Websites Important in Today's AI's World - Important with College Degrees

 52 websites worth more than most college degrees:

1. Coursera. org – University courses completely free to audit

2. Brilliant. org – Interactive math and science learning

3. Wolfram Alpha – Answers any mathematical or factual question

4. GitHub. com – Learn coding from real world projects

5. Investopedia. com – Finance and investing explained simply

6. Archive. org – Access millions of free books and old websites

7. Project Gutenberg – 70000 free classic books

8. Duolingo. com – Learn any language for free

9. Notion. so – Organise your entire life and learning

10. Our World in Data – Every global statistic visualised

11. Statista. com – Data and statistics on everything

12. OpenLibrary. org – Borrow millions of books online free

13. Sifuyikchan. com – AI tips and news for free

14. NASA. gov – Space science and research for free

15. PubMed. gov – Access real scientific research papers

16. Edx. org – Free courses from Harvard MIT and more

17. TED. com – Best ideas from the world's best thinkers

18. Anki – The most powerful memory tool ever built

19. Canva. com – Design anything without being a designer

20. Skillshare. com – Creative and practical skill learning

21. Readwise. io – Remember everything you ever read

22. Google Scholar – Search real academic papers

23. Codecademy. com – Learn to code completely free

24. ChatGPT – AI tutor available 24 hours a day

25. Figma. com – Learn professional design for free

26. Replit. com – Code anything from your browser

27. Huberman Lab Podcast – Science based health education

28. Mindmeister. com – Mind mapping for better thinking

29. NerdWallet. com – Personal finance made simple

30. Quizlet. com – Study smarter with flashcards

31. Gapminder. org – See the real state of the world

32. PhET Simulations – Interactive science experiments online

33. Numbeo. com – Cost of living data for every city on earth

34. 23andMe. com – Understand your own genetics

35. Zapier. com – Automate your work without coding

36. Lesswrong. com – Deep rational thinking and decision making

37. Documentaryheaven. com – Thousands of free documentaries

38. Trading Economics – Economic data for every country

39. Perplexity. ai – AI powered research tool

40. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Every philosophical idea explained

41. Librivox. org – Free audiobooks of classic literature

42. Zooniverse. org – Participate in real scientific research

43. Futurelearn. com – Free short courses from top universities

44. Typing. com – Learn to type properly and fast

45. Drawabox. com – Learn to draw from absolute scratch

46. Grammarly. com – Write better in every situation

47. Khanacademy. org – Free world class education for everyone

48. Desmos. com – The most powerful free graphing calculator

49. Stellarium. org – Explore the night sky from your screen

50. Psychologytoday. com – Mental health and psychology explained

51. Worldometers. info – Real time global statistics on everything

52. Notion. so/ templates – Free templates to organise your entire life

Top 15 sites for Remote Jobs!

For those looking to work Remotes, here are you 15 top sites that you can look for!

1. Freelancer (freelancer.com)

2. Jobspresso (jobspresso.co)

3. Remote OK (remoteok.com )

4. Remote4Me (remote4me.com)

5. SimplyHired (simplyhired.com )

6. Toptal (toptal.com)

7. AngelList (angel.co)

8. NoDesk (nodesk.co)

9. Upwork (upwork.com)

10. LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

11. Remote co (remote.co )

12. FlexJobs (flexjobs.com)

13. Pangian (pangian.com )

14. Remotive (remotive.com)

15. Remotees (remotees.com)

Leadership in VUCA World- Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity

 

Leadership in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) world requires a set of skills and approaches that acknowledge and adapt to the rapidly changing and unpredictable nature of today's business environment. Here are some important considerations for leadership in a VUCA world:

1. Adaptability and Flexibility:

   • Leaders need to be agile and adaptable to navigate through rapidly changing circumstances.
   • Flexibility in decision-making and the ability to pivot strategies quickly in response to new information or external factors are crucial.

2. Vision and Strategic Clarity:

   • A clear and compelling vision helps guide organizations through uncertainty.
   • Leaders should communicate a strategic direction that aligns with the organization's purpose and values, providing a roadmap for navigating the VUCA landscape.

3. Resilience:

   • Leaders must cultivate personal and organizational resilience to withstand setbacks and challenges.
   • The ability to bounce back from failures, learn from them, and maintain a positive outlook is essential.

4. Empowering Teams:

   • Empowering and trusting teams is crucial in a VUCA world. Leaders should encourage innovation and initiative at all levels of the organization.
   • Building a culture that fosters collaboration and knowledge-sharing helps teams respond collectively to challenges.

5. Continuous Learning:

   • Leaders need to be committed to their own continuous learning and development.
   • Promoting a learning culture within the organization ensures that teams are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to adapt to new situations.

6. Effective Communication:

   • Clear and transparent communication is vital in a VUCA environment to keep teams informed and engaged.
   • Leaders should be adept at conveying complex information in a simple and understandable manner.

7. Risk Management:

   • Leaders must be adept at risk assessment and management. This involves identifying potential risks, evaluating their impact, and implementing mitigation strategies.
   • Encouraging a culture that sees challenges as opportunities for growth can help manage risks effectively.

8. Collaboration and Networking:

   • Collaboration with internal and external stakeholders is crucial in a VUCA world.
   • Building a network of diverse connections provides access to a broader range of perspectives and resources.

9. Technology Integration:

   • Embracing and leveraging technology is essential for staying competitive in a VUCA environment.
   • Leaders should be tech-savvy and open to adopting innovative solutions that enhance organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

10. Ethical Leadership:

    • Upholding ethical standards is fundamental in navigating the complexities of a VUCA world.
    • Leaders should prioritize integrity, transparency, and ethical decision-making to build trust within the organization and with external stakeholders.

11. Global Perspective:

    • Leaders need a global mindset, considering the impact of geopolitical and economic factors on their organization.
    • Understanding and navigating cultural differences is crucial for success in a globalized and interconnected world.

In summary, leadership in a VUCA world demands a combination of adaptability, strategic vision, resilience, and a commitment to continuous learning. Leaders must foster a culture of innovation, empower their teams, and embrace change to navigate the challenges posed by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

What is virtualization in Computing? And types of Hypervisors and their benefits

 What is virtualization in Computing?

• Basic definition of Virtualization is simulation of Hardware and Software
• Hypervisor allows one machine to run multiple virtual machines
• Discussed types of Hypervisors and their benefits:
• Bare Metal Hypervisor:
• Are Physical servers which are not configured (bare servers)
• Installed on bare metal of server, Hypervisor allows to create multiple virtual machines on same server by splitting the computing resources (RAM, Disk, etc.)
• Most popular amongst the Enterprise Data Center are VMWare ESXi, Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V
•  Installed on top of OS:
• These are software based hypervisors that will run on underlying OS. You can install these on your personal computers
• Oracle VM, Microsoft Virtual PC are widely used hypervisors
•  A few Benefits:
• Less resource consumption (electricity, cooling, etc)
• Saves money
• Less maintenance and management
• Portability (VMs on one hypervisor can be moved to another hypervisor)
• Utilize full computing capabilities of underlying hardware
• Disaster Recovery
• How Cloud Providers are setting up infrastructure to provide less latency and high availability services
• Geographies
• Regions within Geography
• Availability Zones within Regions
• Data Centers within Availability Zones
•  Containers:
• In traditional way, each application is hosted on a single server
• With Cloud, you can split your server into multiple VMs and host diffident applications on each VM
• Containers are similar to VMs, however users don’t have to manage OS or Hardware.
• A container can run one application. Application can be deployed as a package which includes all scripts and their dependencies
• Dockers is a major player in providing container services
• Major disadvantage of using containers is that Files must be packaged on same OS where the container is running (e.g. if Container is on Linux, application packages to be developed on Linus OS)
• Serverless Computing:

• With Containers having their own advantages and disadvantages, Serverless Computing give another edge to run your applications independent of OS layer
• With serverless, users will not be responsible for managing the server
• It’s also called as FaaS (Function as a Service)
• A function can be single module in your application (e.g. image resizing, you don’t have to run this module all the time, but only when a user of the application uploads an image)
• Some advantages of Serverless Computing are:
• Pay per execution (As mentioned in the example above, users have to pay when the module is executed). No charges for idle time
• Auto Scalable (e.g. If there huge is traffic because of many users uploading the images,  auto scalability enables the module to run seamlessly)
• Faster time to market (Service providers don’t have to wait for Servers, licenses etc.  instead they can deploy apps on containers)
• Supports Polyglot Languages (User can write code in any language)
• High Availability

 

Effective management of ONLINE Conference Calls and virtual meetings

 There are 2 important ways to manage online conference calls and effective handling of virtual meetings

1.  Organizing the call

2.  Leadership during the meetings

Important steps to note during the Organizing the calls:

1. Time management - Rehearse all important calls
2. Duration of the call based on the agenda and number of participants
3. Tasks split as micro activities for tasks and smaller audience
4. Issue resolution calls to identify dependencies and vendor involvements
5. Extend invitees to dependent resources on technical aspects
6. Subject:  Summarize on the call to address queries, clarifications and approval requests
7. Keep agenda crisp and state the urgency s needed
8. Outlook Repeats/ recurring invites not adding as issues
9. Bullet points on agenda for clarity to discuss and give background
10. Repeats should not be more than 7 weeks or 2 months
11. Invites can be extended and knowledge shared 
12. You should know your participants and customers management
13. Action items log appended in the minutes with ETAs (Expected time for action completion)
14. Keep watch on the silent spectators for their feedback
15. Know the features of the bridge line
16. Go on mute during noise behind you
17. Record the meetings with the permission of the participants
18. Disconnect single line of disturbance
19. Audible and clarity is important
20. Speak slowly, with right modulation, pause and listening to others

Importance of Leadership during online calls

1. Controlling of the call is important
2. Identify line ups of key stakeholders
3. Information to get from resources participating
4. In Project calls, round table to capture risks and constraints from all concerned
5. Repeat calls with continuous trackers, action items log for continuity and process
6. Time zones availability to be embedded in the invite itself
7. Conflict management is vital for leadership
8. Severing of the tasks, changes and need for managers to provide resources during on and out of business hours
9. Maintain harmony on calls with no blame game 
10. Provide correct information in calls and get info on the root cause analysis if needed
11. Identify management calls is in operations management and not project management
12. Buy in on due dates and expected time for delivery during the calls itself
13. Decision and discussion groups to be clearly identified
14. Trackers with percentage completion on the tasks needed for calls
15. Voice modulation to command authority
16. Handle the ice breaking filling the gaps
17. Give an opportunity for all people on the call to talk
18. Make sure bridge is not silent
19. Provide clarity and audibility to all is important
20. Set priorities, goals and action owners for tasks as a leader

The above principles of management of calls will bring in effective program management and also to address all issues, risks and concerns managed by the teams.   It is important both for the person organizing the call, moderating the call and leading the call to know these basic but mandatory principles of effective online call management

How to manage stakeholder issues

• Prepare a project plan with the technical teams
• Schedule the call with scope and tasks
• Pre-preparation for the call is important
• Confirmation with all technical teams and call in control during ownership conflict
• Technical resource non-responsiveness should be clearly handled 
• Tracking project status with slippages handled effectively by leaders
• Change window management - change not going as per plan 
• PM to facilitate to conclude on issues and PM decision watch on roll backs
• Checking point calls during changes is important

Project Manager efficiency is key during Calls -  Few Tips and Tricks

• Meeting invite should have proper audience, call details, agenda, key stakeholders and action items defined
• Customer requirements gathering calls should have organizers and bridge participants clearly defined
• Identify the issue or the problem that the customer is not happy about the project or progress of the program
• Scope creep - with additions or deletions of the CR Process
• Deliverables not in quality-  technical fixes to be identified
• Missed milestones and deliverables - how to bring them back to the track
• Red and Amber calls presentation to the customer diplomatically with offered solutions and back to green plans
• Customer non-responsiveness situation, leaders should try to have one on one discussion to get their inputs
• Escalations on team members - all criticisms to be handled privately
• Change outage windows extended or roll back needed- should be thoroughly communicated to the customer
• End customer or application owners approvals for Go/ No Go -  plan B preparedness to handle the same

It is very important that we follow these practices which are effective for having global programs and projects spread across various time zones, geographies and cultural background with multiple technologies spread across the world...

History of Lean in Technology World and key components of Lean Methodology

 The IT world caters to the requirements of the Service Lines and Delivery Centers:

History of Lean:

Started in 2006 in Hyderabad based on Toyota Production Systems  and Lean is to identifying and elimination wastes... They are for value and quality and enrich customer values.

Balance Lean:

1. Eliminate Waste based on lean

2. Eliminate bottleneck scenarios - inflexibility

3. Invariability -focuses on Six Sigma and 3 variances

Production Systems - NO MORE- NO LESS

• Inflexibility and Invariability
• Set of Best Practices and based on lean principles
• Enable global delivery consistent excellence
• For quality, standard processes
• Efficiency and defect prevention

Three types of Productivity losses

1.   Eliminate waste based on lean-  Waste based on quality

2.   Eliminate bottleneck scenarios -  Inflexibility

3.  Invariability focuses on six sigma + or - 3 variances

3 Ps to focus on

1.  People - mindset, behavior and capability (MBC)

2.  Process - Operating System

3. Performance - Management System - Metrics, measurements, visual boards

8 Types of Waste -  IITWROOM

1.  Intellect

2.  Inventory

3.  Transportation

4.   Waiting

5.   Rework

6.  Over-process

7.  Over-production

8.  Motion

7 Levers to eliminate waste:

SSPRRRF

• Segmenting complexity
• Standard Operation
• Pooling
• Redistribute activities
• Reduce non-variables
• Reduce incoming work
• Flexible Staffing system

Operating Systems focus on the Lean components

• Delivery catalog
• Advance pooling 
• Maximum utilization
• Minimum idle time
• Cross accounting 
• Skill management 
• Standardization
• Quality and Productivity
• Staffing Flexibility
• Three components of a pool
• Min pool size 
• Single service component
• Co-location of pool members
• Advance Pooling Requirements
• Shared resources
• Skillsets 
• Segmentation and dispatch process
• Pool size - Project pool structure
• Co-location of resources
• Language
• User id compliance
• Dispatching requirements
• Segmenting
• Batching
• Distribution / Swing
• Pick, Push, Pull
• Pool Structure
• Dispatching - incidents, problems, changes
• Simple requests maintenance
• Dispatching workflow
• Receive incoming demand
• Segment by complexity
• Batch work to manage lows - by rules
• Assign to available technician
• Trigger swing or hands-off
• Pool Dispatches
• Queue monitoring
• Workload management
• Performance management
• Continual improvement
• PICK
• Self-selection
• Not recommended
• Bad batching and picking
• No control to dispatch
• PUSH
• Dispatch automatically
• Reduces control
• Rework
• Sub Optimal decisions
• PULL
• Recommended solution
• Assigned resources availability
• Framework and delivery catalog
• Service Catalog
• Compliance Task Accountability Matrix
• Solution design and pricing
• Contracting
• Mapping
• Transition to Delivery

Microaggressions - How it impacts our Work culture and thought process and perspectives ?

Very recently I attended a session on microaggressions and that’s when I realized that I have been facing this all my life …nothing but triggers that challenge our emotional balance. 

It is time that we

Feel empowered to identify and challenge microaggressions to improve our culture

Identify your own unconscious bias

Be empowered to help shape the culture you want

 Microaggressions in the workplace

Microaggressions are everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to people based solely upon being members of a marginalized group

Bias in Actions & Words

 Some Shared Experiences

“I don’t plan to have any children because My husband and I are very ambitious”

My female manager, when I was first pregnant

“You are the only female member of the team. Please take charge of all birthday celebrations of the team members since you would manage it so much better!”

One of my female managers

“Your husband is a banker – so I need to allocate more increments to those who need to manage in one salary.”

My first direct manager (Male)

“I thought being a female at least you would not be so aggressive and pushy about asking for salary increases”

One of my female managers in AsiaImpact matters more than intent:

How do Microaggressions impact team members

Statements couched as compliments or harmless comments. The recipients may initially feel that they are not entitled to an emotional reaction and may have the following thought process….

•       Did I interpret that correctly?

•       Did she say what I think she said?

•       What did he mean by that?

•       Should I say something?

•       Saying something may make it worse.

•       They’ll probably think I’m overreacting.

•       Speaking up is going to hurt more than it helps

Impact matters more than intent:

•       Anxiety

•       Depression

•       Sleep difficulties

•       Diminished confidence

•       Helplessness

•       Loss of drive

•       Internal dilemma

What are the potential impacts of unchecked  micro aggressions on an organization’s culture?

Cultural effects:

•       Bad behaviors get normalized - specially when others observe and do not see any checks

•       It makes new or introverted people to clam up and not speak out  - which could translate to hiding bigger leadership behavioral aggression being unchecked

•       Toxic culture in teams, lack of collaboration and trust

•       People hesitate to bring their authentic self to work

Negative tangible outcomes impacting bottom line:

•       Low Engagement Rate

•       Low Productivity

•       Low Performance

•       Low morale

•       Loss of good talent

•       Bad reputation as a place to work

What if you are the Microaggressor?

Some positive approaches

•       Do Make the other person feel heard and follow their lead in the conversation.

•       Offer a genuine apology that acknowledges the impact and harm your comment caused.

•       Keep striving to be better. It requires grace, humility, and commitment.

Some unproductive approaches

•       Fall prey to the fundamental attribution error. You can still be a good, well-intentioned person who said something offensive.

•       Make the conversation about you. Instead, express gratitude for your colleague’s trust and belief that you’re capable of evolving.

•       Overdo your apology by laying on your privileged guilt. Your apology should be sincere.

Ask yourself -

•       What was the Impact of My statement ?

•       What was my intention when making this statement ?

How to Respond to a Microaggression

Three Approaches:

1. Let it go. This can often be the easiest solution but comes with an emotional tax, of not speaking up for yourself, and others, and it reinforces the behavior is OK.

2. Respond immediately. This approach addresses the situation but can be risky, impacting how you are seen, and impacting others and the overall culture.

3. Respond Later. Sleep on it. Get perspective. Strategically respond. Create a tempered approach, privately. Log it with HR and others, as well as directly to the person.

How?

•        Discern – how important is this? To you? Your feelings & others? How do you want to be perceived?

•       Disarm – prepare them to be uncomfortable for the discussion.

•       Defy–  Challenge them to explain exactly what they meant vs your interpreation.

•       Decide–  Your feelings, your reaction are yours to decide.

 

Reference Material:

•       Harvard Business Review – further reading: https://hbr.org/2020/07/when-and-how-to-respond-to-microaggressions

•       IBM Institute for Business Value & Session on Microaggression