I started this blog when I decided that working with Big Data, Data Visualization and Analytics was going to be the primary focus of my life for the next 4-5 years. Till now I had been struggling with far too many diverse options that making a decision to commit to one career or intellectual bride was one hell of an emotionally and intellectually paralyzing thing to do. This character flaw is reflected my personal life as well. As some wise man once said, "Analysis leads to Paralysis".
The pioneers get the arrows and the settlers get the land. - Adage, anonymous
This inability to make a decision has hampered career growth (i.e employment) and aborted many entrepreneurial opportunities available in the market at that time. As I struggled to deal with my brain's inability to deliver immutable and critical career deciding information in actionable time, I developed many tools to help me manage my multiple 'want-to-be' personality disorder. I did this not realising that I was doing some primordial soup form of Data Science (before it was cool). These tools were applied both unintentionally and consciously to manage my mind. "Cognition Management" for lack of a better term - may not exactly be a science but an art at best - for now. Although it was/is not entirely accurate or "data driven", but more anecdotal and intuition based, it should not be seen as pseudo-science but more as proto-science. Not as bad as Alchemy to Chemistry, but more like Smithy to Metallurgy. These self-management mind tools sometimes evolved through sheer Darwinian chance mutation or sometimes through Intelligent design.
A quick diagnosis of my memories leads me to summarize at this point in time that my inability to take a decision at crucial times was/is due to the following ...
The better I get at dealing with many of the above mentioned problems, I notice that many of my peers laugh at me for the enormous effort I put into creating a framework to help in decision-making. This maybe because they are fortunate enough to be born with decision making abilities superior to mine or instincts that have a success probability greater than mine. So this means that they cannot relate to my problems like an Olympic athlete cannot relate to a handicapped person. Or maybe they are just plain lucky and don't know that a black swan event is about to visit the Titanic as they sleep peacefully in their warm bunkers while I shiver as a stowaway on one of the lifeboats. Why do I describe myself as a stowaway ? Because I am never really fully on board. Or is it because I am paranoid ? Andy Grove would be proud.
Was it Sartre who said that life is absurd ? Is the answer really 42 after all ?!
I had often wondered about having a place to dump or arrange my various ideas about managing my various ideas about managing my various ideas (ad infinitum). I have tried many different devices like Excel, Google Spreadsheets, Notepad Text Files, Sticky Notes, Email (sorted into folders) etc among others. I guess a blog might be better as it helps in the indexing and retrieval of the meme. As a bonus, I might acquire some fame or notoriety (since any publicity is supposed to good publicity) in the process. This is the result !
 |
| "Too Much Information" can harm you ! |
The pioneers get the arrows and the settlers get the land. - Adage, anonymous
This inability to make a decision has hampered career growth (i.e employment) and aborted many entrepreneurial opportunities available in the market at that time. As I struggled to deal with my brain's inability to deliver immutable and critical career deciding information in actionable time, I developed many tools to help me manage my multiple 'want-to-be' personality disorder. I did this not realising that I was doing some primordial soup form of Data Science (before it was cool). These tools were applied both unintentionally and consciously to manage my mind. "Cognition Management" for lack of a better term - may not exactly be a science but an art at best - for now. Although it was/is not entirely accurate or "data driven", but more anecdotal and intuition based, it should not be seen as pseudo-science but more as proto-science. Not as bad as Alchemy to Chemistry, but more like Smithy to Metallurgy. These self-management mind tools sometimes evolved through sheer Darwinian chance mutation or sometimes through Intelligent design.
A quick diagnosis of my memories leads me to summarize at this point in time that my inability to take a decision at crucial times was/is due to the following ...
- inadequate information about the options available
- inadequate knowledge about the knowledge needed to reach a decision
- too much knowledge (thank you google for killing one problem but creating another one in the process)
- inadequate time to process the information available
- data cleansing time endured which whittled away time, effort, focus and enthusiasm
- noise that distracts from the essential - inaccurate, irrelevant or insignificant information (both intentionally misleading and unintentional)
- the assumption that the information available is sufficient and accurate (bounded rationality anyone?)
- the changing of the ground reality and associated parameter values by the time a decision has been "computed" (or should I have said "arrived at"?)
The better I get at dealing with many of the above mentioned problems, I notice that many of my peers laugh at me for the enormous effort I put into creating a framework to help in decision-making. This maybe because they are fortunate enough to be born with decision making abilities superior to mine or instincts that have a success probability greater than mine. So this means that they cannot relate to my problems like an Olympic athlete cannot relate to a handicapped person. Or maybe they are just plain lucky and don't know that a black swan event is about to visit the Titanic as they sleep peacefully in their warm bunkers while I shiver as a stowaway on one of the lifeboats. Why do I describe myself as a stowaway ? Because I am never really fully on board. Or is it because I am paranoid ? Andy Grove would be proud.
Was it Sartre who said that life is absurd ? Is the answer really 42 after all ?!
I had often wondered about having a place to dump or arrange my various ideas about managing my various ideas about managing my various ideas (ad infinitum). I have tried many different devices like Excel, Google Spreadsheets, Notepad Text Files, Sticky Notes, Email (sorted into folders) etc among others. I guess a blog might be better as it helps in the indexing and retrieval of the meme. As a bonus, I might acquire some fame or notoriety (since any publicity is supposed to good publicity) in the process. This is the result !
