Observations at ISB and on Life

2011-09-24

Chance Everywhere!

Those who have read this blog know that I am a big fan of chance theory. It is our innate need to feel important and live till eternity that makes us see patterns and rationalize things and events.

My wife is a cousin of one of my - erstwhile - friends. This friend happened to accost me at a study circle, introduced himself and much later ended up introducing me to her. Such an important aspect of my life was caused by a random event.

Now one could say, if we go back to its origin, every thing or event will have such random, chance beginning. That is the point. There is no purpose behind many of such things or events. That does not rule out planning and free will. Sciences and Philosophies have been built on planning, control, organization, free will and such. It is important that Man controls the course of events lest life and world should become completely randomized.

I would yet say chance is everywhere!

2011-08-22

Who will LokPal the LokPal?

Sure. What after LokPal?

What is a policeman earning a paltry salary going to tell his son when he asks for a cricket kit?

Corruption has different shades. A politician who already is worth say Rs 1000 crore signing a deal which will make him/her worth Rs 2000 crore is a serious issue. We surely need a redressal mechanism. A corrupt clerk, paid poorly by the government, and totally driven by needs which operate within his family, cannot be done away with by LokPal. We have individual incentives to be addressed.

Anyone for treating the cause also and not just curing the symptoms?

PS: And who will LokPal the LokPal?

2011-06-13

Life, Choices, et al

Children want to grow fast as they want to be able make choices. Grown-ups want to go back to being young so they can reverse wrong choices they made.
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There is nothing wrong with the world. It is how I have been engaging with it that needs correction.
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It is perhaps easier to choose 10 things that we want or want to do before we say bye. If there was only one thing to have or do, how easy or hard would it be to choose. And what would that one thing be. Is it the same thing for which you have worked / working hard your life.
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The purpose of life is death!
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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2011-03-23

Sex and Instinct

Tautological. But then how else would I break writers's block.

Unlike for other animals (almost all), based on reading and observation, it appears that for human beings sex is not an instinct. It is learned. We are capable of resisting the urge even when an opportunity throws up. We can choose not to reproduce. Surprisingly, there are couples who haven't consummated marriage. There are some who don't 'like' sex. There are some who want more and perhaps do more.

It is not that our content does not matter. It is that when it comes to human beings context matters much more.

PS:
-This is not intended to question sexual orientation. Everyone is entitled to his/her choice.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2010-11-26

Out of action

For a reason. We relocated to Mumbai on Nov 01st. Still living out of a hotel. Should move into flat in 3-4 days. Thankfully 10 minutes away from office. Blogging will resume in another week. Those who missed new posts, please excuse.

2010-10-23

Mind Games

Mind plays many games. Over a period of time, we have avoided doing things that we had earlier wanted to do or done things that we would have ideally avoided. These could be simple things like avoiding junk food or wanting to do a bungee jump.

Mind keeps putting us first in a quandary and then in guilt. Much later, it puts these things in " not necessary to do" or " it is okay to indulge once in a while" category.

We are mostly about interaction between mind and body, primarily through a rush of chemicals passing through our body, which are again based on inputs, physical or psychological.

2010-10-01

Bieber and Chance

The place of chance in our lives can never be overestimated.

- What if Justin Bieber' s mother was 30 and not 18 when he was born. Would she have been as net savvy? If she did not know Youtube, would Beiber have happened to us? I doubt.

2010-09-19

Innovation

There is too much talk about " innovation". Resources - time, energy and lots of money - is going into developing new things. Management; medicine; engineering - everywhere.

What about efforts to apply all that is already is innovated?

Example - We are focusing efforts on developing new drugs for diabetes. Existing knowledge of diabetes and its prevention / control is enough to take care of over two-thirds of cases. When we continue to talk about innovation and new drugs, we mislead patients and their care-takers.

PS:
-Inspiration, of course, from Dr Atul Gawande. More precisely, his Better
-Similar ideas at Freakonomics Blog

2010-08-28

Purpose of god's life

I spend much time brooding over the purpose of life.

We did not after all come to this world to be working for most of our waking hours. To end up hating people who were once ours and dear. One person killing another for money. Wars over things or issues that should have never mattered. Making Kings and Queens of some people. Sucking up to supposed leaders. To die of poverty. To wake and not know what to do.

The purpose never becomes clear because, methinks, fundamentally there was never any purpose. It was an accident. And over period - given our predilection to forming patterns where there was none - we started believing that god created this world for a purpose; and human beings as the centre of this grand purpose of gods.

Now got quite interested in a thought, which saw on twitter - What is the purpose of a god's life (or even the God's life)?

2010-08-27

Know the Opposite

How would we know how good something is or even what it actually is. We see it, smell it, feel it, listen to it, read it, study it, observe it. Live it. Sometimes these aren't enough. We need more clarity. We then compare. Compare and it becomes known. Almost. We may have after all compared two un-comparables.

In such situations, why does my mind like to think that we need to look at the opposite of it. Know the opposite of something to understand it better.

PS:
-Moot question - unless we know what it is, how do we know what its opposite is?
- Does everything have its opposite?
- Is man a woman's opposite. Or vice versa?