Cocoons! Here we come!

I joined Texas Instruments, Bangalore (before it became Bengaluru) on 3 Jan 2000 as a project trainee. It was my first day and so may be thinking that I was still a college student just on a 'visit', the first day was ‘off’. I think the first person to whom I TALKED was the librarian since I was there till lunch. TI had a good library – obviously I am not going to look at technical books on the first day. The first article that I read was ‘How to be a Star Engineer?’ – an IEEE article. It resonated a lot within me because I too didn’t feel anything was ‘tough’. It was the trivial issue which often takes up more of our time. A simple fact that I don’t like my colleague could delay my tasks! The tasks per se are not as challenging as say a ‘hard Sudoku’! A company would not recruit me for doing something which with all their expertise and manpower couldn’t do for years!

The ‘mass’ vs ‘class’ jargon was/is often used in films (especially in Telugu) and to draw a parallel with something higher, ‘HOTS’ vs ‘MOTS’ is something I could immediately strike a chord with as I studied in CBSE. So even when we were in college, even in ‘software’, ‘application’ software was called ‘mass’ and ‘systems software’ was called ‘class’. ‘TCS’ or ‘Infosys’ or ‘Wipro’ was called ‘mass’ while ‘Oracle’ or ‘HP’ or ‘Cisco’ was called ‘class’ mainly because of the large numbers that former selected and the fewer the latter chose. I was never a gregarious person and so it is obvious that I would have preferred company with fewer colleagues over a ‘mass company’. I was probably the first ever MCA student to be recruited in Texas Instruments and the only other MCA student too joined our adjoining team (later the teams were merged). The initial months or years were more interesting because it is always nice to be raring to go to office to ‘prove something’. Especially as a non-engineer, I was keen to ‘prove something to somebody’ (to put in ‘Citizen Kane’ terms). Even before I officially became an employee, my paper was accepted in VDAT conference. I learnt about some ‘device drivers’ to equipments in the fab (mainly ATEs) faster than ‘expected’, at least according to some. From conference at ‘national’ level, the next move was obviously go to international conference level. Though I was one of the co-authors in a paper in 2002, the paper for which I was the ONLY author in 2004 gave me probably more satisfaction. After having filed an application at USPTO, I was DONE! To quote Ian Chappell on captaincy

And the thing about this job is that it can wear you down pretty quickly. I just wrote about this a few weeks ago where I mentioned that I lasted four years as Australia's captain and I was done by the end of it, probably a little before the four years.

Not surprisingly, I left Texas Instruments at the end of four years because I didn’t feel that there was anything ‘new’ to it and it had become sort of ‘formulaic’ and MOTS. Anything which involves an usage of ‘grey matter’ often interested me and this ‘assembly’ line work is of now use. In fact, when I was in TI they used to call ‘Physical Design’ as ‘layout factory’. My problem with factories was always that I was always never going to do well among cadets and one among many ‘workers’. Getting lost in the crowd was not my way of looking to the future. In my opinion, I was not restricted by my inability. I always felt that I could learn anything. If a person who has learnt NOTHING academically about electronics can file a patent from a semiconductor giant, that person should be given the benefit of doubt in any field. I was always cooking though I was not born with a silver spoon ;) I concur with Sanjiv Kapoor's interview recently -

Books for brides tend to spell out the simplest procedures. Does the “Wedding Collection” also start from scratch?

These are not recipes for people who don't even know how to switch on the gas. When people say ‘I can't even boil rice or make tea', they are not apologetic. They say it with some sense of pride, which is actually a shame.
This book is for this generation, for people who are interested in food and have some confidence in the kitchen. Yes, we do some handholding.

If at all there was any handholding for me, it was in the form of my grandmother giving instructions when I was 13 years old or so. I don’t remember my mother having any doubt over my cooking ability though I never really cooked when she was around.
Having moved to Chennai to work in a company at a lower pay with very few, if not none, knowledgeable guys around, if not for the financial factor (we need something to live after all!), there is nothing that mandates my persistent employment. I also see that with the current ‘depression’, companies wanted people to be like what Krugman had wanted Obama’s team to be.

One thing's for sure: The next administration's economic team had better be ready to hit the ground running, because from day one it will find itself dealing with the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression.

I think that there is a serious leadership vacuum in every aspect of life. The more tragic part of it is that people don’t seem to know what leadership is, itself. MBAs are only going to aggravate the problem because I remember asking my ‘bil’ who apparently did his MBA from a premier college in US – what do MBAs bring to table? What can they do which others cant? He said ‘structured thinking’. I think that is precisely the problem. They can only deal with situations which they already know. It is like the MOTS problem. As long as you have seen the problem before, you can solve it. What if it is an altogether new problem? In my opinion, leadership is all about DECISION MAKING. Period. You do not need any degree or in fact any schooling to make a good decision. It is just putting yourself in the best possible position to face any situation.

The dependence on ‘classroom’/’textbook’ coaching is actually detrimental to not just students, but all humans. To quote Ian Chappell yet again -

ANDREW DENTON: Is it fair to say you basically lived and breathed cricket? That’s where your head was most of the time?

IAN CHAPPELL: I’d like to think that I was thinking about a few other things. But I didn’t realise, actually, until I’d been retired about 18 months, and I said to my wife, Barbara Ann, I didn’t realise how I was simmering just below boiling point the whole time.

ANDREW DENTON: About what?

IAN CHAPPELL: I think it’s part of being competitive. I mean, I wasn’t trying to do it or anything,

IAN CHAPPELL: I think, as a cricketer or as a sportsman probably, or a sportswoman, to be successful you do have to live in a bit of a cocoon. You do have to, sort of, be a bit in your own world.

Also, I guess the other advantage that we had over the current cricketers is the fact that we had to work, which might sound a bit strange saying it’s an advantage, but I think it was because it was good for your cricket because you’d go to work, having made a duck, and you’d walk in and one of the guys who’s working in sales with you would say, “Oh what a useless so and so you are. I see you got nought on Saturday,” you know?

ANDREW DENTON: Yes.

IAN CHAPPELL: And so you weren’t, sort of, quite living in that cocoon where you only heard from your team mates what you wanted to hear.

I think we cannot let the future generations to be in the rosy comfort zone where they hear what they wanted to hear and blame ‘others’ for everything that went wrong. Having said that, I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. Companies nowadays want the students to hit the ground running. This means that the student in his/her college life will practically have no time to look at anything else. It is often said about an American engineer – they know in and out of what they work with and nothing out of what works outside. ‘How to be a Star Engineer?’ has to be rewritten because cocoons are the one likely to succeed in the future.