Nanda Kishore

Constant Learner

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

Be like a Pod. Be "healthy", keep "Running", Irrespective of what life throws at you, keep "Restarting" on failure. #Kubernetes 👍

[Rootconf @rootconf]

🧵 1/
🚀 Learning from the platforms we build - kicking off the 1st Platform Engineering meet-up for engineers building internal platforms, scaling infrastructure, and reimagining how software gets delivered.

📅 8 Nov | 📍 InMobi, Bangalore
🔗 Register: https://t.co/YRIIFXYPgc

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

@punitsingh176 Bought KZ-ZEK from Headphone Zone. Loving it. https://t.co/7fUgnxyS0q

[svs 🇮🇳 @_svs_]

One of the most surprising things about leadership is that suddenly, your words carry weight. I remember a CEO telling me exasperatedly - "you can't be a revolutionary in your own org after you've ascended to leadership. Your words have weight now."

Of course I was complaining about all the stuff that was just plain wrong and obvious to anyone who had eyes. And I was complaining to anyone who had ears, even to those who looked to me for direction.

When he said those words to me, I had an epiphany - if something was wrong *I* had to fix it and complaining is for those who don't have the power to fix it.

That was the day I realised that my words did carry weight. Not much in our experience prepares us for this. From dismissive teachers to lordly employers, nothing prepares us for the day when people are listening to us and taking direction from us. And when they do, suddenly, you have to start being responsible with what you say.

Telling people that 'management doesn't understand' sent the message that I was not management. Unacceptable.

If management didn't understand, *I* had to make them understand. In the meantime, I changed my language to 'I hear you. I will fix it. This is what will help me convince the rest of the leadership....'

While this may seem an onerous responsibility, it's not without its upsides. Now you can make people feel a particular way just by telling them how they should feel about it.

[Arnav Gupta @championswimmer]

A few people thanked me on DMs yesterday because they discovered "Inventing on Principle" by @BretVictor from my post.

Thought I'll share some of the most 'worldview defining' videos for me personally - those that changed the way I see things or awed me at human capability

[Tarun Mehta @tarunsmehta]

https://t.co/FvC1s1KmRF

Quite agree with Director Kamakoti.

This is a two sided problem though.
A small story:

Part 1: Getting a chance to Build

Most of us coming to IITs dreamt of a great job at the end of it. This was THE ticket - low cost, hard earned and guaranteed high paying jobs at the end of it.

For most of us by the end of the first year itself it was quite obvious that engg jobs weren't a prized lot except for computer science and some electronics graduates. Most of us the dream job already was a McKinsey, or a BCG or a Credit Suisse/ Goldman. No alternate reality for all practical purposes. If you were academically inclined - a masters/PhD in US was the logical choice.

I was no exception. I dreamt of getting that sweet consulting gig and hopefully a MBA from a Stanford/Harvard to cement my life's success.

I looked at my leadership role in the entrepreneurship club or the umpteen engg projects from a perspective of whether it will help to convince a consulting company that I had 'breadth'. And that I was truly 'smart'. A decent CGPA helped.

The idea of picking up an engg job seemed like a loser's cause for many of us. Low pay, poor career prospects, super slower growth - nothing to offer.

Things stared to change for us at IIT Madras for a few reasons. I met @swapniljain89 and started working on his idea of Sterling engines in our free time and started dreaming of building a decentralized energy company. This was followed by some amazing years at the Dept. of Engg Design with Professors like Dr Sandipan, RKK and others building robots, construction equipment and filing patents. For Swapnil equally rewarding was his years at @CFI_IITM building FSAE cars and other cool stuff.

It was years of building, breaking and learning in the process that changed our perspective. It gave Swapnil and me the opportunity to discover each other, find the cofounder that worked, discover our values and principles and build a shared dream. Classes that encouraged us to go meet customers, pitch, fabricate and build that product - it might seem common for engg graduates but I can guarantee you it isn't. Heck I don't think even our own department was able to continue the same coursework after our batch. It's super hard to create this environment and IIT Madras has come pretty close to creating it a few times now.

There's a reason that IITM has the highest density of hardware and product companies in the country today. I think some of it might have been accidental but there's a learning for our educators. That practical experience is very, very critical. Those years should not be wasted in learning books or writing the CAT. Those are the times to form your mental models, develop your ideas and form life long partnerships.

Part 2: Make it Worth it - JOBS

The second part is equally important. One may want to build much but if the industry that they are stepping into is stuck in a rot then there’s little hope for them. Engine design is very, very complicated. But the industry is older still. There are people 3X your age who have been designing engines for the last 40 years and even if you are smarter, they have 40 years of experience that’s super valuable. You are up against knowledge and pure smarts won’t be enough, not until you earn the experience over decades. This guarantees a slower growth and hence by extension a poorer pay.

You need an external situation where talent can create a larger impact over experience.

Like EVs.

Automotive platforms have existed for decades but when a seismic shift like electrification hits the industry ALL platforms need to be REBUILT. And they now need to built differently for a newer technology. A perfect opportunity for talent to potentially shine through and capture a serious upside. While @atherenergy was the first one, there are literally hundreds of EV startups staffed with tens of thousands of engineers hoping to hit gold with their stock options and career progressions doing stuff that otherwise would have meant a promotion every decade in the ICE world.

That opportunity attracts talent. It incentives young and bright engineers to actually stick to engineering because there’s a potential pot of gold at the end of their journey.

++++++++++++

I believe we are at a point in India where engineers can unlock a lot of value across industries, not just the internet.
Not just EVs, but semiconductors, drones and aviation, agri-tech, pharma - across the board there’s disruption due to new tech bursting up. And a lot of that’s happening in India now.

Pure experience is not holding all the keys. There’s an entrepreneurial energy that’s pushing for changes faster and wants it done locally with Indian talent, not joint ventures.

I think more and more engineers will choose ‘core’ jobs out of IITs and across colleges in the coming decade. Exciting times!

[Kube Architect @K8sArchitect]

BigBasket's non-prod setup is complex due to multiple environments and service versions (each service can run multiple versions of itself)

Learn how the team solved this with a custom proxy, header-based routing, and automated Nginx config generation

➤ https://t.co/SqzR9ef7bC

[Arnav Gupta @championswimmer]

This one took a while in the edit pipeline - I had shot this one more than 2 months back - but it is never too late for a conversation this good to come out.

This weekend, #ScalerPod with @rnjn is coming out which is just full of nuggets of gold for engineering org building!

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

@arcinternet @LeetCode @github @ArcBoosts 👆

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

Developed a quick/small @arcinternet boost that themes a @LeetCode problem page with @github dark dimmed theme. Loved the process all through and is so damn easy. They certainly are reinventing the internet for the better. 👍 Check it out: https://t.co/61JPO831U4

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

Soooo much wisdom in this. Must watch.

[Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan]

So excited to share my conversation with @eekedm (Head of Product at @retool, early PM at @stripe)

Inside:
➔ Giving your team permission to think big
➔ Framework for prioritizing resources
➔ The right level of process per stage
➔ Culture
➔ Much more
https://t.co/tvBqzKt1xd

[BigBasket Tech @BigBasketTech]

Want to understand how BigBasket validates Kubernetes/Helm values files at scale ? https://t.co/4O5z8Z64cp #kubernetes #helm #yaml #microservices

[Bilgin Ibryam @bibryam]

How #BBC refactored the organisation to build the technology right
https://t.co/O1YGKy4PCI

[Charity Majors @mipsytipsy]

super-quick blog post: "Every Achievement Has A Denominator". the antidote to empire building and team sprawl is managers taking pride in their ability to deliver ambitious results with a small number of people.

https://t.co/vZR76khkbG

[Arnav Gupta @championswimmer]

Here's where you can go to catch the episode! It premieres at 5PM. (And it is 2+ hours long 🙃, because I had a lot of questions to ask from Dr. K)

https://t.co/STPUpJIUMr

[covid19indiaorg @covid19indiaorg]

We have early trends of a spike in cases and here are few trackers that have taken the mantle of tracking daily Covid numbers:

✅https://t.co/XQGkjRxqmL
✅https://t.co/0QglHXEx1T
✅https://t.co/iHKTF4J2vA

Stay aware and stay safe!

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

@rBharshetty Gh-ost can be of a great help here: https://t.co/ik8lvFvlQY

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

Every outage is an opportunity.

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

@chennaicorp Need your help regarding the death certificate of my father. Can you please help ? I have sent all the details over a DM.

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

Its been more than a month since I properly smiled. Lord! Give me strength. Beating after beating, after beating. Please!

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

Contacted BBMP Helpline 1912. Waiting to receive an update from them.

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

Need to shift my friend to a hospital with an Oxygen bed. Can you please help ? #Bengaluru

[Nanda Kishore @nandak522]

@Tejasvi_Surya Sir. Can you please help ?