Ask from gears. Engineers have used gears massively since the mechanical revolution. Although they have been there for centuries. Today, you will find gears, in every machine with significant motion, as a rule. If you have dissembled a toy car as a kid, you would have noticed, some gears. Maybe it was your grandfathers watch you undid, just to see how many interesting gears they possess. One fact about fitting gears, is that they are never meant to be 100% snug fit. The reason is simple. When the gear wheels move against each other, the friction which helps to bring out the forward motion, makes them rub against each other and causes thermal expansion of the wheels. If the Gears were snug fit, they will lock with one another, until they are cooled down again. Sometimes they might even snap, if the torque is stronger than the gears itself. And that would be a serious fault if you consider, amount of machinery which depends on gears. Solution is simple, and open, leave a gap, for thermal expansion. Tighter is not always better. Gears Ask from a cyclist. Similar principle governed when I first learned to use a bicycle. It was in the latter part of the childhood, when I first had a chance to try one. And this was an adult height cycle that we had, and I couldn't balance myself without help of someone. So, to avoid a risk of a fall, what did I do? I just hold onto the handle. When it tried to move to left, I would try to keep it straight. When it tried to move to right, I would try to keep it straight. But if you do not know the bicycle have a cleaver design to keep its center of gravity aligned with its path. And correct way of doing that is trusting its instincts and let it correct its own path. A gentle grip with a slight pointing in direction, would do. And it is lot easier, if your legs start to move than your brain, or arms, when it comes to cycling. So, a bicycle will tell you tighter is not always better. Ask from anyone This phenomenon is repetitive. I can give you many more examples from the tip of my tongue. An artist would tell you not to grip the Paint brush tighter. A violinist would tell you not to push the bow hard against the strings. Not too much, just light glide would do. You can call it agility, or artistic way of gripping things. Ask from yourself, loosen your grip. We can reverse engineer this gear principle for our lives. Maybe in your life, something feels tight. Something feels hot. And something feels stuck, like two gears hugging each other without any movement. And this can come out as stress and anger when you genius life machine is supposed to roll and produce productive output in every passing minute. And now you know, it is not supposed to work that way. Maybe you are putting too much effort. For your clogged up mind machine to function again, you need to loosen your grip to whatever it is grabbing. Little bit of lubrication with naturally peaceful grease would do. If the loosening the gear wheels not possible maybe you should entirely replace them. Before them break and jam everything. I know this is just an analogy. Sometimes there are no easy fixes to life like replacing a set of gears. However, it doesn't have to be tedious. You need to have an artistic talent when you grasp things. Not too tight, not too light, when you grip anything in life. It may be children, a partner, a passion to create, a job an apartment or a pet or a dream. Whatever it is, a gear principle would come in handy when things start to tighten up one day. Artistic gripping Why Timing matters. One fact of note is that the loosening of grip principle should apply from the day 1 of your grip cycle. So, timing matters, and timing is always. Even when you see the things are rolling smoothly with the tight grip of yours.

Hunting for aliens The man woke up in the morning. With a dream. He wanted to reach the stars and hunt for aliens in unearthly planets that orbit trillions of light years away. So, he built a Rocketship, that travel beyond the gravitational field of the earth, into the dark abysses of the space. And for years, and years he listened to the feedback, some electromagnetic signals, which were reflected back from his genius invention, travelling at snail speeds in cosmic scale. And he heard nothing. He heard nothing after burning, a trillion dollars on his amazing machine. Such a voyage. Yet, he did not give up. Failure of one small step would not bring down his spirits, as he had means and methods of accumulating dollars for a better starship, that can travel four times the speed, and using reusable boosters, he is planning to send multiple voyagers hunting for aliens in all the possible directions into the darkness of the universe. Wait till 40 years later till he gets answers to his calls. He is sure about contact this time. Earthly Aliens Hunting for food The man woke up in the morning. 12756km away from the former. With a dream. He wanted to feed his starving child. A piece of bread, a slice of a potato, or a spoon of sugar, which was not there inside his house, or his neighbor's kitchen. In his ragged cloths, covering his thin frame, just like his skin which draped over his bones could not embrace a muscle which was not there due to days and days of extended fasting, that he had to endure to feed his dying child, he stepped outside in search of work or food. He wasn't particularly angry at anyone or anything. As, existence of this man and his child was not in the minds of many people, they did not belong to this world. They were the real hungry aliens who were not awed by the rest of the world. There were no satellites in this part of the world which was sent for hunting for any evidence of life in these skins and bones. They would become carcasses in the dessert feeding hundreds of hungry vermin. Which is inevitable. Just the fate that they shared with hundreds of thousands of others who were born into their shared poverty. But who is to blame? Maybe aliens that we are hunting have superpowers to increase the longevity of our selfish existence, that is a chance we should take among all our other priorities. There is no shared responsibility for feeding every hungry kid. The ones who brought out these hungry mouths are responsible or rather irresponsible people; hence we should distribute more condoms not food. We do not have enough resources to sustain a continuous supply of material to increase the likelihood of survival of these earthly aliens. So, let's just forget about these local ambitions and carry out universal ones. Let's talk about colonizing Mars instead. About far away galaxies that are triple the size of milky way and be amazed. Lets, burn some oil, and vaporize gallons and gallons of water, just to keep the heat under control. Let's build protocols to keep growing businesses. Let's have conferences to discuss, about mass production of shoes. Let's sleep in peace, not thinking about skinny bones in the other side of the world. Who cares, I am stomach full tonight, and I just need Netflix and headspace. A little bit of peace.

Atoms that fly. I was by the lagoon looked up at the sky Searching for a silver lining in a dark cloud that shine Like Lilly white Instead, I saw some atoms that fly And landed in the lagoon Hoping to find some grub Atoms that fly, searching atoms that swim. In the sea of atoms that float Isn't it a wonderful sight? Atoms that fly What is life? After a long time, I was looking at the sky . Just to note some twinkling stars. Maybe it is more than a year since I was consciously aware of these tiny dots presence in the sky. Last, I can remember, was nearly two years ago, looking for roaming satellites in a background of countless stars. And today there is no luck, and I cannot see any shooting stars or moving things. But it's good enough. It is good enough few stars, which just send that light which reach my eyes millions of years later. Did those stars ever think that I will observe them and think about it? I highly doubt that it is my consciousness which noted their presence in the dark moonless night. Uncertainty of stargazing Let's assume otherwise. Let's assume a star I observe is a consciousness itself. That it wanted to be seen and exclusively send those light rays towards earth, at the exact moment for me to see. How likely is that? Even if that is true still, there is a chance I would have not looked up at the sky. If I did not, climb this hill, if I did not have a minute for myself uninterrupted awareness, if the sky wasn't clear , I would have not made that observation. And if that did not happen, I would not write this now, and there would be nothing for you to read. So, I suggest you look around, where you are now. It can be magical what happens when we are aware of ourselves within this continuous existence. And the trajectory of the life function will change each moment you do that. Lanterns in the night Lanterns Lanterns in the dark Reminds me of the nights How we stayed till they burn out To bring back the darkness So, we could start counting stars Uncertainty of any observation You can be on your vacation, drinking a beer on a beach, you can be at work, just taking a hot coffee break, you can be stressed searching for meaning of life, and if any of that did not happen you would not read these words. The real question is those reasons were just the tip of the iceberg. And we can travel back in time chasing reason after reason, and interwoven jumble of reasons which is called universe upto the big bang! And even the story would not end up there, as there is always an egg before any chicken and chicken before an any egg . And if we pick up any tiny event from this untraceable streak of events and made tiny adjustment ( chaos theory ) to this we can assume, we would never be here on earth. If the earth did move few hundred kilometers to right or left due to a nuclear reaction of an atom which did not happen quantillion years ago, there would not be humans at all, and no smartphones, so much so for a reason of an atom! And I would be not there to observe the stars and you would not be there to follow the thought process. Liers of faith, liers of science. In the vast jungle of interwoven reasons, if someone claims that they know why we are on earth, I would call him mad, not God. And I would not replace my blind faith of a universal creator with a scientist who is looking for reasons beyond reasons. As I can understand the likelihood of science reaching the beginning of everything outside, seems unrealistic from the beginning. What are we thinking? With 10000 years of human history, we can only go back three to five iterations of any reasoning. How are we going to expect a million reasons behind the blooming of a flower in my garden? At this rate it will be anyway eternity. And time is not in my favor when it comes to eternity. Being a child of Gen Y, I need quick answers, before I die. Silhouette of life Silhouette Silhouette of life Looking at the skies Searching for a meaning In an infinity Undefined Why? Selfish mindfulness Instead, I like to take the rational route, which is selfish way of doing things. Instead of looking at stars for the meaning of life , I would look at myself. I would look at myself when I see the stars. I would look at myself when I see the migrating birds. I would look at myself when I win a lottery I would look at myself when my car hit a bump I would look at myself when I hear a song I would look at myself when I take a shower I would look at myself when I write a poem Or break my heart when I cry I would look at myself when you listen, and react to my poem And understand it is nothing, but the knower and the knowing made it a mess in the first place. Selfish answer is it all started for myself, at the exact moment I recognize a thing, in this unexplainable un-thingy world. Maybe the stars are meant to be not things after all, and there would be one less problem for you, if I did not stargaze tonight.

You are the creator of your own competitions. Life is a big competition. And it is not. These are two contrasting views about life. If you look at the life in an outwardly view you will see it as a competition. An individual struggles in the society to be successful. Fortunately, nowadays there are many parameters of these "Successes". Which are suitable for each and every individual ethnicity, intellectuality, and gender. So, we are given a choice, a collection of games, for us to participate and compete against each other. If we succeed, we will feel wholesome, triumphed and happy. Some people never think outside this framework of life. So, they develop skills and competencies to succeed in the game they chose to play. And I call these people, the Circle Drawers . metamorphosis But I see another competition, which happens inside of an individual. I cannot speak on behalf of others, hence what I am saying can only be applied to my consciousness. Yet, it can be not so. Maybe others are going through similar stages in their lives. Like metamorphosis suggests. Metamorphosis - Competition is not outside Metamorphosis happens not only in amphibians and butterflies. It happens within humans as well. It is not profound like in the novel by Franz Kafka. You would not be magically transforming into a butterfly overnight. Yet, it happens, with accumulated wisdom over years and years of deliberate search. Specially in ones who are inclined to search for truth despite of endless disappointments of current understanding of self. Understanding the game of life, is one such moment. The framework given to us by our parents and teachers as the game of life is outside is a wrong view. There is no game of life outside your mind. The whole game of life is inside your brain. And this fact alone can change the way you navigate the world in the rest of your living. Instead of searching outside, things which we cannot accumulate, and keep. You will start to play the game of self. Playing with yourself, in understanding yourself. This can transform faster, inside out and you will not have to worry about worldly possessions of your life. Maybe I am naive to talk about this. Often, I see someone argue I haven't read enough Books to argue about philosophy of existence. Then I ask myself, what is existence other than examining myself from within. "I" is the greatest written book ever. And I just read it every day. I speak with facts, just comes directly out of its pages. So, why this is secondary to any other book. It cannot be true and it will never be true. So, I would not play the game as everyone else would. I would create my own book. And be a happy loser in the worldly games. As the real competition is not outside. It is within me with myself.

Why AI was wrong I was having a chat the other day, with AI, and asked it what the positive and negative aspects of this blog are. Among many suggestions, one was that it suggested that the blog, seems to be focused on the self. Instead of the audience. And it is not representing the search queries of popular search engines like google. And I thought to myself. That is exactly what I wanted. And exactly what I was doing this entire time. I know it is hard to understand for an AI or evaluate in human values. But, as of subjectiveness of the world prevail, I can only write about my own problems, and my own experience. And that would have great relevance to someone else, who has having same or similar problems of their lives. Otherwise, trying to answer your problems without having good insight about it, (As I have not encountered these problems myself) is going to be a waste of time, of yours and mine. I can try research on these and write some garbage which I am not even sure of. Instead, I would stick to writing about my own problems and thoughts, so even a single person who resonate with these ideas would get benefit from it. Anger Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One such problem I have encountered within myself is the concept of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . If you haven't read the novel. To the outside world I like to appear Dr. Jekyll. But occasionally a Mr. Hyde would come out. With greed anger and lust. Can I ever be able to stick to Dr. Jekyll in whole life? I can relate this to anyone I meet along the way. When I see someone totally good, appearing to be, I wonder what the Mr. Hyde part of this person is. Obviously, Dr. Jekyll that we meet every day do not show the hideous part of their lives. We can only see them coming out when someone is put to test, against a wall, Infront of a gun. Some might curse, some might retaliate, some might get angry. Some might even kill. For a box of apples, in a time of extreme famine. Agreeing to that fact, makes it easier for me to empathies with others. They are just as selfish and greedy as me. If put to test, the same smiling colleague might even stab me at the back, if that is what it means to survive in a savage world, which fortunately is not there. In this sense, my societal expectations are limited. I do not expect any respect from other human being for any "good" deed I am doing. As, I still am living with Mr. Hyde. Maybe I adore the freedom, Mr. Hyde gives me, although it feels like animalistic. It is in this sense I wrote a controversial article on medallion fund and rat philosophy . Which you may find interesting. In conclusion. I can say, the best way to learn about someone else and how to conduct with others, and also the easiest way is to pretend that what would you do in such a situation. You can call this empathy. Empathy is not feeling sad, when someone is sad. It is about agreeing to the fact, they are sad, because the same mechanisms activate inside you. Same goes with anger and rage and even in a criminal mind. It doesn't even mean to be a saint. But human. So, be careful when you deal with Dr. Jekyll and empathies Mr. hide, both within you and others. What is your Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde doing currently? Or are you just a saint?

If I were to give a speech on limits of life to a bunch of professional listeners who are keen on the subject and asked the open question, What are the limits of life, I would surely get answers, like we are unable to adjust our death, or for that matter our birth circumstances by our free will. I agree to this statement, in other words, life itself is a rotten banana, rotten on both ends. Obviously smelling with rottenness, but we somehow have become the happy consumers of the middle. And This obviously sounded a bit fishy to me for a long time, as it happened it lingered in my hind mind as a concept. Should I trust the delicious taste of apparent unrotten middle of the banana? And I found at least as closest to what is happening in a graph which used to describe limits of a function. Kindergarten explanation on limits. parabola y= X squared Imagine a continuous function, a simple one you would learn in high school. Y = X Squared. This function is continuous just like our life. And end behavior is unreachable, at - and positive infinities of X. Just like our life. Now here is a thing, which helps us to understand what is comprehensible in the middle. From a macroscopic view the graph looks bendy, with a downward and upward parts reflected in the middle. But if you zoom in beyond recognition into any part of the curve, the curvature disappears and the graph would resemble a straight line. Obviously, this cannot be true as at macroscopic level we can see a curve, so at microscopic level that curve should be preserved. So, our cleaver mathematicians instead of tackling with this paradox have built a method called limit. The idea of a limit is simple. Why limits exist in the middle of life? Why the banana is rotten? Limit: is a method used by mathematicians to describe a value of a function, by approximation, without ever describing what actually happens at that instant in time. As an example. If you measure the velocity of a car, which obviously is the derivative of its speed function, you can get a value for instantaneous velocity by using limits. Yet, nobody knows what happens at instant of time, as a car which is accelerating cannot have a single value for velocity. This gives me the full framework for to explain the following poem I wrote in my book of time, three years back. At which time I had no knowledge of limits of a function, yet I knew only there exist a limit of my current moment to moment existence. Truth, is we do not know what happens to us each instant in time. It is too fast for any mind to comprehend, and we can agree that we can only model with an inherent error no matter how hard we try. And mind just approximate the truth with a margin of error just like a limit function. Limits of life are now, not tomorrow

I didn't until recently started to learn some mathematics. And I find these interesting examples from other domains of knowledge, as apparently at the heart of any subject there are models, built on mathematical principles. And one such was learning curves. I have been a learner myself all my life, yet never seriously thought about how it happens in terms of a mathematical function. Basic understanding of learning curves I assume you are not a professor of education, and just naive reader, who happened to pick up a random article to read. And also, I am not capable of writing mathematical jargon so I am going to build a simple explanation and a take home message so you can apply in your learning in the future. A learning curve in general have following characteristics. At the beginning, of learning any subject or skill, the progress is fast. And the growth is rapid. After some time, it becomes a plateau, and the progress is very slow. And it seems no matter how much time we spend more on a subject, it is becoming harder and harder to reach mastery. Model of a diminishing learning curve There are slight variations to this common pattern of learning curves. As an example, some subjects may be harder at first, before you hit an accelerated learning phase. And later comes the plateau (S curve). However, this is not the end of the story of learning curve. Model of a S curve Deliberate practice curve There is a different kind of learning curve, a concept popularized by Anders Ericsson. Which is called a deliberate practice curve. Above two examples are just what happens you are just keep repeating, the process of learning without any modifications. However, as time goes by, if mastery is one's aim, they need to do deliberate practice. In other words, each iteration of learning cycle should give feedback of specifics that you should improve. This way, one is supposed to break out of that plateau phase of traditional learning curve. You can imagine this as a new curve with step ladder pattern, as with each cycle you are jumping a skill level. Model of a deliberate practice curve Take home message. When you are done with your accelerated ride of your learning curve, new skill, and it starts to get bored. Take a moment to look at your weaknesses, and adjust your strategy so, you confront them, leaving your comfort zone of pseudo competency. I am sure anyone who is called a master at their skill do this deliberate practice intuitively, which is not naturally present in others like you and me. Next -> What is metacognition ?

The Oil prices are souring, as the straight of Hormuz is still choked by Iran since the US attacked on 28th. I am unable to decide who is the bigger IDIOT. Either It is the guy who wants to make weapons of massive destruction or the Guy who wants to destroy them before Even they are made. The guy Who wants to prioritize making nuclear weapons over hunger, Or the guy who is boasting about everything, from busts in the oval office to grass in the garden. But, as it happened to me, and many other happy consumers of 21st century, every price tag is taking a hike, which they have no intension to return. And WE do not like that. Everlasting Oil There is a saying, that if you are not in the bloodline royal family, do not even wish for the crown, inevitably you would be decapitated unless you are willing to do it to the king by your own hands. Every Mutiny will end up with destruction. Maybe some leaders of the world do not know how to keep their mouths shut and act weak and friendly with others while it is benefiting. Maybe they haven't seen how crows fight against a flock of migrating birds , and learned the lesson, Co-operation would position both parties if done correctly, and it is not a weakness, but bravery to go beyond one's inherent selfishness. It seems there are possible 200 candidate presidents in the whole world who chose war against prosperity. But who am I to judge. I am just a happy consumer of global economy. And only thing that matters to me is the crash in markets, panic sellers have created an unpredictable unpleasant chaos in my consumer sphere. Oil doesn't flow from Gulf. Assembly lines are slowing down in China. Everything that was imported for cheap dollars that gained with "Global Credit" is rising. And I am squeezed in the budget line, like ever decaying exponential function into eternal nothingness. And its been barely 3 weeks since this new chaos, after covid. There is a queue for everything, and my car is just on the verge of dying of thirst, like a stranded man in a dessert, looking at every shed with a greedy thirsty eye. I am getting uncomfortable inside my own skin. Having climbed the hierarchal ladder of society in an accelerated phase, I do not want to go back to my old hard working, sweating young self. Rather I would bribe a couple of them to keep my consumption at a maximum level. Is this the way every consumer think?? We have seen the real motor of the economic machine is Oil. The last couple of weeks have shown us just that. With current consumption rate oil and natural gas supply will run out in 50 years. Well, I will be happy to be dead, by that time. I would be the last one smiling on the face of earth when it happens, yet I can see there is a huge dark cloud appearing around the future world. Unfortunately, I happened to create some offspring, who would face the consequences of my own selfish rate of consumption. There is a pretty good chance they have to go back to sweat for their own food, unless we or someone find solution to this energy crisis. Instead of making nuclear weapons, world leaders should act like fathers of daughters and sons of next generation to come, in every summit. They should gather and discuss about climate change, oil crisis, global debt, in finding practical solutions with experts. I am not sure what stupid game they are playing at each gathering commenting each other's shoes and nuclear powers. Happy consumers of the future. Meeting Happy consumers Unfortunately, I am not there to represent my children in places where it matters. But I chose one to go to the Parliament on behalf of me, an stupid idiot of a consumer culture. Who has no eyes to see that the approaching clouds are so dark no matter how much reserve they accumulate would not last too long for their own children in a future fallen world. When all the consumers in the world go savage, everyone will fight with their neighbor for a drop of water, and saints would perish early in this war when all the Satans will be long lived. As a happy consumer, I am willing to sacrifice my comfort for 50 more years, so our children get just enough time to solve the problems they have to face in the future and put my patriotism into a bucket with a hole. Are these idiotic politicians even know about the intensity of that intension?

Is it true? Is life really what happens, while we are making some other plans? Just look at yourself and ask the question, what you interpret what life is? And It appears to me this is one of the best ways to say it, so we never forget. You can be a child, or a teenager, or an adult even elderly person. When we look at life as this one-way journey from birth to death, we tend to focus more on future, than anything else. When you were a child, you dream of becoming a teenager, going to a college, having freedom to drive a car. Maybe even doing a job and making money. Maybe ambitious dreams about future. And while all these day-to-day plannings and weeks to months plannings are executed, you become a teenager. What did you miss? When you are a teenager, you dream of being in university, getting higher education. Meeting new people. If you are already in a career pathway, maybe you are seeking promotion, some romance. Each and every aspect your life, you plan for the progress, financially, emotionally, socially you want to become a better person. And while all these plans are being executed you become an adult. What did you miss during this period? City you live in. By this time, the plans you made in earlier decades of life have taken place. Now, it is time to relax. Is it? maybe just not yet. The Middle Ages produces its own challenges. Some just bounce between teenage dreams and realistic revelations. Some might struggle with relationships, maybe its just neighbors. Sometimes, there are new people, and few old people. And new challenges need new plans. And you keep planning your retirement. But, would you be bothered to ask, wise enough to ask, what would you miss if you keep on doing this for the rest of your life? It clearly doesn't suggest that planning is bad. And you will just lose life if you do this. Planning is great, and only great if you know life still happens even if you plan or not. Life is planning. If you want to live a life, it will never occur in the future, at the time of results of your plan. Life happens during your dreaming, during your planning, and during your execution of the plan. So, it is better to choose your dreams, and plans carefully, as life is what happens during all this time. If you understand this concept, which is just two opposing facts about planning and living, then you might not miss the next decade in life, as it is not in the future but now. Practice Mindfulness! as there is no other way of living.

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise." This perhaps is the most well-known quote of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the famous American author. He is famous for his fiction, The Great Gatsby novel. Above quote appeared in one of his biographical essays, and it seems to capture some essence of life, not only intelligence. The first question I would like to ask is what are the two opposing ideas? And he himself have given the first example. Sandcastle with low entropy. Examples of two opposing ideas. Things are hopeless -> yet there is hope. (Life seems to end at death -> yet there is hope that one would lead a successful life) This seems to be the modern way of thinking about life. I would like to ask are there any more examples to two opposing ideas that we have to live with? How about following list of examples. For an investor ->Higher expected return means more risk. It seems not many people are able to handle these two opposing ideas in a meaningful way to come out unbroken. Hard work/smart work now will pay more in the future -> But there is an opportunity cost as it seems future never seems to be a thing which is Present. To some it may even look like an illusion. To achieve world peace and equality, one has to bring all the humans under one nation, one rule and one mission, but this mission itself seems to be asking for a world war. "Be careful what you wish for" as sacrifices of human life in the name of peace cannot be justified. Then again are we aiming for eternal clash and discrimination? The universe is flowing from lower entropy to higher entropy. Yet, humans by development is trying to force it towards order. Will this ever work? Entropy. Let's focus on the last of the example. If you ask me to summaries the meaning of it, I would say, entropy is the one which makes things hopeless. I am not sure Fitzgerald himself, would coin that term, or agree if he was to read this article. I am sure, he had understood the hopelessness by other names than entropy. Disease, old age and death, wars, poverty can be some indicators to his understanding of hopelessness. But, if you want to point at some background universal force which brings out all this chaos, I will point out to entropy. So, what is entropy anyway? Entropy is a meassure of disorder or chaos, or randomness in a system. If a system is more disordered it has high entropy, and if it has few variability and more predictability it has low entropy. As a rule the universe loves to move from low entropy to high entropy. The best example is a sand castle vs a pile of sand as Mr. Brain Cox explains. The sand castle which has low entropy will eventually will become a pile of sand. It just need time and natural forces as a factor. However, the sand pile will never become a sand castle on its own. Although no natural low stops from just doing that. As the sand pile has many stable forms, but the sand castle does have only one form. This truth apply not only to sand castles, but also real castles as well. Sand dunes with high entropy If you have built anything, you may have noticed this tendency of things to decay. As an example, a perfectly arranged bed linnon would tend to move towards disorder at the end of the day, hence need remaking everyday. So is everything inside a room. Job of a librarian is to make order, after each student make little chaos inside the library by moving things. A house when abandoned will eventually degrade into a pile of rumble. Similarly a city, like chernobyl. Will eventually find its way into a higher entropy system with much more biodiversity. First-rate intelligence I am sure given enough time the even the earth would become dust and sucked into a black hole. So, is there any point all our struggles in everyday, trying to keep order? And this is where the importance of Fitzgerald's little intelligence trick comes handy. Living is not getting hopeless knowing the facts, it's just living hopefully knowing its hopeless.

Being able to enjoy the ordinary is a remarkable ability. I would say more important than learning any advanced science or a growth trick. It is true that we can find fulfillment in being extraordinary. Here is an article if you are keen on following that path in life. However, enjoying the ordinary is one ability anyone can master no matter what situation their life is currently in. Ordinary building What does it mean to being able to enjoy the ordinary? When I was at primary school, I used to walk 3.5 km daily from school to home. Through small towns and villages. There was a brook that we followed most of this journey. I can remember the feeling of going through the fields, crossing small log bridges, trying not to fall into the water. I can remember, I loved the grass, and the fish that swam in the water. Whenever there was a pool of water, I would bend down and investigate insects, and fish, maybe notice a crab or two. I saw how the environment changes from city to village, and to city again. This was not by superpower that I enjoyed such walks. If you look at every kid, exploring the world, they have the same ability to enjoy the ordinary world. It is not at all like a bubbling happiness when I receive superior marks for a term test. But it was worth happiness which I can remember even after 30 years of it happening. It is liberating to be away from news, politics, and advertisements, growth and progress at least for a few minutes a day. To calm down the mind and enjoy some ordinary stuff. Maybe the sound of a cricket, or water falling from the roof into the gutter. Maybe there is a bird out of the window just making some noises. Maybe there is a spider weaving a web in the bush at the side of your garden. Where you have never bothered to step into the last whole year. Do you even know your garden? Do you know what happens on your roof? Outside your window? Do you know how many flowers are there waiting to be blossom in your backyard this year? It is a shame we do not pay attention to the ordinary as we are so busy with extraordinary. Is Ordinary enough? Truth is ordinary is enough. In this consumer culture, we cannot lose ourselves in a constant race against our neighbor for consume more. So, much so that we gulp our breakfast and dinner so fast, there is not enough time to chew and feel the taste. This chronic cycle of stress, and more consumption to relieve the stress would only lead us obese and cancerous. There is another dimension to life. And it starts with changing our attitude. Mind is not always diseased, as it has no label attached to it. It possesses the power to enjoy even the ordinary stuff like sunlight. There is no need to travel far, in expensive cruise to reach far corners of Caribbean Islands to look at a tree. station How to enjoy the ordinary. Do not judge them comparing with your liking. Just observe ordinary without distortion of judgment. The world is as it is, your judgment is excessive. So, next time when you pick up the paper to read, try to feel the pages. What does it feel like to hold the paper. What does it feel like to hold a warm cup of coffee? What does it smell like? What does it taste like? Is it taste different from yesterday? Instead of trump news, how sweet is that if you can fill your tired mind with observations of your ordinary life? Do the people you meet on your way home look happy? Or do they look stressed? If they are in a hurry? What is the color of the train which brings you to work every day? Does it look dirty? How many dogs you met when you walked to your work? Are there clouds, when you go home from work? Do not judge them comparing with your liking.

"Essential component of mastery is ability to create new knowledge." What is mastery? Kids had been playing the piano. For few hours per day initially. When I hear the music, it clearly shows the confusion, of a novice. With full of mistakes and no clear pattern. There is a long road ahead for mastery. This brings the question of mastery. And how can anyone achieve that? Domains of knowledge. Playing the piano- Masters and Amateurs Playing the piano is one domain. Which includes the ability to read notations to playing them correctly. And the knowledge of the domain is already built over generations. Little by little, by pianists of previous era had worked hard on their craft, and made thousands of notes composed us to practice, play and enjoy. Over generations this domain of knowledge had increased dramatically, I would say in an exponential fashion, with the development, and popularization, and addition of new material. You can compare this to a patch of oil which expands from a leaking Oil tanker in Straight of Gulf. It will expand exponentially, over time. Provided there are no other limitations to its growth. I would consider this a good model to understand any domain of knowledge. Any domain of knowledge is a patch of oil which expands exponentially over time, with acumination of new knowledge. Where are the experts and amateurs? If I ask you to position amateurs and experts in any expanding oil patch of knowledge, where would you keep them? I am sure you would put amateurs in the middle, closer to the center of the oil patch and experts closer to the outer boundary. They have spiraled through all the inner layers to reach the boundary of the current knowledge. And from there, there is no way out as they have to expand the oil patch in tiny amount more if they want to extend into the unknown. This creates many other problems for amateurs. Behold amateurs, a difficult terrain ahead. Amateurs nowadays finding more and more difficult to reach the outer boundary. As you can understand it expands rapidly. One cannot master and even expected to master all the information of one single domain, as oil patches are expanding rapidly and they are already huge. Consider someone studying math. Someone studying advanced mathematics, have to go from Archimedes to Newton and Euler, to Kurt Godel - who defined current boundary of mathematics. Hence even an undergraduate nowadays understand what newton did not understood in his time. How can we ever expect them to reach the boundary and expand it? Expanding Patch of Oil Fast way forward. Truth is nobody can. Amateurs will need different tools. Maybe a fast boat, which can travel faster. Maybe the traditional spiral approach to learning might not work. Hence, I suggest a different way. There is no way out. You should directly target creativity even at your current state of immatureness. Maybe it is enough. You already know what newton knew that era. Hence even before you come to a current boundary, you must start your creative genes work. It doesn't matter if you fail. You can always go back and study what master's did when they encountered your pattern of thinking. Hypothesize the unknown and correct yourself if you're wrong. It doesn't matter your current field. It may be playing with piano. So, trying to create a new song is faster way to reach the boundary of current piano knowledge. Who knows, one day you might compose another Mozart masterpiece, before you learn to play all his pieces.