Some One-liners

• Finding patterns in things is creativity, but, finding patterns in everything is madness
• Memory and imagination are only separated by experience
• The best form of communication is where no message is exchanged but both the intended sender and receiver understood the content
• One always has two options, be part of the signal or be part of the noise
• If marriage & sex were taken out of the equation, love would be a truly beautiful thing
• Strength: The ability to restrain oneself by virtue of knowing that one is powerful
• Intelligence: Information that has not become public news
• One's approach & attitude to life depends on whether he/she thinks the best days are ahead or behind
• There is no Cinderella, only her sisters everywhere
• There is no prince charming, only the ugly frogs everywhere
• Ability to communicate well is vital, but, ability to feel connected is visceral
• Culture & tradition are not a backpack that you will have to carry it around everywhere
• Conflict arises not because one party is right and the other party is wrong but because both parties are right(from their own perspective)
• 3 bottlenecks in professional environment - People, Processes and Programs(software)
• Mediocrity admonishes things(or people) which(who) are both better or worse than them
• Mediocrity finds comfort only in another mediocre
• It is better to be stabbed in the heart than in the back
• Confidence and being opinionated are always misconstrued as being egotistic
• It is easier to make war than peace because it is easier to break things than to put/keep it together
• Idea is a half baked cake, only after it is executed to become reality it completes the full cycle
• When knowledge & confidence is low, but, fear & insecurity is high, it leads to hate & ignorance
• In a rule/exception paradigm, if there are lots of exception happening that means that either the rules need to be re-written or people are abusing the rules
• Process, compliance & security - three most commonly overused, abused or misused words to get work done or to create a roadblock
• Mid life(crisis or not) - Growing old but feeling younger!
• A true conservative mopes over someone somewhere is having fun and he/she is missing out on it.
• The force which tries to maintain the status-quo is always stronger than the one which challenges it.
• When the voice inside is saying something different from the voices outside, it leads to agony.
• The reason non-verbal communication is more powerful is because we are socially conditioned not to speak our mind that easily.

Shade and Shadow

When standing in the Sun, your body casts a shadow, but, will it ever become a shade?

Trouble of ignorance

Problem: Ignorance
Solution: Awakening
Path: Knowledge


Ignorance => Desire & Hatred => Negative Deeds => Suffering

War - Inside & Outside

For some people(including me) there is always a war inside their head. It is a deadly battlefield of arguments & counter-arguments. Logic & reasoning constantly fighting with belief systems. May be that's why outside their head and around them they want to see peace, serenity and beauty.

But, I can see how it could be reversed for some people, where inside their head there is no battle. They feel that it does not matter what they think it's all pre-determined by 'someone' and we are mere actors in a play where we do things that has been written for us. There is no point thinking too much and losing sleep over it. Their mind is peaceful and serene, just like the way I want my outside world. However, for these people they would like to see the battlefield and war outside for a constant need of adrenaline high! Exactly the opposite of what I would like to see. Aggression comes from a perceived sense of insecurity or superiority.
It may be a bit far-fetched, but, if every one stopped believing in God, perhaps there will not be any need to fight or war!!

FOXP2 and evolution of language

The amazing and beautiful FOXP2 gene, which is a key element in the language development of human. Check out this link for more info: http://www.evolutionpages.com/FOXP2_language.htm

It is amazing to note that the human version of FOXP2 gene differs from mouse in just three amino acids out of 715!!!  But, I think it supports the other hypothesis that when Dinosaurs were dying these rodents went underground to save the mammal chain of evolution intact and thus the rapid development of species variety in post-Dinosaur era. So, someday mouse might be able to talk! Dr. Dolittle will indeed become a reality!! I don't think I live to see that day :-(
I will satisfy myself with this Netflix advertisement in the meantime:-)
http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA14313

Evolution of computers

The sophistication of a touchscreen phone sometimes makes me wonder how the basic building block is ultimately binary math, 0's and 1's! In just 80 or so years computers have evolved so much. Now, I can appreciate why 'some people' have hard time grasping evolution of life in earth and needs an external factor like 'GOD' to make sense of everything. Because, to put your thoughts around 13.7 billion years since the origin of our universe and make sense of the present moment is mind-boggling!!

Creation vs Creator

Liberals are humbled by the creation and the conservatives are humbled by a(the) creator. 

Conservatives argue that when you see a beautiful painting, you invariably think about the painter. While this argument holds good intuitively in many aspects of life but not to the creation of life itself. Latest research in physics show that the big bang happened without any external agent starting it. What is before big bang or start of time is similar to when people used to believe in a flat world and wonder what happened to the oceans around the edges.

Some thoughts on aliens, life beyond ours

Given the size of the universe and the high likelihood of life, the chance that a civilization exists at the same level as human is very small. If there are civilizations smarter than human, they will be so advanced that there won't be any chance of stand-off(so, no Star wars type fighting). If they want to, they will easily overpower us, but, they will probably have won over their aggression, so, will try to co-operate with us(like the E.T variety!).

One would wonder if smarter civilizations exist, why don't they visit us or attack us. One can answer this by asking a question. Do we humans care what a mole hill in Madagascar is doing? Do we care to visit them? NO. Because, they are insignificant. Similarly, we could be insignificant too for a very advanced alien civilization.

Fear of machines/technology

Technology is intimidating. Imagine the awe when the cave men accidentally discovered fire by rubbing two stones together. But, over time they learnt to put better usage of fire.

Fast forward many centuries and imagine just before weighing machine was invented. People will argue over how much a piece of something would weigh. A subjective and speculative decision making process was replaced by an objective and accurate weighing machine.

Fast forward more and imagine just before watch/clock was invented. People will argue over the current time of the day by looking either at a shadow cast over by a tree or some other patterns one might have noticed. A subjective and speculative decision making process was replaced by an objective and accurate watch/clock.

There could be many more such examples.

So, whenever I hear that machines will take over our lives and Hollywood blockbusters making money by using people's instinctive fear or insecurity, I feel sad.

From Pyramid to Circle

I looked into my crystal ball and had this moment of realization that human social institutions are mostly hierarchical, pyramids of sort. There is a chain of command which decides the tasks to be carried out, information that needs to flow down etc. etc. Democratically elected governments, corporate org structure are only some of the examples of pyramid structure. There are umpteen drawbacks of a pyramid model. The rigid hierarchy does not allow enough flexibility, it is designed similar to ecosystem of the earth where higher in the food chain guarantees better survival, it uses force or coercion to maintain the structure, only possible growth is downward which increases the distance between the top and bottom of the pyramid. A tourist attraction today, but, pyramids were built by pharaohs for preserving their body(and ego) after death by torturing and persecuting people to make it.

However, it need not be that way. Circles or spheres model circumvents all of the above problems. It is flexible, non-hierarchical, allows growth and variation, designed similar to planetary systems, no artificial force is required to maintain the system, individualistic(as a single isolated point) as well as small to large groups(depending on the number of points in circle) are allowed, growth allowed in all directions with or without overlaps. [ Will revisit for some concrete examples]

Happiness is living inside a bubble

Because people who seek truth & beauty don't care being unhappy.

Random Thoughts - Tail Tale

How did early humans loss tails? Did they lose in one generation or over many? By Darwinian theory, probably there was a time when some primates had tails but others did not. How might have they interacted with each other? Did one tease the other with tail ends?

Random Thoughts - Software as a service vs On-premise

Can software as a service(Saas) & the traditional on-premise software be compared with painting & photography paradigm? Painters still paint and people who can afford still buys painting but for the most of us we take photographs and buy them when we like it(since it is more affordable). Similarly, corportes who can afford will continue investing in the on premise software model but the rest will move on(if not already) to Saas.

Co-exist in multiple space points

Time travel is a dream of science fiction writers. But, to me, more than time travel the ability to co-exist in multiple places at the same time seems more exciting. This yearning is the result of liking too many things. I would like to be at home in a family moment and partying with friends with dance and drinks and read up a novel while enjoying some fresh air at the same time. Now, we do all of these in series, planning and managing our time. We cannot do these activities in parallel, all at the same time.

In fact, quantum particles can do exactly the above(the building blocks of life, animate and in-animate). Feynman sum of history as explained by Stephen Hawking:

With each trajectory Feynman associated two numbers, one for the size – the amplitude – of a wave and one for its phase – whether it is a crest or a through. The probability of a particle going from A to B is found by adding the up the waves associated with every possible path that passes through A and B.

But, at the macroscopic level, like the human existence, only one of the above infinite paths get close to a probability of one causing us to exist at a specific moment(me writing now and not somewhere else doing something else).
So, effectively, in order for us to co-exist in multiple places, no one activity can have a probability of one! So, no one can for sure say that you did a certain activity! May be you were at the club, may be you were not!

More 2x2 Tables

I continue to find 2x2 matrices an easy way to explain certain thoughts. Here are two more.

One explains the education and schooling paradigm, where a person who went to school, may or may not have been educated and vice-versa and the other time & money paradigm.

Where do you stand?

Case for financial regulation

Well, enough said and enough written on pros and cons of it. Here are some examples which highlight why do we need regulations!

If one compares purely free market capitalism with a game without any referees and govt. controlled socialism as a game where referees decide every move, it's trivial to understand that both seem ridiculous! In the first case, it leads to chaos and the second seems boring to watch!

Manufacturing has improved many-fold by being able to identify when a process is out of control and needs intervention by using Statistical quality control. “Statistical process control (SPC) is the application of statistical methods to the monitoring and control of a process to ensure that it operates at its full potential to produce conforming product. Under SPC, a process behaves predictably to produce as much conforming product as possible with the least possible waste”. Does not sound too bad, does it?

Another example of control or regulation is thermostat. It allows to start heating or cooling depending on the defined threshold limits. Imagine if there was no thermostat!!

Let's take some human body related examples. Hairs, nails keep growing and need continuous maintenance to keep them in shape. Ask a woman and you will know how important is manicure and pedicure!

A house needs constant cleaning so that it is dust and germ free. Trees and lawns need continuous trimming to keep them within control as well.

The following medical monitoring instruments/tools help us to take action when our health or disease goes out of control. Blood sugar monitoring meters, ECG, EEG, the list can go on...

So, in almost every aspect of human living we continuously monitor and regulate 'things' as otherwise it gets out of control and becomes un-manageable. That being said, there is a possibility of bureaucratic controls creeping in by the name of regulation! That's always a risk. 

But, not having regulation will be like not installing traffic signals for the fear of having to stop at red light and taking the risk of getting into an accident!

Sound & Color

Whenever you mix two colors, you always get a new color, at least that's what our eyes tell us.
However, when you mix two sounds, you can still identify them individually, either as aesthetically pleasing or as noise. The same can be generalized for more than two colors or sound. Mixing multiple colors create a perception of a new color, the same does not hold true for sound.

Laws of physics govern both science of color as well as sound. However, I think evolutionarily human ear is more developed than eye as an organ. That's why we cannot distinguish two colors being mixed, however, we can identify two different sounds. May be ears have evolved over a longer time scale than our eyes have!!

[Note on 01/29/2012: The above conclusion seems to make sense with my newborn baby, who can hear fine but eye-brain co-ordination is still developing]

That brings me to the following questions:

There are colorblind people but is it possible for someone to have defective eye or gene somehow so that he/she sees the world in black and white? 

Why there are only 3 primary colors(Red, Blue & Yellow)?

Why do our eyes can detect only 24 frames per second? Anything faster than that will detect in brain as moving object.

Intuition

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” - thus spoke Albert Einstein.

I find it quite strange that a scientist like him ever quoted that. May be we need to read it in the context of the overall conversation when he said that. Perhaps he was alluding to the importance of being imaginative.

The following simple examples show that following simple intuition does not always lead to truth and science teaches us to experiment and probe.

Sun 'rises' in the east and 'sets' in the west but Sun is not moving, rather it's earth which is moving! It seems trivial now but scientists had to fight hard to prove it to society.

Earth is round. However, wherever you go you see it is flat. You drive thousands of miles, still you see it as flat. Again, intuition tells us that it is flat but it is not.

Anyway, Einstein also said, "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

Need vs Want

We loosely know what they mean but always have hard time categorizing them. Copying from http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/economics/wantsandneeds1.htm 

A need is something you have to have, something you can't do without. A good example is food. If you don't eat, you won't survive for long.

A want is something you would like to have. It is not absolutely necessary, but it would be a good thing to have. A good example is music. Now, some people might argue that music is a need because they think they can't do without it. But you don't need music to survive. You do need to eat.

I have tried to put the above concept in a diagram and classified the red quadrants as type I & type II errors. Basically, you probably should not want 'things' that you don't need(Type II error) and also not say that you don't want 'something' even though you actually need it (Type I error, actually harder to identify). 

Quality x Quantity = Constant