C-Section, Top Performer Qualities, revenge bedtime procrastination, DeepMind Breakthrough
Welcome to Sridhar’s newsletter number # 23. Appreciate you being here, so we can connect weekly on interesting topics. Add your email id here to get this directly to your inbox (https://sridhargarikipati.substack.com).
This weekly newsletter is mostly about the article, books, videos etc. I read or watch or my views on different topics which revolves around my head during the week. Now, let us dive into this week’s reads.
1. C-Section associated with an increased risk of childhood infection
One of tweet made me land to this article, where latest research has shown that cesarean section is associated with an increased risk of childhood infections. Majorly this study is performed in high income countries, where living standards and health ratings are better and done at count of 7.7 million. This study made me read further as this detail is something I wanted to read since long, as I am from India where C-Sections are done at high scale. Studies like these should be done more and more, as it will help any couple with great information what to choose for if it was an option. Thanks to the team who has done this study, as more insights are needed in this area.
They followed the children through their 5th birthdays and noticed C-Section babies had 10% higher risk of Infections which can cause hospitalizations. These risks were seen over five years since birth and cases reported higher for respiratory, gastrointestinal, and viral infections.
The reason why this research and other new research are needed in this area is, if say this article findings are proven with more scientific findings. This will give couples information to make selection if option is given between C-Section and vaginally born.
Give a read, link below!
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003429
2. Be your team Top Performer
Do you ever think, how someone in your team is always special, they are torch bearer and always first preference in team for management, the go to person and most secured job in the team irrespective of how team ramps up or down? Yes, they cultivate certain qualities and if you notice, you can also adapt those qualities in you to become your team super star. I am drafting few things which comes to mind quickly and you guys can add more in the comments below so we can help each other.
They are always on learning mode. Either its learning a new skills which is required for the job or existing work skills which are lagging and needs improvements. As more skills are added which are value to team and company, it will automatically result in their day-to-day deliverables, so they have built a path so clear that it will get recognized. Also, these skills you add will not just help in current position but will also prepare one for next higher positions and can fit to any team on any company.
If you are not sure of which skills to get add, do look out for a mentor, or colleague in workplace or look at your project, you can see the bottle necks clearly. If the case is like, you want to learn a skill for which you do not have any work experience, refer to other colleagues in different department or use LinkedIn like tools for networking. Do not hesitate, just follow industry leaders in that area and hit those connection request and ask for the help. Remember the person really performing the job, is the best person to share you what books, trainings, certifications are worth your time.
The unique quality on such resource is always that, they step up. In those group meetings, they are the first one to voice the solution to problems. So not just the hard skills are needed to give a solution, we would need soft skills as well to communicate solution well, so to show ownership or leadership in team we would need to improve our soft skills.
They act in best interest of team always. Not just performing their tasks, they take the team ownership. That is by helping other team members as well in completing their tasks. Just this week, I was in one of team meeting with people from different departments. One person stepped up and mentioned that, he/she has the skills which are needed by different department and was ready to help for next few weeks which includes also completing their own assigned tasks. People like these are welcomed not just within their own team but also in other departments. the more and more we have people with this quality, it will make team stronger. Do note, not everyone is genius in a team, it is the team effort which makes the team genius.
Going back to #1, They really understand their work Industry. Not just their current work, they are always on learning what latest happenings in the industry, get them up skill with all latest skills in market. This is important for everyone, as not just becoming crucial for your team, becoming crucial to Industry teams will make yourself unique, so can shine in any team.
Do let me know in comments, what qualities do you think are owned by such top performers and how everyone of us can learn/gain those qualities. Yes, work is needed, but it is good for our careers.
Image Credit - Google.
3. The psychology behind ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’
BBC did an article on this topic which I read this week. It started with Chinese 9-9-6 work culture which is 9 Am to 9 PM, 6 days a week. One is giving almost 14-15 hours of their time daily to work if you include showing up to work, travelling etc. Science has proven that every adult requires 8 hours of sleep for sure, so if one is working these many number of hours, They have very few hours to have their food, talk to their partners or read/play with their kids, and even they carve out max 30 minutes for self which can be learning something which is needed for their job or a new hobby or passing time in front of TV or Mobile, they are hardly left with 6 hours of sleep per day. Knowing that putting less than 8 hours of sleep per day will impact our health, people are still pushing their time more and more to separate their work hours and get time for themselves and their families, is hard hitting the sleep schedule.
Psychology is terming this as one’s revenge to gain their personal time, as it clearly shows a revenge like emotion here, that people are ready to take some leisure time out for themselves and families at the expense of sleep.
This behavior is not just for 9 to 9 working people, this is applicable to many. See any couple with newborn baby, you will easily notice this that once the baby is slept at night, the couple gets the time to work, talk or spend time leisurely. They extend their sleep schedule, knowing next morning they will be sleep deprived. Here is the link to an article, do give a read.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201123-the-psychology-behind-revenge-bedtime-procrastination
4. DeepMind AI solution solved Proteins folding problem
Deep Mind is a decade old company, which was brought by Google in 2014. This company so far achievements were mostly in games, they built systems that surpassed human intelligence. On Nov 30th, 2020, they came into news with a breakthrough, that is solving 50 years old challenge to scientists which their Alpha Fold AI system solved by knowing how proteins are folded, they call it as “The protein folding problem “. Basically, proteins are those tiny, tiny things in our body which drive the behavior of viruses, bacteria, all human body. A major challenge is how a protein in initial phase starts folding in infinite ways and turn into 3D structure. Scientist needs this identification of shape of protein and it would require hell of experimentation, now this study has cracked to give result how a protein is folded to its final structure in matter of days.
So why this is so important. Right now, we are in this pandemic since more than 8 months, so it might be late in game for current situation, but this will be a game change for future viruses to understand it much faster and come up with medications to multiple diseases quickly. If scientists can understand shape of a protein in the human body, they can determine how other molecules in our body map to it, so it will give them better understanding of virus etc. Read the blog here.
https://deepmind.com/blog/article/alphafold-a-solution-to-a-50-year-old-grand-challenge-in-biology
That is all for this week. See you again.
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