Over the past couple of days I have discussed the same topic with multiple people in multiple situations. Scenario 1: I walk in to a conference room in the Packard Building (Packard houses the Department of Electrical Engineering). The person I am to meet is there already with the door wide open and as I walk in the first thing we land up discussing is how “the room needs to be aired out since there were a couple of EE students in there before us”. Scenario 2: We decided to use the Library in the Gates building to host an event. As I walked into the room to start setting up, my first instinct was to open the doors wide open and then proceed to open all the windows to the room. The problem: there were a bunch of CS students working in the library room before hand.

Notice a pattern yet? These are just two of several instances and a problem which seems to repeat itself everyday. In fact, I’ve had conversations with multiple people about this topic already. One particular case I posed as a question about what is the right thing to do in this situation: Lets say a colleague/classmate has a chronic case of bad B.O. (Body Odor). I don’t know if it is from a lack of showering, or lack of using deodorant or maybe even something that is genuinely beyond the individual’s control. What do you do? Do you tell them? How do you tell them? Are you doing them a favor by letting them know that their interpersonal relations and how people react to them is being adversely affected by this problem? Or are you being rude and inconsiderate? What is the correct approach to deal with the issue? Or is the correct approach to not deal with it at all? Or is it a case of you write in in a blog and hope that the people read it!

Computer Science and Electrical Engineerng are disciplines where this problem has become so endemic that it is now a stereotype. I’ve had people tell me that when they walk into the Computer Science building — it smells different. And you know what, I believe it, because every so often I can smell the difference too. Now granted that all of the really smart people working in these really hard disciplines have a lot of thinking and a lot of work to do, but is it too much to ask that people take a shower and learn how to use deodorant/cologne?

(I should put a caveat in here that I have nothing against CS/EE people. I am one of them myself. And that’s why I feel comfortable and picking on them 🙂 Fortunately, the majority of the people I have encountered do not have this problem. But this maority also recognized a minority of the population that does have this problem — but I am afraid no one may be bold enough to address it and that’s why I felt compelled to write about it.)

When we talk about education, I believe that as educators it is our responsibility to not only educate people about the field, but also to educate them about how to operate in the real world — in the real world where there are other people. Even if you are going to be locked in a room for hours at end, at some point, whether you like it or not you are going to have to come within the 3-5 foot personal bubble of another person (though in some cases you can smell CS/EE people from more than 10 feet away!). So as educators shouldn’t we teach students the importance of personal hygiene? Especially if a problem is common enough that it has turned into a negative stereotype for the field, I would hope that we have enough self-awareness to be able to recognize when there is a problem that has an easy solution.

Maybe when we admit someone into the CS or EE programs we should include a stick of deodorant in their welcome kits and tell them that we not only want you to excel in your field, but also excel as a human being. And this is a very small step in that direction 🙂

Motivation is a big word. Merriam-Webster defines motive as something (as a need or desire) that causes a person to act. Motivation is the condition of being motivated or having motive.

Now, there is a reason I’m going around checking the dictionary for what this word means. And that reason is that it is one of the words that I struggle with very often. This is a recent problem for me — something that has become a growing issue only in the past two years or so. Probably because I think I have grown up more in the past two years than I have ever before. Probably because my thinking has changed more in the past two years than ever before and probably because more than ever before, I have stopped and taken the time to think about things more than I have in the past.

But thinking can be a dangerous thing. In fact looking back in the old quotes section of Eavesdropped! I found an old quote I had put in in 1994. Here is what it said:

Why I don’t think..

When you think you ponder…

When you ponder you contemplate…

When you contemplate you deduce…

When you deduce you conclude…

When you conclude you feel bad….

…So don’t THINK!

…Sneaker, 09/30/94

Thinking back, I can distinctly remember that time during undergrad when I pre-emptively pulled myself out of having a motivational crisis by making a conscious decision to not think about the meta-issues — because trying to graduate in three years from undergrad and thinking about motivation can be a dangerous thing when done together. But what happened then is that I got so sucked in to achieving the next mile-stone and raising the bar each time, that I lost sight of what I was thinking about till recently. Sometimes it takes a shock to the system to get you back on track — or to derail you again, I’m not sure which it is.

Somewhere along the way of running iMeet, I lost the interest in doing that. The challenge was gone — the excitement had died out and the adrenaline ruch just wasn’t happening for me. I can say this now, because I think that most of the people who were my partners-in-crime at iMeet either realized this at some point before I left and if they didn’t now, I’m sure they realized it after I left — heck worst case they may read this and realize it now 🙂 But it’s okay for them to know this now. It wasn’t okay earlier since it would be detrimental to the company to know that the CEO had lost interest. And knowing that, I did everything I could in order to make sure that I executed my role as best as possible. Some of the old-timers who were around from SneakerLabs’ days may have noticed the change in my passion, but I hope they never felt that I wasn’t commited to iMeet as I always was. Even after I realized that my interest in running the company was waning, I sincerely continued with everything I had started because then is was a question of commitment and finishing what I had started — something I make a point of doing. And in hindsight, I think merging iMeet with Netspoke was an awesome opportunity for iMeet and Netspoke both. A truly synergistic and symbiotic move given the relative strenghts, weaknesses and opportunities in front of both companies.

The reason my interest in running a company was waning was because I felt that the challenge had gone out of it. The technology had been proven. It worked. And though there is always room for marginal improvements and feature additions, there wasn’t anything that I felt needed to be discovered or invented. A lot of the needs of customers were being met and though there would be 1x or 2x or even 3x changes, there wasn’t a 10x change looming around the corner. And as Andy Grove suggested in his book, only the paranoid survive — a 10x change is what changes the world around you. On the business side, it wasn’t a question of proving a market, but a question of gaining market share in a way in which the company actually made money. And we started to do that already and so it was now a question of execution using tried and trusted business techniques — not innovating new ones.

I guess what the experience taought me about myself — and this is something I am grateful that other members of my executive team realized about me — is that I operate in the first phase of the lifecycle of the company. I am a true startup person. I like taking the company from concept to product. And maybe a little bit into the commericalization phase, but thereafter, when you get to the latter stage of the commercialization and then the growth phase of the company — at least this time, I didn’t feel like that was for me. That may change in future and I do hope that the next company I found will provide me the opportunity to prove to myself and others that I have the interest and the capability to function in those parts of the lifecycle of a company as well — but I think even more important than that is realizing when you are not having fun any more and changing things around when that is the case and that is what I did.

Coming to Stanford was my answer to attempt to help resolve the issue of having a challenge. And similar to the approach I took back in 1994, to immerse myself in an envrionment where I am surrounded by lots and lots of smart people and an environment that provides a little (just a little, not too much, since I am believe I am too free-willed to survive in an over structured environment) structure with visible miestones to chase after. In this case — getting a Ph.D. and the sub-mile-stones that come under it. Passing requirements, doing research, publishing papers etc.

But from time to time even while I am immersed in these day to day tasks, I often wonder, am I just being a coward and hiding behind the facade of academia really to seek refuge from the questions I am afraid to face?? And these are not questions about career — but qustions about meaning and purpose. I know that I can succeed in business. I’ve proven that to myself once and wouldn’t be afraid to go out and do it over again. I know I can succeed in academia. I’ve done that before and I can do it again. But I fear that the question I may be afraid to confront is that of trying to find the answer to the question: “And then what!?”

From what I have read about psychology so far (and granted, my knowledge in the subject leaves a lot to be desired yet) some people would call this a fatalistic attitude. The attitude where you because you know you are going to die one day you stop living. But that is not where I am at at all. More than that I am every so often searching for meaning which in all likelihood does not exist. Victor Frankl talked about this in his book. Feynman talked about it as the meaning of it all it realizing that there is no meaning at all. Every religion seems to build an illusion of meaning for it’s followers — but that I am convinced is an illusion for the weak — for those who aren’t bold enough to ponder the question themselves and willing to live by someone else providing them with a placebo.

And if Feynman, Frankl, and all theother great thinkers that have existed before — thousands of them — all way smarter than I am couldn’t find what they were seeking, or couldn’t articulate what they found, then why should I harbor the illusion that I could do any better. And if there is no real point to it all, then why shouldn’t we just adopt a completely hedonistic approach and just make the pleasure the sole purpose of our life. Where the only thing that matters is to enjoy the time you live because eventually you will be dead anyway?

Combine that with the talk I recently heard from Phil Zimbardo on Time Perspective and you’ll realize that what I am referring to in the above paragraph is a Present-Orientation in the context of time perspective; i.e. only the present matters, because — in the long run we’re all dead right!? But alas that leads to a dilemma… because all the other characteristics of my personality prove that I would be classified as a person with Future-Orientation. Delaying gratification for larger future outcomes. And this dilemma is probably the best way to articulate my issue with motivation.

On one hand, I am competitive, aggressive, driven and foregoing present-oriented activities for future gain. And on the other hand I wonder what the hell for. The resutant is an oscillating viewpoint. This could either be a state of balance which is ideal or it could just mean that I’m pulled in two directions and thereby the lack of focus results in optimizing neither. The only good thing is that atleast I can feel good about being able to step put and look in. Now the question is find the answer and find the motivation…