“I think, therefore I am” has been taken as the holy grail of existence by several biologists. Advancement in computing technologies has made it possible to transmit some of that “thinking” to computers. I first programmed a computer (in fact saw one) when I was eighteen (making me a “digital migrant” as against a “digital native” – that’s the genesis of the blog’s name ). Those were the mainframe-days where life beyond vi was impossible. Along came Windows with its GUI promise. Irrespective of the platform, software products with their increasing tendency of transcending the human-computer division had always held my fascination. The first six years of my professional career was spent in the capital markets moving from the back office in buy-side Institutions to the front office and then retreating to the middle office. I just couldn’t stop admiring the elegance with which vast amount of information was moved through invisible networks and delivered to desks of financial professionals just so they could make better decisions. I was enthralled using software applications that allowed complex manipulations of numbers – again just so mankind could make better judgment. My interest in software applications was now beginning to brim over. It was then that I crossed the Rubicon, into the world that actually built software applications.
I built software systems around financial applications (that was the only thing I knew). I built them for small start-ups incubated by large software companies, understanding what it is to be on the edge of obliteration only to pull back with a product that made the world sit up and take notice. I built them for global multinationals that never could imagine “off-shoring” Product Management – the most precious reason of their existence. I have been building software products in this “Flat World”. I cannot claim to have seen it all but I have witnessed a fair amount.
This blog is my medium to share the breathtaking experience I have had while admiring software products as a user and then during my larger stint of building them. Needless to mention that whatever views I express here are that of my own and not of my employers.
Sincerely
Subrata Majumdar
