Kaushik Kannan
Oct 31, 20198 min
Updated: Nov 21, 2019
Quick show of hands, how many of you wanted to implement a new life skill?
I'm pretty sure all the hands are going up!
However, how many of you managed to implement it like you wanted to?
Yikes, I see all the hands dropping!
What was that skill that you wanted to master? That life hack you wanted to live by? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to help you if I managed to slay that pesky skill or there are tons of experienced and amazing people reading this! They might be able to point you in the right direction.
In my case, it's always been me wanting to read books but never really getting around doing so! 😓
Everyone keeps asking, if Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates can read so many books a week, why can't you!?
(Err.. they're right. But why'd they have to read soo many books though!? 😭😭)
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one. - George R.R. Martin
George sure is a wise man!
All the people I look up to, all the people who are in successful positions read books!
It's no rocket science! They even ask you to read books and recommend good ones.
Why do they do this though? They have such busy lives with super tight schedules but they still manage to make time to read books!
It's because of one simple reason.
Don't reinvent the wheel!
One very important reason for the human race to have come this far is because we have the ability to impart knowledge. Pass on the baton with all our learning for the next person to continue the race. We fail, that is how we learn, but that is what is important.
We learn from our failures. We learn from others' failures and move forward with more wisdom.
We only have one lifetime and that's not enough time to keep failing! So look at the lives of the greats out there, see what they did, see where they failed, how they learnt from it and overcame it.
That's the beauty of reading books, you get to live in the shoes of many other great visionaries who've come before us!
The ability to document our learnings and pass it on generation after generation is one of the biggest factors that differentiates us humans from our primal ancestors and all other creatures on Earth apart from our ability to talk which is also technically used for this purpose.
How am I going to tie all this back to Chennai? That's simple!
We house one of the biggest libraries in all of Asia which spans over a whopping 8 acres, towering high with 9 floors. One of the lucky structures that weren't converted into a Hospital.
Have you visited this marvelous structure?
Please say yes!
Well, I sure have! However, it was when the place had just opened up!
They have a brilliant and extensive collection including braille books.
Pretty much any book. You name it, Anna Library's got it!
One more jewel in the crown of Chennai for us to flaunt. We have so many reasons to hold our heads up high and say,
I am a Chennaite, ithu Namma Chennai! 😎
As a good place to start my book reading habit, I think I'm going to allocate one hour over the weekend to go to the Anna Centenary Library and start reading a book.
What do you think?
I'd love for you to join me! Let's make it a thing!
We can meet for one hour over the weekends and read a book that we've always wanted to! I'm pretty sure they'll have whatever book we might want! Let me know if you're up in the comments below and we'll start this weekend!
Why procrastinate? That's one of the biggest villains on the path to success and glory!
So looks like from now on, our weekends are going to be books and people together!
Networking events and knowledge ingestion with books as well! I like the sound of that!
Trust me, this is going to be so good for us!
If you're looking for a list of books to read or a good place to start. These are some of the books that were recommended to me by people who'd given talks at various places. Some books were recommended by well-renowned people on podcasts and so on.
Download the document, if you have any suggestions, add them and reupload so that the others can get to know about the good books and learn from them as well!
In case you're in a hurry and just want to know what events are happening, now you can do that at:
Also, some of you had told me that y'all would like to get intimation about future events much in advance, especially the ones which have a set number of attendees or have a final registration date that comes before posting that week's post!
I heard you and this calendar is for you!
I hope this nifty feature will help you attend more events and the ones you want apart from helping you quickly glance through the events on the go.
You will not only be able to view all the events quickly in a calendar format but you will also be able to add the events that you want to attend to your calendar! Is that cool or what!?
Onward to this week's events! 🎠
Design thinking! UX, humane, customer-centricity... some of the words the designers throw around these days. Find out what they actually mean with our friends at Social Beat!
Event Website: https://socialbeat.in/designbeat2019/?fbclid=IwAR0UIH96dH6vxlObHXAjnnqwrKzgLwBOQVSb2meSvNi3m5wy1VdJyMimWCs
Event Location: Social Beat
Maybe you're attending these events just to land yourself a job! Well, make your life easier and attend this one!
Event Location: Online
The folks at Dell are back with their next meetup. As a start-up, what do you want to do? Well, grow and scale right!? Here's what's headed your way on that path!
Event Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/396502741030402/
Event Location: DELL Small Business Solution Centre
I swear I did not understand a single word from the title! 😅
All I know is, it's by Dinesh and he's a really smart guy. They're talking about using big data and getting their hands dirty with some demos! If you are a Data Scientist or even thinking about anything in that field, you don't want to miss this one!
Event Website: https://www.meetup.com/Makers-Tribe/events/265948177
Event Location: iLink Multitech Solutions Pvt. Ltd
A lot of good and interesting events tomorrow! Keep scrolling!
Who said the Chennai scene is dead!? We now have events specifically for each tribe, ones organized only for testers, designers and so on!
Droidcon is here and they're as expensive as ever! 😅
if you're still saying no Kaushik, I don't care, I'd rather be with other Android Fanboys buying the tickets at the price of an iPhone, attaboy! This event is for you!
Event Website: https://www.in.droidcon.com/
Event Location: Hotel Green Park
Work, work, work, work, work, work
He said me haffi
Work, work, work, work, work, work
We burnout if that is all that we do! Learn a crucial part of growing, learn to manage your work and personal life!
Event Website: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_lDREATY1nMon6b0pccDqpq-2Nop3rCywT0EIIiqebBYWqA/viewform
Event Location: IIT Madras Research Park
Who doesn't like to play games!?
Learning about agility while you're at it!? Now that's what I call interesting!
Event Website: https://www.meetup.com/agile-30-Chennai/events/265657747/
Event Location: Calydon Tech Solutions Pvt Ltd
The friendly folks at Makers Tribe and going to help you bring out your spidey senses, teach you how you can start a career in building websites and mint money! 🤑
Event Website: https://www.meetup.com/Makers-Tribe/events/265516007/
Event Location: Makers Tribe
What is one thing that we have in abundance? I'd love to say water, but yea, it's data!
Learn about surviving in the digital era and how you can capitalize on this data!
Event Website: https://www.meetup.com/techpod/events/265769450
Event Location: Wolters Kluwer - Ramanujan IT City
We use data for business, use those insights to build new products. Have we ever thought about using all that data to form policies and help the government deliver better public services!? 🤯
If you're someone who wakes up to a newspaper cursing the politics section, this event is for you!
Event Website: https://dare2compete.com/o/shaastra-technology-and-policy-shaastra-iit-madras-indian-institute-of-technology-iit-madras-91979
Event Location: Mechanical Sciences Block, IIT Madras
Can't wait for this one! All the cool people at Women In Product are back with their next event!
Boss Man Krish will be sharing his experiences along with Prasad, the Director of Product at PayPal. Why haven't you registered yet!?
Event Website: https://forms.gle/96nyTRDka4eRyt9S6
Event Location: PayPal Office
If you are a tester, you cannot miss this one!
What's more? It's happening at Qube Cinemas!! Register away!
Event Website: https://www.townscript.com/e/the-test-tribe-2nd-chennai-meetup-143420
Event Location: Qube Cinema Technologies
When you think about one of the kickass places to work in Chennai, PickYourTrail is definitely one! They're talking about what worked for them and how you can implement that too! Developers, y'all know where to go!
Event Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scaling-up-with-serverless-tickets-77440146563
Event Location: Pickyourtrail
Are you someone who's just venturing into the business world and have no idea how this works? Fret not! We all have to start somewhere! Women Entrepreneurship Development Organization is hosting this event just to help you with that!
Event Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/915221025544578/
Event Location: Women Entrepreneurship Development Organisation
Aatralz is adding an interesting spin to ML and will be talking about implementing ML as a service! This ought to be interesting!
Event Website: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8cwSzOZY7V3Rg1ErgiEtr7E6MR4-0zKmZEtH0UdbW8iMv5Q/viewform
Event Location: Aatralz
They're helping you automate certain testing and they're also talking about how even the minute details of the design can affect both small and large scale companies.
Event Website: https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-zZPQtwTs/events/265929249
Event Location: Qube Cinema Technologies
Hey, I remember seeing this one! This was the one in which they teach you about TypeScript which is a superset of JavaScript remember!? So yea, you can attend this till 3:30 if you want and then come for the Fundraising event! Nope, not going to leave you!
Event Website: https://www.meetup.com/Chennai-Sci-Fi-AI-DS-Machine-Learning-Meetup/events/265710976
Event Location: Trust Conference Hall
No! NO! You just cannot afford to miss this one! It's okay! Forget about all the clashing events! 😛
Anyway, for real. This one's going to be amazing! After a point, need to get funded to reach a new orbit. How do you do that? What are all the intricate processes involved in this? Find out this Saturday evening at Paperflite! 😄
Event Website: https://echai.in/events/fundraising-for-startups-founder-investor-perspectives-96c239e4-b39e-470e-9da0-147251b63713
Event Location: Paperflite Marketing Technology Pvt Ltd
Everyone's sacring you about the slow down which is imminent?
Find out how to handle it and use it to your advantage here! 😄
Event Website: https://www.eventshigh.com/detail/chennai/767bd2d116edb862602c693392da88c9
Event Location: KOCHAR BLISS
You can attend this one after the fundraising meetup! They're pretty close by! 😛 All the Scrum Enthusiasts gather!
Event Website: https://www.meetup.com/smstudiochn/events/265432334
Event Location: Novotel Chennai OMR
Phew, gimme a sec, let me catch my breath!
Don't miss out the spillover events from the previous day!
What can I say? I'm so proud of you!
Event Website: https://www.eventshigh.com/detail/chennai/92efffdc286cb6d75bc284df0ccb704a-workshop-on-android-app-development
Event Location: GEE NETWORK SYSTEMS
That's about it for this weekend!
Let me know if you find this new way of curating useful.
Does kaushikkannan.com/events make sense?
Let me know in the comments below! I'd love to know what you think and how I can make this better! 😄
Who are you bringing along to these events this weekend? Send this to them so that they're on the same page as well!
Oh and let me about the weekend book reading session! I'm game!
Don't forget to add your best books suggestions for everyone to read here!
Here's my Linkedin Handle as always! Drop by my profile and let's add each other!
Much Love! Godspeed! 🖖🏼
Until next weekend! Sayonara! 👋🏼
#Chennai #Chennaites #NammaChennai #PeopleOfChennai #Networking #NetworkingEvents #EventsInChennai #ChennaiMeetups #Meetups #ChennaiEvents #Events #Business #Startups #Entrepreneurship #ChennaiEcosystem #FindYourTribe #EventHopping #GrowTogether #Books #BookReading