Bangalore 2030
Dec 01, 2015
This past week, nilenso interviewed a German fellow for a software development position. As part of the routine of meeting a new stranger in this city, a variation of “Why do you live in Bangalore?” passed between us. My answer to this question is complex and usually varies based on the tone and implied subtext with which the question is asked. My immediate reasons are somewhat boring. My job is here and I like my job.
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Salaries in a Cooperative
Jun 03, 2015
Tom Hall asked me once how nilenso decided salaries when we have no bonuses. This is a question we get often.
Our first stab at this was a model we’d inherited from other companies we’d worked at: have salary bands which match up to the skill and experience of the current staff, match that to the available cash, and set salaries accordingly. At first, we actually started off with an approach that was even more naive – rather than salary bands, we had “levels”.
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Patient Charts
Jun 02, 2015
This is a brief idea I remembered while cleaning up some old files. It initially occurred to me while discussing the status of my eyes with the surgeon after I had a vitrectomy and scleral buckle. Our conversations were terrible. He would stare at the back of my eye with his lenses and probes, ask what I saw, I would give a lengthy description (forgetting a few things) and he would inevitably only write down one or two things I said.
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Emergent Continuous Design
Jun 01, 2015
I’ve recently returned to Canada for a month to visit family. While here, I’ve run into some old friends (and friends of friends) whom I haven’t been in contact with since moving to Bangalore three years ago. “Oh! You live in India? What’s that like?” is one common conversation piece. Or the frequent line of questioning which positions the entire subcontinent as though it were a chic new restaurant: “India? You must like it.
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Why Ayurveda? Because Science!
Apr 01, 2015
He squinted through a pair of wrap-around sunglasses, the kind one often expects to see on the crowning end of a wheelchair with wings of lenses spread wide and soaring across a sea of wrinkles – or drool, if the sea had previously suffered a stroke. Or at home in makeshift bingo halls constructed of a dusty old Lions Club because all the Lions and Lionesses were dead and even the Rotary Club (Rotors?
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Drugs, Meditation, Warnings
Jan 01, 2015
I recently returned to work from my second 10-day Vipassana course. After such a course, friends are always curious about the experience. Because Vipassana meditation courses are largely indescribable, the conversation often drifts to one’s journey toward Vipassana, and the journey toward meditation in general. For me, this journey has been a mixture of friendships, literature, and drugs. Drugs can be seen as a stepping-stone to my current meditation practice because a few drugs have similar insightful (informational) qualities.
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What is a Software Cooperative?
Nov 02, 2014
I recently wrote about how thankful I am, after a decade in software, to work for an employer which inherently understands my values and the values of all my colleagues. That employer is me. That employer is also all of my colleagues. That employer is nilenso: a software cooperative owned and operated by its employees here in Bangalore.
What is a coop? According to Wikipedia: “A cooperative (“coop”) or co-operative (“co-op”) is an autonomous association of persons who voluntarily cooperate for their mutual social, economic, and cultural benefit.
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Welcome, Gratitude
Nov 01, 2014
I recently suffered the most severe injuries of my life — I experienced a retinal tear and detachment which led to multiple surgeries. Those surgeries themselves have permanently damaged my vision and physically deformed my right eye. While I was recovering, I was unable to read, use a computer, or watch video. Oh. And I was in California, on business. The surgeries prevented me from flying so I was unable to go home to India or home-home to Canada.
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Ceci n'est pas une pipe
Mar 01, 2013
A description of a doctrine without words is not a doctrine without words.
Over the last few days, the internet saw a layered explosion of conversation regarding Adria Richards, and a conversation which happened near her at PyCon 2013. To me, it looked like this:
The first circle represents the initial event. The second circle represents Adria’s public reaction. The third circle represents the reactions of HackerNews, Twitter, Playhaven, SendGrid, Anonymous, 4chan, and the internet at large to Adria’s reaction.
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An Atheist's Glimpse of God
Feb 01, 2013
One of the benefits of working for a startup like C42 Engineering (where I help build rubymonk.com — the name is a coincidence) is the broad range of experiences available, both in and out of the office. Thanks to our flexible work environment, I was able to travel to Himachal Pradesh for a couple weeks of experimenting on myself as a break from experimenting with software. I know not everyone enjoys such benefits, so let me start by saying this: I am thankful.
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