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Saturday, 6 May 2017

Get better at anything. Try the "10,000 Hours rule"

How many hours would per day would you recommend to work at a particular skill ? In totaly per week, to become outstanding at something.

Now a while ago in this famous book "outliers" Malcolm Gladwell came up with a 10,000 hours rule. This theory was that if you spent 10,000 hours working on something then you will get to Masterclass level. He gave examples of the beatles who toured Germany in the early 60's and built up their 10,000 hours of practice and Bill Gates who got his first computer as a young teenager and spent over 10,000 hours programmming on it. But do you actually need to spend 10,000 hours to become world class at a particular skill? 
So here is my three thoughts on it.

1) YOUR PASSION MATTERS:
You can spend hours and hours and hours and hours working at something and if you're not passionate about it, you're not going to become master class level.
Just think about when you are in school, there are some subjects that you love, and some subjects that you hate and no matter how much time you spent on the subject that hate, your growth would grow so slowly and painfully, but the subject that you love and genuinely intrested in, you would learn so much faster. 
And thats the problem with most people today, they are working the jobs that they hate. They graduated with whatever degree entered the workforce and they spent 10, 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years in a company that they hate. 
You can spend 10 years in a company and never get that big promotion, never get to be the CEO, or anywhere close to where even though you spent the 10,000 hours plus 20,000 hours and even 30,000 hours, you're never getting to the level you want to be because you're not passionate enough about it. If you are genuinely intrested in the subject you are learning, you are going to pick it up much more quicker than the one you are forced to do something that you hate. 

2)NOT ALL HOURS ARE THE SAME:
The fastest way to pick something up and the fastest way to learn a new skill is to model success. Get a coach, get a trainer or get a teacher. You need to get somebody to show you the ropes. The slowest way to figure something out is to try to understand that yourself and make all the mistakes other people have already made. So 10,000 hours trying to struggle to figure it all out for yourself may be equivalent to 500 hours of being taught by a professional and how to do it.
So not all hours are created equal. If you model success and learn from the best, you'll achieve results alot faster than someone who tries to do everything themsef. 

3)WHY DO YOU REALLY CARE?
So my third point is that, why do you really care? I ask this because if you're asking how many hours it takes to get really good at something, how many hours you need to dedicate in your week to get good at this particular skill, then it kindof tells you that you're not really that intrested in learning the skill.
If you really want to get better at something, then you should feel like you're getting lost in it. Like you could wake up in the morning and start working on it and then look up and its already six o'clock at night and you're not keeping track of the hours to say " ohh only hundred more hours untill i get really good at this". Its like a man who opened up a business just to make alot of money. You find that they never do. They struggle and struggle and they tell themselves that if i keep this struggle up then eventually ill make my millions of dollars. But they never get there because they never loved it in the first place. 
You should want to get better at that skill, it should drive you, it should fuel you and it should make you happy and excited to learn and get better. 

So if you have a number in your head like that's your end goal, like when i get to that number of hours then i'll become really good and im going to achieve success, that's the wrong way to look at it. Instead you should find a skill or goal that you really want to get better at, something where you stop tracking the hours, something that you can really have a positive impact on the world with.
And if that's your intention and you work hard at it, you will achieve masterclass level.

Friday, 5 May 2017

The Impact of Gwadar port on China, Pakistan and the world

Gwadar port is a warm-water, deep sea port situated on the Arabian sea at Gwadar in Balochistan province of Pakistan. This port is the major destination in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).



History:
The word Gwadar is actually made of two words, 'Gwat' which means wind, and 'Dar' which means Door, in The Balochi language.
For almost hundred and fifty years Gwadar remained part of Oman. The town of Gwadar was purchased by the Government of Pakistan from the Sultan of Muscat in 1958.
At that time it was a small village of fishery with a population of few thousand people.

View of Gwadar in the 1950s.

Construction:
Gwadar port was developed by the government of Pakistan at a cost of $2.48 million.
Phase 1 of the construction started in 2001 till 2006. Status: completed
Inaugrated by General Pervaiz Mushrraf on 20th march.
Phase 2 started in 2007 and is till going on. US Dollars 932million has been invested. Status: underconstruction.

Operation: 
Gwader is owned by the "Government Owned Port Authority" and is operated by state run Chinese firm "China Overseas Port Holding Company (COPHC)".
Earlier it was operated by "Port of Singapore Authority (PSA)" but failed to make it operational.
In september 2011, the wall street journal reported that Gwadar is doing little business as a commercial port, and that Pakistan has asked china to take over the operation. China confirmed that it would be taking control over Gwadar as it had many strategic advantages.
Pakistan on 18th February 2013 was formally awarded a multi billion dollar contract for construction of Gwadar port. Under the contract, the port will remain the property of Pakistan but will be operated by state run Chinese firm.

Strategic Importance:

The Gwader port is important not only for Pakistan, but China, the Central Asian Republics (CARS) and the entire region. The Corridor will help cut the journey time for Freight between Gwadar port, West China and the Central Asian regions by 60 to 70 percent.
China used to take a whole round of thousands of miles in the sea in order to get its oil import ships. Transportation of oil from Persian Gulf to China used to take about 2 to 3 months. Now it will enable China to more safely and reliably import oil.
Just by attracting the oil import, Pakistan will be making atleast $4 to $8 billion dollars in annual revenue and this Chinease petrol import is just one piece of the business.

Gwadar port importance for China:
China has the largest population of around 1.371 billion according to 2015 Census report and to fulfil its energy needs, China imports oil from the middle east. Now for that China has to travel a long distance in order to get those oil. 
Gwadar on the other hand is surrounded by countries having two third oil reserves. Gwadar can act as shortest trade route to China.

Importance of CPEC for China:

The Chinese industries are facing trouble competing in the global market due to high transportion cost and delievery time. China is using a longest way due to which gives a competitive edge to competitors example Japan and The United States.
Now this new route from Gwadar Pakistan has solved many problems for China and will save Billions of Dollars and will reduce time. A bonus for both the countries.

Importance for Central Asian Countries:
Land locked countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan since they have no sea-port and Gwadar is shortest way to sea, these countries have shown great intrest in Gwadar port and will use Gwadar port for trade purpose.

Importance for Pakistan: 
The Gwadar port is the corridor for billions worth of trade, not only that but it will also place the Pakistan Navy in a very strong position, relationships with neighbouring countries can be improved and trade can be enhanced, Pakistan can improve its foreign exchange reserves and improve the overall economy of the country.

Importance for Balochistan:
Last and most importantly, Balochistan. Due to this project, 200,000 new enterprises and a million jobs for locals will be created, three hundred new factories and with that four hundred jobs will be created.
According to minister Ahsan Iqbal, Balochistan will generate a massive total business revenue of $40 billion plus in the next decade crossing lahore as the second most revenue generating city, according to 'brandsynario.com, Pakistan's Gwadar is "The next Dubai of Pakistan". 
Gwadar will not only be a "port gold mine" for Pakistan but also a revolution of real estate world. More than 12 housing schemes worth more than 9.5 billion have started building millions of houses.
Nine skyscrapers, roads highways and Universities are also underconstruction.

How Gwadar Balochistan could look like in 20 years







Thursday, 20 April 2017

Things to do in your 20s to become successful

People strive to become succeful and only the most determined ones achieve this goal. The biggest setbacks that people encounter when working towards becoming a millionare is the lack of motivation to improve and polish their skills that would help them achieve this goal.
Here are the seven skills that every person needs to work on to achieve whatever they aim to achieve in life:

1) Communication Skill
Communication is the most important factor to becoming successful. Effective communication is a must-have skill in order to set and get deals and effieciently putting accross your messages. 

2) Emotional Intelligence
There is this famous saying by Theodore Roosevelt that, "people don't care about what you know unless they know how much you care". What this means is, is that you must understand and give people what they want. You must develop emotional intelligence in order to get into the minds of people, to make them feel like you completely understand them and that they are not alone.  

3) Innovation
Succesful people are always inovative. They think of how we can improve this product. They think outside the box. They have this thing called 'depth of vision'. Where other people see problems, they see it like an oppertunity and possible solutions. 

4) Money Management
This is an important one. You wont be able to manage large amount of money if you can't manage small amounts of money. Smart and succeful people have check over their bank account balance at all times and record their expenditures and know its worth.

5) Setting Goals
Let me tell you something. Many people make this mistake. They don't set goals. They just go with the flow. You know what happens to them? Nothing. They have nothing to live for. 
Every little goal you set is a stepping stone for achieving something big because as you strive to acieve it, it makes you better. Plus it helps you in accomplishing things faster as it is always in the back of your mind.

6) Understanding the value of team work
Every successful man has a team behind him. They can't do it all alone. The faces you see on t.v, in concerts or anywhere, they have this whole team behind, operating and taking care of the work. 
Now you need to learn how to work with the team. There is this popular saying, " Teamwork makes the dream work" and its true. Start working with people, and learn to resolve the problems that occur in them. 

7) Leadership:
Every succeful person has this sort of leadership quality. Start working on it. Take charge and start taking responsibilities. People will invest in someone who can do this, so being a leader is a crucial skill in becoming successful.

Thursday, 23 March 2017

I wish i was two



I've had problems keeping up with life and sometimes i wish that either there should be more hours in a day or that there should be two me's. Another me, completely identical, sharing the same thought. 
That would be so cool. I would no longer require being in need of a company of a friend when feeling lonely. He would be the best advisor, a best friend, and would always have my back. 
There are down sides to it, like i probably have to share my room, we might start fighting over something and end up hating each other, an increase of burden on my mum. You know what? Im just trying to brainstorm the negatives for having an another me. But from what i think, there are more plus sides than there are down. I would have another person to play video games with, have a discussion with, two people solve maths better than one. God! Life would get so much better. Might also fill up for me in college or we could even go together. Weird but cool. It would be like a personal assistant of some sort and would stop me from making weird decisions. Also help me in building my career, or we could even start a band. Theres just so many things, can't even imagine, but i just wish. I dont know, but i really wish. 
Ill be waiting for my twin, hoping it pops out from the sky, lands infront of me and go like, "hey, Aatif! im Aatif 2.0" and "let the game begin". 

Culture, is it really important?



Culture plays an important role in a person's life. If a person forgets his culture, he'll then forget his history and where he came from. So till here, you can say that yes, culture should not be forgotten. 
Now i have done a substantial amount of research over the importance of culture. Even listened to radio shows promoting culture and telling how modernization is the reason people are forgetting their cultures. But they failed to give a reason why they are promoting culture? Why is it important to stick with your culture? The reason that they gave when the interviewer asked, why are you guys promoting culture? They said, "we are promoting culture because it is really important" and " we should never forget our culture" and also "if we forget our culture, then God knows whats gonna happen" etc. 
What am i missing here? What disaster do you speak of? 
Culture in my country is used as a way getting votes, winning elections and using the sentiments of people to create disputes, hatered and division among the people by the politicians and the ruleing class. 
I see the United States of America and what i see is they are not totally and completely indulged in there culture. They are mainly proud of calling themselves Americans. That is why in the 2008 elections, The United States saw its first black president. They chose him through merit. If they were to follow their core cultures, Barack Obama would have been stereotyped and been called a (whatever a black person was called in the 80's), and thus not win the elections. 
People of the united states are far much ahead of the world because they are focused on education and welfare of their citizens. 
While In Pakistan, what I see is that the same game is being played by the ruling elites. Provokingthe sentiments of the people and using it against themselves. Dividing each other to whose superior to whome etc.
Being too much indulged in culture comes in the way of education. Women especially in many cultures are not allowed to get higher eductation and also leads to early marriages, and these are just a few of many problems that comes with it. Then there is men being superior to women according to cultures and so that gives them an open hand of abusing women and more. 

I will conclude the topic by just saying that cultural diversity is beautiful, no doubt. Each person brings a  different flavor in a society, but do not get so much involved in it that it would be a reason of our set back. While other nations prosper, we stick with our old rules and norms that would not get us anywhere.




Monday, 27 February 2017

The best wwe game on Xbox360 and PS3 till date 2017

So i was playing wwe 2k16 but was harshly disappointed. They have completely ruined the game to be honest. The only mode you have is the Austin show case in which, yep theres only Austin. Only Austin. Other tha  that, no career mode, the graphics were terrible, monstrous amounts of glitches and to top it all off, that terrible repeated commentary that plays in a loop and does not even follow the moves i perform. The Universe mode gets boring from time to time because of the same story pattern. The whole game is a mess and now they have decided to launch WWE2k17. I didn't bother buying that because now, they have even stripped the showcase from it leaving with just single/double player mode and the wwe universe mode. 

However there is still a bright side to this. I just came across WWE 2k14 and my God, It is by far the best wrestling game i have ever played. Its made purely for the last generation consoles and starting from the gameplay to graphics. Its brilliant. 
You got thirty years of wrestlemania mode in which you play every main events from wrestlemania one to Wrestlemania 29, where John Cena took on The Rock for the WWE championship. Then you have the Undertaker's "Beat the streak" mode in which you either try to break or defend the streak. The graphics are phenomenal and the game play is way too smooth. The rosters hasn't changed much from the current. You still have Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Gold Berg, Brock Lesnar, The Rock and the best in the world CM Punk. There are many and way too many outfits to choose from.

So having played both WWE 2k15 and WWE 2k16, i can say that the game has gone downhill after the making of WWE2k14. 
If ever you feel like buying a wrestling game. I would definitely suggest going for WWE 2k14.

Thursday, 2 February 2017

Big Sean's and Eminem's "No Favor", Have a listen to this.



After all the hype, Big Sean has finally released the long awaited track, "No Favors", which, i dont know about you, but was a total let down for us. 
Off beat track once again by Eminem and same old rhyming scheme.
Big Sean was comparitively better to be honest. Eminem also seemed to take a political jab at Trump, but i doubt that's gonna save the track. No Favors. 
Improve your rhyme Slim. Its like you're not even trying anymore.No favors