My CTO is a Physicist!

In our all-hands meeting today, my CTO said, "you find most of the top guys (who made breakthroughs) in Computer Science are from Physics background". And he proudly said that he was a Physicist. Later, I thought why this is so. If you observe, Physics was great in demand before Computer Science came into existence. Obviously, most of the smart guys were attracted to this field. Smart guys not only influence their field, but also start influencing the buddy fields, which of course, Computer Science was one of them. Computer Science is nearly two decades old, and not surprisingly though, you find Physics graduates playing top roles in this field. May be two decades later, a Biology professor tells in his class, "You know what, lot of breakthroughs in our field were done by Computer Scientists!". And we are observing how Computer Science is solving some of the tough Biology problems today. It is not what the field is that is important, it's where the smart guys are in.

Why do we visit Church?

Ah...what a boring topic! Talk something else Subbu...Sorry; this is my blog; I can rant whatever I want. So, why do we visit Church? Ok...tell me, where do you hide when your big brother is chasing you to beat. Obviously, behind your mom. Of course, there are other places in your home to hide, but your mom can do one additional thing: beat your brother back. So, what we observed here? If you are overpowered by your brother, you will go to your mom who can overpower him. Correct? Similarly, if your are overpowered by difficulties in the life, your will go to a place where those can (believe to) be tackled, or at least you get a sense of relief from difficulties. So, you visit a church, where you surrender yourself and ask God to resolve them. In my view, church is the only place where you feel that there is something more powerful than you, and you feel secured there. [Ofcourse, bomb is also more powerful than you, but you don't feel secured there :)]. No no...I am atheist. I don't go to church. Ok. Simple. Believe in you, and feel confident that you can help yourself. Or visit a psychiatrist, he will make you believe in you :)

Skepticism

Skepticism is healthy only to a limited extent. Being skeptical about proofs and programs (particularly your own) will probably keep your grades healthy and your job fairly secure. But applying that much skepticism will probably also keep you shut away working all the time, instead of letting you get out for exercise and relaxation. Too much skepticism is an open invitation to the state of rigor mortis, where you become so worried about being correct and rigorous that you never get anything finished.

-A skeptic

(Taken from Margin-notes of D.E Knuth's Concrete Mathematics book)

Perspective

In my view, there is one powerful word in the English dictionary, which is the key manipulator of our humanity. It's "Perspective". Everybody carries their own perspectives. It defines what is important to them and what is not. Two people having a common perspective become friends, otherwise, they become enemies, in worst case. The depth of their friendship or enmity is define by the how much overlapping their perspectives are.

There is no perspective that is always right or wrong. Something you feel right may not possibly agree with the other person's view. He might have his own reasons to disagree with you, however illogical they are. Some times, a given perspective may appear right, perhaps just for a short period of time; however over a long run, it may be absolutely disastrous. For example, religion was formed to bring order in the chaotic society. Though it did well earlier, they are now driving us to religion wars. If people who developed religion foresighted this, there could have come-up with something better than what we have today. We are now too struck with our religion, which is a perspective though, to think of anything contradictory.

Secondly, perspectives of an individual defines his identity. Any contradiction to his perspectives make him feel threatened to his identity. The identity can also be called as "Ego". A person is egoistic, if he believes firmly on his perspectives, and self-center in them. A person is egotist, if he brags about his achievements, as he perceive value in those, and wants to show off to make others feels the same.

Finally, people are too busy in airing their own perspectives, despite wrong, to hear anything opposing. Many people are not realizing because realizing anything does not fetch them immediate benefits. People understand others views if they can easily relate to their perspective. If they could not relate, they feel that they either did not understand or it is stupid.

[There are many things in life that could be explained with one word "Perspective". I tried to cover as much as possible. For remaining things, you could come up with your own analogies]

To Me, Everyone is a Kid

To me, everyone is a kid, but only the things that satisfy their desires change. For example, as a kid your desire is to have a wonderful toy than your neighborhood friend's, as you grow to an adulthood, the desire remains the same, except that the wonderful toy is replaced by a wonderful car. Contrastingly, if it's so, why can't we call everyone as adult, as the desire is constant for both adult and kid. That's a very good opposing point of view. But, I still stick to my opinion, not by being stubborn though, but with a proper reason. I observed many people (or the so-called adults) are as demanding as kids. They quarrel like kids, if not butcher others, to get what they want. Their first priority is what they want, and do not care what others think of them. This is exactly what kids do. By observing this behavior, I feel more happy to classify them as kids than adults. I believe that even God, if he exists, is a kid. He has a desire to create us, nature, and the laws. I don't know whether he quarreled with Satan to realize his desire, but he might have got a tremendous pleasure of realizing what he wants, like kids. Otherwise, he wouldn't have created us, if his creation is boring.

Though this concept seems convincing to some, there is a chance of getting mis leaded. If you consider everyone as kid, you may tend to ignore them, as kids' ideas/opinions are often ignored. I argue that if you take this concept literally, you'll certainly get mis leaded. In my opinion, no body is less or more. Everybody has some thing good to learn from. In fact, everybody is a mix of good and bad. I would tell you not to ignore adults as such, but only their childish behaviors. Be aware of those behaviors, and treat those as we treat kids, and take those behaviors in a light-hearted manner.

I believe that having such mind-set would keeps us from taking things personally, if somebody hurts us: both physically and emotionally. Ask yourself, do you really care if a five year old scolds you, instead you might love to take him on your lap and kiss him, and to some extent try to mend him. Still, if the kid is too tough to deal with, just leave him, and move on. There are many kids out there to play with.

Fiction Versus Non-Fiction

I have heard about some debates on which one is a good read: fiction or non-fiction. But, I feel that the debate is pointless, because both are the same in terms of gaining knowledge. The only difference I see is the amount of knowledge you gain per page (or per unit of time).

Fiction books are like conveying the author's thoughts in the form of story-telling, which like kids, interest readers. Whereas, non-fiction is to the point where the author conveys his thoughts succinctly. I appreciate the fiction in the way that the author tries to convey something by framing a real world situation. This, I feel, is required for people who can't frame the situations on their own. Whereas readers of non-fiction (have to) come up with their own analogies to relate the concept. According to my observation, people who are either too busy or unable to come up with analogies on their own, prefer fiction. These people don't want to stress their brains. In other words, reading fiction doesn't require much brain stress. That's why we find many people reading fiction whenever they find time: waiting at bus stops, queue, hospitals, before bed time etc. Here, it's ok to involve your half-brain, and keep the other half, for e.g., observing the bus you want to take. On the other hand, reading non-fiction requires some mental effort to really understand and relate things, which requires your 100% concentration. If you read non-fiction at bus stops, you may more likely miss the bus :).

At the end, I would say, [as if I have made a final conclusion on the world's hottest debate], it's all about your choice: nothing is good/interesting and nothing is bad/boring.

There is an article that gives more elaborate view on this topic: Read...

For Math Geniuses

Prove that !(!x) != x. If you can succeed, your are shaking the foundations of Boolean Algebra.