CollegeDoor

03/07/2021

Learning day 213
2nd July 2021
Science of improvement

In one of my previous posts, I covered one beautiful technique from Ron Friedman on how to reverse engineer success. Today we will cover next part of it from Ron where he teaches the science of improvement. I am really fascinated by his insights and sincerely believe that we all can benefit from it. Below are the two techniques from Ron

Scoreboard Principle: Anything you measure will have improvements. So the key to success is Measure, Measure and Measure. For ex. If you want o increase water intake- measure how many glasses of water you drink in a day. If your goal is to increase focus- measure how many interruptions you have in an hour (Pomodoro technique is a good way of achieving that and there are quite a few apps that can help you track that)
What I really loved was his suggestion, that if you want to improve your performance at job or want to go for the next promotion, define a tangible metrics for that. For ex, say I define my own metrics - that to get to the next level, I will have to deliver x projects, hire y individuals and increase sales by z% within a year, my chances of promotion will be much higher compared to if I leave it just hard work and good intentions of my boss.

Practice in Past and Future: For most people, practice means what you are doing in present. Ron differs and he suggests two other forms of practice. First is Reflective Practice. Check your past performance and find gaps between expectation and experience and learn from that. One simple tool can be to maintain a 5 year journal. Here one page has 5 sections and each year you fill one section. So next time, when you come back to the same page, you will know what you did on the same day in last year or the year before it and you can measure if you have progressed or not.

The second practice is practicing the Future. Use Imagery and imagine a goal as if you are doing it now. Like you are making an presentation to a wide audience, imagine how the lights will be, how the mike will feel in your hand. Do it inside your mind. There are evidence of athlete using imagery that helped them cut down on actual physical practice.

Even while practicing in present, don’t just repeat the same thing again and again. It can actually be detrimental to you. If you practice, always try to increase complexity or add some variety by cross training. NFL players try practicing Ballet as it helps them focus on.

What should you do
1. Find 5 specific things that you need to do to have a successful day. Score
2. Track what you don’t want to do. Like if you don’t want to spend too much time on reading emails. Then track how many minutes you are spending doing that- Score.
3. Maintain a 5 year journal and check and compare if you are making progress day by day and year by year

17/01/2021

Learning Day 47
17-Jan-2021
Delving deeper into DNA:

DNA is a long, coiled double helix that resembles a spiral staircase. It may be one of the most familiar scientific image that even a layman can identify. The two strands are composed of Sugar (deoxyribose, remember 5 carbon sugar from the previous post) and Phosphate group which are connected by base pair. A base pair refers to two bases which form a "rung of the DNA ladder." A DNA nucleotide is made of a molecule of sugar, a molecule of phosphoric acid, and a molecule called a base. The bases are the "letters" that spell out the genetic code. In DNA, the code letters are A, T, G, and C, which stand for the chemicals adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, respectively. In base pairing, adenine always pairs with thymine, and guanine always pairs with cytosine.

There is a particular way of reading a DNA. Just like English is read from left to right and Arabic from right to Left, DNA are read from 5’(called 5 Prime) to 3’ (3 Prime) It refers to the 5 carbon sugar at the beginning and end of the DNA sequence. Any DNA strand normally has one end at which there is a phosphate group attached to the 5′ carbon of a ribose (the 5′ phosphoryl) and another end at which there is a free hydroxyl group attached to the 3′ carbon of a ribose (the 3′ hydroxyl). The orientation of the 3′ and 5′ carbons along the sugar-phosphate backbone confers directionality (sometimes called polarity) to each DNA strand. To understand what is meant by 5′ carbon, refer to the previous post where I had explained 5 carbon sugar.

Now, it is the order of the bases along a single strand that constitutes the genetic code. The four-letter 'alphabet' of A, T, G and C forms 'words' of three letters called “codons”. Individual codons code for specific amino acids. A gene is a sequence of nucleotides along a DNA strand - with 'start' and 'stop' codons and other regulatory elements - that specifies a sequence of amino acids that are linked together to form a protein.
So, for example, the codon AGC codes for the amino acid serine, and the codon ACC codes for the amino acid threonine. More of this in a future post

31/12/2020

In Dec 2020, I took a pledge to learn one thing a day (however small that may be) for next 365 days and completed 30 days today. It is a small milestone but I still wanted to share that with you incase you want to join me in that journey. Let's learn together.. Let's grow together..

Learning Day 30
31-Dec-2020
Mental Models Continued: First Principle Thinking:
This is a foundational metal model that breaks down a problem, concept or idea to its core constituent which we know to be true with absolute surety. One of the most popular methods of establishing first principle thinking is Socratic Questioning, where anything and everything is analyzed with set of probing questions. The method follows this process

1) Clarifying your thinking and explaining the origins of your ideas (Why do I think this? What exactly do I think?)
2)Challenging assumptions (How do I know this is true? What if I thought the opposite?)
3)Looking for evidence (How can I back this up? What are the sources?)
4)Considering alternative perspectives (What might others think? How do I know I am correct?)
5)Examining consequences and implications (What if I am wrong? What are the consequences if I am?)
6)Questioning the original questions (Why did I think that? Was I correct? What conclusions can I draw from the reasoning process?

Now let's come to the question that must be bothering you. What is the image of a battery doing on a post on Mental Models. Let me explain. This is a battery used in Tesla car. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX is a modern day genius who uses first principle thinking in almost everything that he does. Here is in his own words how he brought down the price of Tesla Batteries. See if you can see First Principle Thinking here
-- they would say, “historically, it costs $600 per kilowatt-hour. And so it’s not going to be much better than that in the future. … So the first principles would be, … what are the material constituents of the batteries? What is the spot market value of the material constituents? … It’s got cobalt, nickel, aluminum, carbon, and some polymers for separation, and a steel can. So break that down on a material basis; if we bought that on a London Metal Exchange, what would each of these things cost? Oh, jeez, it’s … $80 per kilowatt-hour. So, clearly, you just need to think of clever ways to take those materials and combine them into the shape of a battery cell, and you can have batteries that are much, much cheaper than anyone realizes.

23/08/2020

Are you an Engineering Student who has graduated or will be graduating in next 3 to 4 years and want to make a career in IT? Do you know what you need to do to stand apart from the lakhs of Engineering Students passing out every year in India? Join us in the masterclass where an IT Industry veteran with nearly two decades of experience in World's Best software companies will share with you the tools and techniques that will make you irresistible for any prospective employer. Click on the link below for more details

08/04/2020

Crisis is Danger - Protect yourself from it
Crisis is Opportunity - Find the opportunity and leverage it

03/04/2020

The path to abundance goes through the road of Gratitude

Many of you may have read the book or watched the movie The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (if not then I will highly recommend that you do that now. You can buy the book on Amazon or watch the movie in YouTube) You may even have read her other book The Magic (another one I will recommend very strongly). Th...