Getting out of a hole

Imagine you're in a hole, what would you do? Logically the most common answer would be, to try to get out of the hole. Hole's in general are considered as a hostile environment and no one likes to be in a hole. But first you have to accept the fact that by some twist of fate you have ended in the hole. You have to accept your fate, your feelings and your current state before you can conquer it.

If it's unrequited love, accept your feelings; accept the fact that you love someone and they don't share the same sentiment. Only then can you truly respect your feelings and keep them aside to move on. If you fall down, accept that you have fallen; only then can you pick yourself up and become stronger when you get back on your feet. It's a simple law of life which we are all aware of but don't realize that we need to follow it as well. Failure is not the stepping stone to success. Success is not guaranteed after failure. But acceptance of failure is the way of courage and strength. When you accept something, it means that you respect it. When you respect it, only then you can truly judge it and use it for your own benefit.

Guns X Sword.

 We live in an age of ever advancing technology. And in this age, the technology that is the most advanced and has the highest budget allocation is the defense technology. The peril in defense technology is that what the common man know is not always 'the most advanced' weapon out there. Every country has their secrets and their biggest secret is what they're packing!

 I sometime wish we lived in the age of swords. It would have been indeed good for the world if swords and bows had never advanced to Kevlar and bullets. The fact that modern technology gives someone power to hurt someone else without putting themselves in a danger zone is the biggest problem that has arisen from modern weapons. Any teenager can hold a gun and pull the trigger. Any country can push a button and annihilate a piece of land under the pretense of deterrence. Only the courageous holds a sword. That's why it is still considered as a honor symbol and held by the highest ranking officials in the military. It takes ample amount of courage for someone to hold a sword and injure someone with it, not to mention the skill and the strength which it requires. Even a something as simple as a bow takes in skill, strength and a steady hand to actually manage to kill someone. Imagine if you replace the gun with a sword. Then every little piece of sh*t out there who uses a gun to threaten people will think twice before he pulls out a sword on you. He has to be sure that he'll be able to use the sword. He also has to be completely confident in his own fighting skills or else you'll take him down even if you're unarmed. A sword is as good as its user, otherwise in the hands of a kid; its just a large but sharp piece of metal.

 Values like courage, honor, strength, dexterity and physical skill have lost their worth in the modern world. As automation technology and other modern weaponry comes into picture, more and more dull humans are able to act like God. We humans were weak creatures in the evolutionary cycle. In the process of making ourselves stronger, we forgot that we ourselves grow significantly weaker and weaker each passing day.

Comfort is a vice of life.

 I had a troubling experience today. I am usually one of the craziest motorbike riders in this part of town. I have fallen, injured myself badly and also had a near death experience, all on the same motorbike. But after spending three years in the United States, I felt today that I nearly lost that edge over life which I had earlier.

 Life in the US can be best described as the safest life on this planet. People cross the road without care knowing that the considerate driver of an automobile will stop for them. No one (Except for the ones on Wildest Police Videos) breaks lanes, speed limits or any traffic rules. That is transportation to its utmost perfection. India, on the other hand is complete opposite. Anybody crosses anywhere they want too. People will never stop for you to cross the road and will try to get across as fast as possible. No one is considerate towards anyone else on the road. It's considered as utter chaos, specially in Bombay. And after spending 3 years in that relaxed environment in the US, I have become cautions when I cross the road. I don't speed as much now-a-days. Neither do I cut across lanes and other slow moving vehicles. I, have become what I feared the most. I have become afraid of getting hurt; which is not a bad thing but not a good thing either (At least for me).

   Life on the road is a struggle which you must endure everyday. We are supposed to be continuously evolving. But evolution is a condition that occurs due to a struggle or a need. If we have no need, we will not evolve. Because they needed to swim, fish developed fins and lungs. Because they wanted to fly, the birds developed wings. Evolution is a process that occurs when you are in a desperate need and in difficult times. But as technology advances, mankind is making his life as easy as it can get. We now even get peanut-butter and jelly in the same jar. Is is that difficult to open another jar of jam? Is it so necessary that you need an elevator to climb up a few floors when our ancestors walked across mountains and deserts for plain food and water. We have advanced; but our bodies are going in the opposite direction. Life on the road is a struggle which you must endure everyday.

 My advise, make your life a little bit tougher. Do the crossword and puzzles in the paper to keep your mind active. Take the stairs and do a bit of a run just for fun. Try remembering phone numbers instead of saving them in your cellphone. Use a notebook instead of MS Word. Every little thing counts and make every other little thing count. Only when you struggle, will you improve. Only when you fall down, will you get up stronger. Only when you get hurt

You have changed!

 One hears this statement quite often. I was delivered a dose of 'Oh you are not the same; you have changed!' recently. Today I had time to give it some thought which I would like to present for general public opinion.

 I partially agree that I have changed a bit. But that is a relative statement. Everyone around me changed so I had to adapt. It's a natural human tendency to adapt to what I term as a hostile environment. Everyone has a natural environment where one can be themselves. When this natural environment changed, I had to change along with it. The factors which allowed me to be myself were changed. It's like, if you are playing a game, your game-play differs with respect to the players you play with. You would not play it at full potential against a 3 year old. Same rule applies here. Its not the people who change. Its the environment that forces them to change. I cannot be expected to behave the way I do around people I am not comfortable with. Once the comfort level changes, or in this case, diminishes, then I can't possibly be myself. Not because I am worried about something but I just won't be fun. It won't have the same feeling as when I am with my friends.

 Change is never welcomed. Good or bad, you have to adapt to the change which turns out to be quite troublesome. The worst is to be the cause of somebody's change. We have seen many people who try to mold others in an image they would be more comfortable with. But in the process you disallow the person to be their own original unique personality. This is quite apparent in modern relationships where girls are known to try and mold their boyfriends into ideal guys. Boys need to be boys and people need to be themselves. Only then can we truly call ourselves unique. Cause if you're not unique, then life won't be as much fun anymore.

Nash Equilibrium to Team Management By Frazer Pereira

Nash equilibrium, named after John Nash, is a set of strategies, one for each player; such that no player has an incentive to unilaterally change their action. Players are in equilibrium if a change in strategies by any one of them would lead that player to earn less than if they remained with their current strategy. For games in which players randomize (mixed strategies), the expected or average payoff must be at least as large as that obtainable by any other strategy.

In the world of management, teamwork is one of the most crucial and fundamental aspect for the appropriate functioning of an organization to accomplish desired aspirations within the constraints prearranged. These constraints include time, manpower, technology, inventory and other attributes which affect the working of the desired objective. Thus the popular saying in team management is “The best result comes when everyone in the group works for the best of the group“.  Another theory exists for an operational environment is given by Adam Smith. Adam Smith is known for his explanation of how rational self-interest and competition, operating in a social framework depending on adherence to moral obligations, can lead to economic prosperity and well-being. Modifying the popular explanation in accordance to Adam Smith, “The best result comes when everyone in the group works for their own benefit”.

Now both these concepts evidently have flaws. Working for your own self in accordance to Adam Smith creates what is termed as ‘parasites’ in the team who profit from the effort of others. On the other hand advancement at a personal level is inhibited by the principle of working for the group. This prevents the members from giving their paramount contribution due to an assortment of aspects, the chief reason being human personality and emotions.

To diminish these flaws we’ll apply Nash Equilibrium to the two concepts. In simple words the new adapted principle for the most effective team would be “The best result comes when everyone in the group works for their own benefit as well as for the benefit of the group” (As quoted in the movie “A Beautiful Mind”). This theory if used would effectively reduce the flaws in the existing system and construct an environment in the team where personal growth and team objectives can be coexisting. We will now see how to apply this principle to a Human Environment of a Team.

Based on this new principle we will define new-fangled objectives and subtasks for the team. These objectives comprise of strategies of individual contributors’ i.e. team members. These strategies can be classified as goals or needs of the members. Things like promotion, experience, recognition, working hour’s flexibility, etc. Experience can be classified as experience in a particular field, subject, software etc. We also need to divide the objective into various subtasks (A, B, C and so on), each subtask having a common background. These tasks for a general objective can be research, planning, inventory management, resource management, advertising, debugging etc. Combining these two simple policies we can define the parameters essential for the achievement of Nash Equilibrium into a Team Environment. Combining these two strategies based on the similarities and differences between the Personal Objectives and Subtasks, we will assign responsibilities suitable to each individual. For example, individuals seeking experience in management should be assigned management related duties. Those seeking promotion should be assigned objectives which will reflect their credentials for the promotion or payroll increase.  Family people seeking flexible hours would be assigned those hours at the cost of increased responsibility or lack of choice in the task assigned. Thus the individual will be motivated to accomplish the task at maximum efficiency as it will benefit the individual to the maximum. Diverting away from the strategy assigned will cause a stoppage in the personal goal and characteristic human nature will prevent this from stirring. Now since the tasks when combined are the final goal, maximum efficiency in the task would lead to maximum efficiency in the final output. People striving for their own personal gain while providing assistance for the ambition of others would further maximize the final output efficiency, as it would feel good to doing good for others as well as achieving personal goal due to Human Nature.

In the above proposed theory we have Task A assigned to Personnel (1). Circumstances may arise where the goals of individuals would be similar which would prevent the division of task in the above manner.  For this, Task A needs to be further divided so it would be effectively distributed amongst the individuals having similar objectives. This complicates the planning stages but if used effectively would increase the efficiency of the particular task and thereby increasing the efficiency of the overall objective.

The proposed theory involves increase in planning and control over the team and would need a first-rate manager to accomplish it effectively. But if applied the output gain would be much higher than by the normal procedure. What’s left is to implement this principle in a research environment and find the effectiveness compared to current methods.

Veritas : The truth shall set you free

I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to create a appropriate design for Veritas (Latin for Truth). In my search for an appropriate theme, I did come across many interesting and highly complex theories regarding what we commonly know as truth. Little did I realize that what we think in such simplicity has a complex underlying concept. It is classified as a topic under a very strange and undefined branch of science most commonly known as Metaphysics.

'You are not wrong because we say you are wrong; because you are wrong, we who say this say the truth'. Ideally it is the inherent status of the subject matter that makes our own statements true. The reciprocal of the statement is false. You cannot imply truth by the manner of speech. Better said, you cannot force truth on the subject matter. You can only state it. In even simpler words, what we say is true if is aligned with the facts related to the subject matter and not the other way round. Metaphysics states it as "To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true." I guess it is a game of words played by some of the most brilliant minds in medieval times. None of them in the end could ever define truth. It is similar with trying to define gravity or why is 1 smaller than 2. These fundamentals are a part of the bedrock on which we have build our science. After examining the essence of truth, it gets even more complex. Its like the Theory of Relativity, the more you think, the harder it gets.

The only Veritas you can state confidently is about your own self. By the basic definition, since you yourself are the subject matter; you cannot possibly be wrong; unless you want to or are intentionally wrong. Veritas helps us nurture friendships and bonds. You can always say things that would make your friends and family happy, but there is no soul in that happiness. As said, "veritas vos liberabit" or simply said, the truth shall set you free.


P.s There is also a famous saying, "in vino veritas" Which means 'Wine speaks truth'; said even simpler, Truth is told by the one who is drunk.

Do what you want to do

Now this idea is not exactly novel. You can compress it even further by saying "Do what you like." or "Do what you love." As simple as it sounds its complexity increases the more you think about it.

As humans, we have two transitions in life. We start as kids, grow up to become adults and eventually transit into the feared old age. As kids we're supposed to have fun. As adults we're are supposed to work. The rule here is that work is not equivalent to fun. Other than a few exceptions, that is the widely accepted rule of an adult life.

As I summarize from my own life, this is not our fault. Time and again we are being prepared for this grow-up work. Our teachers have time and again reminded us in school that work is not fun. We can't blame them either. We didn't make their work any more fun! Parents say that handling 2 kids is a nightmare; imagine the hell we have put our teachers through. Again, it is not our fault either. We as kids were doing what we did best back then, have some good old fun.

Thus we end up working because the society wants us too. We work to make money or our of sheer boredom and to maintain inertia of the current state of our life. Money and laziness are the best and worst reasons why we end up not doing what we love. People get accustomed to their lifestyle. A change after that is difficult to incorporate. Anyone would be called a fool to leave a well settled state of life to pursue something obscure. Eventually, beliefs of how you wish things to be become contaminated by how things are. The virus spreads and you eventually forget your dreams and get on with reality. We are not ready and willing to take the high road. You want it to be easy. If its difficult, you don't want it at all. People want to go to heaven without dying. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way (Thank you Dan Gilbert for that wonderful thought).

I realized our audience is limited too. Our ideas and work is shared amongst the small circle of friends we live with. What we love should not only make us happy but should bring a smile to others as well. Our friends should be the compass to the outside world. The more people you help, the better.

I do want to write a lot more; but the length of the article is inversely proportional to the number of people reading it. So I'll take a break now and continue sometime later!