Okay, maybe I re-watched a few and watched some old ones too.

1. Dial M for murder – This one was a good movie, kept me engrossed enough to not notice any flaws (the end was really too “optimistic” to happen in reality). Didn’t understand one thing though – in the whole movie the key was the “key” and there was just one scene where “M” was dialed as a signal for murder, the title didn’t make much justice. The dialing process was also shown too dramatically as if that’s the twist/most important part of the movie. Unless there was a different plan – to misdirect viewers. That must be it. We all were looking for hints from the dialing of M. Whereas it’s the key that was everything.
   

   People don’t commit murder on credit.

2. Fantastic Four – A kid’s movie, well not completely, I must say a grown up kid’s movie. Loved to watch the obvious good beating up the bad with usual comic book like actions. Not bad at all, if you really want to relax and laugh a bit on the silliness  of the plot. It’s ok. Liked the part where it’s between “thinking” and actually “acting”.
   

   You need to control yourself, and think before you act. Yeah, but you see, that’s your problem; you always think, you never act! Accept it. Or better yet, enjoy it.

3. Matrix – Reloaded and Revolution (I counted these as one) – Watched the series nth time. And yes, had the same effect as the first time I saw this movie. Philosophy combined with breath-taking (never-seen-before) actions that can only happen in “matrix”. Machine vs Humans, with added complexity of Architects building the matrix multiple times (each time it’s not perfect which resembles our current world – ironic). Much like deja-vu.
   

   That’s how it is with people – nobody cares how it works as long as it works.

4. Push - A different type of movie requiring to think like the paranormals or alternatively not to think at all. The concept is good and the plot full of holes. But it is definitely a popcorn movie with so-so film making and acting. Something similar to “How to fool a fortune teller”. I did like the way the wide angle shots were used throughout the movie and some of the costumes and makeups.
   

   There are special people in this world. We don’t ask to be special. We’re just born this way.

5. E.T. – An all-time classic movie loved by kids and adults alike. What a masterpiece from Spielberg encompassing the themes of friendship, generosity and childhood memories and dreams. Loved to watch it again at this age. A completely different approach than any traditional alien movies of horror and evil themes.
   

   I’ll… be… right… here.

6. Blood Simple – This movie is also form the 80’s and yet is a brilliant (somewhat gross though) watch. The Coen brothers made this movie based on usual ingredients of cheating wives, lust for money and mistaken identities. I cannot say the plot is rock solid but it makes me remember the story of the hindi movie “Johnny Gaddar” which too had similar themes and almost the same ending.
   

   Marty: I got a job for you.
   Private Detective Visser: Uh, well, if the pay’s right, and it’s legal, I’ll do it.
   Marty: It’s not strictly legal.
   Private Detective Visser: [Thinks for a second] Well, if the pay’s right, I’ll do it.

7. Eagle Eye – The way this movie started, I was quite locked in. The sequence of events successfully created a suspense, thrill and action. But then things started to become predictable and “too” contrived… and finally leading everything to a computer program. Duh! The nature of technology that is shown in this movie should be completely staged in future (if at all) and not in the present world keeping all other technology the same. A disappointment at the end but the cinematic was still ok with regular sequences of climaxes and recovery and of course the expected “all ends well” with few hero’s sacrifices.
   

   We are everywhere.

Every user of pirated product is aware that piracy is illegal and subject to fine and imprisonment.

Every creator of products knows that piracy can incur huge loss in their revenue stream (or really?).

The above statements only scratch the surface of this highly controversial discussion of ubiquity of piracy. Why is there such a constant stream of pirated products “always” present among the users and circulated evenly across the globe? What if the creator actually “wants” the product to be pirated AND circulated across the globe… sounds crazy but it is true for  some cleverly marketed products. And here I am talking only about piracy over the internet only. Here’s the strategy -

The products that are most pirated over the internet are music, software, games, books and movies. Most of us would agree that there’s a large section of the population who either cannot afford the price or their desire of having the product is not strong enough for them to shell out that amount of money. The creators of the product should not be bothered about this section of the population as they are not going to buy the product either way.

There’s another section who can afford AND really need the product but resorts to piracy due to convenience and availability. This is where the creators are losing money. And the creators are already “trying” to make the product piracy less convenient and less available but not so much that would affect the first section of the people. This is the key. There is a trade off. The trade off between how much the creator wants the product to spread and how much revenue is lost. The creator then actually considers the loss in revenue to be an investment towards marketing which it turns out to be much cheaper than to air, publish or telecast an advertisement over public channels (the cost of production is always much cheaper that we think).

Any marketer has understood by now that “spreading the idea” is THE most effective tool to successfully market any products in this competitive world.

Of course this is a very calculated, devious and pre-planned move and may even backfire because ultimately it’s the public who is making the decision – to buy or distribute or ignore.

Performance reviews or appraisals are stressful, uncomfortable but inevitable. A necessary evil.

It is difficult to “see-through” the evaluation process. It cannot be completely mathematical, neither should be fully emotional. It must be in between the two ends of the spectrum.  And it creates only two groups of workers – satisfied and unsatisfied. I can almost guarantee that the unsatisfied ones will consider the results to be unfair.

It is impossible for an appraisal to be fair (to everyone). Because not only the definition of “fair” is completely solipsistic but it is actually a great news that life is not fair. Let me explain.

If life had been fair, everyone would have performed equally with equal help, direction and opportunities from others. There would be no differentiators. But that is not the case. We all know life is not fair. So we have a chance to prove ourselves different. It really does not matter if you raise the bar yourselves and improve your work or stay in status quo, the bar is getting raised anyways and as we speak. It is a choice we all have to make.

If you say that in your working career you haven’t felt “once” that your work feels boring, then I would say you are unique. We all “feel” at some point of our life that the work we are doing sucks (at that instant). This is normal and can be attributed to the fact that the work we are doing is below our expectation level at that point. Maybe the same work was a challenge a year ago and you enjoyed doing it, but now it’s just a routine drudgery.

As a manager, you may face this critical moment in your team members. In such a situation, an action is necessary on the manager’s part since ignoring it will only “infect” other people on your team. Because for knowledge workers like us, doing a “satisfactory” job is very subjective.

There can be two solutions to bring up the morale of the team in case you find lack of motivation or energy

1. Move the worker to a different job role to meet their expectation
2. Lower their expectation to meet their current job role

Or take a middle ground – create a new “sub” job role that will give a false solace and make them feel like it’s a more challenging and apt role for him/her.

The first method has serious downfalls. First of all, the manager is creating a “methodology” that can be cited as example by other people in the organization and demand “similar” treatment (i.e. changes). This can lead to abuse of this method by the workers. Secondly you never know what your next expectation would be. And in most cases we don’t know what we want, we just know what we don’t want. Soon the new job role might become “boring” to the worker and since the expectation is already set, it becomes difficult for the manager to deviate later without a lot of hullabaloo. Thus a manager will soon run out of “challenging” and “interesting” job roles in the organization.

The second method works best with new joinees and freshers. Here the managers give examples of worst possible roles and situations so that their current job profiles look bright and promising. The managers challenge their expectations after acknowledging their misery. This is a classic (and most used) technique which is effective and works best in terms of organization and the manager’s situation. The managers brainwash the workers by telling them “trying to find something in the work for doing that work is absolutely meaningless and nuisance. Work is meant to repetitive and difficult. That’s why there’s a paycheck”. Maybe motivate them by telling completely made up stories about hardships to make them feel superior and fortunate.

The final method is a necessity for already experienced workers who have gone through the second method once in their career in the same organization. The manager has to “create” a sub job role and give it a fancy name with few more responsibilities to make it look more challenging. It’s like more work without the actual raise. But this needs to be done very deviously and skillfully. Of course the manager doing this has been through this cycle before and already knows the “right” ways from experience.

An organization (specially a large one) is a sure way to limit your ability to think outside of what you are fed for 10-12 hours a day, 5-6 days a week and most of your lifetime.

Muhammad Ali use altered state during fighting. No one can perform such “insensitivity” to pain without being in altered state.

Richard Petty drove nascar in altered state. No one in “normal” state can slowdown time enough to be able to drive that fast and be in control.

Magicians and psychotherapists are well known to induce hypnosis among people and masses and take them to their altered state of consciousness. But when we carefully notice our day to day lives, we are hypnotized all the time. When we watch “breaking news”, when we commute to work and even when we watch a movie… we shift our brain functioning to “suit” the environment and the pace of the activity we are involved in.

Anything can happen in altered states. Beliefs can be molded or broken, awareness can be heightened or subdued. This is a temporary state which if practiced in the right way can produce amazing results which you can (literally) dream about. Techniques include the use of sound & music beats to match the internal body rhythms, meditation or even self-hypnosis. Use the The Trance Workbook to transform your mind into powerful source of accelerated learning, anti-stress and spiritual awakenings.