This was my ‘underground’ project for two years. To publish a non-technically-technical book.
It was about simplifying the understanding of wireless communication. Ever since I started working, I used to look for books which would compliment and possibly enhance understanding of my work at office and things around in general. I felt there was a gap. We solved heaps and heaps of Fourier equations in text book. At work place we were reading just functional spec and design spec. We juggled with Maxwell’s wave equations for semester exams, but in our every day life, we don’t seem to understand, how a simple Radio works.
After searching for couple of years, I figured out those books which are already out there on wireless topics, are either written by a professor or a research scholar at a university or an expert in communication theory, people “who knew little too much”. There were hardly any books written with the intention of filling the gap I mentioned.
Most of the books were fairly technical in nature, written in extremely difficult language for a beginner. It is still fine, but they had very few illustrations. Needless to say, a book on wireless communication (a highly invisible subject) is incomplete if it does not paint reader’s imagination. Those which had, had Diagrams; those in tight geometrical shapes.
One evening, I happened to be there at Ankit Fadia’s book launch in Oxford Book store at Leela Palace. He is a young genius, security expert, etc etc. When I flipped through the pages that day, I said “Crap. If a book can be made out of this content, then I think I can deliver better”. Even you can. This prompted me.
I knew exactly how it should look when the book is finished. Fairly compact, easy in English, broad overview of the topic, hand-drawn illustrations and so forth. My language was OK. I needed to study more to keep it technically accurate. I wanted to do illustration by myself, but my sketching skills were not so great. ( I thought it is difficult to find an illustrator, who could understand a technical subject).
I worked incessantly for two years. I bought every possible book available in stores about the topic. ( Just to see what is that I hate about that book). Made tons of notes. Surfed like maniac. Revived my school time drawing traits.
Some days, I worked on it morning till evening, sacrificed several weekends. Also kept my notebook by the bedside. Sadly there were also days, I gave up completely, sometimes for weeks. It was difficult to imagine myself as an author. A publisher would really be interested ?? I don’t have a Ph.d or any history of publishing in IEEE journals. Some uncertainty.
I set personal milestones, to complete it within a year. By the year end it was in a good shape. But was still not ready to go to a publisher. I said “another six months”. Even after Six months, it still looked the same. There is so much more to do. I took yet another six months. I still saw it as “unfinished”. Meanwhile, my frustration grew and went out of the roof. If you ask me, it would have never looked finished, even after it would have hit the stands. I simply gave it up a year ago.
Just around the time when I was thinking of discontinuing the project, I approached Tata Mc-Grawhill. Just to see if I get some sort of a encouragement. They were not keen.
I finally kept that in a folder and forgot about it. Yesterday, nearly after an year, I felt this work should be unearthed. Even if am not going to work on it, let it benefit and possibly inspire some one out there. I am sharing this ebook in pdf format. It is in ‘as it is’ format when I left it. Half-done, Unfinished.
Feel free to download and share with any one else.
Almost Everyones guide to Wireless communication (2 MB )
If you think it deserves some pat, I have a paypal account.
Thanks
Adarsh, 
Arvind, 
Manya Soman, and 
hehehhelol….I have known you for ages now….nah…we need to find a better resemblance for u!
Me and 5 others are discussing. 
anon are discussing. 
Prashant Chauhan, 
pradeep are discussing. 
Indu is discussing. 
kk 10:29 AM on August 1, 2008 Permalink
In cricket you know every second of the players play and you are convinced the he deserves it.
admin 6:43 PM on August 1, 2008 Permalink
May be you are right, In Cricket there are more eyes around and more judges, on and off the TV, to convince that the winner deserves. And in corporate setting it is just your manager, who could be disillusioned ?
Point is how you treat Type-2’s. They are good many in number,their combined contribution is still significant, but they go unnoticed and unrewarded.
Avik 11:30 AM on August 3, 2008 Permalink
To continue the analogy with cricket, let me point out that cricket is a statistician’s dream-come-true. One look at the scorecard tells who is the best (most of the time), so less chance of controversy. Not the same with work. How do you differentiate? It’s a lot more subjective in nature and most of the times the-above-average-employee thinks s/he is way-above-average which is not same. And there is problem with fitting people into bands. What about who is not just ok-ok but better than that, but at the same time not ‘the performer’ also… tough choice…
A T M 7:52 PM on August 4, 2008 Permalink
Score board, yea, is a good measure. How about introducing similar score card system for every tasks and activities in corporates. We score singles, fours and sixers and the score board ticks. End of the year, there is no dispute.
Adarsh 8:23 AM on August 5, 2008 Permalink
For the Question 1) why should we reward..
The man of the match award money is actually shared within the team.. But, in corporate, if all the bonus that the team gets shared evenly, then the performers will stop performing thinking that their efforts get them just like the other guys.. the poor guys remain poor as they know they make money anyways..End result.. Team goes down the drain..
Now for the question 2) how to motivate the OKOK types.
for that you need a long stick, which is well covered with mirchi powder on one end and the other end should be help by the manager
A T M 6:54 AM on August 10, 2008 Permalink
Funny and Practical Adarsh. You fit to be a manager now.