Posts

Showing posts from February, 2018

How bad is your memory?

Image
We all know that one person, who religiously forgets, or even better, we might be that person. This is my journey from 'I don't remember, I have a bad memory' to 'I remember that, we talked over it for a minute in a tech huddle about resource points, 3 months ago.' [Just a little bit of exaggeration, but still close] 1. Memory Castle My first approach started with the 'Memory Castle'. My workplace was converted into my memory storage. The security desk started storing my passwords - each drawer storing a different one. The printer started storing facts and figures. Cafeteria was turned into a storage for conversations. It felt good, finally being able to remember things, but soon I started over storing things. Storing memory took time, retrieving was a nightmare. I was overwhelmed with information, and I was running short of place in my memory castle to categorically store information. I had to expand my Memory Castle, and It started taking a lot of time...

Shopping for Bananas: An Optimized approach

Image
The other day I went to buy bananas with 28 Banana Money in my hand. My end goal was well defined. 'Buy as many bananas as possible with the money I had'. The only problem was, there were many banana vendors, each quoting their own prices and their own discount policy. This brought me to a thought: If I have the necessary tools with me, will I be able to purchase bananas in the most optimal way. The Optimized banana purchase: To simplify the problem, lets just assume there were only three vendors, and these vendors had 10 bananas each. All the vendors sold at different base prices and offered different discount schemes. Vendor A: Base Price of 9 Banana Money, 8% reduction in the cost Vendor B: Base Price of 7 Banana Money, 4% reduction in the cost Vendor C: Base Price of 8 Banana Money, 7% reduction in the cost The X-axis denotes the number of bananas purchased from a Vendor, and the Y-axis denotes the Price in Banana Money for the total purchase. ...

The life story of NEON-1432

Prologue Hi, I am NEON-1432, and I form a really important part of NEON corporation. I am currently employed on a feature, live in production, happy, satisfied and serving close to a million users daily. I din't make all of this in one shot, neither was it sheer luck. Instead it was a cycle of learning, improvements, tests and finally deployment. It was hard reaching the pinnacle of my career, but I did make it. It was not always bliss for me, it was a difficult journey. Chapter 1: The birth onto a card. I was not always the ever performing functionality of the feature. I started out small, like every one else in my league. I started out as an Idea. I was born out of a 'business requirement'. I was an idea in some one's brain. There were great debates on whether I was required. Debates on whether I will be of use to the feature. Whether the feature itself would be of use. I have seen many ideas been born, lucky ones like me saw the light of the day. There were...

The Introvert's Diary - A day at work

Image
I am an introvert, and yes I am proud of being one, though I may not come across as being proud. To start, let me just clear off some misconceptions about introverts. We are not shy. We just hate attention, and spotlight ('Hate' being a really strong word). We are not unapproachable. We just hate having to indulge in meaning-less conversations. We are not anti-social. We just hate the small talk. We are not lonely, (At times we are, like every other human being). We just cherish the time spent alone. We are not snobbish. (We like it that way though, It keeps the small talks at bay) The  'we are not'  list will grow indefinitely, so let me not waste time there (Oh, by the way, we introverts don't like beating around the bush either), instead let me just give you a peak into the life of an introvert. I was pre-warned by a fellow mate, that this place was going to be over-whelming for me, just from the sheer amount of energy floating around here. Yet, ...