My family and I relocated to Singapore today. Most of my major life decisions have involved the distance from Chennai. In 1992, I wanted to study physics at IIT Kanpur or Kharagpur. My father erased the choices from my admission form and calmly said, “Tick anything in Chennai.” I ticked everything except Chemical Engineering. Prof Kalyanakrishnan saw my rank, said “You’ll get Chemical Engineering”, and ticked it for me. No one heard me say, “But I don’t like Chemical Engineering.” ...

This is the Calvin & Hobbes Hair Salon in Hinjewadi, Pune. Calvin & Hobbes fans might remember Calvin's hairdresser, Pete, who certainly "knows which side HIS bread is buttered on." Maybe I too will go get "the top of my head shaved, and the sides dyed pink and cut in horizontal stripes" 😉 The signboard has a Tirupathi Namam drawn over the names of two famous theologians -- both of whom had great hair. That's a lot of hidden connections! ...

I was surprised to see a big chunk of my #music library is from the 1960s – thanks to the songs my parents grew up with, and passed on to me. In celebration of Music Day on 21 Jun, I’m treating myself to 2 weeks of songs from the #1960s. I’ve linked to my collection. Hope you discover some gems too! LinkedIn

My music library has around 1,000 songs (mostly Tamil and Hindi, with some Telugu and English film songs). I spent this morning tagging them by year with mp3tag. (Manually. You don’t automate the pleasures of life.) I thought my 1990s collection would be the largest. I was in college, listening to lots of music then. But surprisingly, my collection has grown post the 1990s. ...

When Sunil Kardam said Gramener is the one place he got to apply all his skills - management, engineering, people skills and analytics - it reminded me how cross disciplinary Gramener is. There’s something to be said for generalists in the era of deep focus. LinkedIn

On 12 Jan 2012, on a flight back from London, I wrote: … it was clear in my mind. I would be an entrepreneur. I would create a small company that would probably fold. Then I’d do it again. And again, 10 times, because 1 in 10 companies survive. And finally, I’d be running a small business that’d be called successful by virtue of having survived. A modest, achievable ambition that I had the courage for. ...

We inaugurated a new office in #Hyderabad. 10 years ago, I wrote on my blog: “I would create a small company that would probably fold. Then I’d do it again. And again, 10 times, because 1 in 10 companies survive. And finally, I’d be running a small business that’d be called successful by virtue of having survived. A modest, achievable ambition that I had the courage for. Naveen Gattu, Mayank Kapur, Ganes Kesari, J. Ramachandran, Ravinder Ireddy, Vengatesh CR. – we’ve come a long way 😃 ...

I’m planning to publish a 3-hour self-paced #onlinecourse. But I don’t know which topic would be more useful. One topic is #datascience tools for non-programmers. Another is a step-by-step guide to #datastorytelling for analysts. What’s more useful for you? Could you share with people, so I work on the more useful course? (Thanks 🙏) LinkedIn

Film actors mostly act within their own industry. For example, Hollywood actors act outside Hollywood just 10% of the time. Chinese actors act with non-Chinese actors just 1% of the time. So, if you’re a Hollywood producer trying to cast a Chinese actor, how would you find them? One way is to list Chinese actors with the largest number of Hollywood co-stars. Let’s see who tops that list. ...

I took a 2022 goal to be 10X more effective. In Jan, I managed 2X. Here’s how. What is effectiveness? I don’t know. I’m figuring it out. But to start off, I measured the number of people my actions directly impact. For example: Discussing my Tools in Data Science Course or writing a blog post impacts ~500 people. Mailing all Gramener employees impacts ~200 people. Shopping with my wife impacts 2 people – her and me (in very different ways). Clearly, the impact is not equal. But it’s a start. ...

I emailed My Year in 2021 to ~2,700 people. It had 3 experiments. Do friends open my mail more than strangers? I split the list into 2 groups: My contacts: ~1,000 people I knew (I’ve mailed them) Strangers: ~1,700 people I didn’t know (I’ve never mailed them) My guess: strangers would open the mail 30% less often. Reality: They opened it 40% less. 50% of my contacts opened the mail, vs only 28% of strangers. ...

These are the major group actors based on who they act with most. Language. Not country. For example, the Spanish / Mexican group is across countries. But Indian actors divide into North Indian and South Indian. It’s language, not country. Time period. Old American actors are a separate group from Hollywood. (Naturally. Brad Pitt was born after Humphrey Bogart died. They couldn’t have acted together.) Genre. Hollywood Porn actors don’t act with mainstream Hollywood. Same with Japanese Porn, Hollywood TV, and Hollywood Horror actors. How are these groups themselves connected? Do Chinese actors act with Hollywood often? How isolated is Bollywood from world cinema? ...

In 2021, I made 3 resolutions. Lose 10 kgs. I lost 5 kg in 3 months. But gained it back by the year-end. Fail big. I practiced confronting people – and failed. I still run from fights. Even when important. Calendar integrity. I stuck to my calendar 90% of the time. But personal commitments slipped. On learning, I discovered network clusters. My PyCon talk on movie networks is the start of a fascinating exploration of actors that I’ll write more about. ...

I read 52 #books in 2021. The best #nonfiction was The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. Succinct & deep. I can spend a decade practicing every sentence. The best #fiction was Brandon Sanderson’s Rhythm of War. A brilliantly rich magic system, and what a plot, what an ending! My one-line #reviews of the books are below. http://www.s-anand.net/blog/books-in-2021/ LinkedIn

On my Goodreads 2021 reading challenge, I read 52/50 books in 2021. I managed 47/50 in 2020 (see 2020 reviews) and 26/24 in 2019. Here’s what I read (best books first). Mind-blowing The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. It’s the best non-fiction I’ve read in 5 years. It focuses Wealth and Happiness. It’s short. I finished it in a day. But it’s deep. I can spend a decade practicing just a single sentence. It’s available at navalmanack.com as a free e-book and audio book. Rhythm of War. The 4th book of the Stormlight Archives is an action-packed fantasy. A great gift for teenagers. In an extra-ordinary magic system, Brandon Sanderson builds up to the greatest climax I’ve read. What an ending! Death Note #1-#12. Light Yagami gets hold of a “death note”. If he writes a name on it, they die. “L” is out to catch him. In a cat-and-mouse psychological thriller, Light and L work next to each other, share their plans, and still try to outwit the other. It’s like chess. The pieces are visible. But it’s the strategy that counts. A brilliant comic series. Life-changing ...

Can foreigners break into #Hollywood? A break into films is hard. Particularly when you’re a foreigner. But is Hollywood more open or less open than other countries? If we go by iconic actors, the numbers are not encouraging. Just 2% of Will Smith’s co-stars are non-Hollywood. But over 30% of Jackie Chan’s co-stars are non-Chinese. But #clustering shows that Hollywood is actually among the most open to foreigners. #dataanalysis Read more at https://www.s-anand.net/blog/can-foreigners-enter-hollywood/ ...

An aspiring Malaysian actor posted on Reddit: I am a 18-year old biracial Malaysian kid who wants to be an actor in Hollywood. I’m taking a diploma for performing arts in a college called Sunway University in 8 days and I’m considering pulling out of it because why do something that I like when my dreams might never be fulfilled and the price for taking this diploma is seriously expensive. I am starting to doubt my chances of making it to Hollywood and I suffer from extreme anxiety. Is it possible for someone like me to enter Hollywood? What are my chances? ...

Arvind Venkatadri put together a #datavisualization course in #R titled “R for Artists and Designers”." Beautifully crafted. Brilliantly structured. I loved it! https://r-for-artists.netlify.app/ LinkedIn

Over 30 people have created data comic stories for the #DataComicgen awards. Getting insights from data is hard. Telling stories from these is harder. Telling comic stories is the hardest. Yet, these two dozen stories simplify data into simple (and even interactive) comic narratives. Hats off, participants. Hats off! https://gramener.com/comicgenfriday/awards/gallery2021/ LinkedIn

What do you pick for someone you don’t know well enough? I generally pick books. I know books well enough to match them to people’s personalities. Even if they’re not a book reader. (The risk is that they might have already read the book.) As for the kids, toys like the tiny tower diy playhouses for sale would bring them so much joy. The other safe item is food. Chocolates, dry fruits, etc. Everyone likes them. (Even if they’re dieting, dry fruits and dark chocolates are fine.) ...