Life of a consultant

There is no typical day for a consultant but this is example of week on a traveling case. Again schedule depends from person to person and case to case. Also, this is based on my first couple of weeks on my first case so take this with a grain of salt. However, this should give you some insight into what to expect.

Monday

5:30 AM - Get up

6:30 AM - Cab to airport

7:30 AM - On flight, hello to other team mates on the flight and quick updates. catch up some quick work/reading for the case or get some more sleep

9:00 AM - land in Melbourne

9:45 AM - Client office

9:45 AM - 10AM - E-mails, quick chats, some planning

10 AM - 11AM - Joint planning meeting with client

11 AM - 12:30 - Getting done to some work Primarily follow ups but also Analysis, planning, data gathering or thinking time

12:30 - 1:00 PM - Lunch with team

1:30 - 2:00 PM - work stream planning and updates with Case team leader

2:00 - 3:00 PM - Discussion with partner

4:00 - 7:30 PM - get down to work

7:30 - 9:00 PM - Dinner and D chat with case team leader

10:00 PM - 12:00 PM - finish up days work. Must do work for client presentations next day

Tuesday

6:00 AM - get up

6:30 AM - 7:15 Am - Gym

8:15 Am - at work

8:30 AM - 10:00 AM - Call to international clients

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM - issues/roadblocks/planning discussion with CTL

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM - work

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM - working lunch and case team discussion

1:30 PM - 7:30 PM - Work (Data collection, Analysis, client calls, Thinking time, brainstorming, discussing hypothesis, solutions)

7:30 PM - 9:00 PM - casual dinner with team or other traveling consultants

9:00 PM - 11/12 - urgent work for next day

Wednesday

Very similar to Tuesday some different meetings, different activities. More stressful.

Thursday

Simlar except

5PM - Catch cab to airport

Work in the airport/plane and back home if a C-level client meeting is coming up.

Friday

9 AM - At Office

9 - 10 AM - E-mails, catch up

10 - 11AM - Administrative work, expenses.

11 AM - 12PM - Work

12PM - 1PM - catch with other consultant/friends over lunch

1 PM - 4PM - Very focussed at work. Get things done!

4 pm - 6 PM - Office meeting(once a month). Drinks and cake(always)

7 PM - After work drinks...

Ready for weekend

“Matter” Don’t really matter?

This post is continuation of the previous post on scientific discoveries and insight on the nature of matter that we have gained over past couple of hundred years.

http://anandologue.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-matter-knowledges-great-progress-to.html

Whenever I discuss these topics with others, most ask me why it really matters. Does knowing what “matter” is, of any significance to the common man? Is an understanding of these phenomena necessary?

Despite having extensive experimental evidence for the classical theories, quantum mechanics and relativity, they are neither widely known and understood nor accepted. This baffles me and I can only speculate on the reasons why. Many people find scientific concepts complex and difficult to understand. Surprisingly this is also true in most developed countries. The difficulty stems from the lack of proper grounding and good teaching methods in early years, which cultivates a lack of interest later in life.

The other reason could be that many are more concerned with day to day life to ponder about these questions. Living in the society of today is all about earning a livelihood or pursuit of happiness which is increasingly becoming the pursuit of money, luxury and comfort. While there is nothing wrong with this it also happens to be a never-ending pursuit. We have lot of more technology, amenities and comfort than compared to a few centuries back but do we really lead happier and fulfilled life? Important thing to note that marginal utility of any desire decreases as it becomes increasingly available.

The third reason could be metal comfort. Sometimes there are ready answers provided to us that we grow up with. It’s much easier accepting them and living within these bounds rather than question the artificial bounds itself. Also, what we learn early in life seems familiar and forms our intuition and as a result what we already know seems intuitively right, regardless of merit or correctness of the belief. That’s why new information doesn’t seem to matter that much.

So, why does it really matter? Well! How do you go about life if you don’t know what you are really living for? I find this important and significant but I am in the minority. Would you play a game without knowing the rules? What if you start playing a game that you don’t know why you are playing and you have to figure out the rules as you go? Someone else who has played the game explains a loose set of rules they figured out when they played. You find they apply in some situations but not in others. Would you continue playing believing the handed down set as true or make an attempt to find and improve your understanding? For YOU to play the GAME, isn’t it important to know the RULES or would you rather play the same way irrespective of the rules?

To add to all this very few of the discoveries of the past century are taught in schools these days. And when we grow up we continue to live our lives based on things we already know and have accepted. Very few seek out new knowledge and still fewer accept it, especially if it challenges the very core of what we have believed. “Surely, I can’t have been mistaken all this while!” “In any case I have done okay living the way that I lived so why should I change what I believe here on?” “It doesn’t really matter” Hence the greatest discoveries of the past couple of centuries are kept but for a few to enjoy and pass on. Others just go on to say “There is so much we don’t know perhaps will never find out” Never for once bothering to look!

On “Matter”, Knowledge’s great progress to thousands of years back

“Divisibility” The Greeks started with it! They thought all matter was composed of smaller particles down to single unique and indivisible particle called “atom”. They were right that all matter was made up of atoms but wrong in the sense that it was the smallest unique, identical particle that constituted all matter. However, one interesting notion that came out of this idea was the fact that whatever we see around us is all essential made of the same thing.

Almost couple of thousands years later there came J. J Thompson, his experiments and pumpkin model of the atom. We found electrons and later we found Protons and Neutrons. “Oh! There are smaller particles!” This gave birth to particle Physics. Further down the road we realized that protons & neutrons are made up of Quarks and Electrons of Leptons. These were now considered the elementary particles that made up all the matter. So why did we stop there? Surely if atoms could be made of smaller particles and protons & electrons of smaller particles then ever our elementary particles could be made up of smaller particles too? And that’s what happened! More we searched smaller particles we found but this would not go on endlessly.

On a parallel track, Quantum mechanics took up where classical mechanics left off. Experiments and theories such Max Planks’ Quanta, Einstein’s Photo-electric Effect, De Broglie Wave-particle duality, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle formed the basis of Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. While quantum mechanics gave us unparallel insight into the small world, Einstein relativity theories finally answered the puzzles of the big world and heavenly bodies.

By 1920 we were begun to understand not only how matter is composed, how it interacts, how forces are created and how macroscopic properties arise. However, we had one major problem. Relativity and quantum mechanics did not agree. It was difficult to account for gravitational forces at subatomic level and quantum effects for large bodies. Both theories within their spheres, however, had plenty of experimental evidence to prove them irrefutably correct and accurate. This was one of physics biggest problem which is still unresolved to this day. Nevertheless, from 60s till now String theory of Universe has come long way in addressing these problems. Essentially what the string theory proposes is that the entire Universe is made up of one thing – tiny strings and all the matter and forces in this Universe are made up of different configuration of these strings. Those you have read books on Quantum mechanics, Relativity or the string theory would understand that in the last 3 paragraphs I have been trying to outline what essentially requires detailed discussion and substantiation. In fact the book “Elegant Universe” does a good job of walking through these theories in fairly simplistic terms.

So now I can finally come to the point that I am trying to make, which would not be possible without this background. The point is that we are beginning to realize or believe that Universe is entirely integrated body which at its very granular level is made up of the same thing. All different forms of energy, forces and matter are created of different configuration of the same unique material. Well some may say why did this take us so long to realize? Ancient Vedanta Philosophy said the exact same thing around 800 – 1000 BC, almost 3000 years back. They also highlighted principles of truth and reality that are now quite consistent with our understanding of quantum mechanics as well as modern philosophies regarding human perception of truth and reality, in particular Kant’s. Question is, have we rediscovered the same knowledge that existed thousands or years prior and interpreted in a different way. How did we fail to build up on something that already existed and make a full circle?

Documentaries

There was a time when documentaries were factual and boring. With the advent of Discovery, National Geographic and others they have become more and more interesting and entertaining. On the other hand their neutrality, factual correctness and objectivity have suffered. Lots of them now have a pre-conceived agenda rather than exploring both sides of an issue. Nevertheless, I find myself seeing more documentaries than ever. I have listed down a few I have watched and hope others might find them interesting as well. Generally, I like independent productions but some of my favorite ones have been produced by BBC Horizon series. I have attempted to rate them as well as put indicator on objectivity. I know many are turned off by Documentaries that are totally nonobjective.

+/- Objectivity (+ being more objective)

My top 3

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom - 5.0 +

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_(television_documentary_series)

The Ascent of Money: The Financial History of the World - 5.0 ++

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Money

Human, All Too Human: Nietzsche 4.5 ++

Society

Rageh inside Iran - 4.0 ++

The Ascent of Money (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/) - 5.0 ++

Human, All Too Human - Nietzsche - 4.5 ++

Religion

The Story of God - 3.5 -

The God Delusion - 3.5 +

Religulous - 3.5 --

Politics

Fahrenheit 9/11 - 4.5 -

Occupation 101 - 3.5 --

Freedom to Facism - 3.5 --

Health

Sicko - 4.0 -

Super Size me - 3.5 -

Magic Weed - History Of Marijuana - 3.5 +

Ecstasy Rising - 4.0 +

Science & Environment

Journey To The Edge Of The Universe - 3.5 +

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawkin’s ideas about the Universe - 4.0 +

The Elegant Universe - 4.5 ++

How Does Your Memory Work - 4.0 +

Uncertainty Principle - 4.0 +

An Inconvenient Truth - 3.5 +

History

Auschwitz: The Nazis & The Final Solution - 3.5 +

Tryst with destiny (Fall of the British Empire) - 4.0 +

More coming soon...

More financial troubles ahead?

The news of legislation to increase oversight on Federal reserve got me curious about their current state of affairs.

More on proposed legislation >

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-audit-bill-gets-backing-from-key-lawmaker-2009-09-25

I wanted to investigate how much Fed's credit has expanded in the past year see if there are signs on trouble as we emerge from the recession. Its the first time I'm looking at Fed's balance sheet and am not even sure I can understand it. However, whatever little I did understand makes me very nervous.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/Current/

Reserve bank credit has almost double the past year from $1.1 trillion to $2.1 Trillion. About $900 Billion of it coming in increased Treasury Securities. But I also noticed that fed has about $690 Billion in Mortgage backed securities. I wondered if this was marked to market which I doubted and the footnote provided more details.

"Guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae. Current face value of the securities, which is the remaining principal balance of the underlying mortgages"

It appears that they are not marked to market but at face value of remaining principal balance which is cause for concern as these were trading at 10 cents to the dollar when they were bought. Most market participants thought that they would collect the fraction of the face value due to defaults. Fed is holding off selling these MBS for now but when the eventually do sell them they might incur a huge loss. I wonder what it means for a central bank but a $300 - $400 B loss on $2.1 T balance sheet can't be good.

Coming bank to increased credit and corresponding increase in treasury securities, it has to be inflationary. When the economy shows any sign of recovery inflation might be a big problem leading to a weak dollar. Further, holders might look to offload their US treasuries leading to Dollar plummeting. We might be in for serious currency crisis with lot of volatility world over.

Again, I am not a economist and most of what I have said is speculative. However, whatever I do understand is concerning. I did search for other who might be looking at fed's growing balance sheet. While most did say inflation is on cards I found this one particularly interesting saying that its not necessary and not inevitable. This one's explains it via basic marco-economic principles.

http://taxesandbudget-blog.ncpa.org/the-feds-balance-sheet-and-inflation/

All said and done I am still wary of another impending shock and I think its best to be prepared.

Iran vs. USA - Other side of the coin

Wouldn’t you be pissed if a foreign country helped overthrow your democratically elected government in favor of Dictator? (1953 Iranian coup d'état) Now if that’s not enough what if when the Dictator was overthrown in favor or republic, however skewed, and this country called you Totalitarian? (Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979) Isn’t that a perfection definition of Hypocrisy? What if this power supplied Biological and Chemical weapons to another country you are at war with and had every intention of using these weapons and they did end up using them. (United States support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war) Would you trust the foreign power? What if that power labeled you as evil? Would your reaction be shock, disgust or hate? This may be Iran’s view of the USA as all the above incidents are actually factual.

There is the other side to the story which we are more familiar with - The Iranian revolution, Iran hostage crisis(Iran hostage crisis), the Islamic repulic and represive life in Iran. Maybe the US view of Iran is also equally justified. However, what started what? who is good and who is evil, right or wrong? Quite often it’s not as simple as right vs. wrong or Good vs. evil? Conservatives in US will like you to think otherwise and live in fear. Read and understand the events and make your own judgment!

Iran and US relations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran–United_States_relations

In future don’t be so ignorant about Iran. Learn more about the life in Tehran

Rageh inside Iran - http://tinyurl.com/r9hnte/

Don’t trust people who want to force an opinion down your throat. Read history and make your own judgments.

Added on Oct 05, 2009 - Something else I found on the net related to the topic

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/10/01/cole/

Foreign language films

I guess the word "Foreign" depends on what your native tongue is. For me its Hindi though I watch far more English i.e. Hollywood movies. However, of late I have starting seen more Hindi i.e. Bollywood movies as well as films in many different languages. I compiled a list of some (other than Hindi and English) I have watched with rating on 5 point scale hoping that like me it provides those who are bored with traditional blockbusters an oppurtunity to enjoy something different. I know I am missing some good Chinese and japanese movies but i'll include them soon. Here is the list -

French

Paris je T'aime (Paris, I love you) - 4.0

Belle de jour - 4.0

Delicatessen - 3.5

Manon des source - 3.0

Il y a longtemps que Je T'aime (I loved you so long) - 4.0

Quand j'étais chanteu (When I was a singer) - 3.5

Auberge espagnole, L (The Spanish Apartment) - 4.0

Trzy kolory: Bialy (Three colors: White) - 3.5

Baxter - 4.5

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain - 5.0

Le scaphandre et le papillon (The diving Bell and the butterfly) - 4.5

Nikita - 4.0

Leon - 3.0

Der Name der Rose (The name of the rose) - 3.5

Irreversible - 3.5

A girl cut in two - 3.0

Three colors: Red - 3.5

Une Hirondelle a fait le Printemps (The Girl from Paris) - 3.0

Le Placard (The closet) - 4.0

Les rivières pourpres (Crimson rivers) - 4.5

Italian

Il Postino (The postman) - 5.0

La vita è bella (life is beautiful) - 5.0

Danish

Pistoleros - 3.5

German

Jerichow - 4.0

Das Leben der Anderen - The Lives of others - 3.5

Die Fälscher - The Counterfeiters - 3.5

Spanish

The Spanish Woman

Motorcycle Diaries - 4.5

Amores Perros - 4.5

La misma Muna - 4.0

Portugese

Cidade de Deus- 4.5

Arabic

Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (The Band's visit) - 3.5

Persian

Offside - 3.5

Cantonese

Blood brothers - 3.0