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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

Learn, Grow up, Energize

Vijay Anand
Saturday, July 1, 2006
Vijay Anand
I believe what is important to the techie community in India’ is how we mature from being a low cost provider of energetic young talent to a community of thought leaders. In forums, I have heard one of the main impediments to building a strong software product ecosystem in India is early stage venture capital for entrepreneurs. Having spent over two decades in the silicon valley and Bangalore I feel what is more important is thought leadership. I list ten points below that I’d like techies to think about as they develop their careers as technical leaders and entrepreneurs.

Geek cultureEngineers and scientists are well respected in India. However, we need this geek culture to exist not just at entry levels in the organization but all the way to the top. We certainly need our MBAs but we should equally value advanced degrees from our institutes. If you are a thriving techie, consider doing an advanced technical degree while at work, this will make you more valuable and the insights you gain from further formal study could open your mind more. Companies that hire engineers should consider positioning candidates with advanced degrees higher and actively source PhDs from our institutes. And we need our institutes to take graduate education more seriously, raise standards of research and work closely with industry in collaborative research, not to mention increase the rate of students doing advanced degrees. Compare India with countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union where there is a rapid flourish of students with PhDs entering the work force at the entry level. If we are to innovate new technologies and products from India, we need our geeks to thrive at high levels.

Love for technology I call this loving technology for technology’s sake. We need the bigots; we need the people who love a particular technology having been deeply involved in its evolution and simply stand with it. For e.g., I recently read an article by the founder of a storefront technology company on why Lisp gave them the competitive edge in building their storefront platform and was instrumental in them being acquired by one of the large portals. Now, I don’t know if Lisp indeed was that important but it is interesting to see how, as a techie and entrepreneur he breathes and lives recursion and parentheses! Deep attachment and love for the technology breeds expertise, ideas and differentiation. And this is important for the techie- to simply love what you do and believe strongly in what you believe. So, what technology do you deeply love?

Stand for something Any community is based on a set of theories, philosophies, arguments and of course religion. Every time a paradigm shift occurs, there are new believers. Remember the OO revolution and now of course the open source one. The key to a techie is not just to participate in the community but also influence and be influenced. Building strong informed opinions is important. Influencing the ideology and being a part of the opinion is key to a strategic thinker. It does not matter that most techies are probably introverted. Socializing online through blogs and forums is an advantage. It is important for techies to figure out their own ideology that they would like to attach themselves to and follow-an open source credo will for example guide the techies life-long on the kinds of work and contributions they will make. And once you have made up your mind, actively influence and drive the evolution of that community. So, what’s your ideology?

“I” matters Our culture emphasizes teams. We talk about our batch mates, classmates and officemates. We do team building events. While this is important to build camaraderie, the more important topic is Who are You? What is it that distinguishes you from everyone else around you? How can you stand out from the crowd? Ideas are simply born from people who wish to do something unique. It may seem daunting to bring up a spark of an idea when you feel there are many sparks happening around you, but the effort you put into distinguishing your spark will make sure you realize your own potential. A team of people who realize what their own value is often partner better with each other given the level of mutual respect that exists.

Swagger

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