Boredom

There is a class of attributes constantly undervalued in life. One of these, very notably, is boredom. It has always been perceived as the root cause behind procrastination, laziness, disinterest and impassiveness. That last one isn't a word, in case you haven't noticed already. What can I say, I'm bored.

Typically, when observing boredom, or introspecting on the same, we bear a certain bias in that we perceive it in a negative light.

"I'm bored."

Immediately, a fleeting assumption of the person not being sincere or dedicated enough to their current task passes across our mind. Whether or not it actually is the case, that's what we've ended up having boredom symbolize today.

What I've come to realize is that boredom is good. Boredom is the precursor for enthusiasm. Terms and conditions apply.

So what I'm getting at, here, is not a generalization at all. My thoughts are completely in accord with those that consider the majority of boredom as not usually resulting in much productivity. However, in at least a significant percentage of the cases, I believe boredom is simply an alternative form of opportunity.

Boredom is the least perpetual of all human emotions. It is simply the manifestation of tiredness and we all know you can't be tired forever. Even people who tire easily at some point grow tired of being tired, so to speak. Which results in a spark of intense productivity. And success is all about keeping that spark burning till it turns into a flame and eventually you end up with a raging wildfire.

So when someone says "I'm bored" the next time, be an optimist. Consider all that is possible instead of just the clichés. Help them turn that boredom into a spark of awesomeness instead.

Why Blog?

Blogging is complicated business. It takes a bit of time and a bit of recklessness to pick at the dense (point of) matter holed up inside that singularity in your mind and have it spew your thoughts all over the Internet. I assume, of course, that this blog would be popular. Quite the opposite of what I expect of my own blog. In fact, it's because I don't ever expect anyone that knows me to find this blog, that I actually blog.

I never understood why I think, write or publish these blog posts. I ask myself, periodically, whether this is worth my time. The reply I come up with is pretty much self-sufficient for any context I ask this question in - 'Do you really do anything productive in life?'

There we have it, folks.

I kid, of course.

The more important question, I believe, is why I blog about the stuff I do, or rather think about doing.

See, I have a lot of things going on in my mind. Most of it is nonsense but some of it helps me when I feel like I lack the enthusiasm that usually keeps me going; it's mostly because I read my "philosophy" in these posts, get a good laugh out of it and move on. Sometimes though, I derive some form of motivation out of reading these posts. Those 'sometimes' are enough to keep me going.

Diplomacy

Twice, I've tried to complete this post. Twice, the Internet connection has failed. The frustration has grown exponentially, though.
I've learnt a lot of stuff in the past month, during my internship at IIT Bombay. One of the more enlightening discoveries being that the word 'learnt', while used extensively in British English, is considered colloquial in American English and is to be avoided like the plague on your University Application.

The other slightly insightful discoveries which forms the crux of my stay at IIT Bombay is that you cannot - I emphasize, cannot - survive life, no matter how skilled/rich/hardworking/determined/sincere/add-random-positive-adjective you are if you are a stranger to the art of diplomacy.

This is something I've learnt the hard way, or as it is commonly termed, from personal experience. You must develop the talent of sweet-talking people into getting your way and yet ending up satisfied with the outcome. If you cannot, you won't live long enough to know what hit you. It starts of as a small job; something rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things. You slip up, not giving it enough attention, assuming it's a very common occurrence or maybe it won't happen the next time. But there's always someone watching. And that someone is biding his time, waiting for the moment when he can catch you off guard and leave you lost in the blame that is bound to find its way to you.

I say this with utmost care. Learn to sweet-talk the boss. Don't be a suck up. That would be overdoing it and leads to problems of another kind, entirely. But keep the boss happy. Then use that happiness to get what you want. If you can't do that, I'm afraid you've already lost the battle. Yes, it's not work, it's war. Deal with it.

While I've been on the wrong side of diplomacy and experienced all that can go wrong, I've also seen the good side and how much you can achieve given that you know your way around people. The difference is mind-numbing. So that's going to be my goal for the next month. This internship at IIT will teach me diplomacy, if nothing else. I'm pretty sure it's the most important skill I could have learnt.