Khawarizmiya

Sincerely. November 24, 2010

Call me insensitive, but I don’t miss you.

Or don’t call me at all.

After all, I don’t miss you.

I cherish our memories,

but I don’t miss you.

Don’t judge me.  Just answer me.

How did your company, inspire me?

how did your words, enlighten me?

have you ever challenged my mind;

had it up all night,

prospering,  comprehending,

or thinking of solutions,

to a nation so left behind

or how that reflects, on you and me?

Have you ever nurtured my soul?

enriched my spirituality,

took me one step closer to decent levels of serenity?

Don’t blame me because I don’t miss you.

Just give me a good reason,  to miss you.

Tell me what I learned from you.

Show me,

how the lack of your company,  harms me.

Surely, you being there, sometimes helped me.

But with all sincerity, I still don’t miss you.

Seriously.

Give me better, stronger reasons to miss you.

Take my address, and send me,

a box of  blueberry muffins

maybe then, just maybe,

I’ll have one good reason,

to miss you.

Toronto, Eh? October 8, 2010

Academia VS Industria March 19, 2010

First of all, there is no such thing as Industria. I just made it up. But it does sound catchy though…

So anyways.. we’re done with master’s. Kuwait University has officially issued our graduation certifices – a year later. What next?

There seems to be a common confusion among master’s degree holders.

To Academics, or To Not Academics..

Between pursuing an academic oriented career, such as working on a Phd degree and/or working in research jobs, and, working in the industry, which in our case translates to: developers, programmers, web administrators, system administrators, network administrators, database administrators, or, perhaps heading to a management oriented career, etc.

I’ve discussed this topic with many friends of mine over the past year. Clearly each decision encloses a number of pros & cons. Which of these pros do you like more, and which cons are you willing to undertake for one choice more than the other, is not the only factor on which you make such a decision, but it’s an important one.

Academia vs Football

Checklist..

I’ve compiled this humble checklist that might shed some light on the matter, of course take notice that these points are stemmed from my own personal experience and may not apply to many industry jobs/academia circumstances.

A. Questions More Related to Academia..

1. Do you enjoy researching a topic of your interest (for 25 years :p)?
2. You might find yourself going in-depth into theoretical issues, are you OK with that? Or are you seeking real-time applications development only?  (maybe not applicable for all areas of interest)
3. Do you like having to work within a unified theme (aka area of interest), or would you prefer a career that might possibly transition you from one area to another, according to market need, as long as you’re learning a new technology?
4. Which imposes the question: in terms of learning new things, would you rather learn a new technology or a new way to improve the underlying algorithm complexity of some process out there?
5. Are you a good reader – don’t mind reading lengthy papers?
6. Do you acquire good writing skills or find yourself willing to do that, and don’t mind writing lengthy reports/papers/articles/proposals, etc?  (sometimes applies for industry though)
7. Are you in favor of individual-work or group-work? OK, I know that research involves group-work but overall I think it involves lot more individuality than does industry.
8. Would you rather spend your weekends writing the first few lines of a paper introduction or go out and have fun with friends?  :P
9. Do you have good teaching skills? Do you not resent the idea of having to teach one day, besides researching?
10. Does research inspire you?  Does Google Scholar mean anything to you? Does the hard work of other researchers out there strongly motivate you and inspire you to become a part of a real, huge, worldwide research community?
11. Do you have a life?  Like do you really really need to go to the gym or go out with friends? Or can you give that up for the upcoming..say..35 years?
12. :P

B. Questions More Related to Industria (within IT)…

1. Do you find yourself capable of handling the IT tension? For example, are you the type that panics easily if the system crashed? & How do you handle bugs?  Especially your own? ;)
2. Is your mind-set fit to absorb IT architectures/frameworks?
3. Do you find yourself eager to learn more about what you’re doing; expand your knowledge in the line of development that you’ve undertaken, or does it bore you easily?  Do you think that switching to another line of career might help?
4. Do you like dealing with IT people: managers, co-workers, trainees, CEOs, admins, DBAs?  OK Sorry let me rephrase that: Are you capable of dealing with them, or would you prefer to be working in a research lab where your audience are somehow more limited..
5. Do you see yourself where you are, 10 years from now? Do you have a well studied plan to advance in the hierarchy of IT jobs: perhaps a team leader, then a project manager, etc?
6. Do you see yourself regretting not joining the line of Academics, 5 years from now?
7. Are you comfortable working in IT?
8. Do you like cheese?
9. If Donald Duck and Robin Hood had a fight, who would win?
10. Are you still reading these questions? I ran out of them and I’m just saying anything..

I think the most important question of all can be the following.. Where do you see yourself excelling more? In which area will you be more capable of serving the world, your nation, yourself, better?  What is it out there that triggers your hidden talents and pushes you to work at your optimum levels?

Please, if you have any other questions in mind that might help, do raise them here. I know a lot of people, including myself, who will appreciate it!