Thinking is like a game, it does not begin unless there is an opposite team

 

One may wonder what separates humans from animals? The answer is straightforward, yet a complexly simple one – thinking. It is complex that the process expects the neurons in our brain firing. Yet so simple, that we can do it with ease.

Thinking is a voluntary cognitive action of generating thoughts in an attempt to reason something or some happenings. If it was just limited to generating thoughts, then it might have been called as dreaming. But because it involves voluntary efforts to reason, it is called as thinking.

While humans are capable of thinking, does that mean the thinking begin in itself? Or does it require some motivation, like an opposite team, to trigger its beginning? If so, what if there is no team in opposite? Then how one thinks in such cases? Let us start our journey into the exploration of many such thought-provoking questions for getting a deeper understanding.

One cannot understand the game of thinking without knowing why to play this game in the first place. It is a commonly known fact that the sixth sense is the one that helps the humans think. This sixth sense is given to us so that we can all behave sensibly, at least try to do so. When one is in a traffic, s/he refrains from jumping a signal while the red lights are still on. This basic sense of why to stop in the red light will help to save a life of a pedestrian crossing the road.

Other than for a sensible behaviour, thinking is also important to bring progress in various domains. An artist cannot survive if s/he is not creative enough to please the audience. Also, a scientist cannot bring new technological developments into existence in society if s/he is devoid of reasoning. Similarly, a reformer cannot bring social change if s/he cannot find ways to spark a mental revolution. In all these cases, thinking becomes non-negotiable.

Now that we understood the importance of the game of thinking, that brings us to the next question. Does this game begin by itself? Certainly not. In my poetic words, “reasoning needs a reason to begin”.

A reason to begin

We tend to refer the reason that compels this beginning as an opposite team. Without competition, a system will not be motivated to improvise. Without the need to improvise, there is no reason to begin reasoning, i.e., thinking. Let us consider an entrepreneur is running a business. When will this entrepreneur introduce new and efficient ways of running a business? Only when the competition is outperforming her/him.

Similarly, in a football match, the players will have the motivation to improve their game strategy only if the opposite team is stronger than them. Thus, the competition helps induce thinking.

But many of us do think in many occasions without an opposite team. Then what makes us think?

Game beyond competition

Many a times, it is not an opposite team but a cause beyond self that stands tall in our mind that ignites the drive to think. Rajaram Mohan Roy was one such person, who begun to think not because of any competitors, but to bring a social change. This social cause drove him to contribute to the Intellectual Renaissance (liberation) in India. His thinking helped awaken rationality, thus breaking many superstitious and evil practices like sati, child marriage, female infanticides and so on.

Besides the socio-cultural reform, even the scientific advancements require a cause to ignite thinking. As pointed out precisely by an old saying – “Necessity is the mother of all inventions”. One beautiful example that illustrates this saying is when Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam contributed to the development of light weight prosthetic leg for polio-stricken children. Thanks to his emotional intelligence that helped him think of an alternative for the heavy 3 kg prosthetic leg, in a 300 g composite material used in missile tech.

While in the game of thinking, Nobel causes help bore fruit to the society. One must also be wary of the risk of losing their mind due to extreme causes or toxic competitions.

Risk of losing the mind

We all are aware that mind is the one doing the thinking. What if the cause is narrow and negative? The answer again is very straightforward – Chaos.

We all remember this dark event in the Indian history, the Direct Action Day. This was the result of a man whose narrow communal interest started to dominate broader national interest. We all know him as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who led to such a bloodshed for India-Pakistan partition. When one plays the game of thinking initiated with a wrong cause, the consequence is always catastrophic.

Not only confined to history, even in the present times, many driven by wrong cause consider their opposite team as an obstacle to be eliminated rather than an opportunity to improve. For example, athletes opt for doping rather than thinking for a better strategy to win in combat sports. In doing so, they not only affect their health in long-term but also become dangerous to their opponent due to the disproportionate physical advantage it provides to the user. This further degrades the reputation of the sport causing a larger harm to legitimacy of the sport. So, it is necessary to think but without losing one's mind to the extreme cause driven by negativity. That brings us to our final question, how to think without losing our mind?

Let the conscience guide

In the game of thinking, the rules are always clear, to play fair and just. To do that, our actions need to be guided by our conscience which is enriched by ethics from childhood. In this context, the part of parenting becomes paramount. Parents should not only aim to raise an intellectual child, but also a child who can think within ethical boundaries. Adding to that, the importance of moral education is never felt more relevant than in this globalized-modern world. It can help in enriching the conscience with morality, inspiring them to play for a cause beyond self-interest in this competitive society.

Further, it is important to develop the culture of healthy competition rather than rivalry among the children. Even in the school exams, we can see how some parents expect their child to top the class at whatever cost rather than ethically. These unfair expectations not only push them into malpractices, but also lead to mental health crisis on failing the exam. While the expectations should shift from winning-at-all-cost to ethically learning, it is also necessary to foster mental resilience to make the child endure the highs of success and the lows of failure with equanimity. In this game of thinking, this will help them not only to play within their ethical boundaries, but also keep them unshaken mentally while doing so.

Thus, thinking is a process beyond dreaming that involves reasoning. Thinking is what has brought in necessary societal changes for the evolution of the world. It needs an opposite team or a cause to begin. But one must also be wary of the risk of losing their mind if played for wrong cause, which may lead to devastating consequences. So, to train our mind to play within the ethical boundaries set by our conscience is crucial. This also requires the parents and our education system to nurture and raise ethical thinkers in the children in a healthily competitive environment. Such a child will always play the game of thinking not for the self but for global rejoice – “Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu”!

Join the game of thinking, let my views be the opposite team. Share your views below in the comment section.

All ideas having large consequences are always simple

 

We all are aware of Albert Einstein’s formula E=mc², which unified mass and energy which were seen as unrelated and distinct concepts earlier. This simple idea became the foundation for nuclear energy, quantum physics, space-time theory, not only transforming the modern science but also the geopolitics. This might be one among the many such simple ideas, that has triggered “domino effect” i.e. one consequence leading to another, either good or bad, some intended while others unintended, some lasting while others lapsed. But this reiterates the quote well – all ideas with large consequences are always simple.

In this line of thought, one often wonders why is it always a simple idea that begins the domino effect of consequences? Are these consequences always predicted before? Is there a way to forecast such consequences? In this essay, we will try to explore all these questions to gradually build a deeper understanding.

Let us begin by trying to explore on why simple ideas become consequential.

When we think on such a question, the answer is actually simple! Simple ideas are those that are easily understood by any common person. It can easily be implemented and practiced in their life. Those kinds of ideas are the ones that become sustainable. One such simple yet consequential idea was the concept of Satyagraha given by Gandhiji. It literally means to be truthful and follow Ahimsa, that is non-violence. But who would have imagined besides Gandhiji and few others that it could become a major push factor for the Indian independence in 1947. That is the power of simple ideas when it reaches people and gains their acceptance!

Another reason for a simple idea for being that consequential is because of the butterfly effect they create. Butterfly effect is like a chain reaction caused by one simple moment or idea. Another simple example for one to understand this concept is the invention of wheels. Everyone knows how the invention of wheels was inspired by the idea of rolling the stones from slopes, may be hills. But did that end up only with the invention of wheels? Certainly not! Wheels led to the transportation, which in turn led to globalization, which in turn led to awareness of the world and beyond, further fuelling many inventions.

This butterfly effect also tells us that nothing in this universe goes unheard, un-viewed, or in vain!

Lord Krishna explained this concept in Mahabharata. He explained how Bhishma's simple resolve to sacrifice the throne to pacify his stepmother, led to a series of miseries and clash for throne, finally leading into one of the deadliest battles painted in blood, the Mahabharata War. But one can argue that Bhishma did not predict such a consequence. If he predicted it earlier, he might have prevented such a massacre. That brings us to the next question. Can we always predict all the consequences of our simple idea?

The answer is both yes and no. Most of the times, these simple ideas are pondered without knowing their consequences at large.

Unintended, yet impactful

            One such instance where people can recall is the story of Newton and the Apple. He proposed the law of gravitation as a simple idea behind the falling of Apple. But I am sure that even he would not have imagined that we would send rockets to moon, satellites to space, and humans to outer world, building upon that idea! It is a matter of fascination that all these space missions were born out of his simple idea of gravitation.

But it is also to be noted that every time these consequences were not this sweet, we saw bitter experiences too in our world. One such instance was during the aftermath of World War I. The harsh treaty of Versailles was imposed on the Germany as a retaliation by the Allied powers, that is the winning countries of World War I. But they did not imagine that it would create even worse war in World War II. The reason for the rise of Hitler's Nazi army was majorly attributed to the harsh conditions this treaty made Germany to endure. But this was totally unintended and was unpredicted at that time.

But that does not mean that every consequence of simple ideas can't be predicted. While history warns us about unintended consequences, there are also cases where our gut feelings enriched by our worldly experiences and the awareness of the surroundings can help us forecast certain consequences. One such instance was the invention of light bulb by Thomas Alva Edison. His gut feeling forecasted a light revolution that can replace the dirty, dangerous kerosene lamp that almost lit up houses and offices with a safe and affordable electric light. And we know how this simple idea illuminated the global society fuelling many more worldly events.

While gut feelings can give one a vision of future, it can at times manifest as fear to warn against the dangerous consequences of a simple idea. The fear of scientist Oppenheimer that his Manhattan Project might trigger the nuclear arms race instead of nuclear deterrence was a valid one, indeed becoming the reality in the present global stage. But this consequence despite an unintended one and was not desired by him, it was indeed a predicted one as know from his famous likes, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”. That brings us to the next question. How can we predict the unintended consequences to minimize harm?

Minimize unintended negatives

            It is easier said than done as to even predict those unintended consequences, one needs to face a series of challenges. Let us unfold them with an example of governance policy idea of building a dam.

The first challenge is the availability and accuracy of data related to construction of dam and on the variables that affect such an activity. This includes the climatic patterns of that area, water availability and distribution from the river, forest area required, potential impacts on the ecosystem, etc. Even if accurate data for these are available, the interplay with next variable makes this challenge more dynamic – the stakeholders. A policy needs to look at who are the intended beneficiaries, who gets displaced (mostly the forest dwellers and tribes), how to rehabilitate them, how it affects the birds and animals, how it affects the forest cover and the ecosystem, etc.

Thus, despite being a simple idea, it has to go through such an elaborate forecasting and considerations in order to make that idea to thrive sustainably.

In this effort of forecasting possibilities to minimize harm, the AI and data science shows enormous promise. These models can help to predict countless possibilities, thus making the decisions data-driven. And further adding that with feedback loop mechanism helps to evolve ideas as per ground realities constantly and reduce forecast errors, thus largely preventing the negative consequences.

Besides the governance policies, even the individual decisions also have many impacts that needs the harm minimized. So, to make one's simple idea more positively impactful, it must be driven by selflessness and aimed at the common good for all. This was successfully demonstrated by Ashoka 2300 years ago via his Dhamma concept (Justice) where he propagated ethical values aiming to build a harmonious society. So, his simple & altruistic principle helped to maintain harmony in his empire.

Hence simple ideas are always the ones that lead to large consequences. Such idea’s simplicity leads to further building upon them triggering a butterfly effect. Though the consequences cannot be fully predicted always, the unintended ones can be minimized if given due consideration. Such minimization not only leads to less harm but also to more sustainability of that idea. And if everyone is truly altruistic, then the fruit of such idea will most likely be sweet for all of humanity. Thus, it is important to remember Krishna’s advice on these lines before we take any simple decision – Nishkama Karma, i.e. selfless action!

Let me know your take on this topic in the comment section!

Visionary decision making happens at the intersection of Intuition and Logics

 

“When mind reasons and gut guides, your decision becomes visionary!”

 An old quote by an Indian philosopher resonates quite well with the topic. It unfolds a carefully protected secret of making visionary decisions by leaders with the help of these poetic lines. It emphasizes on how the interaction between the mind and the gut becomes important for making a sustainable-futuristic decision. This essay intends to discuss about how such interactions occur and how to find out the right proportion of such interaction.

Firstly, let us start by understanding about what a visionary decision mean and why it is important. One can define vision simply as an imagination of how one wants their future to look like. When one decides to paint that imagination into reality, that decision becomes visionary. Such vision gives us a purpose to live, a target to achieve.

It can be an individual career choice where one wants to see oneself as ‘so-and-so’ in future. Or choice to contribute to a common cause to paint a shared future. Take the instance of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. From his career choice of becoming a lawyer to his historical contribution in drafting the constitution of India, all exemplified his visionary decisions.

These kinds of decisions require the interaction and intersection of intuition and logics to create such a magic!

Intuition – Logic Interface

          One can consider the intuition as the gut feeling of what is right or wrong. It is generally shaped by the experiences one had in their past and by their value system.

          When we say logics, one can call it the ability to reason any subject-matter, to analyse it and derive conclusions out of it. This is generally shaped by one's knowledge on that subject-matter rather than their past-experience.

          While logics helps one to critically think and reason to see the feasibility of options, it is the intuition which will ultimately guide them to take the right path.

          Consider Indian freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi had various options for protesting British rule in 1920s. This period was also marked by world war elsewhere, rise in revolutionary activities within, and unrest of peasants & tribals in many parts of our country. Considering all these logical options carefully, he chose satyagraha and believed it as the right way to attain freedom even if it delays it. Though violence was perceived as faster option, his intuition made him realize Ahimsa (non-violence) as being sustainable in the long run, which proved to be correct. But intuition and logics also play a role in evolving the path to the vision. This is also demonstrated by one such instance where Gandhiji logically predicted that Britishers will retreat with suppression against the satyagrahis. Thus, he did not stop the Satyagrahis from resorting to violence for self-defence during Quit India Movement. That is why, in his 11-point demand earlier, he wanted to restore firearms license for Indians for self-defence. This is how he demonstrated a successful logics-intuition interface for a visionary decision-making.

          There are also other instances where the logics and intuition had successful collaborations. Amul was one of the most famous cases considering the imprint it left on our country and beyond. The decision of Amul of starting a cooperative movement and then spearheading the White revolution in India, was a perfect union of vision and data-driven planning supported by intuition. Later it became so impactful that even countries like Kenya tried to replicate its model.

          These instances not only prove that logics-intuition collaboration help at making the right choices at long term, but also on how much impact it leaves behind.

          While thinking about this collaboration, one may wonder what would happen if logics overtake intuition in a decision making. Will the decision still be visionary?

          Take the example of making a policy. If government is fully data driven, it might come up with an ideal policy which might not have a connect with the ground reality. During the 2004 Tsunami, the logical disaster management practices failed while the local people’s intuition saved them from the disaster. So, government learned from this to integrate local people’s knowledge into the disaster management policy after that.

          Another issue of too much leaning into logics is that it can lead to sacrificing of values. Imagine what would happen if the government privatizes the police duty in the name of bringing logistical efficiency. This will not only compromise public safety but also will make justice inaccessible to those with no purchasing power. This makes the decision making a ruinary rather than visionary!

 But it is not fair to say such ruinary occurs only if logics overtake intuition in decision making. It may also happen if the coin is flipped. Thus, we also need to understand the flip side of the coin i.e. case for intuition over logics.

If intuition overtakes logics……

          This scenario is not something new in the history of India. During the 1970s and 80s, the government of India was pumping its money into sick public sector units (PSUs), hoping it would get revived someday. They did not stop this intuition-driven approach despite data showing poor performance of those state-run PSUs. Such an action added with other external (global) factors finally led India into severe BOP crisis by the end of 1980s. Thus, when logics questions the intuition, it is wise to re-evaluate the course of action.

It not only leads to such irrational decisions, but believing in pure intuition also will lead to loss of confidence among the followers, thus losing the support to achieve such a visionary goal. It is like a captain sailing the ship to hunt the treasure without a map but asking the crew to believe in his intuition about this unknown place. Over the time, the crew will lose confidence as intuition won't guarantee the path to the treasure like the map does. At least map helps to make the crew confident of their destination in this unknown place. That is why we need to find a right balance between the data and the experience to set the sail right!

Intuition – Logics Balance

          One has to be trained to see a situation without bias and emotions. This helps the mind to see the facts objectively in the options available. Here is where the modern science comes into play where data science and artificial intelligence gives a helping hand. It helps to interpret the statistics and data with minimal emotional hook, thus bringing objectivity.

After that, besides the objectivity, the choice activity needs to be guided by one's gut feelings. The gut feelings or the intuition is trained with ethical values and past experiences. So, it will help to make ethically justifiable decisions at the right time. A good decision that is ill-timed is equal to a worse decision. Example of one such decision was LPG reforms-equivalent that broke the Soviet Union in 1990s. But similar reforms were majorly successful in India because of its political timings and the socio-economic backdrop which led to its acceptance.

Another way to attain such balance is to learn from the past. India came up with nuclear deterrence after it encountered various wars during 1960s and 70s despite being a peace-loving country. This inspired it to make such a visionary decision of becoming a nuclear power not to harm the enemy, but to protect its citizens as a matter of self-defence.

Though vision can be called the imagination of the future, to make it a reality one needs to take a firm decision. This decision must be taken at the intersection of logics and intuition with their right proportion. Over-intuition may lead to irrationality while too much logic forgets the human factor. Thus, a balance between both needs to be fostered to truly bring the vision into limelight, making it shine. Let us knit our visionary fabric Viksit Bharat with the threads of logics and intuition!

Let us foster the vision of democracy and discuss! Comment your thoughts below.

Not all who wander are lost

 

       

        Not all who wander are lost…. A purposeful paradox captured by this beautiful poetic line. One may think of wandering as non-purposeful act. But many wanderers are seekers of something that they might not possess. Many get lost in the process while others survive. Some also re-find their self. This essay intends to gradually explore all those dimensions.

Many define wandering as where the eyes see, the legs go. But it will be a narrow view if the wandering is confined to such a physical dimension.

          It in fact extends beyond what eyes could see! Not speaking about the blind, but about our mind. Mind is so powerful that it can take us beyond our vision to the imagination or a step beyond it to the metaphysical world (spiritual experience or journey).

          In general, the wandering is associated with a purpose to find something or to search for something that is lost. But sometimes, wandering itself is to find a purpose. Such wandering is called as self-actualization, something that we think is a spiritual department and not for commoners. If you think so, you might be wrong!

          Self-actualization is something everyone must strive to attain, that is, to find a purpose in life. This can be done by analysing and self-evaluating one’s past to find our strengths and weaknesses and determine what one can do meaningfully in this life. Thus, to do that, wandering becomes necessary.

Where to wander?

          Most of the seekers in the ancient times do go for a physical journey to distant lands to seek understanding of their purpose. They try to find a spiritual guru for guidance. One such example was our national hero Swami Vivekananda, who found his guru in Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, which later led him to give the spiritual call for India to awake!

          Consider the India visit by Steve Jobs before finding Apple. He said that the simplicity and minimalism preached by the Indian philosophy, gave birth to his Apple company.

          But such spiritual travels need not be done physically anymore in this modern-technocratic era. The social media becomes a repository of spiritual knowledge giving us not one, but many online gurus for guidance.

The learning does not need to be through physical preaching, but could be through online seminars, audio-video means, as well as through e-books. One can go through many, if not vast ocean of resources in this online world.

But still, if the compass is lost, the forest turns into a maze.

Might go lost

          Just like a ship left in the middle of a vast ocean without a map, so can be the people who lose themselves in the puzzle posed by the social media jungle.

          The purpose to use the social media is like a compass for the user who sails through. Once that compass is lost, so is the captain! Once upon a time, we started using social media to share our happiness with others by sharing our achievements. But now it turned into an obsession to post content and seek constant validation, thus losing the self in it. Now people plant trees not intending to conserve it, but to post its picture and get likes. Once the seeker of and with purpose, now reduced into merely self-obsessed showpiece!

This takes a catastrophic turn when the validation is attained no more, leading to mental health issues and deterring the quality of life.

But fortunately, this is not the case for all.

Not all go lost

“Captains with compass, sails through the ocean!”.

Everyone who intends to wander must have a moral compass and their purpose mapped. Even if an artist wander on streets for ideas, the morality is the one that lets him/her resist temptations and seek what s/he came for. Similarly in the social media, the self-control acts as a moral compass and the purpose gives one the tunnel vision to look for what is necessary for the self in this ocean rather than what can possibly be attained in random.

One such example is the online education or research. There are free lectures and research papers available from many top universities in the world like MIT, Harvard University, etc. This can help students access content at virtually zero cost. Even the internet is free in India through BharatNet. The wise will voluntarily search for specific video or material rather than letting the algorithm to recommend/decide on behalf.

Similarly, spiritual wandering can also be through online. But the challenge is posed when the Web algorithm markets one specific ideology repeatedly making it more attractive. This increases the chances of getting carried away by such one which may or may not suit the self. The wisdom alone helps one to understand that spirituality is contextual and situational. There is no one-size-fits-all approach as everyone's experience is vivid and different.

This understanding about the spirituality becomes the core for the captains to not get lost in their journey. Such people won’t be carried away by any one ideology but deeply reflect on if that fits their situation well or not. Mahatma Gandhi was one such person who experimented with different value system while wandering, eventually finding what suits him the best, which was ‘Ahimsa’.

Many seekers in India now mimic the same. They seek for information from many sources taking what is useful for them and discarding the rest, as once said by Bruce Lee.

But how much ever these captains sail through successfully to attain self-realization, India cannot become enlightened unless those who were lost are found again!

Find the lost

          To find the lost back, it is necessary to search for them in the place where we lost them and to find what made us lose them.

          When lost physically, a search and rescue team can be sent to the exact location to find the wanderers, like a police complaint or military action could help. But this becomes challenging in the social network world due to its vastness compared to the physical space.

Since a person is carried away by the glitters of social media, the first enemy is the emotions that responds to those glitters. One such emotion, as discussed before is the ‘lust of validation’, or called as the ‘fear of insignificance’. It makes one forget the purpose of self-realization and pulls into a ‘circus of visibility’. Constantly seeking visibility gives subtle time for self-evaluation and discovery. It, in fact, dilutes the mental as well as the physical health of oneself.

Another issue is the click-bait. The random scrolling of content and clicking on random videos is a trap. One must be aware of the difference between curiosity and temptations. Curiosity is something that helps in deeper learning but temptation deviates one from actual content one searched for.

So, there is need for awareness on responsible use of social media. Parents must restrict their children’s screen time, set timers, and switch off recommendations. Meditations must be taught to kids from a young age to channelise their thoughts, control their desires and move towards self-realisation of their goal in life.

Although wandering starts from the eyes and legs, it is the mind that determines if one is lost or not. From music to MNC, education to enlightenment, all of them may have started wandering barefooted, but it was their mind that led them channel their thoughts into action. Their self-control and tunnel vision of purpose made their sail easy. Even the lost one can be found when the click-bait temptations are turned into purposeful curiosity. When we start to seek reforms in our mind and not elsewhere, that is when the wanderers become yogis!  

 Lets me know your perspective on the comment section!