Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Career Advice

Read this J. D Long's career advice and here's the complete list of
JD's career advice without commentary.

You will see many of the advice is what myaesi blog always stands for.

Future posts will discuss some of this points again in details.

Be a profit center, not a cost center.

Use tools you don't have to ask permission to install (i.e. open
source).

Dependence on tools that are closed license and un-scriptable will
limit the scope of problems you can solve. (i.e. Excel) Use them, but
build your core skills on more portable & scalable technologies.

Learn basic database tools.

Learn a programming language.

Your internal job description may say, "Analyst" but get something
else on your business cards. Analyst is so vague as to be meaningless.
My external title is currently "Sr. Risk Economist." I like the
term "Data Scientist" for now. I expect that term will be
meaningless in 5 years.

Large organizations do not properly appreciate agile and smart
analytic types. Time at large firms should be seen as subsidized
learning. Learn lots, but get out.

Ensure you can explain any of your projects to your wife or non-
technical friends. It's good practice for board meetings later in
your career.


Be sure you know the handful of things that you can do better than
most anyone else. Add something to that list every year. Make sure you
can explain these things to non techies.


Be a profit center, not a cost center. At least be as close to the
profit center as possible. The chief analyst for the sales SVP is
closer to the profit center than an IT analyst supporting billing
operations.


Get really good at asking questions so you understand problems before
you start solving them.


Yes, that bit about being a profit center not a cost center is in
there twice. It should probably be in there 5 times.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Being Right And Being Wrong

Being right keeps you in place, being wrong implores you to explore
-Steven Johnson

This is why hands on exercise is necessary. This is why building
something out of the tutorial is required. This is why knowing answers
of the back question of the chapter isn't all.

If you want to learn a subject, a tool or a skill you have to be more
wrong than right.

Being wrong forces you to find the answers, it prods you to explore
and go beyond. And that is where you truly learn the subject or skill.

Monday, November 07, 2011

First Hand Knowledge

From C. S. Lewis:

It has always therefore been one of my main endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but it usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.

This quote comes from the essay On the Reading of Old Books,

Nothings beats first hand knowledge. Nothing beats own experience, so get going gather as much first hand experience as you can

Sunday, November 06, 2011

Accelerate your tool learning by ten times.

Working on a tool is easy. Once you learn it, you are done. You just
have to follow the steps.

But this isn't correct. True learning begins after this stage.

Once you feel confident about the tool that you learnt, stop what you
doing and start thinking of the individual steps.

Yes slow down. Once you are comfortable with the tool, slow down and
think of each step.

Why you are doing this particular step? What is the limitation of this
step? When will it be not feasible to apply this step? What other
steps you can take?

To give a concerete example, when you are doing an analysis in Ls-
dyna. Stop and think why the analysis is not being done in ansys?

Stop and ponder what can be the implications of doing this analysis in
some other software?

When choosing an element for your analysis, dig deep and probe why you
are using this particular element?, what is it's advantage and
limitations? Is there any better element to use?

Slowing down and finding the answers to these questions will
accelerate your tools learning by ten fold!


Are you using any other strategies. Do let us know in the comments.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Innovation can be trained – what can you learn

The above presentation is waste if you don’t take something out of it!!!

A Saturday to remember

Shun your usual boring Saturday and register for a Saturday to
remember event.

AeSIAA fest 2011 promises to be an event you will remember for a long
time.

This Kids and Family friendly event aims to lift your mundane
Saturday and make it spectacular. From puppet show to kids dance, the
event is full on entertainment.

So what are you waiting for, if you haven't registered yet, register
now.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVDN3dDVDJvMnBVdzVKcWR3Y0d4ZVE6MQ


Venue: DROMI, DRDO Phase-I, Bangalore

Date: 12 November 6:30pm

Sukhbinder
For Team AeSIAA

Please feel free to pass on this message to all aesi friends and
alumni you know.

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