A very long time back I had read in a book: “Do your best and let god take care of the rest”. Sounds like a very simple line but if you think of it carefully it actually sums up the essence of how we must live our lives in just a few words. All of us have experienced times when we do not have any control over what happens. All we can do is try our very best and pray that events turn out in our favor. In such times it is very easy to fall prey to fatalism and think that all events in our lives are pre-destined.
But in reality it is not so. Ramana Maharishi used to say that the only control we have is over our reaction to events that happen to us. It is this reaction that sows the seeds of future events. If the reaction is positive, meaningful, and benign then it will pave the way for better future events. The Bhagwad Gita preaches: “Perform your duty in the best possible way and relinquish the fruits of your actions to god”. Applying this simple principle will help us lead meaningful, constructive lives, devoid of stress and tension. The importance of this principle in our professional life is also very significant. Stress is an occupational hazard for software professionals. We are constantly battling (often unrealistic) project deadlines. The stress is sometimes compounded by personal and health problems. How does one prevent stress from mounting.
The simplest way is to work for a company that believes in 40 hour weeks. But would that be fun? Probably not. The next best thing is to control stress at a personal level. Even when the entire team is going berserk, we can still remain calm, try our best, leave no stone unturned, and then just call it a day and let god take care of the rest. Do not mistake this for escapism. The idea is not to escape from work, but to understand that there is a point beyond which more effort becomes counter-productive. It actually causes loss of efficiency, productivity, and health.
Sometime back I registered for the Functional Programming Principles in Scala , on Coursera. I have been meaning to learn Scala from a while, but have been putting it on the back burner because of other commitments. But when I saw this course being offered by Martin Odersky, on Coursera , I just had to enroll in it. This course is a 7 week course. I will blog my learning experience and notes here for the next seven weeks (well actually six, since the course started on Sept 18th). The first step was to install the required tools: JDK - Since this is my work machine, I already have a couple of JDK's installed SBT - SBT is the Scala Build Tool. Even though I have not looked into it in detail, it seems like a replacement for Maven. I am sure we will use it for several things, however upto now I only know about two uses for it - to submit assignments (which must be a feature added by the course team), and to start the Scala console. Installed sbt from here , and added the path
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My friend Girish Nadkarni is working with the Indian office of Packt Publishing Limited, a British publishing company that specializes in developing technical books on very niche software areas.
They have a full fledged editorial, marketing office based in Mumbai and now they are looking out for Indian software specialists who can author titles for them.
Please visit www.packtpub.com to know more about them.
At present they have some 17-18 titles, mostly on Dot Net and Open source technology and now Girish is looking for some Indians, to write book/s on J2EE in addition to .NET and Open Source. Their editorial team based in Mumbai will help most of these technical people while writing for them.
Girish would like to meet you in person or correspond with you, at any time convenient to you to discuss authoring opportunities.
You can provide him with your contact number either mobile or land line on which he can call you. Or alternatively you can call him on 98202 94348.
Please mention my name when you talk/email him, in case you are interested.
His details -
Girish Nadkarni
Director
Packt Publishing
107, Marol Co-op Industrial Estate,
Andheri Kurla Road, Saki Naka
Mumbai 400 059.
Tel: 022-56987682/83/84
98202 94348
Well said about the thought that "Do your best, God will take care of the rest". I have my own thoughts on it and its upto each individual to think and decide what is "the rest", just yhinking that the project will somehow get over and saying that "God will take of the rest" will surely need you to visit the temple soon. But on the other hand just not being able to decide when to stop turning the stones .... a`nd just not being able to tkae your head off the project even when you are in bed will surely need you pay visit to a Doc soon.
About handling the stress and working in a compnay which makes you work 40hrs a week .... is there any such company existing ... I doubt! But I have my own little theory on handling the stress .... problem is like a glass of water which you are holding up in the air .... if you keep holding ith there for an hour or it wont hurt. But if you will keep holding it for the whole day your hand will go numb .... if you still keep holding it you may paralyze your hand .... the idea is to put the glass down after a while and pick it again later. Keep your problems like that keep thinking about them you may actually paralyze your thinking.
Just keep taking breaks from things at regular interval, this will not only keep you fresh but you will be able to solve the problems more creatively as well.