Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Coincidence
Objectivisim
I know, I know you are all fuming (do I have a that many readers ;)). I agree you have a point, a month is a long time to be away from blogging. My comeback blog, for reasons that you will come to know, is not my usual banter. It's a copy paste of a fwd. Now why should a fwd find a way into my blog? The answer to this question lies in the thought process that this fwd. triggered in my brain. Those of you who know me, know pretty well that I am a big big fan of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of objectivism. This fwd comes very close to explaining it in a simple lucid easy to understand manner.
If Atlas Shrugged is my bible John Galt is my Jesus. One should read this book to get a of piece of my mind. The first thing that comes to my mind when I talk of John Galt is his speech. Now before I go further read the fwd. ( I am pasting it here for your convenience).
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Tax system
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve.
'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.'Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'
'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!'
'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
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Now many of you will disagree with the above stuff. Now give a better thought to it, you will realise that there is some truth to it. This speech by John Galt gives you a peep into the world of objectivism, if you are lazy then have a go this abridged version.
Objectivism is my not just a philosophy it's a way of life.
illegal Monopoly
An discussion rather a passionate argument ensued between myself and a good friend of mine. I thought I will post the topic of argument here and once we come to some stage where each of us rests our cases (mind you it's an issue where we possibly cannot reach a conclusion), and if we both agree, I will put up the conversations for all of you. Until then I want to open a parallel discussion to gather what most of you think about this topic.
We were discussing on illegal Monopoly. My argument is that there cannot be anything like illegal monopoly. Now I say this because, Law of the Land is subjective in nature and it varies from land to land (place to place). So terming some company as being having an illegal Monopoly is subjective. Also in my opinion there is nothing wrong with Monopoly(not illegal Monopoly which as it does not exist) as in the long run it benefits the markets. (Now How is something I will discuss later).
His point is that Law is law and all entities should obey the law of the land. One cannot say that the laws are subjective and perform activities deemed to be illegal in the eyes of the law. So the companies which do away with such activities should be punished. (I have to get back to him here, does he just mean they have to be punished or does he want them to be banished?).
Frankly to tell you, I got confused on what we were discussing on as it now looks like we have digressed on to a lot of areas. However, to take it further here on the blog, I would try to state the problem in the following manner.
"Is there anything called an illegal Monopoly?"
In Awe of The Simple
I just read an article in The Hindu, the article is titled "Taking a lesson in sporting awe">>
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I put it here, not just for the sense that this article makes, but also for how true it is in other walks of life. Just think of that teacher whom we have always derided as being good for nothing, but how many of us can do atleast a tenth of what he or she did.
Think of the day when mother has just one off day at cooking, we immediately find fault with it. Do we ever consider at that moment, how many times in the past she cooked great, and how many times in the future she will cook absolutely delightful dishes. Not me, I haven't thought of all that.
Think of the waiter in the restaurant, when he spills that chutney on you. Do you ever consider the hundred times he's served absolutely to your taste, before cursing him for his folly?
How many times did we stop by to watch a supposedly insignificant creature lead its life?
Now, if I go on, there are many incidents in our life when we just don't appreciate the other persons skill, but just carp on a minor mistakes which may even be permissible under six sigma.
This article has come up as a wake up call to me. I myself do lot of things in the most imperfect manner. I feel good when someone sympathizes with me, and continue with a feel good factor.Also, when someone admonishes me for the same act, I get hurt somewhere deep down.
Now the question that troubles me is, why don't I apply the principle to others. Why do I tear apart people for small mistakes and never am in awe of the simple things that they do right time and again. Probably "Human Nature". But, from now on I will make a conscious attempt to be in awe of simple things in life. I wish you too will note this simple effort, and pardon me for all the mistakes in this post.
League of My Own
Now many said to me that I am not normal. They had there own reasons for that, but none too imaginative. Starting from wondering in disbelief at my hobby of vacationing alone, indulging in food as no other, to having a hobby of changing hobbies.
But, how do I see it. To be frank I don't know. I know many people who did more than what I can do in a short. So I am no great, but somewhere down the line I am different from the folks I am with.
Probably that puts me in a league of my own. Nevertheless, I am not writing this to brag about myself.(Which of course I am did till now). This league i referred to in the title is not same league I was talking about a while ago.
Somewhere in the corner of my mind, I longed to go independent. Not that I was terribly unhappy with what I am doing. But, its a longing that I noticed with people who feel why should I work for some one. Any ways, this piece of writing is a window to the things to come.
I have made clear not in so clear terms where I am headed. Will update more on you from my league.
Time in Mutiple Dimensions.
I was going through yesterdays post and gosh it was incoherent. Now I will put it in simple words what I was targeting at. I am talking of multidimensional time. Makes sense. No!! May be you need to exercise your grey cells a bit.
Am I excited, you bet I am all over this multi dimensional time. What does that mean in to us who are used to considering time as a parameter. In the existing setup we move in time at a pace that we have no control of, in a direction that we don't control. To understand this in actual significance, how will you fee if you can move only in one direction and at a definite speed, without any freedom to turn or freak around. That is exactly the life that we are leading.
Now, just like our perceived freedom in 3 dimensions of space, if we were to have freedom in time? What we can achieve is amazing. For every present that you perceive there are infinite presents that give rise to infinite futures and infinite pasts. The definition of future, past and present is itself at stake. To take a simple analogy, in space your current position is here, now what is forward to you is what you face, what you cannot see consists your back. Now if you do an about turn your back becomes front and vice versa.
The same applies to time in multi dimension, just as all the spaces exist at same time, all times exist at same space. That is if I were dead in a time dimension t1, i will be very well alive and kicking at the same place in another time dimension t2. Now is this something very new to us, no only we are closed to realizing this fundamental truth. We have seen and heard many miracles of cure being performed by very so many people. How could they do that?? They could realize the existence of time in multiple dimensions, and make use of this to perform what they did.
Is it that simple? Yes it is! But then its still not understood by us humans. However the day is not far where some of us will the freedom to travel in time, travel in space and both.
Richard a philosopher deals more in his blog on Unchanging time and infinite past . I am little surprised to find this article at the following site, nevertheless it gives a perspective. This same site tells us how we can travel faster than light. I have more details on the mathematics of multi dimensional time, I will let you discover the joy of the numbers once I have a feel of playing in time.
Time is no More
I was walking by, nothing unusual about it except that I have stopped walking for a long time, courtesy a physical disability which prevents me from exercising my physique. Any way coming back, I was walking by and I come across a man, nothing special in that except that he was not moving. Ok! I thought and moved on.
That was a week ago. Yesterday, I had a tough day at work and considering that my personal life was rocking (on the boat), I was in a mood that I cannot describe. The news of my cooks absence only added some more fuel. I dropped to sleep. No I did not sleep, I was again walking and the same man was next to me, in the same position. This time I don't pass by I stop and look into his eyes, pale white eyes, Oh god! He's dead. I open my eyes, expecting it to be a dream. Oh No! Its not a dream, How am I here, didn't I sleep. I was terrified. Saw the surroundings. They were the same but they are not the same. Everything was as it was on that day.
Then I noticed, everything except me was the same. I was not the same, I was as yesterday, not as a week before. What's going on, I have no clue. I go home, I am lost. Any way I go to bed hoping things will change.
I wake up, you guessed it right, I wake up in today. And frankly I have lived today, I have vague recollections of today, vague recollections of writing this article as it is. And as I am writing this, Holy Shit!! It was yesterday that I was doing this.
Does that mean I am in a time wrap? Does that mean I am oscillating in back and forth? We will see.
Now while writing this article, I take a nap. What do I see when I wake up, you cannot guess it. I am in my bed, which is in my office next to the man on the street who is still dead. And guess what, I am writing this very line at the moment when I speak this to you. It makes me think, and of course makes you think on my sanity. But I am not thinking of my sanity as that was never an issue I considered worth thinking.
Am I living in a universe where space and time have N dimensions and N degrees of freedom. I am excited, I am going to see another day another time another place and wow it baffled my imagination trained to think in Chronic-3D.
I am not sure where I will be the next moment, so am hurrying to tell you that I am off, into a world where time is no more "Time".
Bricks in the Wall
All in all are we just another brick in the wall???
Here goes the famous lyrics by “pink Floyd” from “The wall”.
I don't need no walls around me.
And I don't need no drugs to calm me.
I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don't think I need any thing at all.
No. Don't think I need anything at all.
All in all it was all just the bricks in the wall.
All in all it was all just the bricks in the wall.
My intention here is not to introduce you to pink floyd, nor his work, nor his philosophy. I just wanted you to wake up, if you are sleeping; take note lest you should keep yourself in the dark. Think of all the life we have lived to this moment. Question yourself what have I done to make a difference? The difference necessarily not to others lives, but to your life. Think of actions made that transformed you for the better, changed the way you live, made you and those around you happier. Where are we going, aren't ever one of us dissatisfied with being "just another brick". Deep inside aren't we carving to be different to be noticed, to be successful, to be a brick not in the wall.
No I am not offering any solutions here, I just want you to think of this. Everyone of us is unique, everyone of has our own special talents. Then why is it that we are just another brick to make walls, the purpose of which is not clear. As Robert Frost says in his "Mending Wall"
'Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out'. Have we ever asked ourselves this, what is the purpose of this existence, to be a part of a wall, to be just another brick in the wall. Try it once.
No I am not asking you not to be a brick, I am asking you not be just another brick. Let your brick shine, let it proclaim of its existence, let it bask in the glory of its uniqueness. Is one life time not sufficient to achieve this? Aren't you capable of this? I leave it for you to decide.
What you want is where you go. Hope you will never face the situation Wordsworth describes:
THE World is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours
And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.—Great God! I'd rather be
Dream
Some people are meant to be born, live and fade in this world.
Not one thing changes when we vanish from the face of the world. Then why do we give so much importance to ourselves and others. In this large universe with billions of galaxies, our Milky Way is one small one, in this Milky Way there is one inconsequent system that we call solar system. On this system we have a small planet called the earth. On one corner of this huge small planet we exist with billions of other individuals, who are no different from us. This should tell us what small creatures we are; this should tell us how insignificant we are. This is what more or less every one tells. That our lives are small, we are small we are insignificant before something or someone.
We should not be like this, we should not be like that, and what not. We have been hearing all this for our entire lifetime.
Now, tell me one thing, who found out that there are so many galaxies in the world, a small insignificant person like you and me. Who found that we live in a small galaxy called Milky Way, who found that we live on something called earth in solar system? It is none other that one or more small faceless individuals like us. So where do they stand. They are insignificant because they are so small in physical terms in this universe, or they are so big because it was they who gave a shape to the concept of universe.
Take the same analogy with what’s happening to our lives. Not everybody is capable of doing great things because they don’t even think they can do great things. Most of the famous and notorious persons in the history of the mankind were supposedly underachievers. There were many who ruled them out to be losers, they were ruled out from doing anything significant for the society. But then time and again all of them were proved wrong. Many have come like that and many will come like that. Nobody will care damn about you when you are no more. But you can do something for these nobody so that you are everywhere and nowhere.
Not everybody achieves this, but then how many achieved this? Think of all people in your life, and think of all the people of whom you have heard, tell me how many of the people in your life have a name? How many people are there whom you never saw but keep thinking of everyday?
It’s up to you to decide where you want to go. Do you want to make a difference? You have it in you, only thing is do you want to.
It’s easy to be one among many, but it’s easier to be unique in this group. (Just don’t want to be one among many)
I wish you all the best.
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Sometimes it's good to halt for a moment, inhale athletes' brilliance, and marvel at what they do, writes Rohit Brijnath
Sometimes in all our instructions to Greg Chappell about who should bat where, and irritation over Tendulkar's perceived conservatism, and insistence that Federer motor to the net, we forget how to appreciate sport.
We're so busy having fun (i.e. berating, arguing, expecting), so captivated by winning and losing, that we occasionally fail to be amazed. Not by outrageous deeds, but by the smaller, everyday moments which actually are anything but routine.
Like a batsman defending a delivery, a minor composition in itself. Or the fine mix of reflex and decision-making while returning a serve. Or the footballers' sublime marriage of dexterity, control and judgment as he collapses a ball on his instep while running.
Do we ever wonder how extraordinarily difficult it is to just make the Top 100 of anything, to scuttle four paces and cleanly collect a ball that has come off Ponting's bat like a stone from David's slingshot, to hit a forehand onto a line a few inches thick from 30 metres away?
Need to remind ourselves
Of course it is unspoken in any discussion on fine athletes that they are gifted, but sometimes we need to remind ourselves of how much, how they operate on a frequency we have no comprehension of, how the simplest act is so utterly extraordinary.
When Brett Lee bowls, he propels the ball at a speed beyond our understanding; 150kmph is meaningless to us, we have no frame of reference.
From 22 yards, most people would not see the ball, would not register its course, before it arrives at their throat to complete an involuntary tracheotomy.
Yet in these fractions of a second, as our brain arrests, Dravid has seen, recognised and categorised the ball, sent a message to his hands, legs, body to arrange themselves, blending memory and reflex and anticipation and knowledge, and as his bat rises, and soft hands ensure the ball drops right down to his feet, here's what you and I think. Dammit. No run.
Athletes do the incredible every rally, every over, every round of golf, but we yawn. Tennis players will run, skid, hit, turn, run, yet in the midst of this athletic dance are still able to put the ball within inches of a line, shot after shot, and you know what we say. Bloody rallies are too long.
Sometimes all of us, garbed in cynicism, need a refresher course in awe. It is an education best found by attending practice sessions. Because to stand in almost whispering distance of an athlete is to quickly grasp his extraordinariness. And because we see sport not in the deceitful slow-motion speed of television, but in real time.
Wonder amplified
A colleague once lingered 15 feet away from a practising Sampras, both hypnotised and horrified by the velocity of tennis' greatest serve. It was a wonder amplified the next day, when Agassi stepped into that serve to hit winners. Who are these men?
In cricket stadia, it is fun to stand directly behind a net where, say, Zaheer Khan is bowling to Yuvraj Singh, and it is not uncommon to flinch and duck even when standing 10 feet away. Yet Yuvraj will step forward and almost carelessly dispatch the ball into the clouds. What has become routine is in fact breathtaking. It is an astonishing world out there.
As sporting lessons go, my most telling arrived over a decade ago, when the genial Ramesh Krishnan, and Leander Paes, in different years, agreed to the embarrassment of briefly rallying with me.
Friendly forehands from Paes came laced with a leaping topspin that, forget a response, was beyond my comprehension. Krishnan at one point gently snapped his wrist and by the time my brain suggested "move" the ball was past me.
Their speed, and accuracy, and spin, was astonishing. And these fellows weren't big hitters! Not even close.
Truth is, we may have used the same rackets, and the same balls, but they played a game I was not familiar with. And not just them. Out there, athletes, and not merely the outstanding ones but the middle-level practitioners, operate at a level, and with a beauty, which is staggering.
It's not going to stop us carping, and judging, and debating, because it's what we do. But sometimes it's good to halt for a moment, inhale their brilliance, and marvel at what they do.