She severed ties, delicate strings that bound
Always alone, solitude she found
She walked away, from love and sweet embrace
Oblivious to sensuous whispers, not an emotion on her face
She spoke slowly, there was a lot to say
Listening intently, not a word slipped away
She loved passionately, until the day she stopped
such was her nature, she was no fraud
When I speak of her, I will not frown
She hit the reset button, and I have moved on
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Random musings of a tortured soul
I was in the process of looking up some obscure instruction manual on Sarcasm and chanced upon these quotes:
"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
Clearly, both Faulkner and Hemingway had a lot of patience and the benefit of good memory to deliberate upon the use of vocabulary to communicate an idea over snail mail. This discussion begs the question, does an enriched vocabulary indeed enhance communication or should one restrict his/her vocabulary to the bare minimum required to understand an idea and be understood? Without getting into the minute details, I am of the opinion that an ever-expanding vocabulary spawns creativity. The articulation of humor, sarcasm or even an idea is a complex process. It requires one to construct a sentence meticulously with words that would allow another to gain access to one's own thought process. A diverse vocabulary requires one to select a word that accurately captures the mood that he/she is selecting without hampering the overall sound of the sentence, for it is proven that human beings are conditioned to responding to auditory cues. This effort, even if considered in isolation, fosters creativity. On the other side of the spectrum, if every idea mandated but one sentence that aptly captured the sentiment, would we not be killing all room for interpretation? The process of interpreting what the writer is trying to convey is as enriching as the satisfaction that is derived from being privy to the idea itself. In a world with no ambiguity, one is denied this satisfaction altogether. Hence, from both the writer’s perspective and that of the reader, there seems to be at least one argument to favor wrestling with ambiguity.
"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
Clearly, both Faulkner and Hemingway had a lot of patience and the benefit of good memory to deliberate upon the use of vocabulary to communicate an idea over snail mail. This discussion begs the question, does an enriched vocabulary indeed enhance communication or should one restrict his/her vocabulary to the bare minimum required to understand an idea and be understood? Without getting into the minute details, I am of the opinion that an ever-expanding vocabulary spawns creativity. The articulation of humor, sarcasm or even an idea is a complex process. It requires one to construct a sentence meticulously with words that would allow another to gain access to one's own thought process. A diverse vocabulary requires one to select a word that accurately captures the mood that he/she is selecting without hampering the overall sound of the sentence, for it is proven that human beings are conditioned to responding to auditory cues. This effort, even if considered in isolation, fosters creativity. On the other side of the spectrum, if every idea mandated but one sentence that aptly captured the sentiment, would we not be killing all room for interpretation? The process of interpreting what the writer is trying to convey is as enriching as the satisfaction that is derived from being privy to the idea itself. In a world with no ambiguity, one is denied this satisfaction altogether. Hence, from both the writer’s perspective and that of the reader, there seems to be at least one argument to favor wrestling with ambiguity.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Life as a Cog .... A primer
Ladies and Gentlemen, at the precipice of your graduate degree …
Breathe …. Let the smell of coffee sink in ….
Now that you are transitioning from Academia to the work force there are certain basic principles that need to be internalized:
1) The 80-20 rule is now a constant part of your life, get used to it!You will spend 80% of your time at work pursuing things designed to reduce your productivity by 20%
2) Let there be no illusions around this, the analysis that you are in the process of conducting is no more/no less relevant than the analysis you slaved on a week ago and will be no different from the one you shall struggle with a week from now.
3) Try to have a social life. Make contact with the opposite sex. This is the only means of forgetting how meaningless your life really is.
4) Accept the inevitability of the fact that free food is the only incentive that will inspire spontaneity within your department. Do not attempt to deliberate upon this. Eat, drink and be merry.
5) Whenever you feel like a miniscule cog in a very large wheel, know that the feeling, while absolutely true, shall pass!
6) Finally, learn to deal with the fact that data that is most important to your model has been speculated upon, deliberated and fictionalized. Use the most current analytical framework to make your recommendations look well grounded!
Breathe …. Let the smell of coffee sink in ….
Now that you are transitioning from Academia to the work force there are certain basic principles that need to be internalized:
1) The 80-20 rule is now a constant part of your life, get used to it!You will spend 80% of your time at work pursuing things designed to reduce your productivity by 20%
2) Let there be no illusions around this, the analysis that you are in the process of conducting is no more/no less relevant than the analysis you slaved on a week ago and will be no different from the one you shall struggle with a week from now.
3) Try to have a social life. Make contact with the opposite sex. This is the only means of forgetting how meaningless your life really is.
4) Accept the inevitability of the fact that free food is the only incentive that will inspire spontaneity within your department. Do not attempt to deliberate upon this. Eat, drink and be merry.
5) Whenever you feel like a miniscule cog in a very large wheel, know that the feeling, while absolutely true, shall pass!
6) Finally, learn to deal with the fact that data that is most important to your model has been speculated upon, deliberated and fictionalized. Use the most current analytical framework to make your recommendations look well grounded!
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