Friday 29 May 2015

"I think you're making a terrible mistake."
"The freedom to make my own mistakes is all I ever wanted."

Monday 25 May 2015

All Islamicspirituality bayans

Can be downloaded by running this command on Linux:

How to be a programmer in 10 years

http://norvig.com/21-days.html

As Auguste Gusteau (the fictional chef in Ratatouille) puts it, "anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great." I think of it more as willingness to devote a large portion of one's life to deliberative practice. But maybe fearless is a way to summarize that. Or, as Gusteau's critic, Anton Ego, says: "Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere."

Tuesday 12 May 2015

The most important question of your life

source: http://markmanson.net/question

Everybody wants what feels good. Everyone wants to live a carefree, happy and easy life, to fall in love and have amazing sex and relationships, to look perfect and make money and be popular and well-respected and admired and a total baller to the point that people part like the Red Sea when you walk into the room.

Everyone would like that — it’s easy to like that.

If I ask you, “What do you want out of life?” and you say something like, “I want to be happy and have a great family and a job I like,” it’s so ubiquitous that it doesn’t even mean anything.

A more interesting question, a question that perhaps you’ve never considered before, is what pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for? Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out.

Everybody wants to have an amazing job and financial independence — but not everyone wants to suffer through 60-hour work weeks, long commutes, obnoxious paperwork, to navigate arbitrary corporate hierarchies and the blasé confines of an infinite cubicle hell. People want to be rich without the risk, without the sacrifice, without the delayed gratification necessary to accumulate wealth.

Everybody wants to have great sex and an awesome relationship — but not everyone is willing to go through the tough conversations, the awkward silences, the hurt feelings and the emotional psychodrama to get there. And so they settle. They settle and wonder “What if?” for years and years and until the question morphs from “What if?” into “Was that it?” And when the lawyers go home and the alimony check is in the mail they say, “What was that for?” if not for their lowered standards and expectations 20 years prior, then what for?

Because happiness requires struggle. The positive is the side effect of handling the negative. You can only avoid negative experiences for so long before they come roaring back to life.

At the core of all human behavior, our needs are more or less similar. Positive experience is easy to handle. It’s negative experience that we all, by definition, struggle with. Therefore, what we get out of life is not determined by the good feelings we desire but by what bad feelings we’re willing and able to sustain to get us to those good feelings.

People want an amazing physique. But you don’t end up with one unless you legitimately appreciate the pain and physical stress that comes with living inside a gym for hour upon hour, unless you love calculating and calibrating the food you eat, planning your life out in tiny plate-sized portions.

People want to start their own business or become financially independent. But you don’t end up a successful entrepreneur unless you find a way to appreciate the risk, the uncertainty, the repeated failures, and working insane hours on something you have no idea whether will be successful or not.

People want a partner, a spouse. But you don’t end up attracting someone amazing without appreciating the emotional turbulence that comes with weathering rejections, building the sexual tension that never gets released, and staring blankly at a phone that never rings. It’s part of the game of love. You can’t win if you don’t play.

What determines your success isn’t “What do you want to enjoy?” The question is, “What pain do you want to sustain?” The quality of your life is not determined by the quality of your positive experiences but the quality of your negative experiences. And to get good at dealing with negative experiences is to get good at dealing with life.

There’s a lot of crappy advice out there that says, “You’ve just got to want it enough!”

Everybody wants something. And everybody wants something enough. They just aren’t aware of what it is they want, or rather, what they want “enough.”

Because if you want the benefits of something in life, you have to also want the costs. If you want the beach body, you have to want the sweat, the soreness, the early mornings, and the hunger pangs. If you want the yacht, you have to also want the late nights, the risky business moves, and the possibility of pissing off a person or ten thousand.

If you find yourself wanting something month after month, year after year, yet nothing happens and you never come any closer to it, then maybe what you actually want is a fantasy, an idealization, an image and a false promise. Maybe what you want isn’t what you want, you just enjoy wanting. Maybe you don’t actually want it at all.

Sometimes I ask people, “How do you choose to suffer?” These people tilt their heads and look at me like I have twelve noses. But I ask because that tells me far more about you than your desires and fantasies. Because you have to choose something. You can’t have a pain-free life. It can’t all be roses and unicorns. And ultimately that’s the hard question that matters. Pleasure is an easy question. And pretty much all of us have similar answers. The more interesting question is the pain. What is the pain that you want to sustain?

That answer will actually get you somewhere. It’s the question that can change your life. It’s what makes me me and you you. It’s what defines us and separates us and ultimately brings us together.

For most of my adolescence and young adulthood, I fantasized about being a musician — a rock star, in particular. Any badass guitar song I heard, I would always close my eyes and envision myself up on stage playing it to the screams of the crowd, people absolutely losing their minds to my sweet finger-noodling. This fantasy could keep me occupied for hours on end. The fantasizing continued up through college, even after I dropped out of music school and stopped playing seriously. But even then it was never a question of if I’d ever be up playing in front of screaming crowds, but when. I was biding my time before I could invest the proper amount of time and effort into getting out there and making it work. First, I needed to finish school. Then, I needed to make money. Then, I needed to find time. Then… and then nothing.

Despite fantasizing about this for over half of my life, the reality never came. And it took me a long time and a lot of negative experiences to finally figure out why: I didn’t actually want it.

I was in love with the result — the image of me on stage, people cheering, me rocking out, pouring my heart into what I’m playing — but I wasn’t in love with the process. And because of that, I failed at it. Repeatedly. Hell, I didn’t even try hard enough to fail at it. I hardly tried at all.

The daily drudgery of practicing, the logistics of finding a group and rehearsing, the pain of finding gigs and actually getting people to show up and give a shit. The broken strings, the blown tube amp, hauling 40 pounds of gear to and from rehearsals with no car. It’s a mountain of a dream and a mile-high climb to the top. And what it took me a long time to discover is that I didn’t like to climb much. I just liked to imagine the top.

Our culture would tell me that I’ve somehow failed myself, that I’m a quitter or a loser. Self-help would say that I either wasn’t courageous enough, determined enough or I didn’t believe in myself enough. The entrepreneurial/start up crowd would tell me that I chickened out on my dream and gave in to my conventional social conditioning. I’d be told to do affirmations or join a mastermind group or manifest or something.

But the truth is far less interesting than that: I thought I wanted something, but it turns out I didn’t. End of story.

I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love not with the fight but only the victory. And life doesn’t work that way.

Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for. People who enjoy the struggles of a gym are the ones who get in good shape. People who enjoy long workweeks and the politics of the corporate ladder are the ones who move up it. People who enjoy the stresses and uncertainty of the starving artist lifestyle are ultimately the ones who live it and make it.

This is not a call for willpower or “grit.” This is not another admonishment of “no pain, no gain.”

This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes. So choose your struggles wisely, my friend.

Friday 8 May 2015

"The owner and editor of "Al Hilal", a daily newspaper in Urdu, Hafiz Ali Bahadur Khan B.A., visited Hazrat on one occasion just before his demise, who, in spite of his extreme weakness and inability, spoke to him for about half an hour. He was very much impressed by this discussion and after reaching Bombay, in a few editions wrote about his impressions of Hazrat's personality and significance of the work in such a way which until now was not expected to be acknowledged by any editor or leader. I received that copy of "Al Hilal" from somewhere and having read Hafiz's article, I became very happy and intended to read it to Hazrat. I took that paper with me hoping that on some appropriate occasion, I may attend to him and having seen the paper in my hand, he might himself inquire what was in my hand. I would then reply and have the opportunity to read the article to him. Contrary to hope and expectations, Hazrat did not inquire about it. After a long time I could not restrain myself and said to him: "Hazrat! On one occasion, Hafiz Ali Bahadur from Bombay came here and all thanks to Allah, he was greatly impressed. He wrote a few articles concerning our work in which he acknowledged its greatness and importance from which it is manifest that he understood it well. If permitted, I would read some of it to you."

He replied: "Molvi Sahib! What is the use of speaking about that work which was accomplished. We must see how much is still left of the work that has to be done. We must look into the shortcoming of what has been done. To what extent were there deficiencies and sincerity and how far have we lacked in having the greatness of Allah's order in mind. How much have we failed to adopt the example of our Nabi (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam) and in our search into the manners of practice. Molvi Sahib! To be happy at looking back without taking stock bf the above is just like a traveler who becomes happy looking back at the distance covered. Looking back should only be for the purpose of finding out shortcomings and to acquire the way to remedy them in future and to see what has to be done in the future. Don't look back at one who has understood our work and acknowledged it. Look at how many hundreds or thousands there are to whom we have not delivered Allah's words as yet and as to how many there are who, in spite of being informed and having acknowledged our work, are not taking part because of the lack of effort on our part."

Thursday 7 May 2015

What did you learn in your 20s?


  1. Don't isolate yourself. I did this mistake. I was angry to world, to people, to my life. I was sitting in my room all day. Watching movies, playing Championship Manager 03-04 etc. And then i realized that there are some people outside, who can share some interest with you, who can be with you. Never Ignore Social Skills.
  2. You are alone. It means that you are responsible for all the things. There is no one except you, to help you, to motivate you. Alone.
  3. Don't get fat. Please go to gym. ( I learned this very hard way. WOMEN WILL IGNORE YOU. So, start today and be fit! )
  4. Add : For those "I am fit but no girlfriend" sayers, read "No More Mr. Nice Guy". Having a good product Nothing without Selling.
  5. Leave the parents' house as soon as possible. Learn washing dishes, paying bills. Learn Life.
  6. Travel. I did this, I am so glad now. If you don't have a big budget use Workaway and WWOOF. Workaway.info the site for free work exchange. Gap year volunteer for food and accommodation whilst travelling abroad.
  7. Talk with that girl. Just go, smile and say "Hello, I am X. What about drinking coffee this weekend?". At worse, she will say "No!" and you will feel bad only 2-3 days. Better than regret.
  8. About shyness. Read this : Deniz Murat's answer to Why I am so Shy?


source: http://www.quora.com/What-did-you-learn-in-your-20s

What are mistakes which software engineers make in the first 1-2 years of their career?


  1. Not being willing to learn new languages and skills. Not willing to read technical books.
  2. Making assumptions where information is needed and instead of raising them just coding things up with the assumptions.
  3. When looking for help, asking for more than a  general direction, expecting people to do the groundwork and still expect them to help you the next time.
  4. Not paying attention to performance: Use of good Data Structure and Algorithms.
  5. Not paying attention to design: Design Pattern, Object Modeling, Best Practices
  6. Not paying attention to security: SQL Injection
  7. Not paying attention to testing: Writing test cases. Thinking of only happy flows and testing the success scenario with a belief that you're done with the code if that runs (in reality far from it).
  8. Documentation: Improper logging and comments.
  9. Descriptive Variable and Functions names.
  10. Blind copy paste making an assumption that it would work.
  11. Forget to take backup and remove all debugging statements like System.out.print before application goes into production.
  12. Not detecting and removing code that is obsolete due to your changes and letting it fester around to confuse and astound others.
  13. Jumping directly on solution. Don't start solution hunting the moment you face a problem or bug. Even if you copy from others solution, don't forget to learn and understand the solution.
  14. Expecting you can read intent and tone in email communication.  (ASCII does not contain facial expression or intonation.) Actually reading the whole email without making any assumption.
  15. Not focusing on career development and networking.
  16. Not asking for code review and help.
  17. Starting with a know it all instead of a learn it all attitude.
  18. Paying less attention to domain, understand who the users are and why they use what we build. Understand the environment the user will be in when using your program.
  19. Not able to provide reasonable/reliable estimates for the task in hand. At times they become too much optimistic and give strict deadlines while other times they estimate the task much bigger than it actually is.