The rush to spend money

This was during my early days in Hyderabad.  Days just went by with nothing much happening.  I woke up on a Saturday (or maybe a Sunday) morning and I randomly decided that I'd buy a pair of Bose earphones.  It's well above the cost of typical earphones I'd buy, but I wanted to buy the Bose anyway.  Reason?  I was kinda fed up and I had to spend some money.  Like a therapy.

Next time I remember this happening to me was when I was sitting at home doing nothing for a few days.  This time, I somehow managed to get over it without spending money on useless shopping[*].  For the past week or so, I have been dying to buy a tablet.  Today I walked to the Apple Store on George Street to look at the new white iPad.  I searched Amazon and Best Buy sites to  buy Asus's Eee Pad Transformer.  iPad, I must go super nuts to buy; I'm not there yet.  Eee Pad was sold out, so that saved me.

You know what's the worst part?  I know I don't want a tablet.  I am very happy with my laptop.  So happy that I am not reading my Kindle books on the Kindle anymore.  Hope I get over this rush without wasting money!

[*] Okay, so the Bose is not useless shopping, but a Zune definitely would have been... I guess.

Heard of pyrexia?

Sometimes it's annoying when people ask questions of no value.  Like asking what happened to you when your status message reads "NFW" or "ill" but you're actually active like any other day.  One of the things you can do is scare them by using words they may not understand immediately.  "Oh yeah, I went to the doctor and she said it looks like pyrexia."  "py what?"  "Pyrexia.  No idea what that is, but she said I'll be okay in a few days."

• Pyrexia is fever.
• Cephalgia is headache.
• Rhinitis is stuffy/blocked nose.
• Veisalgia is hangover.
• Pharyngitis is sore throat

PS: I am no doctor, so I could have gotten few (or maybe even all) names wrong.

Making decisions

If you are not willing to pay the price of a bad decision, you restrict yourself from making even good decisions.

Not a conventional company!

It's been almost 5 years now, but I still remember two things I saw on my first day at Google:

• The induction presentation had a slide that said "Everything aside, don't get too serious; remember to have fun."
• The first two sentences of the founders' letter to investors: "Google is not a conventional company.  We do not intend to become one."

Assests and liabilities

Don't ask if it is an asset or a liability.  Ask if it is more of an asset or more of a liability.  For, everything is both an asset and a liability.