Hum(b)log

Kerala Travel Guide

2007-08-07T20:53:00.000+05:30

Here is all you need to drive your way through Kerala. (In classic IP lingo) HTH !!

The original map was googled by Mayank Gupta. This map has helped us find our way out on n no of occasions.

Enjoy !!

Answer to Queries on Time Value of Sleep (TVoS)

2007-07-23T15:17:00.000+05:30

While my 'Time value of Sleep' series is yet to be completed .. I have recieved a good insight from my alumni and fin god ... Firdaus aka Munna. Here it goes:

But u forgot that acc to this theory sleep now, work later maximises payoff.....so all 6 members of the grp will want to sleep first :D ..and the right to do so will go to the person who is willing to pay the maximum premium...how do you take care of that?

My response: Agreed that there should be a premium attached to the act of sleeping earlier. And the value of the premium can be ascertained only after we can decide how the work delegation takes place. This stage is not been included in my study and will try and incorporate it in future posts. Meanwhile this may be of some help:
3d2-approach-to-team-management

Second insight .. and needs a special mention is Surya P Rao's comment:

"The options can have a negative payoff in case the quiz gets cancelled resulting in rework , sleep lost cannot be gained back.
There are stages to sleep like alpha REM stage, beta & gamma where the last stage is required where people dream..Of course its important to sleep dream.
Hence the discounting factors are variable in these stages."

My repsonse: Darr ke aage jeet Hai! :(

A quiz that gets cancelled results in loss to all and not to one person. Also effort for quiz is put in by all and not a single person. Hence it has a negative pay off for every one resulting in a net zero impact.

Regarding stages ... Illustration 3 will talk about these in details and will explain why sleeping now is better than in shorter periods at regular intervals.

Time Value of Sleep: Part 1/3

2007-07-23T03:01:00.001+05:30

Important Definitions

The Dictionary says:

Time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence, and time itself is something that can be measured.

Sleep is the state of natural rest observed in humans and throughout the animal kingdom, in all mammals and birds, and in many reptiles, amphibians, and fish.

Background

Studies have shown that nine hours of sleep for humans beings is optimal and sufficient sleep leads to various benefits like alert mind, super sharp memory, analytical skills and problem solving. It ensures good health and reduces accidental risk.

A widely publicized 2003 study performed at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine demonstrated that cognitive performance declines with fewer than eight hours of sleep.

So in short, out of the 24 hrs you have, you must sleep between eight to nine hours in order to be at your best. Should be a simple enough job!

Unfortunately a B school is a place where time free rides unconditionally and sleep comes at a premium.

Hence, Every B schooler aims to efficiently utilize his sleep hours so that he/she can maximize his productivity (read CGPA). This series of posts looks at how he/she manages sleep and the agonizing tradeoff between quality and quantity of work.

The concept

The time value of sleep is the premise that a B schooler prefers to receive a sleep for a fixed amount of hours now, rather than:
-> In equal hours in the future, all else being equal.
-> In lesser amounts but at regular intervals in the future, all else being equal.

In other words, the present value of a certain amount of sleep is greater than the present value of the right to receive the same amount of sleep in the future.

Coming Soon:
Illustration 1: Sleep now, rather than in future
Illustration 2: Sleep now, rather than in lesser amounts and at regular intervals in future
.
.
.

Time Value of Sleep: Part 2/3

2007-07-23T02:56:00.000+05:30

Illustration 1: Sleep now, rather than in future

Consider group of students supposed to do 6 assignments as a part of a course. These assignments need to be submitted over a 12 week period (commonly known as term) i.e. once every 2 weeks.

Assumption: There are no free riders except time

Hence work is delegated where each student, contrary to the definition of group work, decides to work on one assignment each. So when student A works on assignment 1 during the first two weeks the remaining students B,C,D,E,F sleep. Similarly B works on assignment 2 during weeks 3 and 4, while the remaining sleep.

There is always a future possibility of assignment cancellation/postponement for the assignments, which obviously increases with time. The occurrence of such an event will benefit the person to whom the cancelled assignment was allocated. The benefit can be quantified by additional amount of sleep the person will get, increasing his productivity, hence a higher CGPA.

Therefore, the person who chooses to sleep now and work later is able to maximize his CGPA over a period of time.

Time Value of Sleep: Part 3/3

2007-07-23T02:38:00.000+05:30

Illustration 3: Sleep now, rather than in lesser amounts and at regular intervals in future.

Well this is as simple as it gets.

For evey n hours u sleep, ... u spend an additional 1/2 hrs in transition. Hence if u sleep for 8 hrs in one go, u invest 8.5 hrs in all.

If you spend 2 hrs in 4 go .. u will end up investing [(2 + 0.5) * 4 =] 10 hrs, actually wasting an extra 1.5 hrs which translates into 4 episodes of HIMYM, 2 episodes of Prison Break or One complete Angrezi Movie !!

So sleep now and sleep as long as you can !!

Keralaaaaahhh !!! .. I am living it !!

2007-07-09T03:01:00.000+05:30

Last week has simply been awesome ....

travelled pookot lake, wayanad, kalpetta, guruvayoor temple, athirapally waterfalls, vazhachal waterfalls !

In all it turns out to be around 700 kms !

Kerala is mindblowing .. now I know why they call it God's own Country !!

Plans for this Thursday/Friday/Saturday .... Varkala, Kovallam, Trivandrum, Kanyakumari. arnd 1100 Kms .. on the wheels ... should be fun :D !!!

In case you are wondering .. why I havent mentioned Sunday ..?

... well, unfortunately have mid terms from Monday :(

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My first Proverb !!

2007-07-09T02:58:00.001+05:30

I proudly present an original from my side :

"Time is the biggest Free Rider"

Have no classes ... Doing Nothing at all ... Still Managing only 4 hrs of Sleep ... Where is the time??

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Life@IIMK

2006-12-09T23:55:00.001+05:30

The deadlines for PGP10 over the past 2 weeks and the next: taken from my friend Rahul Gaitonde's "deadlines.txt" file! :-) For those unfamiliar :

OM: Operations mgmt
OR: Operations research
OB: Org. Behaviour
MA/Manac: Management Accounting
BE: Business Ethics
FM: Fin Mgmt.

Week 1 (Nov27 - Dec3)
----------------------------
* monday FM quiz
* monday FM lockheed tristar caselet
* monday OB voluntary presentation report

* tuesday OB voluntary presentation
* tuesday OR quiz

* wednesday Manac quiz
* wednesday OR ILP assignment submission
* Wednesday read up for ME lecture

* thursday OM presentation
* thursday FM mini-case from Chapter 5

* saturday BE assignment submission

Week 2 (Dec4 - Dec10)
----------------------------
* monday OM book review
* monday OB final report submisson
* monday FM The Super Project
* monday OM final report submission
* monday FM Test

* tuesday OR project management assignment
* tuesday FM Super project submission

* thursday OM McDonald case

* friday MA Quiz

* saturday BE presentation
* saturday ME presentation

Week 3 (Dec11 - Dec15)
-----------------------------
monday FM Ameritrade case submission
monday OM book review and case presentation

tuesday MA pre-end term

wednesday OB End Term
wednesday MA End Term

thursday BE End Term
thursday OM End Term

friday ME Report due
friday ME End Term
friday OR End Term

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IIM Kozhikode presents Backwaters 2007: Stride of Champions

2006-12-09T02:55:00.000+05:30

"Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character" - T Alan Armstrong

Champions are set apart by the desire that rages within them, the dream that drives them and the vision that calls to them incessantly. We have seen the preparation that goes into the making of a champion. Ten years of unstinting excellence, ten years of settling for nothing but the best. We at IIM Kozhikode are proud to present to you the victorious celebration that marks the end of this phenomenal decade and the beginning of a glorious new era:

Backwaters 2007

Stride of Champions

Jan 12th - 14th 2007

And we call all Champions to celebrate with us, to match wits with the best and to prove your mettle.

Welcome to Backwaters 2007

Backwaters 2007 coming at you 12th-14th January 2007.

Visit www.iimkbackwaters.com for updates.

Walk Tall. Be a Champion.

The Backwaters 2007 Team

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World's best Supply Chain

2006-11-26T11:56:00.000+05:30

•

•Started in 1890

Registered in 1956

Total area coverage : 60 Kms to 70 Kms

Employee Strength : 5000

Size of busines : 2,00,000 units or
i.e 4,00,000 transactions every day.

Time taken : 3 hrs

Error Rate : 1 in 16 million transactions

Six Sigma performance (99.999999)

Technological Backup : Nil.

Standard price for all (Weight, Distance, Space)

Rs. 18 Cr. Turnover approx.

“No strike” record as each one a share holder

No we not talking abt a Fed ex or Dell or the Indian Post for that matter.

Its the
Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association

or the dabba wallahs .. as we commonly know them !!!

Omega the Operations & Statistics Interest group at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, through OPUS 2006 played host to Mr. Raghunath Megde (President) and Mr. Gangaram Talekar (Secretary) and Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association (The Mumbai Dabbawallahs).

Read on ...

Delivering meals might not sound so cutting edge, but the runners, officially called "dabbawallahs," are somewhat of a phenomenon among management gurus in the know. Using a hugely complicated combination of color and symbol coding -- most of the runners are illterate -- and precision timing, around 5,000 dabbawallahs pick up more than 170,000 lunches from the suburbs every working day and deliver them to offices, as well as schools and colleges.

This is still more amazing given that lunches can changes hands three or four times over the course of each journey. They are collected from homes in the early morning and taken onto the suburban rail system, where they are sorted out for delivery using a system of colours, dashes and crosses on the lid to denote suburb, street, building and floor.

For the efficiency of their supply chain it has been claimed that this virtually achieves a Six Sigma performance rating, (i.e. 99.9999% of deliveries are made without error). Though the work sounds simple, it is actually a highly specialized trade that is over a century old and which has become integral to Mumbai's culture.

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A true David in a land of Goliaths !! Chirkut badshaah !!

2006-11-26T11:48:00.000+05:30

Jali ko aag kehte hain
bujhi ko raakh kehte hain ...
jis aag se friends network bane ..
usse Gajodhar Pandey kehte hain !!

http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=14964196551662699536

with over 8000 scraps and almost a 1000 friends .. this is a story of a common rikshawwala making it big !!!

must see ..!!!

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d .. d .. don Vs DON

2006-11-24T17:07:00.000+05:30

Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hai – this dialogue in Amitabh Bachchan’s deep baritone still resounds fresh in the memories of his fans. (apunkachoice.com)

Size does matter in life. "Bada Hai to behtar hai" (The bigger .....the better)

Standing at 6 ft tall .. the original Vijay does beat the stammering v v vijay !! The new don .. no where stands in front of the old one, except may be the climax !

having said that, The big B starrer, was not a very well made movie .. the plot was strong, but the production was very raw ........ and it was Big B himself who came to the rescue.

The new .. does have the orignal plot.. taking away some of the freshness that the old one enjoyed, it is far superior as far as production goes ... but but .... SRK in don .. no way !!

High points of the new one ...

Kareena in yeh mera dil , and boman iraani as wardhaan. The title song is also pretty decent !

Lows

Arjun Rampaal as praan, and SRK as don !! Also .. we cud have seen more of Priyanka !!

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IIMK Summers

2006-11-24T17:00:00.000+05:30

Go thru these links.... to get an idea !

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-497938,curpg-2.cms

http://www.iimk.ac.in/summers2007.htm

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Game play Quotes

2006-11-24T14:20:00.000+05:30

A few very good quotes from the movie revolver .. although cudnt make much sense out of the movie .. but some take away is better than none .... specially after 6 full hours of torture ( yes . I watched the movie 3 times) !!

You Can Only Get Smarter By Playing A Smarter Opponent
There is no such thing as an external enemy
The more sophisticate the game, the more sophisticate the enemey.
The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you will look.
There is no avoiding war, it could only be postponed to your enemy's advantange.
First rule of business, protect your investment.

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