Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Alice had her rabbit hole. We in the 21 st century have to content ourselves with books as our portholes to a whole new world: Of course, the porthole experience can only be had if one takes the Peter Birkenhead approach to choosing which books to read: “If a book can’t disorient me just a little bit, if it can’t get me some kind of lost, I won’t stay with it for very long.” As an example, he cites books by “(Richard) Feynman, (Stephen) Hawking, (Brian) Greene, and their ilk”: “Their books may be my least favorite to read, but as I do, and the universe they describe grows curiouser and curiouser, I become more intrigued.” As someone who has read all 3 authors, I would say amen to that. Of course, this porthole experience isn’t limited to physics alone. Birkenhead again: “Literature provides passage toward the self, not away from it, promising escape only from the temptations of escapism. It makes visible a world that exists in the spaces between things: book a...

I’ve always wanted to introduce quantum mechanics into a blog without boring most people to death. Finally, I have found an opportunity: well OK, it’s a somewhat contrived opportunity, but what the hell… There’s this testing team guy at work who was asked to work with me and write specifications for the system. I wasn’t sure whether he was unhappy or happy shifting from his original role (testing) to a new role (defining the system). Things were further complicated by the fact that he continued to report to his lead from his old role, and not me. So even though I wondered whether he liked or disliked the new work, I never asked him because of, well, 2 reasons. The first one was that he reported to the lead from his old role, so technically, keeping track of his happiness was her responsibility. The second reason, a consequence of the first one, was that since he didn’t report to me, what could I possibly do even if he said he didn’t like the new role? So this guy is like Schrod...