Thin Red Lines

There are many thin red lines (from now on referred as just "line") in life that, I feel, are important to our lives... Most of these thin red lines exist between two extremeties and actually one is more a reason for other not to exist. However, as the name suggest...the difference between the two concepts/phenomena that are being separated is very subtle, however, both these stages are starkingly different..Ironic ...heheheheh. The following are few such..

Life!Death

This line is between two extremeties of existence. This line is actually is soooo thin...that we hardly realize its thinness. The time taken to traverse the width of this line is infinitesimally small (and throughout our life, we race towards this line...). And not many, I have seen, have actually absorbed the concept of its thinness. It does mean that by the time you realize, by the time you are actually out of your mundane thoughts and pursuits, and by the time you actually want to "live" life your way, you have already reached this line. So, PLZ learn from ppl who have crossed this line, for this journey cannot be repeated and you cant learn from your own experience, after crossing this line.. Live your life buddy..live it heart's content...remembering this line will help you to know whats important to you in life....(here not getting into any debate on Life after death).

Self-Confidence ! Arrogance

Being self-confident, the word itself clearly defines that you are confident on your "self", your skills, your aptitude, your thoughts/decisions/intuition etc. And it does NOT go beyond that. Whereas, arrogance is your behaviour towards others which is FALSELY assumed to be stemming out of self-confidence. Person with extreme self-confidence has a sense of respect towards him/her which actually forces that person to respect other individual. So, if we can recognize the point where we are crossing this line...we are on the right path of respect and confused souls are lost in terms of relationships. Actually, being more self-confident avoids one to be arrogant, as I mentioned "this" is more a reason for not being "that"...

Detachment ! lack of Interest
The more one is detached, the more he or she can use reason and logic as weapons to decide. If you are attached to a concept or thing, you tend to become emotional towards that. Emotion kills rationale. So, instead of taking a decision you will be ending up rationlizing the conclusion that has been arrived based on emotional evaluation. The concept of detachment is often confused with Lack of interest... again there is our famous "line" here. Lack of interest arises where in the outcome is percieved to be of no use to oneself. However, detachment arises when outcome is of utmost importance to you, so you become detached from a situation and then take a decision to arrive at best possible outcome. So, our "line" clearly demarcates two seemingly same states of mind but that are vastly different at their roots.

Zero-Minded ! lack of Passion
This is almost similar to the above comparison. Here zero minded is being neutral in terms of state of mind, in a situation. For example, you are neither elated nor depressed for any outcome. You carry the same notion about any of the outcomes, it s just an input to your further analysis. Being zero-minded actually means that you are more passionate about the mission you are on and you have worked enough to ensure an output, so any output has nothing to do with your efforts, however is worth an analysis. So, you are more passionate to the extent that you have worked to the level of attaining this state of mind.

Loneliness ! Being Alone
( I came to know about this concept from Prof.Sankaran). I really dont know whether I am able to articulate this better. lemme try. Loneliness is a more of a psychological concept, where in you have people around and none to connect or correlate to, none to strike the cord, none who can understand what you express. Whereas, Being alone is a physical concept where in you dont have people around, you are to yourself or lack of peers. Here one concept actually may lead to another....dunno, need to think more deeply about this.

Being Cautious ! Afraid of/ having fear
Being cautious helps one to ensure that he or she has eliminated all the odds that are stopping or preventing an event to happen. All the hindrances ( in case of a positive event) and enablers (in case of a negative event) have been taken care of by people who are cautious. This attitude actually should propel confidence and eliminate fear. So, if someone is following instructions on how to act when plane lands on water is cautious but not afraid of flying.. makes sense?? :)

Individuality ! Self-centeredness

Individuality is one's propensity towards taking their decisions and owning them. As Stephen R Covey says they are response-able and also responsible. So a person who believes in his/her individuality should also believe in others' individuality. In effect, he/she should not act in a way that affects other person's individuality or infringing their personal rights. This means that they are actually concerned about others and not self-centered. On the other hand, being self-centered is a sign of innate quality of lack of self esteem that manifests externally, into being selfish or self-centered. Isnt this "line" thicker than others " :-)

Being a child ! Acting childish
this is another "Line" that everyone gets confused. Being a child is enjoying the eternal internal joy as a human, as a form of life, being non-judgemental, being spontaneous, being urself.... and acting childish is lack of maturity in thought and being judgemental in decision making..

I must have missed many other Thin Red Lines, please help me to add them. Also, I will add them once I come across any...

IBM has announced their intention to buy ILOG for $340 million USD

Today I read this piece of news from http://bizrules.info/weblog/. Somehow, I had mixed feelings about it. A feeling of "ah ! its expected" + " oohh !!! so it is IBM now". The former feeling is because of regular market dynamics, where in, niche, small players enter the market, they "ripe" well in the market and later its time for the biggies to harvest them. It was same with Corticon in the Business Rules space, acquired by TIBCO. And now its part of TIBCO iprocess Suite. The same was expected out of ILOG. Now it will be part of IBM SOA suite of products. Probably, stacked along with the famous IBM WPS.

The second feeling is because that, it is the move of IBM now to establish itself in the BPM/BRMS market. It has placed itself as leader in integration-centric BPM tool with WPS. Now, with this acquisition it has also acquired the benefits of an established BRMS tool in the market, ILOG. The deal seems to be win-win to both the companies. In one way, ILog will get the huge network in terms of business what IBM already has. Also, it will have the strength of IBM in terms of brand image and reach in the market.

And, IBM in turn has the advantage of ILog's image as a leader (Acc to Gartner magic quadrants/ Forrester wave) in BRMS space. So as I was mentioning above, the fragmented BRMS market is headed towards more consolidation and more dollar value/firm, now. Following typical life cycle of an industry. Niche players => More players with differentiation => perfect competition => M&As, market consolidation => sometimes Monopoly... Is BRMS market going to follow the same curve????