve in the future. However in my opinion , I can describe this evolution to pertain to only the corporate lifestyle. It would not apply to professions like school teachers, physiotherapists, nurses, doctors or any profession where healing, nurturing the other person is the main crux of the job.
Professional bloggers like Penelope Trunk, Marci Alboher have their "current" careers revolving around the same concept. In short, they precisely articulate this new work-attitude wave, and are definitely a motivation to everyone who feel trapped in their current work lifestyle. And if that wasn't enough, they enrich us with quite many positive ideas about improving workplace productivity, time-management, self-promotion, negotiation skills, shifting careers etc.
I read Penelope Trunk's blog quite regularly, and I have just come across Marci Alboher's blog quite recently. I have always felt quite the same about some of the topics that they focus on. Here is a sample of just three of them.
1. Change should be made a constant factor in career life. I believe in working in several different roles throughout my entire span of work-life which can be easily be between 30 to 40 years. Apart from my current job as Software Engineer, I am much interested to be a Librarian, Market Research Analyst, Entrepreneur, School/College Teacher as of now. I feel it is the variety of the work we do that will make our lives more fulfilling rather than dedicating one's entire life just climbing the ladder all the way to the top in just one profession.
2. Job titles are just fancy vocab games that actually limit our potential from delivering work to the best of our capabilities. Also we really do not work in a confined manner as described by the job title. The more we deliver "out of the box" of our job title, the better are the chances of us growing faster.
3. "Work-from-home mom" is the new blend for women who want to raise their kids by themselves instead of sending them to day-care, want to have a job, do not want to quit and stay at home full-time. Basically they want to have it all. There is of course some kind of compromise for the highly career-minded woman, as work-from-home may pose to have some kind of set-back to her desire of rising to the top in a fast-paced manner. But at least something is better than nothing at all.
Of course there are many more such ideas that will continue to evolve and fill up this blog space.
