Osho's zen philosophy

I have been reading Osho's book on Zen and i must say that the book is very interesting. Some of the arguments he makes are quite convincing but some of them are very controversial too. In some passages, he comes across as a supreme human and in some as a very real human :-)
One of the most controversial lesson that he imparts is about the mind's penchant for seeking pleasures even when the person is pretending to be abstinating from it. The example he gives is that of rishis meditating in himalayas who start dreaming of company with beautiful girls (the apsaras) who come from heaven to sleep with them. Osho says this is because the mind is fed up of meditation, of solitude and it has started craving for company. And this is all society's fault. Society at large frowns upon pleasures and encourages the constant clamoring for painful experiences. So if someone likes to drink a lot, the society would force him to give up drinking. The person would pretend to give it up but his mind is still attached with drinking so in reality he hasn't let go of it. The problem is still there, it has been hidden and kept out of sight. The person would start exhibiting different symptoms but the problem has not yet been addressed. Osho says that if someone is really attached to something, let him come out of this attachment on his own, at his own speed. Once he does that, the problem would be solved from the core.
And I feel this particular lesson has been used and misused and contorted to malign him. People accused him of encouraging promiscuity, of leading young people to extremes of pleasure seeking. This could have been true, but Osho's intent was something else. Of course I can't call myself an expert on his views from a half read book :-)
On the work front, there were a lot of issues, both on poker client and on casino client. One of the issues was very vexing. I wanted the client to close the gameboard if an important message is lost en route. But the darned window won't close properly. When it started closing, the darned thing won't start. When it started restarting, the darned thing won't work. The darned stuff killed me almost :-)
On Tuesday night, we had a drinking session with boss and his favorite prodigal employee AP. It was really painful watching them going bonkers in praising each other and of kissing and of twisted fingers being pointed for peace sign, of strange sounds emanating such as Ouch and Peace. It was so painful that I couldn't even enjoy my drink. After 3 hours I threw in the towel, drove home and slept fitfully. It took me 2 days to let go of all the frustrations that had crept in.

errors, mistakes and issues

this week's post has to be dedicated to silly mistakes. anyone who is from software background in india would agree with the sentiment that 90% of mistakes that are being solved or fixed or analyzed are due to someone's silly mistakes. Before this week, I had been taking care that silly mistakes don't creep in, but then I can have some off days too :-)
RN has always been sloppy, always in a hurry to get things done, always in a hurry to catch that bus, never taking responsibility. this week she was asked to make some releases for poker and casino client and boy did she goof up ! as the manager, i have to take some blame too, but in my defence I can only say that I did verify her releases, tested them, made others test them. But in the final analysis of things, when RN gave release to VS, this last build should have been tested. This was the point where she made mistakes. And I paid the price. 10 PM on Thursday, 10 PM on Friday and 2 hours on Saturday were more than enough. I have now taken over the release management.
This week I also took interview of a candidate AR for HEC MBA. From his essays I could make out that he would be an average guy with lot of air and pretensions, who would always fall back upon standard responses. When I met him I realized my observations were spot on. His presentation was awful, his answers rehearsed, his career objectives completely obscured. His other interview was taken by AM, who had accompanied Abbott's CEO during VOL week. I wonder how he fared in that interview.

poker, bots and stress testing

So, I have found my new challenge :-)
It started almost incongruously (these things have a habit of always starting this small and then getting a life of their own and then beginning to consume the person body, soul and everything). I had already tested 12 bots (those fake players who sit on poker tables and try to behave like real players) sit on some tables and play for some hours. That had given me some serious headache on trying to reconcile the rake with the win amount and with the total loss of real chips of users. But this time the challenge was to make 200 bots sit on tables and play. We started small with a total pool of 200 players with around 50 players sitting on the tables at any point of time. And the results were outrageous. The total loss amount didn't match with the rake and neither did it match with the total loss of chips. It made me crazy. Why would it work with 12 bots and not with 50 bots? The answer of course was not in the numbers, that was a red herring, a fake trail. The real answer was in the way bots were being disconnected and what was happening for these disconnected bots. That led me to some very good observations and some great fixes. Last time around we were able to make 50 bots sit on tables for close to 18 hours when we had to intervene and stop them from playing. That is something, so eat your heart out LK and AC :-)
On other front, I finished the Gaudy Night and it is a good book, a lazy read but with great characters, a great story with fake trails strewn all around and with motives floating around. Really very good read, kept me awake 2 nights in a row trying to finish the book :-)