Steve Jobs, Narayan Murthy and Legacy

Two giants of men retired/resigned from their positions of contributions this month.

Steve Jobs is probably the best combination of an artist, a showman and a product visionary in the history of business. He shaped industries, culture and media many times over through his products and the company he founded.

Narayan Murthy is the iconic entrepreneur who exemplified wealth-creation and institution-building to a country where profit and business were dirty words. He set highest standards of business ethics, corporate governance and competence and started the information technology revolution in India.

What will be my legacy? Should one even think about legacy?

Or is life all about finding those few things in your personality which repeated again and with intent, 'change the world'

Corruption, Anna Hazare etc.

My take on the whole thing: Totally inconsequential though. I am observing and not partisan:

I think the whole issue of corruption originates from three problems: misaligned incentives, outdated processes and having wrong people in wrong jobs. The only way to solve it is by getting into the election process, win elections with a majority, form a government and change the system from inside.

But most leaders loose the focus on the way, because power corrupts. It is a temptation, the biggest of all. And we are all human. Anna Hazare is also falling in the trap of media, power, even after being a Gandhian. Everyone loves their '15 minutes of fame'.

Its great that he is concerned and protesting. But long term change will be slow, boring and will come as the winds, not as a storm. Does Anna and his team have the stomach for that or as Van Goethe said:

"Reason becomes Nonsense, boons afflictions'

On Drinking - I

Have been thinking of giving up drinking. Have given up on binge drinking for a long time now.

I think it is really bad if drinking becomes a habit. In my case the consequences are milder: going to home late (which becomes an issue, if you are living with parents), overeating (interferes with my weight-loss) and i do not feel really good the next morning.

I typically drink once a fortnight. And always with friends. I like couple of other things about drinking: it gives a feeling of excitement, and that one had a nice social interaction.

To give up on bad habit, one should try to replace it with a good habit. Also the good habit should satisfy the basic needs of "excitement and social interaction". Lets see where we go from here.....