Positive Thinking Vs Critical Thinking

"I always hear people talk about positive thinking and its benefits. Can really positive thinking really change the status of one's life? Shouldn't' it be 'Critical Thinking'?"

What is Positive Thinking?

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” (Winston Churchill, 1987)

In simple thus physiological terms Positive thinking is a mental attitude. Further positive thinking is a emotional attitude that focuses on the bright side of life and expects positive results.

Science In Positive Thinking?

The scientific term used for positive thinking is called "Neuroplasticity". It means that our thoughts can change the structure and function of our brains. (Source:  Barrie Davenport. (n.d.) How Positive Thinking Re-Wires Your Brain. Retrieved from http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/how-positive-thinking-re-wires-your-brain/). The idea about the scientific side of positive thinking was first introduced by William James in 1890, but it was got rejected by scientists who believed the brain is rigidly mapped out, with certain parts of the brain controlling certain functions.

Neuroplasticity is widely accepted as scientists have proven that brain is endlessly flexible and self motivated. It has the power to change its own structure, even for those with the severe neurological hardships. People with problems like strokes, mental illness etc can train and educate the other areas of their brains through repetitive mental and physical activities. It is life changing.

The 5 Step Process of Manifestation According the theories of Positive Thinking

Below describes the steps to be followed to get guaranteed results.

1) Know your desire - Many people do not really know what they desire. People think that they want this, that or the other, but never consider it in a great deepness. Knowing what you really do want is an extremely important. It is really important that you really do  take as much time as is necessary to decide and to know without any doubt that you genuinely need the object of your desire and believe that your life will be enhanced by it in a positive way. It is also important to only focus on one objective at a time. Wasting your time on  daydreaming or fantasizing about many  things would not help you to achieve the goals and desires of your life. 

It is a human assembled and a hypothetical method which says that the universe is consuming energy in the form of bits of physical metal, paper or electronic bits and bytes stored on a computer system. The Universe is infinitely abundant and  everything you could possibly wish for already exists. However large or small, and all you need to do is to bring it into your physical awareness, and therefore your physical reality. Always ask for exactly what you want, and never place a monetary value upon it and again never, but never, ever ask for money.(Source: Adrian Cooper (n.d.) 5 simple steps to create whatever you desire, http://howtocreateyourfuture.blogspot.com/2006/08/5-simple-steps-to-creating-whatever.html)

2) Ask for your desire - All we need to do is to know how to receive the desire. Asking it in is an important and very precise step in this process. You need to be positive, clear-cut and precise about how you ask for your desire to be realized. The process for asking the desire can be purely in the Mind, however one of the most powerful methods of asking is to simply write down your request on paper. The physical action of writing down your desire motivates and impresses the wish on your subconscious mind that is directly is in communication with the universe.

Write down your wish in the present tense and now all you need to do is to ask the universe. It is important to have complete faith in the universe  and on God  to bring the object of you the desire into your physical reality. Any lack of faith will have a very negative effect on attracting the object of your wishes into your physical experiential reality by sending out vibrations that say you do not believe the object of your desire will manifest into your reality, in which case it will be granted and will not manifest.

3) Experience your desire - Experiencing is an important step towards allowing and therefore receiving the object of your desire into your physical reality. In order to experience you must allow it to be visible in to your physical reality. This is a fundamentally important  and one that many people fail to realize when they are subconsciously transmitting wishes, thus failing to attract and experience the object of their asking.

With or without knowledge everyone transmits desires. These desires are in the form of vibrations sent out to the universe. The vibrational harmony in these transmitted desires allow people to receive the object of their desires.

Allowing is to receive, and a very powerful method of receiving is to experience. Experiencing the object of your wishes will bring you into vibrational harmony with those wishes, thus enabling them to be attracted and manifest into your personal, physical reality. (Source: Adrian Cooper (n.d.) 5 simple steps to create whatever you desire, http://howtocreateyourfuture.blogspot.com/2006/08/5-simple-steps-to-creating-whatever.html)

Whenever you have the opportunity to remain uninterrupted and your mind is clear of other thoughts, sit down comfortably, relax as deeply as possible by taking a few deep breaths, and imagine yourself to be in the presence of the object or situation of your desires.

This process is powerful just before sleep at night and just after awaking in the morning and before arising from bed. Use all five senses within your imagination to the maximum extent in order to experience your desires. Feel it and  live it and further make it an integral part of you.

Wishes, desires and expectations are always in the present tense as the knowledge that the desire beyond any doubt that the object of your desires already exists within endless universe and that all that you have to do is to receive the object of your desires into your own personal reality.

4) Action towards your desire - Although the Universe will deliver into your physical reality you should wish and ask for. This will empower the process if you take your own steps towards your desires. This has many positive benefits including reinforcing on your subconscious mind your total commitment to realizing your desires in a totally clear-cut way.

This does not mean that you actually have to go out there and do everything yourself. By taking positive steps towards your desire you invoke another very powerful energy of intent. The energy of intent will work in group with the knowledge, asking and experiencing in a very powerful way by reinforcing your claim on the object of your desire that already exists in the "Eternal Now of the Universe".

In addition to the Energy of the goal you must also impress your subconscious mind the fact that you are very serious indeed about achieving the object of your desire into your physical experiential reality. Your subconscious mind is extremely powerful and is in direct communication with universe. If you therefore have your subconscious mind as well as your conscious Mind influencing all of the necessary Energy in the direction of bringing the object of your desire into your physical reality, it will be much more powerful and the object of your desire will manifest sooner as a result.

As soon as you know your desire, have asked for it, and are experiencing it, you must then take steps towards it and allow the Universe to manifest your desire into your physical experiential reality in ways The Universe will take care of.

5) Gratitude for your desire - Gratitude is another extremely important emotional Energy that you really must project during the course of manifesting your desires.

In the context of manifestation, gratitude is another extremely powerful emotion. The power of gratitude functions at several levels. To feel sincerely grateful is to be in tune with the Universe. It expresses the energy that you already know and appreciate the fact that you are an integral aspect of the universe, and that you are grateful for being a mindful co creator within the magnificent universe in all of its energy levels of majesty and creation.

Gratitude also conveys an acknowledgment for having received the object of your desire. One must always at all times think in terms of physically having the object of your desire actually within your physical possession. Along with those thoughts should be the feeling of the most intense gratitude for what you have already received from The Universe. Gratitude makes the object of your desires a real, tangible, integral aspect of your own reality, and the more real it is to you the sooner it will manifest into your personal experiential reality.

Gratitude conveyed with genuine sincerity brings you more into harmony with the Universe, and with it you become an even more natural creator of your desires. Those people who are completely aligned with the Universe gets a  magical life.

One should never  take anything for granted. Always feel deeply grateful for everything that happens in your reality, regardless of whether you consciously attracted it or whether you perceive it to be positive or negative. In the grand scheme of things everything that manifests into your physical reality is directly for the benefit of your own personal evolution, and you should be most grateful for it whether you consciously brought it into your own reality or not.

Being deeply grateful also helps to ensure that you never convey of dissatisfaction, which is a very negative and a very destructive emotion. Dissatisfaction, ungratefulness or unhappiness will send the wrong Energy into the Universe, which will in turn react with immutable perfection in reciprocating those negative emotions with more of the same. So whatever you feel dissatisfied, ungrateful or unhappy about will appear into your physical reality even stronger than ever, creating a vortex of negative Energy as causes with correspondingly negative effects.

Conversely, those things that you feel extremely satisfied, grateful and happy about will create a much higher, positive vibration, attracting more of the same into your life. The Universe always naturally moves in the direction of expansion and evolution, and never of contraction or destruction, so positive emotions are always much more powerful than negative emotions even though they are both Energy causes with the corresponding effects.

These then are the five powerful steps to attracting anything you could possibly desire into your life, where you can enjoy those desires into your own experiential physical reality. All of these five steps are individually very powerful indeed in their own right  but collectively they influence Energy so powerfully that you can manifest almost anything you desire into your personal reality with what might seem like amazing speed. 

The entire Universe always moves in the direction of development so you should personally work hard to achieve your desires and create towards this development. Never be ashamed, hesitant or unhappy about creation. Everything you desire with great Joy, Love and Gratitude will be yours as your desire is real and your want is genuine.

Mentioning all these about positive thinking there exists a group  who sees this concept a stupid. Though positive thinking sounds useful on the surface they think it is too a soft and fluffy that is easy to dismiss.

Being a balanced judge let me explain about "Critical Thinking" which most youngsters or the Gen Y or Gen 20,20  believe in and do a comparison to choose the best and evaluate what exactly needs to be followed whether it is "Positive Thinking" of "Critical Thinking".

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and realistically. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.

Competencies  of a critical thinker are :

• understand the logical connections between ideas
• identify, construct and evaluate arguments
• detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning
• solve problems systematically
• identify the relevance and importance of ideas
• reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and values

A critical thinker is able to reason out the consequences from what she/he knows, and she/he knows how to use of information to resolve problems, and to search for  relevant sources of information. Critical thinking can help us to gain knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. We can use critical thinking to enhance work processes and improve social institutions.

Some people believe that critical thinking hinders creativity because it requires following the rules of logic, but creativity might require breaking rules. This is a misconception. Critical thinking is quite compatible with thinking "out-of-the-box", challenging agreements and following less popular approaches. If anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativity because we need critical thinking to evaluate and improve our creative ideas.

Mind frequently does not examine thoughts and opinions before accepting them. If what it hears, sees and reads is always negative, it accepts this as a standard. Similarly if what your mind always hears, sees and reads positive stuff then the mind accepts positivity as the standard.

To get disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open minded, and informed by evidence  there is a specific set of steps which one should follow:

At the heart of critical thinking is the ability to ask questions. To get clarification, to consider alternatives one should always ask open ended questions starting with  “What if…?” , “Why?” , “How?” or “What’s next?”. Sometimes you’re asking questions of others, but often you are formulating questions by yourself to help you analyze assumptions, evaluate competing evidence, and to consider future consequences. You may be required to conduct your own research to get the necessary information as well as back ground information which will help you more and more about the particular incident or the scenario.

Critical thinking does not believe in everything is sees thus analyze everything around it and then come to a conclusion which i believe is the best thing to be done.

Positive thinking can be a part of critical  thinking thus critical thing carries positive thinking thus rather thinking about the better and the happy sides of it critical thinking concentrates about the consequences and possibilities and take early steps to mitigate the ricks before they occur. It is always better to mitigate the risk or unexpected disturbances rather staying expecting the positivity which will never achieved due to the occurrences of unexpected  ricks.

Can Positive Thinking Alone Bring Success?

My answer to the question "Can Positive Thinking Alone Bring Success?" is NO. So what actually does  separate the losers from the winners? What Do winners have in them so special to make them winners.

Successful people or the winners do many things that success requires:

1)      They dream about being successful

2)      They set goals.

3)      They get to work early.

4)      They do important rather than busy work.

5)      They network.

6)      They have a bias for action.

A winner naturally will dream about success  which is according to the positive thinking though she/he will never stop at that point rather will take actions towards the goal. Other than dreaming envisioning or asking the need from the universe they will set the goals and make strategic plans to achieve them like making net  works and    even being selfish. They will work really hard to achieve these goals and desires in their lives. What do failures do?

1)      They try to do as little work as possible.

2)      They avoid responsibility.

3)      They watch a lot of television.

4)      They spend lots of time on internet doing nothing but face booking.

5)      They blame their failings on others.

6)      They sleep more than it is necessary.

The secret to success is action, not attitude. No matter what the attitude is as long as you spend most of your time and effort towards achieving your goal. If you do the right things you will be successful regardless of your emotional condition or mental attitude. If you do the wrong things, no amount of positive thinking will save you. If you want to succeed in life, don’t spend any time looking at yourself in the mirror and shouting. Don’t bother start acting positively towards your desires.

Can  Positive Thinking Change the Reality?

People who believe this myth see a problem and believe that positive thinking will only ignore the ugliness of their reality. The truth is positive thinking doesn’t ignore the problem; it helps you see the problem in a new light. In fact, you don’t even see ‘problems’ as problems. Think about it; regardless of how you react to an external situation, the situation will still be the same. If being upset doesn’t change the outcome of a past situation, wouldn’t it serve you, and your health, to see the positives?

A positive mental attitude creates a mindset of abundance, enthusiasm, and solutions. Instead of thinking about what can’t be done, a positive thinker will not be constrained by ‘can’ and ‘cannot.’ A positive thinker is free to think of new ways to solve problems because they are not limited by fear of failure. When we are in a state of abundance, we provide a fertile ground for possibilities and making dreams a reality. We are in a state of allowance, openly accepting the gifts of life to flow to us. When I realized this principle and shifted my thinking habits, miracles started popping up in my life.

A positive mental attitude can – and indeed does – change reality by allowing a person to act in an entirely different way, thus harvesting entirely different results.

Concept of Never Giving Up Vs Knowing When to Give Up?

Never Giving Up?

At some point we embark on in our lives, sometimes we get to a point where we feel like giving up. Sometimes we give up before we even start and other times we give up just before we are about to make that huge break through that we have been putting so much effort in to achieve.

There are reasons why we should never give up and listed below are such reasons which one should keep going rather giving up.

1)      Because your goal is realistic

2)      Because your strong

3)      Because you can prove to yourself - You CAN and WILL achieve what you set out to do

4)      Because you have done if before

5)      Because you believe in your dreams

6)      Because of your family and friends.

7)      Because you want to improve your world

8)      Because you deserve to be happy

9)      Because your  inspire others

In life there are going to be many people who will try to bring you down and tell you what you want to achieve is not possible. Don’t let anyone destroy your dreams. Always have a motivation to your life and high energy towards the goals. They may be personnel, professional or even social thus being hyper about it will always help one to stay stick to the goal.

Knowing When to Give Up?

Though I said so many things about positive thinking and critical thinking combined with all the high tech scientific words as human beings where is always an instance where we decide then we can't hold to it any more.

Are You Physically, Emotionally, and Financially exhausted?

If you are experiencing exhaustion you should probably give up your goal/desire and move to another expectation for life. Your exhausted means that your body is attempting to tell you what you mind will not accept: it’s time for a desire/ goal change. It could be that a specific part of your desire, but it’s often the sum of your circumstances that need shifting.

What Will Be Your Contentment Level When You Achieve Your Desire?

You work really hard, spend lots of time and effort to achieve a necessity or a goal thus if you will not feel that satisfaction and contentment which you wanted to have is not what after putting all this effort, one should always think through when deciding on the goal or desire it is very important to think about the final satisfaction and contentment  level as well.

People of this earth do things by putting time and lots of effort to have a happy and contended life. Most of the time though people spend lots in time and effort and achieve the need or the desire the contentment level seems really low. We all want to be happy and achieve our goals though too much anxiety, anger, depression, and other unpleasant emotions cause suffering. The tolerance of these emotions may reduce the ultimate contentment thus there can be many other reasons behind. The balance between contentment and growth is very much important to be maintained from the very stage of initializing the desire / goal or attending to the goal towards the very end which is achieving the goal.

This can be one of the instances when it makes sense to seek outside help and advice. If you are facing a harsh life decision, seek help and advice from other people who may have experiences that you have not yet encountered. This is how we borrow wisdom from others.

Opportunity Cost of the Desire/Goal?

Knowing the difference can come down to "opportunity cost". You pay a price either way in most choices, whether you decide to accept reality or whether you decide to try to change it. In either case you lose out on the benefits that you would have received had you taken the other path.

In the very first place one should think about what she/he want to achieve in life and the satisfaction level one want to achieve. If at a instance you and heard feel that you can achieve more contentment by doing something else by attempting another goal if you feel that your life status will go up than the current goal which you are trying hard evaluate it from your brain and stop attempting to it. Select the goal with a high opportunity cost rather wasting the time.

Thus there is always going to be a component of potential regret if you keep second guessing yourself. There is likely a silver lining in any path that you choose, so when you take a different path, you are going to miss out on some sort of lesson.

Remember : During some instances though the Return of Investment (ROI) of attending to your desired goal is really high than the other alternative the contentment / satisfaction may lead you towards the desired goal which has a lower ROI. At such instances I would recommend to attend to the path which contains much more happiness factor as at the end of the before the death one might remember the moments of happiness gather achievements.

Does Your Ambition is Negatively Influencing Other Objectives?

Making commitments is great as it keep us grounded, focused, and, hopefully, energized in positive pursuits. However, when that focus becomes too constricted, suddenly our lives are narrowed into slender lines. So it is very much important that you be a balanced soul and attend to all your work.

Giving up on dream -the dream of a perfect relationship, a perfect job, or a perfect family), is one of the most painful things that one can do. But it’s often also one of the most important. But if one is not sure then visualizing what it would be like to give up. If in imagining this, you find yourself feeling calmer, lighter, or more peaceful, there’s your answer.

Concluding the article the author thinks that critical thinking is more practical and realistic as it can also be a combination of positive thinking and critical thinking both. There are some instances in life where you have to believe in positive thinking as you have no other choice saying that in some instances in life positive thinking would not do anything but critical thinking and the necessary actions to achieve the goal or over some the issue.

It is all based on the situation and circumstance though even at instances where you have no potion it is always a good idea to think twice about the consequences and decide on your path.

References:

http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php

http://www.successconsciousness.com/index_00002d.htm

http://themindunleashed.org/2014/01/scientific-proof-thoughts-intentions-can-alter-physical-world-around-us.html

http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/how-positive-thinking-re-wires-your-brain/

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/ted-kaptchuk-versus-placebo-effects-again/

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/22-reasons-to-never-give-up/

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/22-reasons-to-never-give-up/

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TXRKP/conversations/topics/6566

http://www.careerattraction.com/knowing-when-to-give-up-4-signs-its-time-to-change-your-career-and-what-to-do-about-them/

Emotional Intelligence In General

Emotional intelligence (EI or EQ) refers to a person’s capacity to effectively reason about emotions and to use emotions to enhance thought and solve problems.

Individuals with high levels of emotional intelligence (EI) are generally better able to perceive, identify and manage emotions in themselves and others, making them more effective at achieving goals when emotional based information is important.  This is particularly important in activities involving team work, dealing with others on a one-on-one basis and displaying leadership behaviors.

People who can solve problems about emotions, or problems requiring the use of emotions, can better:

• Communicate effectively with staff and clients
• Identify and respond to others' emotions
• Manage their own and others' emotional reactions
• Be less likely to suffer negative emotions.

Emotional intelligence tests lead to more effective leadership, greater productivity and higher customer satisfaction.

Key Components of Emotional Intelligence are :

• Self Awareness
• Self Regulation
• Self Motivation
• Empathy
• Social Skills

Below contains the features of each feature mentioned above as the key components of emotional intelligence.

Remember ;

Anyone can become angry.  -That is easy. 
But to be angry with the right 
person, to the right degree, at the 
right time, for the right purpose, 
and in the right way, - That is not easy. 

Aristotle 

Embedded System Development Process

It is a new domain to a typical business analyst who is in the software development industry.It is truly very new thus if you know the little basics of embedded system implementation it is not a huge challenge as it seems to be.

This article will walk you through the embedded system implementation process.

An embedded system design process could be initiated by three sources.

1.The Marketing Team - The main responsibility of the marketing team is to find new potential customers.

2.Technology Evangelists - Technology evangelists within the organization come up with innovative ideas and these ideas are converted into products.

3. Existing Clients - When existing clients want to increase their product portfolio new embedded system design process imitates.

Hardware Requirement Specification

The required capabilities of the product, the required hardware/electrical components, features and the required operating environment or the firmware types are documented by and the outcome  is names as the ‘Hardware Requirement Specification (HRS)’ document.

The Hardware Requirement Specification contains information- scope of the project, high level architecture, selecting the operating systems, selecting the peripheral components and the features within the component peripherals.

Once the HRS document is prepared the hardware requirements are agreed by the project sponsor and the higher management then the below documents gets created by the project manager of the project responsible.

Project plan

Resource Estimate

Statement of Work (SOW)

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA)

Component Selection

In this stage electrical components are selected to meet the requirements of the product. Decision criteria for selecting components is,

1. What would be main processing element (Microprocessor vs Micro controller)
If the product performs some simple known set of functions Micro controller would be sufficient (E.g.: Washing machine)However if general purpose functions are required a microprocessor is better suited (E.g.: Mobile phone)

2. How the product is powered (Battery powered or Wall powered).

If the product is battery powered the electrical components should be low power components which preserve the battery.

3. Component Form Factor or physical dimensions.

4. Component features

5. Component cost

It is important at this stage that the business analyst involve in and input the touch and inputs of the general user expectations as it is very much important to keep in mind that at the end of the day these hardware pieces are used by general public.

For example if the system needs to use a camera then it is important to read and study about the legal bindings  towards video capturing of a user without notifications.These concerns needs to get addressed.

More over it is really important to research and find on the availability of the components which you selected as it is always a high risk about the availability of the hardware components.It is always important to stay updated about the technologies, components and concepts.Another example is that in early days having VGA (Video Graphics Array) capability is very much essential though now a days VGA can be easily replaced  using HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) .So it is really important to have that knowledge when designing and selecting components for a hardware implementation.

Architecture Design

This phase is one of the most important stages in the entire process. The complete architecture design of the product is done during this stage. The outcome of this stage is the ‘Hardware Design Specification (HDS)’ document which contains details information of the entire system architecture. The team spends considerable amount of time in this stage to minimize errors in the design since errors found in latter stages would be costly.

Design Verification

Once the HDS is prepared the next step is to verify the design. All the necessary hardware components are purchased and the design is broken down to smaller units for testing individual component.Once the unit testing is complete, the entire system is assembled and tested to verify the design.

If there are any changes to be done to the architecture design, they are included to the HDS in this stage. Possible caused for design changes would be,

1.Electrical components do not behave in the manner mentioned in the technical documents. (E.g.: Some features are not properly functioning or power consumption is very much higher than mentioned value)

2.Errors in the original Hardware Requirement Specification.

Schematic Capture

Once the design is finalized, the electronic schematic diagram of the design is drawn. This task can be done using various Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools such as Cadence OrCAD, Altium Designer or gEDA (open source) etc...

This stage is another very important stage in the design process. Each and every hardware component of the design should be added and the respective electrical connections between them should be correctly drawn. The schematic diagram drawn in this stage is used to generate the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) layout which is used to create the actual Printed Circuit Board. Therefore any errors introduced in this stage would be very costly. Therefore the technical team spend a considerable amount of time drawing and verifying the electronic schematic diagram.

PCB Layout

The completed schematic diagram is then converted to the PCB layout. PCB layout is the digital representation of the final PCB-Printed Circuit Board. 

There are many constrains to be considered when designing the PCB layout. Some of the constrains could be,

1    The PCB dimensions. - This depends on the final product dimensions

2. Where the components are should be placed in the PCB - This again depends on the mechanical design of the final product and other constraints. (E.g.: A compass and a speaker should not be placed very closely since the magnetic field of the speaker affects the reading of the compass)

3. Number of Layers in the PCB. - Even though the components are soldered in the top and bottom layers of the printed circuit board, PCB and constitute of internal layers for interconnections (routing). The number of layers should be used in a particular design depends on the component density, PCB dimension, cost and the capabilities of the PCB manufacture.

4. Routing Considerations. - During the routing of electrical signals, some standards have to be followed.

(E.g.: When routing USB signals, all the signal paths should be of same length)

 PCB Fabrication

A printed circuit board (PCB) is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. PCB fabrication is the process in which these Printed Circuit Boards are manufactured. Fabricated Printed Circuit Boards are also called ‘bare-boards’.

Etching

Printed Circuit Board manufacturer uses laminate material with copper already applied to both sides. The unwanted copper is removed by various methods leaving only the desired copper traces. Some methods used are,

1.  Silk screen printing  - The main commercial method

2.  Photographic methods - Used when fine line widths are required

Printed Circuit Board (PBC) Assembly

This stage is where the electrical components are soldered to the fabricated PCB. High volume production is usually done with SMT pick and place machines and reflow ovens however skilled technicians are able to solder very tiny parts by hand under a microscope.
This process also outsource by the company in concern to a suitable PCB house since infrastructure is not available internally. However the technical team constantly communicates with the PCB house providing assistant.

Board Bring-up

Board bring-up stage is where the technical team ascertains whether the design is satisfactory. This is done in several steps.

1.Visual Inspection. - Inspect the PCBs to ascertain there are no damaged components or PCBs.

2.Electrical Component Verification - Verify the components soldered to the PCB are exact correct components.

3. Apply Power - Verify the voltage levels are at acceptable levels in all the points in the Printed Circuit Board.

4. Program the PCB with preliminary Software - The Printed Circuit Board (PBC) is programmed with preliminary software (E.g.: A simple boot loader) to verify the Microprocessor or the micro controller is booting correctly and the basic components (E.g.: Memory, Permanent storage) are working correctly.

Usually this phase takes a lot of time and effort. When bringing-up a new PCB various electrical issues arrive. It takes a lot of effort to identify these errors and correct them.

However some errors cannot be corrected during this stage. For example if the error is propagated from the schematic capture stage (incorrect electrical connection), another iteration of all the stages from the schematic capture phase has to be performed.

Operating System Porting / Driver Development

In this stage the required operating system or the firmware is developed and programmed as agreed in the Hardware Requirements Specification stage. 

Application Development

When the design process arrives at this stage, the Printed Circuit Board is fully functioning. If there are applications to be developed as agreed in the Hardware Requirement Specification Stage, a technical team is involved in developing those applications.

Testing

Once the application development is complete the product is subjected to extensive testing process. Testing is performed to ascertain,

 1.   Hardware functions to the accepted quality.

 2.  Software functions to the accepted quality.

The testing team performs various tests in the stage. Some examples of the tests performed would be,

1. Load Testing.

2. Heat Dissipation Testing.

3.Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Testing.

Embedded System implementation carries loads of risk unlike software implementation.Unless you identify all the risks at the initial phases of the project the whole implementation process , spent cash and effort can be a waste rather a successful product.It is hard thought very much  interesting and I would say if you are business analyst  to get in to a complete solution implementation you gets the opportunity to learn the inside and out of product implementation.Mostly it is the thinking which will get improved as these products are mostly for large money making organizations and you as a business consultant or business analyst you will need to think of use cases even basing on the location which your customer is hoping to place this product.These use cases addresses many practical scenarios and I would say it is lots of thinking than being a business analyst in the software industry.

So If you get a chance do not hesitate it will change your knowledge level, problem solving or even practical thinking patterns and i would guarantee it will help you to  fasten your career as a business analyst. 

Happy Workers are not Necessarily Productive Workers

It seems intuitively logical that happy and satisfied workers are the productive workers.

Lot of companies spend serious amount of money to improve or increase the satisfaction level of the employees by introducing flexible working hours, onsite child care facilitation, retirement plans, friendly working environment , working from home etc.Organizational management expect a set of satisfies work force by attending to the above mentioned tasks.But they do not get exactly what they want but rather they experience high turn over and low productivity or productivity failures.

The truth is that productivity causes satisfaction than the other way round.

A careful review of evidence finds a correlation of only about +0.41 between satisfaction and productivity. (Robbins, Stephen, The truth about managing people ..And Nothing But the Truth)

Productivity leads to satisfaction.If you do a good job and feel you are using you core skills you have, if you feel that you are an important resource to the company, if you feel that the organization rewards your productivity, if the organization does a good pay to the work you do, you are probably satisfies and happy.Personnel goals should always be encourages and satisfies whilst the organization achieves its goals.

When an employee starts to realize that she/he is a valuable individual to the organization and not just a resource whom can be replaces by another easily and when she/he realize that the are doing what they are good at or when they realize that they are practicing what they like, naturally the enthusiasm gets increased and starts to do more and more good amount of work or  productive amount of work.It generate quality output to satisfy them and the productivity naturally gets increased.

As managers what is expected is not finding ways to improve the satisfaction of the employees rather help them to be productive in the work they do.Introduce new tools, effective training sessions, improve job design and most importantly remove all barriers which stops them doing their best.

So improve productivity for a satisfied work force. 

Positive Thinking

Positive thinking is is a mental attitude that sees the bright side of things.It can be described as the practice of embracing the affirmative in our thoughts, our feelings, our actions, our reactions and our speech.It is a scientifically proven fact and this concept is called as neuroplasticity.

Think of the great personalities like steve jobs.He faced many failures in life though he always faced all of them with  courage.From where did he get this courage which most of us do not have.when he was deprived of education and finally gets a college thus starting to know that his parents do not have enough money Steve Jobs thought to him self, left school thus thought something good will happen.When he was sacked from his own company he was courageous to start another 2 companies and even said id he was not sacked he had not gotten this chance to open the new companies.When he got to know he have a cancer he thought if its the last day in his life what he should do.What a courageous character.

Lord Buddha said who you are is defined by your mind.So as per every one when you imagine those imaginations becomes your thought  then your hope and they show in your actions.

Everyday from home to office and backward you may face so many incidents.some are controllable and some aren't. So why should we worry about things which we do not have control of.Remember what you think turns to what you feel and what you believe and gradually it turns to be your behavior.

So as per the image above thoughts of a person becomes his belief.This belief is what we feel and determine turns to feelings.Finally these feelings creates the behavior or actions.

This is why positive thinking is very much important.If you start something with negative words such as NO, CAN' T, IMPOSSIBLE  and so on and so forth you will never believe in your capabilities or even about in your self.The tendency for failure becomes high.

Richard Branson says always take up every opportunity with out saying NO.If you do not know how to do it learn and then do.That is the spirit one should have and that is the spirit most of the companies are looking for today.Practicing positive thinking can be a daily exercise as in life we face so many instances which we have to believe or trust without knowing what we do.Always keep trust in yourself and take up the challenge.Life becomes more and more live and kicking when you face those challenges.

Remember 

No matter what you see

It’s how you see it

I can say all these tings to you but its you who  should take the challenge of positive thinking.

All the Best!!! 

Decision Making Skill

People often find it hard to make decisions - inevitably we all have to make decisions all the time, some are more important than others.   Some people put off making decisions by endlessly searching for more information or getting other people to offer their recommendations.  Others resort to decision making by taking a vote, sticking a pin in a list or tossing a coin.

Regardless of the effort that is put into making a decision, it has to be accepted that some decisions will not be the best possible choice.  This page examines one technique that can be used for effective decision making and that should help you to make effective decisions now and in the future. 

Although the following technique is designed for an organisational or group structure, it can be easily adapted to an individual level.

What is Decision Making?

In its simplest sense: 'Decision Making is the act of choosing between two or more courses of action'.

However, it must always be remembered that there may not always be a 'correct' decision among the available choices. There may have been a better choice that had not been considered, or the right information may not have been available at the time.  Because of this, it is important to keep a record of all important decisions and the reasons why these decisions were made, so that improvements can be made in the future. This also provides justification for any decision taken when something goes wrong.  Hindsight might not be able to correct past mistakes, but it will aid improved decision making in the future.

Stages of Effective Decision Making

Many different techniques of decision making have been developed, ranging from simple rules of thumb, to extremely complex procedures.

The stages are:

1. Listing all possible solutions/options.
2. Setting a time scale and deciding who is responsible for the decision.
3. Information gathering.
4. Weighing up the risks involved.
5. Deciding on values, or in other words what is important.
6. Weighing up the pros and cons of each course of action.
7. Making the decision.

Listing Possible Solutions/Options

In order to come up with a list of all the possible solutions and/or options available it is usually appropriate to work on a group (or individual) problem-solving process. This process, could include brainstorming or some other 'idea generating' process.

This stage is important to the overall decision making processes as a decision will be made from a selection of fixed choices.  Always remember to consider the possibility of not making a decision or doing nothing and be aware that both options are actually potential solutions in themselves.

Setting a Time Scale and Deciding Who is Responsible for the Decision

In deciding how much time to make available for the decision making process, it helps to consider the following:

• How much time is available to spend on this decision?
• Is there a deadline for making a decision and what are the consequences of missing this deadline?
• Is there an advantage in making a quick decision?
• How important is it to make a decision?  How important is it that the decision is right?
• Will spending more time improve the quality of the decision?

Responsibility For The Decision

Before making a decision, it needs to be clear who is going to take responsibility for the decision. Remember that it is not always those making the decision who have to assume responsibility for it.  Is it an individual, a group or an organisation?  This is a key question because the degree to which responsibility for a decision is shared can greatly influence how much risk people are willing to take.

If the decision making is for work then it is helpful to consider the structure of the organisation that you are in. Is the individual responsible for the decisions he or she makes or does the organisation hold ultimate responsibility?  Who has to carry out the course of action decided?  Who will it affect if something goes wrong?  Are you willing to take responsibility for a mistake?

Finally, you need to know who can actually make the decision?  When helping a friend, colleague or client to reach a decision, in most circumstances the final decision and responsibility will be taken by them.  Whenever possible, and if it is not obvious, it is better to make a formal decision as to who is responsible for a decision. This idea of responsibility also highlights the need to keep a record of how any decision was made, what information it was based on and who was involved.  Enough information needs to be kept to justify that decision in the future so that, if something does go wrong, it is possible to show that your decision was reasonable in the circumstance and given the knowledge you held at the time.