Do you ever feel the work you do everyday makes no difference? You work hard everyday. Solve problems for yourself or your customers. Still you are doubtful if the work you do really matters to anyone. What difference does it make if you stop doing it? You are just another cog in a giant machine that can be replaced.
Well you are wrong.
It is not who you are or where you are from that matters. It is what you can do and how you capitalize an opportunity that matters.
Many people make it in software industry, or for that matter any industry, and claim to innovate. Only a few invent something new.
This is a short memoir about my journey of inventing the patented Scalable DeDuplication System and Method algorithm and five crucial lessons from it.
If I can do it, so can you.
It was December of 2006 when I got a call from Guidance Software (GSI) for a role of Software Developer. The recruiter explained the role in a very cryptic way and our conversation went something like this,
Recruiter: Are you looking for a new opportunity?
Me: Yes. What is it?
Recruiter: It is with Guidance Software for a role of Software Developer.
Me: What kind of software?
Recruiter: Computer Forensics.
Me: Computer Forensics, what?
Recruiter: Have you seen CSI? It is kind of same. Just no blood or gore. Only discovering digital data.
Me: Who uses it?
Recruiter: Public firms. Private companies. Three letter agencies. Police departments. You name it.
Me: Sounds interesting. Set me up for an interview.
Had never heard of Computer Forensics in my life before the aforesaid conversation. Although I did have some idea that files once deleted by mistake could possibly be recovered. You see, when you do post-grad in Computer Science, you essentially sign up to be the on-duty tech support for the whole family and have to help them “fix the computer”, like say retrieve deleted photos. But I had no clue that there is a whole software and professional services industry built around it.
For the benefit of the uninitiated, whatever action you do on a computer, it is most probably logged and recorded somewhere. And yes, deleting a file from the Recycle Bin or an email does not really means it is deleted and it most probably can be discovered and recovered, which is also known as an Electronic Discovery or eDiscovery process.
Just remember. You may delete, but you cannot hide, except in a few cases.
No, I am not going to tell you how to delete a file or an email permanently.
Well I may, if you ask nicely.
Anyways, going back to my initiation in Computer Forensics. Was really intrigued by what recruiter told me and researched about this niche field and GSI before the interview. The next day, I drove on the rustic curvy 110 freeway leading to GSI's headquarter near beautiful Old Town Pasadena armed with all the knowledge I had earned through my undergrad and graduate school years and professional work.
To be honest, it was quite an unusual interview. The interviewer just walked in the small conference room I was sitting in and without spending anytime on the usual niceties of customary introductions, he started writing questions on the whiteboard.
One question answered, came the next question. Second answered, he threw another one. And so it went on like a never ending volley of tequila shots. Each one gave me a high and drained me at the same time.
We were about an hour in and the interviewer threw the ultimate curveball at me. He asked, “Is it okay if our Founder and CTO joins us? He codes too by the way and wants to see if you have it in you to take on the new project.”
“Of course, he may”, I said with a smile, but in my mind I was shocked and awed at the same time. “Founder of the company who is also a CTO and still actively codes? Sounds too good to be true”, I wondered. GSI's then CTO joined us and finally the interview ended after a couple of hours.
Will never forget my drive back home that night. While making my way through the virtual parking lot, that is the 110 and 10 intersection through Los Angeles downtown at 8 pm, I thought, “this long arduous interview better be worth it”. And so it was. I got the job and worked at GSI for the next 8 years.
During my time at GSI, I made lots of great friends and got to work with some really genius engineers, amazing managers, and uncommon clients. Rose through the ranks to become Enterprise Application Development Manager and worked on almost every enterprise product developed there. However, above all, I worked on many challenging issues and in the process invented algorithm to solve some really complex problems for which the USPTO has recently granted the US patent 9,672,243.
On my first day at GSI, I was handed a blue notebook and asked to document my ideas, as you never know any one of them could lead to a patent, and I wondered, “what it feels like to get a patent”. Later that year, I was working on GSI's new eDiscovery Enterprise software and we faced an interesting problem of finding and identifying in a very scalable and fast way if we have come across the same file or email in past while searching a computer. You may ask why?
Take a case where company A sues company B for Intellectual Property theft. Litigation starts and lawyers use eDiscovery process to agree, collect, preserve, review, and exchange information in electronic formats. Another case could be, a government agency wants to acquire data from enemy’s computer in a war zone using slow internet connection.
In each of these cases we have to search and collect data from computer and all these steps have to be completed quickly since we have limited time, computer, network, and human resources.
My solution had to work with constraints of limited computer memory, minimal network and database round trips, network latency, minimal intermittent bandwidth, multithreaded parallel concurrent environment, etc.
Came up with a solution that conforms to aforementioned constraints and efficiently identifies if a file is a full duplicate, partial duplicate, or no duplicate i.e. an unique find.
After implementation of the solution, I was happily surprised on being informed that GSI wanted to patent it. To know that the software I wrote not only helps bring accused criminals to justice or settle civil litigation, but also that the solution I invented may be unique in the world, which is worth claiming as an Intellectual Property, is an unforgettable proud moment for me. To know that I created a patentable Intellectual Property that will help people protect their own Intellectual Property elated me the most.
What I did not know was the long drawn roller coaster ride it was going to be to get a patent. It was quite a learning experience and took almost 9 years to finally get an approval. First step was to explain my solution to GSI’s patent attorney in plain and simple terms. Second step was for them to research and find if anyone else had already filed or won a similar claim. Third was for them to write all of my work in legal language and make sure there are no holes that may lead to either denial by the USPTO or unprovable derivatives of my work.
Of course, there are many back and forth between deemed inventor and attorneys through the years until approval. Remember sharing my notes and diagrams with the Intellectual Property attorney, which she said were very useful and submitted in actual filing. Can proudly say, all my diagrams are now part of the approved patent.
Some of the most grueling time starts when there are counter-claims or similar claims, which you have to help debunk. On the flip side, through it you learn a lot too. Nevertheless, the ultimate feeling when your patent is finally approved is just incomparable. It motivates me everyday in any work that I do, whether big or small.
Here are the five major lessons I have drawn from my experience that may help you,
These are my five best tips. And remember, if your company ever gets involved in an Intellectual Property legal suit, arbiters are most probably going to use a software utilizing my algorithm to settle the issue. Cheers for the next big success!
Which of the above tips works for you? Do you have a sixth to add? Let me know in the comments section…
This is a republished copy of my popular LinkedIn Pulse article “Innovation: 5 Powerful Lessons from Journey of an Inventor” and Medium story “Innovation: 5 Powerful Lessons from Journey of an Inventor”.
Tags: #inspiration #motivation #invention #successstory #tips #mystory #myjourney #patent #trademark #intellectualproperty #madeinusa #makeinindia #startupindia #digitalindia #newindia #h1b #greencard #immigration #india #usa #ediscovery #cyber #security #infosec #informationsecurity #cyberthreats #cyberwar #cyberattack #cyberrisk #cybercrime #iptheft #computing #technology #itsecurity #risk #softwarepiracy #cio #cto #tech #mobile #android #encase #guidancesoftware #computerforensics #projectmanagement #leadership #marketing #business #branding #management #entrepreneurship #hardwork #wordsofwisdom #lifetips #lifelessons
Well you are wrong.
It is not who you are or where you are from that matters. It is what you can do and how you capitalize an opportunity that matters.
Many people make it in software industry, or for that matter any industry, and claim to innovate. Only a few invent something new.
This is a short memoir about my journey of inventing the patented Scalable DeDuplication System and Method algorithm and five crucial lessons from it.
If I can do it, so can you.
The Odyssey
It was December of 2006 when I got a call from Guidance Software (GSI) for a role of Software Developer. The recruiter explained the role in a very cryptic way and our conversation went something like this,
Recruiter: Are you looking for a new opportunity?
Me: Yes. What is it?
Recruiter: It is with Guidance Software for a role of Software Developer.
Me: What kind of software?
Recruiter: Computer Forensics.
Me: Computer Forensics, what?
Recruiter: Have you seen CSI? It is kind of same. Just no blood or gore. Only discovering digital data.
Me: Who uses it?
Recruiter: Public firms. Private companies. Three letter agencies. Police departments. You name it.
Me: Sounds interesting. Set me up for an interview.
Had never heard of Computer Forensics in my life before the aforesaid conversation. Although I did have some idea that files once deleted by mistake could possibly be recovered. You see, when you do post-grad in Computer Science, you essentially sign up to be the on-duty tech support for the whole family and have to help them “fix the computer”, like say retrieve deleted photos. But I had no clue that there is a whole software and professional services industry built around it.
For the benefit of the uninitiated, whatever action you do on a computer, it is most probably logged and recorded somewhere. And yes, deleting a file from the Recycle Bin or an email does not really means it is deleted and it most probably can be discovered and recovered, which is also known as an Electronic Discovery or eDiscovery process.
Just remember. You may delete, but you cannot hide, except in a few cases.
No, I am not going to tell you how to delete a file or an email permanently.
Well I may, if you ask nicely.
Anyways, going back to my initiation in Computer Forensics. Was really intrigued by what recruiter told me and researched about this niche field and GSI before the interview. The next day, I drove on the rustic curvy 110 freeway leading to GSI's headquarter near beautiful Old Town Pasadena armed with all the knowledge I had earned through my undergrad and graduate school years and professional work.
To be honest, it was quite an unusual interview. The interviewer just walked in the small conference room I was sitting in and without spending anytime on the usual niceties of customary introductions, he started writing questions on the whiteboard.
One question answered, came the next question. Second answered, he threw another one. And so it went on like a never ending volley of tequila shots. Each one gave me a high and drained me at the same time.
We were about an hour in and the interviewer threw the ultimate curveball at me. He asked, “Is it okay if our Founder and CTO joins us? He codes too by the way and wants to see if you have it in you to take on the new project.”
“Of course, he may”, I said with a smile, but in my mind I was shocked and awed at the same time. “Founder of the company who is also a CTO and still actively codes? Sounds too good to be true”, I wondered. GSI's then CTO joined us and finally the interview ended after a couple of hours.
Will never forget my drive back home that night. While making my way through the virtual parking lot, that is the 110 and 10 intersection through Los Angeles downtown at 8 pm, I thought, “this long arduous interview better be worth it”. And so it was. I got the job and worked at GSI for the next 8 years.
During my time at GSI, I made lots of great friends and got to work with some really genius engineers, amazing managers, and uncommon clients. Rose through the ranks to become Enterprise Application Development Manager and worked on almost every enterprise product developed there. However, above all, I worked on many challenging issues and in the process invented algorithm to solve some really complex problems for which the USPTO has recently granted the US patent 9,672,243.On my first day at GSI, I was handed a blue notebook and asked to document my ideas, as you never know any one of them could lead to a patent, and I wondered, “what it feels like to get a patent”. Later that year, I was working on GSI's new eDiscovery Enterprise software and we faced an interesting problem of finding and identifying in a very scalable and fast way if we have come across the same file or email in past while searching a computer. You may ask why?
Take a case where company A sues company B for Intellectual Property theft. Litigation starts and lawyers use eDiscovery process to agree, collect, preserve, review, and exchange information in electronic formats. Another case could be, a government agency wants to acquire data from enemy’s computer in a war zone using slow internet connection.
In each of these cases we have to search and collect data from computer and all these steps have to be completed quickly since we have limited time, computer, network, and human resources.My solution had to work with constraints of limited computer memory, minimal network and database round trips, network latency, minimal intermittent bandwidth, multithreaded parallel concurrent environment, etc.
Came up with a solution that conforms to aforementioned constraints and efficiently identifies if a file is a full duplicate, partial duplicate, or no duplicate i.e. an unique find.After implementation of the solution, I was happily surprised on being informed that GSI wanted to patent it. To know that the software I wrote not only helps bring accused criminals to justice or settle civil litigation, but also that the solution I invented may be unique in the world, which is worth claiming as an Intellectual Property, is an unforgettable proud moment for me. To know that I created a patentable Intellectual Property that will help people protect their own Intellectual Property elated me the most.
What I did not know was the long drawn roller coaster ride it was going to be to get a patent. It was quite a learning experience and took almost 9 years to finally get an approval. First step was to explain my solution to GSI’s patent attorney in plain and simple terms. Second step was for them to research and find if anyone else had already filed or won a similar claim. Third was for them to write all of my work in legal language and make sure there are no holes that may lead to either denial by the USPTO or unprovable derivatives of my work.
Of course, there are many back and forth between deemed inventor and attorneys through the years until approval. Remember sharing my notes and diagrams with the Intellectual Property attorney, which she said were very useful and submitted in actual filing. Can proudly say, all my diagrams are now part of the approved patent.
Some of the most grueling time starts when there are counter-claims or similar claims, which you have to help debunk. On the flip side, through it you learn a lot too. Nevertheless, the ultimate feeling when your patent is finally approved is just incomparable. It motivates me everyday in any work that I do, whether big or small.
The Five Key Lessons
Here are the five major lessons I have drawn from my experience that may help you,
- “Want - Availability = Unmet Customer Need” — Prof. Imran Currim, UC Irvine Merage
You do not have to be a full time Entrepreneur to invent something new. You do not have to work at a startup to innovate something groundbreaking. Whether you go at it alone or with a team of like-minded smart people. You just have to understand what customers may need and make it available because you cannot sell what nobody wants. - Thinking outside the box
May sound cliche but it works. First step to innovation is not to restrict your thinking to a limited problem at hand because your solution may be effective for solving multiple problems, some you may not have even thought of at present.
My experience of working on the DeDuplication algorithm in eDiscovery Enterprise software led me to develop Cybersecurity Enterprise software.
A problem may seem complex but who says its solution has to be too. Your solution may seem simple, logical, and trivial to you, but may not be so straightforward for others. Who knows, it may just be unique enough that no one has thought of it before you. - Innovation is a continuous process
Do not think you will wake up one day with a magical idea in your mind and become an inventor. It rarely happens this way. Innovation is a continuous process wherein you have to be creative everyday. One of those creations may just be unique.
5 Cogs of Innovation - You can try but results are not in your hands
Am a firm believer of this incontrovertible crucial lesson and words of wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita. Setting of the goal and path to reach it is in your hands, but whether you will reach is not. Do not let failure dismay you. Persistence is the key. Patience is the virtue.
One of the great American inventors and businessmen Thomas Edison once quipped to a reporter about failure of his experiments and said “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” - Work hard, success will follow
While working on the eDiscovery Enterprise project I also worked on my 20% side project, which was later productized and released as the Cybersecurity Enterprise software. Do not let a single success distract you from taking up new challenges. You should focus on what you can do. Accolades will follow.
That’s it!
These are my five best tips. And remember, if your company ever gets involved in an Intellectual Property legal suit, arbiters are most probably going to use a software utilizing my algorithm to settle the issue. Cheers for the next big success!
Which of the above tips works for you? Do you have a sixth to add? Let me know in the comments section…
This is a republished copy of my popular LinkedIn Pulse article “Innovation: 5 Powerful Lessons from Journey of an Inventor” and Medium story “Innovation: 5 Powerful Lessons from Journey of an Inventor”.
Tags: #inspiration #motivation #invention #successstory #tips #mystory #myjourney #patent #trademark #intellectualproperty #madeinusa #makeinindia #startupindia #digitalindia #newindia #h1b #greencard #immigration #india #usa #ediscovery #cyber #security #infosec #informationsecurity #cyberthreats #cyberwar #cyberattack #cyberrisk #cybercrime #iptheft #computing #technology #itsecurity #risk #softwarepiracy #cio #cto #tech #mobile #android #encase #guidancesoftware #computerforensics #projectmanagement #leadership #marketing #business #branding #management #entrepreneurship #hardwork #wordsofwisdom #lifetips #lifelessons
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