Blog Post #118: Dissecting 2020!

Year 2020 has been in the news for various reasons and has been the trigger for memes, jokes among others and needless to say most of them reflected a pessimistic outlook till now

I have attempted to take a more optimistic view of the Year as we step into the month of August and what better way to do it - Combination of Numbers through two different scenarios!

Scenario 1:

To illustrate this, I am going to express 2020 as a sum of two different perfect squares

Combination 1:

1764 + 256 = 2020 (42 ^ 2 + 16 ^ 2)

Combination 2:

576 + 1444 = 2020 (24 ^ 2 + 38 ^ 2)

What's unique about this as there are quite a few numbers which can be expressed as sum of two squares

Let's get a bit deeper at Combination 1 to start with

1764 ==> 17 + 64 is 81 (yes it is a perfect square)

256 ==> 2+5+6 is 13 (prime number)

Combination 2

576 ==> 5 + 76 is 81 (same as above)

1444 ===> 1+4+4+4 is 13! (same as above)

Remember that I have used the same principle for Combination 1 and Combination 2 to highlight the unique pattern

Conclusion: If your team starts with a specific goal in mind, the path taken by each sub-groups could be different but the broader principle they follow (aka rules & regulations) can still be intact.

2020 is a pretty good example for that!

Scenario 2:

2020 could be expressed as 1000 + 729 + 100 + 81 + 19 + 91

In turn this can be written as 10 ^ 3 + 9 ^ 3 + 10 ^ 2 + 9 ^ 2 + (10 ^ 2 - 9 ^ 2) + (10 + 9 ^ 2)

or

10 ^ 3 + 9 ^ 3 + 10 ^ 2 + 9 ^ 2 + (10 + 9) + (10 ^ 2 - 9)

Amazing to see how 2020 can be expressed as a combination of two numbers 10 and 9 using different set of operators

Conclusion: We could start with smaller building blocks and once we figure out the right tools and techniques, we can achieve the target in multiple ways. Again 2020 is a prime example of that

We still have 5 months left this year and if someone has the right attitude and work towards a clear goal as target, there are multiple ways to achieve that !

Let's spin some more optimism around 2020 and move forward!

#2020 #Optimism #Positvity #AnandMathsBlog

Blog Post #117: Pair programming through a pair of numbers!

In IT parlance, paired programming has gained more traction over the last few years and has proved useful on many occasions as it has some of the following benefits

- Each individual has an eye on the code written by the other all the time
- Each individual acts a gate for the other as far as quality checks is concerned
- For the program to succeed, both need to deliver and hence there is always the focus to get things right
- Need for an independent peer review is reduced given there is always an additional pair of eye looking into this during development

Here's an analogy using numbers on how number pairs exhibit similar pattern/characteristics!

Let's look at the number pair 169 and 196 (programmers/developers in IT parlance) and see what we immediately observe and what is not so apparent

- 169 and 196 are both perfect squares of numbers adjacent to each other - 13 and 14. Imagine 13 and 14 as interns/trainees who mature as an experienced programmer in few years (their perfect squares!)

- Though 169 is odd and 196 is even, they both are anagrams of each other and like 2 programmers pairing with each other they bring in different skillsets but exhibit few things in common!

- Now let's assume the programmers add a new skill to their repertoire as they gain more experience. Drawing analogy to numbers, let's insert the number 3 in both 169 and 196 as follows - 1369 and 1936.  The resultant number is a larger 4 digit number (more experienced programmer) and more importantly retains the fundamental characteristic - Yes... Both of them are still perfect squares of 37 and 44 respectively

- We saw 13 and 14 were the square-roots or "intern equivalent" of 169 and 196. 13 + 14 would give us 27 or 3 ^ 3. Similarly the more experienced 37 and 44 (square-root of 1369 and 1936) add up to 81 or 3 ^ 4

-  On similar lines, inserting 2 and juggling around with the digits of 169 and 196, gives us few other perfect squares and cubes - 1296, 2916, 9216, 9261! This indicates that the more skill that the programmers acquire the more versatile they become

- When we concatenate 169 and 961, we would get a palindrome no doubt which is 169961 but more interestingly 169961 is a product of 11 and 15451 which are both palindromes. The more solid the programmer pair is the greater they can achieve by breaking down the work in smaller parts

Last but not the least - a 12 month cycle is typically when every individual is evaluated for performance in their org but nothing works better than two or more individuals coming together and deliver towards an organizational goal! Here you go..

169 + 196 results in 365 which is one full year in terms of number of days and with an addition of number 1 (which is also a perfect square) it becomes a leap year - Empower and enable the programmers so that they combine and deliver as per the larger organization goal and with that little additional help/push even exceptions can be handled (See number 1 as the manager/boss who removes impediment by adding value)

Blog Post #116: Building a cohesive team unit!

I was contemplating what should be the theme for my next blog and when I looked around, the one thing that stood out over the last 2 months of lockdown within my organization was quick adoption of technology as per the new normal, greater collaboration & brilliant teamwork and high engagement levels across locations

Over the last 10-12 years in my career, I am grateful to have got the opportunity and experience in building high performance teams from grounds-up at Infosys followed by SingPost and more recently in my current tenure at Mr Cooper. I know how critical it is to bring together diverse set of individuals who have the right attitude, passion, different levels of expertise across technology/domain, varying levels of expectations but eager to work towards a common goal aligning with the core values and fabric of the organization. These individuals join at various points in time during this journey and if everyone is clearly communicated about the final goal, it can do wonders to the organization as well as end customers

Here's my humble attempt as always to highlight the process of building a high performance work ethic team working towards a common goal, through few interesting number sequence and patterns

Example 1:

Let's start with number 1 which is a perfect square (1 ^ 2)

Now let's get 6 to join 1 - 16 - which is also a perfect square (4 ^ 2)

Next 9 to on-board the journey (9 is a perfect square) - 196 is one of the resulting number - which is also a perfect square (14 ^ 2)

Now we welcome number 2 to the team (lowest even prime) - 1296 - which is again a perfect square (36 ^ 2)

Depending on the new requirements you ramp-up on few skillsets and on-board 9 again resulting in 12996 - which is again a perfect square (114 ^ 2)

Example 2:

Start with number 1 again since it is a perfect square (1 ^ 2)

6 is next on-board to make it 16 - a perfect square (4 ^ 2)

Next 9 again but with a different outcome than in example 1 - 169 - which is 13 ^ 2

Let's on-board 3 post this - 1369 which is 37 ^ 2

Next a brand new team member with a new skillset (a perfect cube this time!) - 8 - 13689 which is 117 ^ 2

What you would notice in these two examples, is that each number represents a new team member in a corporate world set-up, coming on board at various points in time, to join your team with different expectations, characteristics (skillset) and diversity (odd or even or prime numbers) but the core fabric and final goal, which in this case the resultant number being a square, is kept intact!

That's what organizations should strive for - Keep the core values, fabric, work ethic and culture intact while building a team of diversely talented team members and as time goes by everyone will align towards a common goal, if given that clarity at the boarding point and carry others along on the way