Musings on Executing a Wall Bed or Murphy Bed

The cost of real estate has ensured that I stay hooked to the concept of wall-bed. I think any piece of estate that makes multiple uses possible is a gift. I think wall-bed is one piece of furniture that is crucial to make use of the precious estate we own.

It's been a while now and I've been reading and checking videos of different kinds of wall-beds.

A bed is typically a stationary object but a wall-bed involves movement. One movement results in bed occupying space for sleeping and another movement results in clearing space for uses other than sleeping. Easy to miss little but important things whenever or wherever movement is involved. So am trying to list them all down here. You can add too in the comments. Here I go.

1. When a wall-bed opens obviously it needs clear space so that it can open fully. Nothing should obstruct the opening and landing of wall-bed legs on the floor. So if, before the opening of the wall-bed, the space was used for some other purpose or occupied with some other objects, one needs to move these objects beyond the space to be occupied by the wall-bed. If this space is visibly marked based on the dimensions of the wall-bed, then it would be a good reminder every time the wall-bed is opened and will result in smooth movements day in and day out.
2. When the wall-bed closes, how does the mattress and the bed-sheets stay in order?
3. When the wall-bed closes, where do you keep the duvets, blankets and pillows? One may need a dedicated space to keep them properly and easily. Of course, when the wall-bed opens, it should be easy and quick to retrieve the same.

The stomach of our eyes and the legs of our fingers

As an incredible and incredibly tired - to the point of puking coz - user of the smart phone and laptop screens, I have often wondered about the role of tablet and phablet (that's such a fuck-all category name, the sound of it, the meaning of it) and the distinctions between the the latter two, and the distinctions between the latter two and the smart phone especially. Without any more long sentences, here are a few thoughts.

I can see two broad categories: consumption devices and production devices.

Mobile phones? Consumption devices in 'sachet' form, literally and also for different purposes. Suited for small tasks, small talking, small give and take of messages, small viewing. (Exceptions galore. Sickening ones largely I guess. Am not a gamer, but have watched users pore into their little screens playing obnoxious games for good stretches. I find reading a decent length article on a mobile mighty difficult for my eyes.)

Laptops, PCs? Production-cum-consumption devices. When we want to do graphics, write articles, some thoughtful long posts, read at length, browse a little long for comparing and shopping things, watching decent length videos or movies and such...

Tapping on touch-screens is not the same as tapping physical keys. Imagine, if we were to lay down the keys of a piano in a touch-screen form or the strings of a guitar in a touch-screen form. How easy or how difficult? Some folks have attempted such innovations. I wonder if they are any convenient.

And a weird statement is, small screen is not the same as big screen. Eyes want certain width of landscape viewing at least to feel comfortable for long stretches of reading, viewing, coding and so on.

Tablets/Phablets take care of the viewing bit, but don't make finger-tapping any easy. The brief periods when I've had a chance to use a Tablet didn't leave me feeling any great.

Friend, not a follower

Earlier when I would befriend someone on FB, I would get that person's updates on my timeline (basis whatever algorithm FB has). There was no choice.

For some time now, FB has given us a choice. If you don't want to see updates from certain 'friends' on FB, you can 'unfollow'. In which case, you don't have to 'unfriend' to avoid the updates. Just 'unfollow'.

The default is 'follow'. When you befriend someone, FB assumes you'll 'follow' this friend. Follow = Receive updates on our timeline.

Befriend. Unfriend. Follow. Unfollow. Meanings galore.

Let me just open the box using a two-by-two window!

Out-of-the-box solutions

often come from outsiders. Or comes when we are outside the box, literally or figuratively.

So 3 possible forms of outsider.

1) I am into jewelry retail. Someone who doesn't do the same is an outsider.
2) I am into jewelry retail. Example, I am showering and I get a cracking thought about jewelry retail.  I myself become the outsider. Literally.
3) I am into jewelry retail. I am thinking about something else sitting at my desk in the shop/office and suddenly I get a cracking thought about jewelry retail. Again I become the outsider. Figuratively.

First definition suggests that consultants, friends, father, brother, brother-in-law, jewelry manufacturer, etc. all these can be called outsiders.

I am more keen on looking at second and third definitions. Because the same person turns out to be an insider as well as an outsider.

In the second definition, I've mentioned 'showering' to suggest outsideness. However, it could just be anything. It could also be bird-watching. Or travelling. Or chilling on a beach. Or it could be working on a project other than jewelry retail.

Focus is important for thinking. So is outsideness. It makes sense to be working on at least two projects in any given time-frame.

Facebook has us all, and grossly under-performs

How much can our eyes see in a given moment? How many moments do we have in any given day? How many moments do we spend on reading and going through the FB updates? On how many such moments we feel 'amazing'?

From how many friends (I've got some 850 odd friends) do you see updates on any given day that you check FB? And so, how many friends you would surely like to check updates from? Who are these friends? Given the number of friends, how adept you've become socially as a result of social media?  Apart from friends, how many groups are you a part of on FB?

I spend a considerable time on FB almost everyday. And yet, on reflection I feel no great on most such days. I itch to get updates from some people and I don't quite know if they've posted anything. Why? Simple, everyone's posting a lot of stuff and that lot of stuff is algorithmically curated and the algorithm is no good. If I have 850 in my friends list, and everyone's posting 4 updates on average, there you go. On any given day I have a total of 3400 updates to go through! It's become a super-market of updates!

Is there a way out? A way that can make browsing the FB timeline marginally better and yet significantly effective?

There must be a cap of, let's say, 5 updates for every user. Don't let the algorithm curate. Let all the updates appear in a sequence on the timeline. Let the user figure which updates are worth posting.

Someone will argue, another platform will emerge that will offer 50 updates for every user. Sure, can emerge. Will that be any good? Will that help you read and go through the updates in any better way?

Capping the quantities is what makes something worthwhile. Otherwise the space is wide open. And you aren't even an atomic organism when placed against that space.

I love my bed and he underwent angioplasty at the age of 36

But I don't love this place called my bedroom.

On dictionary.com, I find two meanings articulated for this concept called bedroom.

One says: a room furnished and used for sleeping

Another says: a room furnished with beds or used for sleeping

Just in case the meaning of room is debated and philosophized and spiritualized, here are two meanings that, to my mind, hold sway:

1. space or extent of space occupied by or available for something
2. opportunity or scope for something

Space available for something. Opportunity or scope for something. In this world called India, what kind of space is available for anything? I mean, for practical purposes. If room is 'opportunity or scope', what kind of opportunity or scope is available given our notions, ideas and imaginations of 'bedroom'?

Now have a look at this bedroom. I randomly picked it up searching on Google.

All the houses that you've been to, how many bedrooms have a similar layout? There goes room that means 'availability', 'scope', 'opportunity'.

And all construction companies, including the mightiest ones which are considered 'brands', keep feeding us with the ideas of 'BHK' (bedroom, hall, kitchen). With those thoughts we dream, we buy, we get into the cycles of EMIs, and so often get into those ever-debilitating problems called Lifestyle Diseases, in spite of the earnest attempts to visit the best of the gyms, and to work out on the best of the equipment.

Just yesterday, son of my Dad's good friend, at the age of 36, underwent angioplasty. Going by what I've seen of them, he lives in a house with a fair number of bedrooms and a little lawn as well to boast of.  

Which camera do you possess?

Take a good pic, and someone asks you about camera.

Run long, and someone asks you about shoes.

Look good, and someone asks you about the brand or the shop.

Design good earrings, and someone asks you about metal and diamonds.

It's incredible how often we end up attributing goodness to objects, instead of attributing it to our ability/perseverance/insight/practice in using those objects.

A Bedroom Story

That innocuous looking expression, bedroom, sometimes wreaks havoc in my evolving way of daily working.

Bed and room. Room is space. Bed is the object that occupies that space. I have a problem with occupation of space.

If space is the currency, then the best returns are obtained when it facilitates a range of movements. Putting a bed permanently in that space means now you can move through the space only in certain ways. To the extent of limitation in movements, returns diminish.

When I observe the birds make nests, I realize that they do so, not for their living, but for making sure that their young ones survive a certain amount of time after birth. After that phase, the nest might get destroyed. But birds fly and survive nonetheless.

It isn't a stretch of imagination to understand that houses must have been just a way of defense at one point. We have read about that some time in our life.

To raise a question like where do we sleep if we don't have bed, is to confuse the action of sleeping with the object, (a permanently space-occupying) bed. And that is a mighty confusion.

We will indulge in sleeping regardless of the fact there's a bed or not. When the per capita space is so limited anyway, and when we find ourselves in this weird state of working out like mannequins behind glass-windows of a showroom-like gym, I think it's time rethink the permanence of occupation of space by this thing called bed.

If bed were equal to sleeping, everyone should fall asleep as soon as one lies on the bed, no?

That last rhetorical question leads me to this inference. I sense since bed mightily limits the range of movements you can do in a given space, a lot of us find it difficult to sleep, in spite of the best of beds available to us.

You'll sleep, rest, relax only when the body moves. Body will move only when there's enough space to indulge in movement of all kinds. And in the same breath, body stays fit only when it undergoes a range of movements day after day.

So while moving and sleeping are important for fitness, a permanently space occupying bed might actually be working against both the actions.

Corporate Paradox

I've heard it from CEOs and Gurus across the spectrum: talent is the biggest resource.

On numerous occasions, every time I've seen such news stories, I've pondered over this issue of retrenchment. And every time, the frame given is 'cost-cutting'.

So employees are costs. When such costs are cut, the company makes profit. Right? For whom? Shareholders? Most shareholders do nothing to increase a company's profits. Yes, of course they invest in shares. Definitely they aren't the ones to try and innovate. Innovation can only from talent/employees.

Unfortunately, I suppose, since employees are only viewed as costs for narrow and specific purposes, after spending a certain time in the cubicled corporations they evolve into nothing better than costs.

Lions and Tigers enrol for Personality Development Programs

The title is a joke.

When I was much younger, on a couple of occasions, my parents advised me to attend some personality development program. I hated the suggestion back then, I hate it even now (when offered to someone else :)). Mind you, I said 'the suggestion'. What it does mean is that I am not quite averse to the idea of 'personality development'.

Here's a perspective.

One of the popular indicators (only an indicator, no guarantee okay!) of a 'well-developed personality' is felicity with language. So people who are good at talking, at using a range of words, at structuring arguments seem to have a good personality. And this indicator seems to have been used by a lot of institutions and coaching classes to sell their PD programs.

Having observed myself over the years, the one thing that has aided in improving my skills in language is the the actual 'searching for' and 'doing of' things. The more I've tried doing things in a particular domain, the more my need to search for the most effective means to accomplish those things. And of course, searching meant asking the right questions or conveying the right ideas, which in turn means trying to use the words which are most representative of the thoughts in my head and which could be understood in the same manner by the people trying to answer my questions or trying to help me. And learning from this process for the next thing to do.

I've seen quite a few people around me attend the PD programs. Very often, the 'positive change' disappears after a while.The reason is, in all probability, not going through the process of finding more words or a better vocabulary for doing something new/better. Doing it is.

Why most of us don't have 6-packs

Are you bored with Management Education?

Came across this ad in today's TOI. Found it compelling enough to share here and talk about it. My perspective of course.

The headline ARE YOU BORED WITH MANAGEMENT EDUCATION is just so apt. A lot of academicians engaged with management institutes here in India might just have been bored with the way things are done. Forget academicians, ask the students studying in these institutes. Ask them if given a chance to change their decisions by going back in the past, what would they do and why?

Reading through the copy might make one expect different things to happen at this institute. Mind you, we aren't talking about the right and the wrong. For the rightness of educational settings has been debated and questioned all the across the world.

Most interesting thing about this ad is what it expects the candidates to do. EMAIL THEIR RESUME WITH A WRITE UP ON "MY VISION OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN THE FUTURE".

The ad seems to be walking the talk.

The only disappointing aspect is QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND REMUNERATION AS PER AICTE NORMS. I fear that one thing might just cut out a lot of interesting things that the institute promises through this ad.

Chemistry in Professional Relationships

Read this remarkable write-up by Atul Gawande, the world-renowned surgeon. It's about the importance of coaching in professional set-ups. Yes, coaches for surgeons!

Corroborates my long-held belief. I try to plot here the way I observe certain professional relationships.

What do you observe?

Innocuous crime

There's a tuition institute right opposite Mississippi Earrings.

This afternoon, I observed a girl looking into another note-pad and scribbling hurriedly into her note-pad. It was geometry. Some theorem I guess. Seemed tensed and was writing furiously. Must have been homework which she couldn't manage to do at home. All this to ensure entry into the class.

There's school. There's homework. There's tuition class. There's homework. And so many hours spent only to lead to copying. While this instance is anecdotal, am sure it gets repeated frequently and among majority of the students.

Paying off liabilities

is important for doing stuff that is personal, artistic and hasn't been backed by intensive truckloads of market research and hasn't been appreciated by the experts as yet.

So you do an MBA.

Most organizations aren't into a mode of giving you good personal space and time. They fear you'll run away and earn more at the organization's expense. The other side is also true. If organizations offer some personal space, people might just be as willing to credit the organization with their success and therefore, turn the organization into a bigger brand.

Quality of tiredness

You have a good workout or run long in the morning. Your lungs open up and fresh air circulates with in. Through out the day, your body stays agile and mind alert. Work seems to happen in rhythm and rhymes. You feel a lot's been done already by 8pm. Have dinner. Before you know it, your eyes, mind, body prompt you to lie down. Bed feels amazing. Combined with the little aches, here and there, all the more comforting.

Next morning, you realize how deep and joyfully you slept. You are back on the track.

Lost sense of adventure

When majority of the world could be termed lower middle class or poor, and entire lives were spent being just that, I wonder what was called risk. Perhaps going on an adventure trip (typically would mean traveling in unknown unpaved geographical areas) was the biggest risk. And such risks were almost a result of real critical needs. And therefore, adventures got their meaning. In fact, it might not be wrong to say that meaning arose only out of adventures and courage.

In the current world such geographies exist but not many of us feel the need to travel through such geographies. In a lot of ways, we are way too safe. Think about it. How regularly, frequently and unfailingly we meet our needs? Having a little money ensures meeting basic needs pretty easily. That ease also seems to have resulted in a loss of meaning. And yet, how so few of us want to have even a little adventure? Let's say by putting money into a venture, by starting or trying something which involves money and courage...

The problem with thinking about future

Trudging on a path, or driving, I cannot help but look at the immediate pothole or bump. And I have to make sure that I handle it properly. Even if I do know that there's a big pothole after 2 kms, I can't do anything until I really reach the spot. Yes of course, I can think of ways to go around the pothole but if I think a lot, with reasonable certainty I would be running into a lot of potholes anyway before even reaching the one I would be thinking of avoiding.

I can think of the future but I can't act in the future.

I can act in the present based on my vision of the future but even so only when my act is well adapted to the present, and to all that are a part of the present.

I sense I have been trying the impossible. I sense a big pothole in the future and am trying to avoid it right from this moment on. The world around doesn't even wanna know about the pothole!

I suppose future is only as far away or as near as your next step.

Osama & compassion misplaced

Have been reading a lot about systems thinking. In fact, even before I was aware of the term 'systems thinking', I realize I was thinking on those lines for a long time.

Osama is dead.

I just happened to check an image on the cover of India Today today morning. People protesting Osama's death. Another image showed people offering prayers in Osama's support/memory.

The truth could very well be that these very people (shown in images mentioned above) wouldn't support Osama if they lived in relatively more comfortable environment and had suffered from something like a 9/11.

So what's happening really? And why does anyone like Osama become a leader (call him a terror leader) in such a manner? Was he just a egomaniac? Was he a narcissist? Was he just doing it for fame? Was he just a despot? Was he fond of putting himself in utmost danger? Could be. But there is definitely a little more.

He was tall. From whatever images have circulated in mass media, he looked assured. Was media-savvy for sure. Could've been an actor, isn't it?

But he became an icon for a certain kind of people. If we analyze such people, we might see some common characteristics. Under-educated, under-privileged, illiterate, filled with powerlessness, lacking means for an appropriate living, jealous of those who are better off, hatred of being patronized, desirous of self-respect but not aware of the 'means' to possess some, failing to find someone appropriate to blame... Of course, they were wanting for something to feel proud of. Enter Osama.

It isn't that what I am writing hasn't been thought of. But I would like to say that, somewhere, men like Osama arise because of their compassion for their own people. But this river of compassion seems to flow through the steamiest rocks and the same water which could assuage thirst, burns.

One can say whatever one has to but men living without means for a long time are like that. They are sort of dangerously unhooked. Depending on what they chance upon, they will gravitate or levitate or evaporate or explode.

Osama was definitely inept in that he caused such unforgivable harm. Many of the so-called leaders of the world seem no great either. They might be good on the television but their solutions aren't solving much. And, at best, the blame for any explicit harm cannot be attached to them.

A theory of boredom

Have been operating out of home for a few days. On occasions it gets so so so boring that mind stops working and sleeping becomes tough too. So, with no options left, I have to endure the 'boredom' sensations.

However, I have been wondering how could 'boredom' have evolved. Here's my venture.

It seems to me that most of the time, since our evolution as 'humans', we would have spent doing nothing but either sleeping or staying 'alert'. That's right, staying 'alert'. Without concrete or solid protective structures around, that would have been the only option. To survive, staying alert the entire day was an imperative. And that was the occupation. And alertness induced action.
  

So, any task or occupation that doesn't match the evolved sense of alertness among humans is bound to seed 'boredom'. Over a period of time, as this seed of 'boredom' grows and as our own acceptance of 'boredom' grows, we lose what nature gave us - alertness and the propensity to act.

That's also one reason why, in spite of seemingly high degree of risk, entrepreneurship is alluring. It heightens our sense of alertness to a great extent. We have to be on our toes and wits :) to 'survive'. Alertness is the herbicide which checks the spread of boredom in our lives. Indeed, you are responsible for putting yourself in such situations where you have to be alert or you will be 'die of boredom'.