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.

Economic lessons from the past If you would like to study economics of marriage, I would ask you to start with Jane Austen novels. Her greatest works including classics of "Pride and Prejudice", "Sense and sensibility" captures the hardships faced by women caught up in financial struggles. I am not sure, that we can ever get rid of economics out of any marriage. In this part of the world where arranged marriages are common, economics play a huge role. Before even Beauty, and Character is matched, the financial statues are matched. If everything matches, it is a win win scenario for both parties. Yet, some may will compromise some aspects of it provided everything else is in place. (e.g.: a poor girl may have a better chance if she is well educated and a beauty queen, to step up the financial ladder of marriage, to a higher suiter. However, it is not the case if she is less, attractive) Pride and Prejudice Beauty vs Dowry, which lasts longer? Do, not get me wrong, I am neither for nor against of these financial traditions of marriage. I'm just thinking about it as an outside observer, trying to make sense of it. As an example, imagine what would happen a young couple fell in love each other, and later they learn, one is significantly poor than the other, it can create problems even after years of their marriage. As one might feel they have been betrayed, or cheated. The beauty wouldn't last as long as someone's well managed wealth under current governing of capitalism. Hence, when the relative significant advantage of beauty and love disappear with time wealth itself can bring out problems. Does this mean, that we should always match our financial goals with our partners, before we commit ourselves to a marriage? That seems to be not always a good choice. Yes, if we consider individuals as selfish human beings, who want to thrive, with all the available resources, a financially balanced marriage can just bring that ease of mind. Yet, if we do this for a long time, wealthy will remarry wealthy. And it seems to be an unhealthy scenario, as wealth will accumulate in families over generations, and so there will be limited number of people available for anyone from each financial class. If you know some preliminary biology this would also mean, that remarrying with close individuals can bring bad mutations, even rare diseases which is not at all good for the offspring. Another problem with wealthy marrying wealthy is that, in time, the population of poor will grow larger, and one day, they will just overpower the ruling party by just numbers. These are just hypothetical scenarios. Just approximations to the reality. As you can see there are multiple compounding factors to marriage, that it never follow certain rules. But for someone who is younger, and awaiting marriage, I think it is a good mental exercise. Think about it. Marriage and wealth What society wants and what individual wants from economics of a marriage? What society wants is wealthy to marry poor. So, the wealth is redistributed and more equal chances are created. What individual wants is to grow themselves. In order to do that they must not redistribute their wealth by marrying poor. How about love? All those loves stories where the rich marrying poor, just fascinating examples for the former, hence well accepted by the society as "Classics". I am yet to see a novel written in about what normally would happen, in a class clash. Those novels are non-existent for a reason. There is no story, as that is what would happen normally. So, Mr. Darcy might never marry Elizebeth Bennet if she has ever been a poor lady working in his kitchen outside of a novel.

Lilly white is doing puzzles again, and this time she was doing, the Who is the odd animal ? puzzle from the zoo. It appears; there is always an odd one among ordinary. There is a Whale, a Star fish and a shark sitting next to a rabbit. And the queer rabbit is definitely out of place. And in another place, A lion, is sleeping among a pelican, swan and a bat. Obviously, Lion although brave looked odd, among others who all could fly. But is that all there to the puzzle? A Whale. - > is a mammal which lives in water A starfish -> has a radial symmetry A shark -> has gills and a vertical tail fin A rabbit. -> has fur An odd whale Apparently when we look from a different angle, we can argue that each animal on the list is an odd one. The similarities we see are just arbitrary and imaginary. It helps in understanding the world, yet when we do that, some perspective is missing. The perspective that everyone is just odd when it comes to living beings. As a reference I can give a full list of such categorization from animalia. Animalia │ ├── Porifera (Sponges) │ ├── Cnidaria (Jellyfish, corals) │ ├── Platyhelminthes (Flatworms) │ ├── Nematoda (Roundworms) │ ├── Annelida (Segmented worms) │ ├── Mollusca (Snails, octopus) │ ├── Arthropoda (Insects, spiders, crabs) │ ├── Echinodermata (Starfish, sea urchins) │ └── Chordata (Animals with backbone) │ ├── Fish ├── Amphibians ├── Reptiles ├── Birds └── Mammals We can say a crocodile is different from a water buffalo. As long as some idiot doesn't come to the classroom and ask, which crocodile and which water buffalo you are talking about. We might tend to chase that person away. But the truth is each and every crocodile that ever lived on planet earth are unique, different from each other, hence the odd one. Who is the odd animal? Maybe you're What applies to water buffaloes and crocodiles of Nile, applies to humans as well. Each and every one of us are Odd. Sometimes we may strangely feel that we are odd, and others belong to a special group. A secret society, or a political party, or even a gang that we are not a part of. But if we look at carefully in the mind's eye of each individual, that is not true. They are odd too, in their own way. It's just not apparent in except for a wise person, or in our case to the classroom idiot. So, do not worry. Make it an advantage. Maybe the unique combination of genes you have in your arm of the mammal group might just be the right combination that earth needs 100 years into the future. And the aliens who inhabit our world in 10000 more years will look at you just like we look at a salamander from Devonian era. A salamander

It was on a Hot, sunny day, when we drove across, dusty towns of west coastland to reach our destination of a remote, beach house. Me and my family were in the Car, the old blue mustang, that I inherited from my Father when he succumbed to respiratory failure after years of agonizing suffering to catch his breath, a direct result of chronic smoking in his youth. The old man is out of misery now, the only thing that remained physically as a memory was his car. So, the Car was very close to my heart, even it was just a piece of Junkyard metal. If it was damaged, I would rather go rampage, Like John Wick would do for his own dog, when it was killed. But nobody knew. It was a secret, from the beginning, as openly agreed by everyone else in my family, it was just scrap Metal, brought up as discussion material in every family gathering. Ford. So, when the car started to smoke in the middle of the graded slope, nobody was surprised. I was lost, but luckily there was some kind of a repair shop half a mile uphill in the countryside. The beach was just over the mountain, so, I let my family hitch-hike for a ride while I went solo to the repair shop. I knew nobody want to bother having to go to the repair with me, as the car was my sole responsibility. I parked the car, in a slight slope, and opened the bonnet so it could cool down itself, yet nobody came from the shop to meet me. I could see half a dozen cars, on each side of the road parked in the shade of the workshop. It seemed a busy place several young men working on their own schedule, tackling their own broken car. As everyone was busy, and my issue needed urgent attention I decided to walk up to one of them and talk. The young man I approached looked friendly, he was covered with grease, and dust, yet with a gentle smile he looked at my concerned face. And reassured me in a minute, he would come up to have a look to see he could do any help. As promised, he did, wiping out his dirty fingers with an equally dirty piece of cloth he joined me to walk across the road. to have a look into my smoking car. It's only when we tried to cross the road, I saw, my car was not there where I was parked it! The young man looked at me with a puzzled face and spoke. "Mr., you say you have trouble with your car, but I suggest you have no car". With an annoyed look he went inside his hut. And I was puzzled too. I checked again the place I parked the car. There were no track marks. And I attempted to look inside each side of the garage. I was little panicked at this point, as I have never heard something like this. How can my car be lost in a matter of few minutes? I was just ten minutes away from it. There must be some kind of weird thing happening. So, I started to investigate, and I could feel my blood start to boil each minute I was unable to find a clue about my now disappeared car. I checked each and every car parked inside the garage. Becoming more and more suspicious, as all the men I spoke to have not seen, or could not explain what happened to my vehicle. As I was getting frustrated with the search, my mind started to make many weird theories about what happened. Did someone tow trucked it? Did the people in the garage stole it? repainted it? Did it slide downhill as was for a failure of brakes? So, I walked down the road, and in few hundred meters, I found some tracks of a car. I couldn't explain them and my suspicion grew, I spent a good hour to looking for my crashed car, yet I couldn't see anything beyond those mystery tracks. And more I searched more I found that it was an unlikely scenario, as there was no evidence of a crashed car, over the bend. If it went downhill without maneuvering of a man, it couldn't have made that bend, and there was no sign of a crash. The weight of someone stealing the car, near the garage was becoming more obvious explanation. I went back to the garage and snuck into the deep end of the workshop. And there was a butcher house, in the back of it. What Kind of weird place is this? And I saw some tables, with powder on it. White powder which could only resemble some kind of drug. And there were several, angry looking, well-built men gathered smoking. They were all about same height and tattooed all over their bodies neck downwards. And they all were wearing dark cloths; some were drenched with sweat. I could only resemble them with some kind of a secret gang, hiding in the roof of the garage. And when I saw them, I lost the hope of ever finding out what happened to my car. It must be half across the country by now, surely, and any attempt at recovery of my mustang should only meant my life is in danger, And I wanted to get out of this place. I ran out of the workshop, and strange feeling of weirdness surrounded me again. This whole affair of losing my car had some unexplainable twist to it. This is not something which happens to everyone every day. And I wondered what happened to my family, and why they did not call me, and how am I going to explain to them that I lost my car. Would they believe me. And why am I feeling so weird since the beginning of it. Then with a sudden jerk, like hit with a club on head I realized, this was all wrong. This is all wrong, it cannot be true. And I just woke up drenched with sweat. I was on no vacation. Just a nap, while at work, after lunch, and that was all the weirdness about.

If you're an artist doing paint work,you may have understood this truth intuitively. Maybe you didn't notice its significance out of the scope of your art. No worries, as that is my intension today. My intention is to explain above quote, famously attributed to Mary Kay Ash American founder of Mary kay cosmetics. So what is the meaning of every silver lining has a dark cloud? Silver lining I saw a comparison of wealth, between Weekend and Bruno Mars side by side. Bruno, having been popular since a kid had a total wealth of 20 to 200 million fluctuating around an average over three decades. On the other hand Weekend was growing starting with 5 million he ended up in 600 million and rising. It was interesting why anyone would care, as I am sure non of these artists do care about what they earn, rarther than what great music they produce. Another way to look at with our new knowledge is, the gloomy cloud which surrounds Weekends silver lining is growing darker every day. As silver lining is always silver in colour, its the background which changes the intensity of it. Does every silver lining has a dark cloud? In another words, if you consider Money and fame and success or even peace as a pursuit of a silver lining, you indirectly painting a dark gigantic black cumulus cloud around it. The moment peace is lost you will fall into the chaos of uncertainty. In other words, every good thing we pursue has an evil side of it. Its just that we are not aware of this when we are too much focussed on silver. If you pursue heaven, you have to agree there is a hell, and there is a chance that you will end up being there. Can you live up to the task of being a Saint? Can anyone live up to the task of being a Saint? Will there be empty heavens and overcrowded hells? What's the point anyway, having a one way valve to heaven. It is like a pitcher plant, which always try to drag us into an acidic toxic doom in the bottom of nowhere. I do not have to give you a long list of examples. Anything you attempt at pursuing in life has this simple truth attached to it. You can weight this against anything you try to pursue. What is the downside of it? Old So, a person who has lived enough, long enough in life, had seen enough things and done enough things would know that nothing worth persuiting in life. If you haven't reached this level of understanding I think the reason being that lack of experience or understanding. Not because the facts I produced are inherently wrong. Truth is we all have enough experience, to understand this. Yet we keep on adding dream after dream to our current bank of dreams, forgetting all the regrets, and dark clouds which accumulate steadily in the background each time we have a small win. How to play the game. I would rarther be a looser. Not by my choice, but by default. Not by contesting, but by chosing not to play, as the game is rigged in every way possible. I would stay silent And watch all the dark and silver clouds drift in the sky and not comment on anything. Maybe we all should do the same, but I warn you it's not inherently satisfying like watching a film. Call me a loser, the words even not reach me, as detachment is the objective here.

If you are having trouble with insomnia, this is not the place for answers to your problems. Instead, this is going to be a descriptive way to look at life in a perspective of the sleep and wake. Average adult sleeps 7-8 hours per day, even more. If we consider this a fact, 20 years of your life you'd be sleeping. While rest of the world is functioning, the earth is rotating, while the ships are sailing and aero planes are flying all around the world, quarter of the world population is sleep at any given moment, if you consider the fact proximity of India and China maybe more than half asleep sometimes. Not Insomnia Since I started to fascinate by the world of books, novels specially, I became a night owl. I used to watch TV series late into the night. Often sleep after the midnight. I couldn't stop myself from reading a novel up until it finishes. One more chapter, before sleep. One more chapter before sleep. I would say to myself all night. Falling asleep only when I fear my parents figuring out that I have been up all night reading stupid novels. Later this passion would change, into watching films, TV series, learning programing languages, doing math while others are sleeping. It seems, I find interesting things year after year, which I cannot chose to stick to. But I would grab them with greed, and this had an effect that it became obvious to me, Sleeping is my enemy. My insomnia lesson So, all my youth even into middle life, sleeping I considered the enemy. Enemy which stopped me reaching a certain goal. Perhaps its finishing a novel, passing an exam or even partying with friends. (Latter was very rare, but we all want some nights not to end) Until I learned that there is a thing called insomnia. One day after middle years, I found I couldn't sleep. This time, for some reason, I was tired. I was tired, working away from home, depressed to the core from isolation, howling wind batting the rooftop, passing through the tiny holes of the ceiling bringing in freezing air inside. And I couldn't sleep. There was no one to talk, nothing to do. I didn't want to watch a film or read a novel. I wanted to sleep. But sleep did not come I was wide awake tired. I suffered for hours. It was agonizing. Sleeping was my enemy for my whole life, maybe I hated it so much that it was angry that night. It didn't come. I wasn't myself next day, but a tired broken drunkard who was daydreaming about sleep at work. Luckily, I embraced sleep following day soon as it arrived. And since then, I consider sleep as a privilege. A dream So, now I know how an 80-year-old man in a hospital bed struggle to sleep at night. I didn't realize what suffering they must be feeling, when they cannot have that peace which is provided free of charge by nature. Maybe you are a workaholic, in youth, and still would not value the sleep as much as your work hours, or leisure hours. As I said earlier, this gives me another perspective to look at my life. If the life is a continuum which is filled with tasks, any value we give to each, and every task is purely arbitrary. As an example, reading novel is not more valuable than watching TV, or studying, or sleeping or eating. The value given to any task is purely circumstantial and situational. When we say, studying is better than, sleeping that is just the perspective of a youth full of ambitions. But for elderly, they would not care for anything other than a simple sleep at night. One insomniac night taught me how to appreciate sleep. The question is What else are we taking for granted?

Have you considered sticky minds? Minds any, have this remarkable quality of being sticky. Sometimes I wonder that is the key to understanding life. The stickiness of mind. But, you can see this only when you strip the essential obvious and famous qualities of mind. If you do not understand I will list some examples for easy understanding. But try to ask the question, what is the sticky bit of each function of the mind? sticky Let's start with "Love". Some people say love is greed. I have written an entire article on definitions of love by famous people, hence would not go into that detail. But can you feel the sticky bit of every love that you ever felt? As a mother, as a daughter, as a brother, as a human, as an animal, as a being, you might have felt love. Even towards the heartless ruthless and meaningless nature sometimes. But I always know when I feel love that there is a bit, which is sticky. Which I cannot get rid of when the object of affection is no longer there. And when and if I try to remove this sticky bit, so I can go back to natural state of being pure, it hurts. Like I have been in the bushes all day and my legs are caught up in sticky thorns all over. How about success. I love success. Like a CEO. Like Agatha Christie. Like Jim Simmons . However, when I think about it, I see there is a little bit of stickiness as well. When I am too involved, too attached with the prospect it tends to hurt, when things go unpredictable ways. Even if I do not approve the external validity, success depends on internal values. And the sticky bit seems to be there whenever I try to pursue anything. Stickiness is there inside kindness. Inside generosity. Inside good human being. It is there inside a criminal deed, a child who wants a sweet. It is there in a sportsman, a fisherman, a doctor. I would be lying if I said stickiness is not there in these words. But, paradoxically there is no way I can get rid of it. As stickiness is there when I try to get rid of it. Stickiness to the "Non sticky state of the mind". By this time I am sure I have lost 99% of the readers. Either because what I am trying to say doesn't resonate with them, or unfortunately they are too busy to investigate phenomena of mind. In either case I am glad, as I want to inject non stickiness to the words I am saying. sticky stickers How to get rid of sticky minds? One way someone can tackle the problem of stickiness of mind, is by asking, not how to get rid of it. But what is it? Maybe acknowledging it is there is the reason, it is there. What if that stickiness of mind is just another approximation to the reality, but not the reality itself? This approach might have the capacity to liberate myself from searching for eternal non-stickiness. Which I do not have to worry if it wasn't there in the first place. I can only compare this to a limit of a function, more about which in next article.