Need for philosophy

From "Unpopular Essays" by Bertrand Russell

It is not to be supposed that young men and women who are busy acquiring valuable specialized knowledge can spare a great deal of time for the study of philosophy, but even in the time that can easily be spared without injury to the learning of technical skills.

philosophy can give certain things that will greatly increase the student's value as a human being and as a citizen. It can give a habit of exact and careful thought, not only in mathematics and science, but in questions of large practical import. It can give an impersonal breadth and scope to the conception of the ends of life. It can give to the individual a just measure of himself in relation to society, of man in the present to man in the past and in the future, and of the whole history of man in relation to the astronomical cosmos.

By enlarging the objects of his thoughts it supplies an antidote to the anxieties and anguish of the present, and makes possible the nearest approach to serenity that is available to a sensitive mind in our tortured and uncertain world.

Product vs Project

The Product Manager, is continously striving to improve the product he wants to incorporate any new ideas that he comes across to make the product better. His primary concern is to make a world class product. He strives towards perfection in product quality. His performance is measured against the quality of the product and market reactions or customers feedback. He wants to add features and incroporate all of these feedback. In summary, do whatever is required to make the product more sellable at the earliest possible timeframe.

The Poject Manager on the other hand is judged by various other parameters, He sets a Scope of what needs to be done and derives the

Requirements from that scope. Any requirments that need to be added or changed (to improve the product) is considered as outside the scope. It would require an approval from a change control board. He has milestones to reach, schedules to meet, and deliverables to be given  with a limited set of resources. His performance is measured against these above parameters including Cost. Within Budget, On Time is his motto.

A good relationship between them can create a Synergy resulting in a Win-Win solution for both;

 

Snippets of wisdom - Part 1

• It is incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success, only to discover, its leaning against the wrong wall
  
• We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars
  
• The ugliest of trades have their moments of pleasure now if i were a grave digger or even an hangsman, there are some people i would work for with a great deal of enjoyment
  
• The reasonable man adopts himself to the world, The unresonable one persists in trying to adopt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unresonable man
  
• So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings, goes but to build up great fortunes to increase luxury and make sharper the dfference berween house of have's and the house of wants progress is not real and cannot be permanent

.....from various sources.....

Role of a Software Architect

In the construction industry, the Architect understands the client needs & translates them into various blueprint drawings such that the concerned Construction team members have clarity on what they need to do.

For example, the masonry team needs to know the dimensions of various rooms, the wall thickness etc. The Electrical engg needs to know where the wires need to be drawn and concealed within the walls, the necessary switch/ plug points, the required electrical fixtures etc. The Sanitary engg needs to know where the water outlets are required and the drainage layout. Pipe thickness specs etc. The painter needs to know what color scheme is required. The carpenter needs to know the dimensions of the cupboards, shelves, Door/ window designs

All of these activities have to happen in tandem with the required sequence or co-ordination. You don’t want to remove the polished tiles in the bathroom to lay the pipes for drainage, neither do you want the electrical engineer to make slits in the newly painted walls to conceal electrical wires

Architect here is responsible for giving the detailed drawings or specs for each of the above activities and also indicating the sequence & co-ordination required. As the construction progresses the client may ask for changes, Architect here is responsible for evaluating the technical feasibility of the changes and instructing the construction team of the same.

This above description holds equally good for a software Architect.

Collecting customer Requirements & translating to a software design, Indicating the Use case scenarios for the UI Team, The Data flow and entity Relationship for the Database developer, the State Transition & object diagram for development of Middleware & business components, defining interface standards so that all of these work together seamlessly.

Just as in construction industry, here too, the software Architect is responsible for understanding the client needs & translate them into various blueprints, design specifications and drawings, such that the concerned Developers have clarity, on what they need to do, dependencies and optimum sequence of tasks.

Culture of innovation

Organizations that want to drive a culture of innovation across the company need to provide

a. the right eco-system for ideas to freely emerge
b. platforms where they can be freely debated
c. an environment where they can be nurtured

companies should be willing to provide their employee’s the necessary resources to experiment, make mistakes and learn from them. Over a period of time a knowledge repository of various experiments performed & the resulting learning’s is built. This will effectively result in a reduction in cycle time from idea conceptualization to realization

Being Innovative should progressively move from being just a buzzword, to learning creative skills, practicing, making it a habit to think of alternatives and outside the boundary across the organization.

Only at this stage we can truly say that the organization has imbibed a culture of innovation

In "Prometheus Unbound" by PB Shelley

I do like "IF" by rudyard kipling, but this piece below summarizes life better

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This like they glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory.