Day 130 Post 13 - Free Associations

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_association_%28psychology%29

Associations are tricky!! I really used to love a song, now it just reminds me of something which I will gain nothing remembering :p

And, so I ended up on the wiki for Free associations.

Free association is a technique used in Freudian Psychoanalysis, it is also called Psychodynamic theory and was developed by Freud's coworker Josef Breuer.

Patients are encouraged to just say whatever comes to their mind, without feelings of guilt, shame and other such restraining emotions. It is based on the premise that people have a desire to learn about themselves at the same time they have a fear of self-exposure and hence have built up defenses.

 The goal of Free associations isn't to unearth something ground shattering but to have a journey of co-discovery where the patient ends up gaining an integration of thought, feeling, agency, and selfhood.

Basically what I got from that is you discover yourself with somebody else, it might help in allaying fears of self-exposure and exploring areas you might have avoided otherwise. And the final objective is to be able to understand your own pscyhe and get a better perspective of yourself.

The purpose of Free associations is to find unconscious motives which might be hidden due to :

• Transference : The thing where you transfering emotions for one to another, e.g.Thinking because your boyfriend has six-packs and talks with a stuttering voice he is SRK from Om Shanti Om ... worst example ever right!! I know .... :p
• Projection : Projecting your internal feelings or motives to others. The part where because you are horny, angry or anything else, you take everyone else to be too :)
• Resistance : Holding a mental block to something. Do I really need to give an example of how you said your running away from the stage was a result of strong wind and not being scared of the people watching you :p

 Patience! Slowly and steadily I will finish this :)

Day 54 Post 12 - Ludic Fallacy

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludic_fallacy

Ludic fallacy is a term coined by the famous Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his even more famous book "The Black Swan"

Basically it refers to the misuse of games to model real-life situations. In the words of Taleb the fallacy is "basing studies of chance on the narrow world of games and dice."

The basic idea of the book was to refute the use of predictive mathematical modelling used to predict the future. It was an attack on applying naive and simplified statistical models to predict high complex situations.

According to Taleb, statistics only work in some domains like Casinos, in which odds are visible and defined. I haven't read the book, although I did buy both his books over an year ago during my internship in Axis Bank. Yes! I interned in a bank, and in the risk department when I bought the book :p .... But can you blame me, everyone in the Bank had read the book or had it on their desks.

Anyhow back to what I was saying, I haven't read the book, but I think the whole point is that these models are meant when "Risk" (used in statistical sense) is clear and present and not when their is "Uncertainty" or "Ambiguity" (statistical jargon)

In english, when the probabilities or odds of outcomes are known only then are these models useful, in uncertain or ambiguous events where event the probabilities or even the outcomes themselves are not known (much like real life), the mathematical models are useless and only are helpful in assuring investors that their money is safe.

Taleb argues that these models are based on platonified forms (platonic realism refers to the idea of realism regarding existence of universals - and we know nothing is universal except  - "All I know is that I know nothing" - Socrates). Somehow statistics always has to go back to the Greek philosophers

Taleb challenges the concepts of statistics for modelling on the ground

• It is impossible to be in possession of all the information
• Very small variation in a data could have a huge impact (Butterfly Effect - Chaos Theory - Coming Soon)
• Theories/Models based on empirical data are essentially flawed as they do not take into account the events which haven't taken place yet (takes "All I know is that I know nothing" to a whole new level)

Taleb goes on to elucidate this fallacy with examples.
Example 1 - Toin Coss
(Yes it is intentional, just having fun ;p )
Assume there are two people Dr John (man of logical thinking) & Fat Tony (man of wits), both are asked a simple questions
Assume a fair coin is flipped 99 times, and each time it comes up heads. What are the odds that the 100th flip would also come up heads?
Dr John will tell you it is half, as the future event is independent of past events while Fat Tony says that the odds of the coin coming up heads 99 times in a row are so low (less than 1 in 633 billion billion billion) that the initial assumption that the coin had a 50/50 chance of coming up heads is most likely incorrect.

He goes to on to elucidate how the ludic fallacy here is assume that the rules of the hypothetical world apply to the real-life event.

If you had seen a coin come out as Heads 99 times in a rule would you bet Heads or Tails?? .... Sometimes being stupid is the better thing.
 
For more fun story like examples like this read the book ;) .... I know I am going to as soon as I go back home 

Day 51 Blog Post 11 - Science

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science

Science (from the latian scientia, meaning knowledge) is a systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge and condensing that knowledge into testable theories and laws.

At this some methods prove better than others, the scientific method includes,

• Use of careful observation
• Experiment
• Measurement
• Mathematics
• Replication

A scientific hypothesis is an educated guess about the nature of universe, a scientific theory is one which has been confirmed by repeated observation and measurement. A theory is thus an understanding of the nature of universe which explains the phenomenon with a good accuracy

Scientific fields are broadly  divided into

• Natural sciences : which include all things natural including biology
• Social sciences : which study human behavior and societies

Basically, the difference is in the former you have pretty accurate understanding of what is happening, and hence we have been able to reach the moon :) ... while the latter, keeps getting more and more trickier, ... which is why we still have wars :p .... luckily, now with the emergence of neuroscience and other related fields, the latter is expected to be a part of natural sciences soon.

Now the empirical studies have been in existence since age immortal, but they have been employed only after the middle ages (e.g. Ibn al-Haytham, Abu Rahyan Biruni, and Roger Bacon) and the dawn of sciences is credited to the same era, with the 16th and 17th century being the era of the scientific revolution.

Something I found interesting was that the earliest users of the scientific method include two Muslims and a friar, so much for religion v/s science.

The scientific method seeks to explain nature in a reproducible way, basically to eliminate any lucky chances or personal biases.

First you develop a model or hypothesis and design experiments to test it. The same is then  peer-reviewed (maybe to provide inputs or find faults which the scientist might have missed). After this, independent researchers perform follow up experiments to test the veracity of the hypothesis... and to make sure that the scientist didn't do something naughty with the data from the experiment ;)

Once a hypothesis survives testing, it may become adopted into a framework of scientific theory.... whatever that means :p.... The part I like in this paragraph is Occam's Razor... also known as law of parsimony, basically meaning that if one construct explains all phenonmenon that artificially adding another is of no use... too much jargon?? .... imagine like this, if One Professor, who speaks really technical lingo but knows all there is to know to teach in a school.... and then there are 4 Professors who combined know equal to the first professor, but do so in simpler language, hence students like them more... then Occam's Razor says that first professor is better.

Haha.. I know right... talk about intellectual elitism, but hey! this is science we are talking about.

Mathematics is essential to science because of the support it provides in modelling and testing.

Science is like a religion too in many ways, because it asks you to believe in the knowledge collected by others, now if somebody tells me tommorow that the moon is made out of cheese, I won't believe him, but if  somebody comes out with an repeatable experiment to prove the same, I would have no rebuttal.

Doesn't that make my belief system quite unstable? Actually yes! it does, and like all other people who are unsure, scientists too TALK about their beliefs.... just like aunties gossip about what they and somebody else did was right or wrong in their kitty parties ... Scientists have their own "Communities" which serve the same purpose.

Now, these have 3 broad forms.

• Fields : Basically people who are all working in the same field of science, analogous to aunties living in same neighborhood ... it is a co-opetitive environment (blend of competitive and cooperation)
• Institutions : These people come together and form institutions ... think of it being like alcholics anonymous, these people too come together and tell everyone "Hi! My name is XYZ, and I am a scientist working in area ABC... I need help" .... haha.. boredom is the best !!
• Literature : Ohk, so now these scientists have done their experiments on their hypothesis, they publish them in journals... now journal is nothing but a fancy scientific name for a magazine... and it is no better, it's basic purpose is to establish territory and letting other people know, I have done this, I have take down his flag from there.... Men need to pee on everything!!.. I don't know who said that, but really clever :)

 Now I am sure, by this era nobody counters science, whatever has been scientifically proven is the fact.... but wait... philosophers are the grand-daddies of scientists and they were never gonna leave all the authority to scientists... so they have three basic issues with science :p... on why it is misleading .. they claim that scientific method assumes

• Reality is objective and consistent... I am just scared to imagine it can be anything but that.. but hey!! I am just a kid
• Humans have a capacity to perceive reality accurately..... BIGGEST problem if you ask me... like one of my friends says... perception is everything, if your perception is colored, how can you expect the theory to be accurate
• Rational explanations exist for elements of real world... Haha!!.. you don't want to mess with the philosophers... If science is good at collecting knowledge, philosophy is the still home to wisdom

Besides this... uniformity of law and uniformity of processes across time and space pose other problems... I would explain, but it is way to complicated than I want to cover here... read the wiki if you think if this interests you.

Besides this there are several other critiques but they are baby questions in front of these big daddies!!.. some of them are
1. Science has become manipulative, moved away from being a simple area of collecting knowledge to manipulating nature
2. The growth of science as a whole has no process governing it, and that is has become an ideology with more authority than it justified
3. Science is based on circular pretexts, the process (scientific method) itself has been developed by science only and it only accepts criticisms which come from the same framework which science has setup for itself, hence making it quite narrow in it's approach
4. Carl Jung, stated that science intends to understand all the universe and asks artificial questions, we should focus not on those artificial methods but understand the world in a more holistic manner.

I don't really know what to say now :p.... am super-confused now

Day 33 Post 10 - Dunning-Kruger Effect

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate decisions because their incompetence robs them of meta-cognitive ability to realize it.

The unskilled therefore suffer from "Illusory Superiority" rating their own ability much higher than actuality. By contrast the highly skilled underrate their capability suffering from illusory inferiority.

Or like the saying we have in the Hindu mythology, quoting Sri Ramakrishna here "A tree laden with fruits always bends low. Humility is a sign of greatness"

But anyhow, what the effect talks about is also called the confidence paradox wherein the less competent people end up rating their capabilities much higher than the competent people.

It goes on to explain how gaining competence can actually weaken self-confidence as because they assume others to have an equivalent understanding, thus the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from the self while the miscalibration of the the competent stems from errors about others.

Basically, the smart assume everyone has figured out what they have, it's "COMMON SENSE" isn't it? But actually these things are not.

What I feel also plays a role is that since the competent are much more adept at figuring out what went wrong than the incompetent they often over-weigh the importance/critcality of the things they are worried about, everyone has what I have figured out and I don't have this figured out.

I love the beautiful quotes somebody has placed in the wiki, this wiki for sure is one of the better wikis. Anyhow here are the quotes

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity" - W.B. Yeats
"In the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt" - Bertrand Russell

I don't somehow reading the first quote reminds of something Tom Hanks said in the movie Forrest Gump "I might be stupid but I know what love is" ... I don't know how to relate the two, but somehow I feel the two have a connection.

The hypothesis was given by Justin Kruger and David Dunning of Cornell University in 1999. However the phenomenon had been assumed by philosophers over a century ago, as it clear by Bertrand Russell's quote. I think Indians figured this out a long time back ;)

The same results have been replicated in fields as diverse as reading comprehension, operating a motor vehicle, playing chess or tennis.

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" - Charles Darwin

They hypothesis includes the following four points,
1. Incompetent individuals often tend to overestimate their own level of skill
2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skills in others
3. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy
4. If they can be trained to substantially improved their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill

The effect is based on the study wherein the researchers conducted tests for logicalreasoning and grammatical skills and then after being shown their test scores they were asked to estimate their ranks.

Wherein the competent group accurately estimated their rank while the incompetent group still overestimate their own rank.

Across four studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar and logic overestimated their test performance and ability. Although test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Talk about overestimation

While on the other hand, the ones with true knowledge tended to underestimate their competence. Roughly people who found the exercises too easy expected them to just as easy for everyone else

Now, I just found all this to be smart, maybe because I have a proclivity and interest in such things, but some people found one of their research papers really funny and they even have an Ig Nobel to their credit for the year 2000. =)

A further research by the guys indicate that people who had been tutored were able to estimate their rank better and realize the previous lack of social.

Now, something of a tangent, we humans as I understand are still primates still quite hierarchical in our arrangements and for social skill a key importance is realizing your worth and rank in the groups. A gross estimation could lead to something similar to the young gorillas who get killed for messing with the high rank males (I learnt this from Sapolsky, I will do my next blog on something by him).

In 2003 Dunning conducted a study with Joyce Ehrlinger, also of Cornell University about confidence and social cues. They studied the effect of positive and negative social cues on people's estimation of their ranks. People given positive cues tended to overestimate their ranks, while people given negative cues tended to underestimate their rank. Now the wiki doesn't talk much about social cues, but come on, we all know that a lot of times, these social cues have nothing to with competence, somebody pleasant looking will get much more positive social cues, somebody with a nurturing parents and peer group will tend to again receive a lot more of them. Not that there is anything wrong with being aesthetic or having nice people around you, just it would be nice if we are aware of this phenomenon.

I think this is one of the reasons why we are often told to avoid negative people, because people tend to give more negative cues, and thus their negativity can get to you and you will end up underestimating yourself, but just like that, be wary of overly positive people too because they might inflate your ego to the sky and after you up like a helium balloon bursting and coming down is no fun.

=) and we are done with 10.. now in two digits, now I know that I am starting slow, but don't worry, I intend to fulfill this project as intended for myself.

Day 24 Post 9 - Fight Club (Book)

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Durden#Tyler_Durden

Fight Club is a novel by Chuck Palahnuik published in 1996. The novel is the basis for the popular movie by the same name. The movie is one of my all time favourite movies and as soon as I knew that there was a book, I just had to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, the book was hard to find, but luckily one of my friends from US was kind enough to send a copy across to me. One of the best pieces of literature I have read.

The book is about the story of the un-named narrator who is suffering from Insomnia and on the advice of his doctor joins a therapy group for really sick patients, but when he bumps into another "tourist" Marla Singer, his insomnia comes back, only to be cured once he bumps into Tyler Durden and forms the fight club as psychotherapy.

Palahnuik got the idea after an altercation, when he was seriously bruised but no-one asked him how he got them. The book is thus a mirror to the certain apathy people have gotten used in the sanitized, compartmentalized world. An apathy which takes away the humanity.

Fight Club was initially published as a 7 page short story in the compilation "Pursuit of Happiness", the story was then extended and the original story became chapter 6 of novel.

The book was reissued in 1999 & 2004 but the original hardcover is still a collector's item. The movie bombed at the box office but the cult following led to good DVD sales later.

The works of Project Mayhem are loosely based on the incidences Chuck heard in Cacophony Society, of which he is a member. Cacophony Society is a randomly gathered network of free spirits in pursuit of experiences which normal society.... something... basically a fringe society.

I would ruin the story for the people who haven't seen the movie or read the book, but I will elicit the rules which he sets as ground rules for fight club
Rule # 1 - You don't talk about fight club
Rule # 2 - You don't talk about fight club
Rule # 3 - When someone says stop, or goes limp, even if he is faking it, the fight is over
Rule # 4 - Only two guys to a fight
Rule # 5 - Only one fight at a time
Rule # 6 - They fight without shoes or shirts
Rule # 7 - The fights go on as long as they have to
Rule # 8 - If this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight

The main theme of the book to me is a man who is trapped in the sanitized, consumerist world and seeking to breakout from the traps of the Corporate America... he adopts a completely opposite psyche, which too begins to make him uncomfortable as he finds the other extreme just as structured and negative as the first.

The narrator at one point mentions that he desires to "destroy something beautiful", which to me is nothing but the urge to destroy the system, the symmetry, the perfection, or the things which are seen as pursuit of the world which make him feel the way he does... Insignificant

A University of Calgary Literary scholar, Paul Kennett too identifies this desire for chaos as a result of the Oedipus Complex. I think I will cover Oedipus Complex, did I mention I love Ephiphanies.... I just figured out why some of my friends are the way they are =) ..... "which is worse? hell or nothing?" .... "Burn the Louvre.... wipe your ass with the Mona Lisa" ... LOL... Palahnuik is just that good!!

It is a quest for Significance, pushes men to do everything and anything.... I remember somebody saying.. Men have an incessant need to pee their names over everything.... It is kind of like that... In a world where everything has been said, done and explored... what do the "middle children" do?? ... they make noise!!

LOUD, Anarchists, Chaos Seekers are nothing but men seeking their position... their SIGNIFICANCE... their PURPOSE

Another fun thing he talks about is the generation of American Men raised by their mother, who are have been "feminized" and have strong "IKEA Nesting Instincts" ..... I don't know how accurate a depiction this is... it might just be the territorial nature of humans in general (I have it +P) ... but hey!! he at least notices it.. makes you think about it.

Another fun point is the incessant need of people who have issues with father-figures to become the same to others.... Kennett says that this is nothing but another example of the fact that men seeking freedom from father figures only feel free when they become fathers themselves... Hmm... but the book finds another path... READ THE BOOK ... OR ATLEAST WATCH THE MOVIE ... totally worth it =)

Oedipus Complex coming soon ;)

Day 5 Post 8 - Economy of India

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India

As Indians all know a little bit or a lot about India, and even my foreign friends have some idea about the economy of India; India and China being the so called countries of future. Who will do better is something which really intrigues me ... mainly because a) I am an Indian ... b) it's a pure test of chaos, emotions, entrepreneurial spirit, bad politics (India) v/s planning, rationality, authoritative government and single-mindedness (China)

I want to root for India because I am an India, but living here I am reminded of the problems we face everyday. Even though my hometown Delhi has improved a lot over the past decade and I have literally seen it blossom, a visit to any small town or even my recent move to Hyderabad shows a starkly different image of India to me.

Our rate of population growth, might end up being the biggest challenge we will have to overcome before we overcoming the economies outside India. Anyhow, here are some of the interesting facts I learnt from WIKI:

1. The economy of India is the twelfth largest economy by nominal value ... Wow!!! even Italy & Spain have bigger economies than us =P ... That is what Renaissance did for Europe & the western world!!

2. But when you adjust the economies for purchasing power parity (PPP)... India is the fourth largest economy in the world.. WOO!! .. Only countries ahead of us are US, Japan & China.... Hmm.. all of a sudden US & Japan sound a lot more exciting to me than Europe... but Europe is Europe =)

3. We are all aware that post the LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization) moves of the early 1990s India experienced rapid growth in the economy and has now become a country with huge Natural & Human Resources, and most importantly a huge knowledge base ... This is one of my key reasons to believe that India will do good in the long run, but then Chinese are inventing stuff, while we are still at the application side. =(

4. India's expected GDP growth rate of 6.5 % slides it's ranking from 2nd a few years ago to 13th .. surprising a lot of African countries and countries in and around the middle east are doing quite well.. Hmm.. I guess the real estate crisis was only in Dubai

5. Something which really broke my heart was that our nominal per capita income of $1032 places us at a Rank of 139 and a PPP adjusted figure of $ 2932 doesn't alleviate us above the Rank of 128 ... we still in fact are a poor nation ... BUT hey!!.. we are still better than PAKISTAN!!.. and by a whole of $16... woo ho.. I don't get it... on one hand we are competing with the Giants of the world like US, China, Europe and on the other hand we are suffering in poverty.. The only sense it makes to me is that the size of Indian Economy only helps the people at the top, who get better negotiating power, it only helps the Ambanis, the Laloos, the Chautalas and the Murthys, the Tatas amass huge fortune and keep building on them ... irrespective of the way they earnt it.. the Gini coefficient of India is 32.5 (conservative) and increasing =( ... compare this with Sweden or all of Europe.. and you will get what I am talking about.. US is even worse than us ... Now I understand why I like Europe =)

6. 80% of our population lives at less than $2 per day!!... one-third of our kids below 3 are underweight (NIPUN saale khana band kar!!!) .... and a third of our men and women suffer from chronic energy deficiency ... This figures just make me sad... somehow the India I live in and the real India have huge gaps..

Historically studying our Economy is divided into three broad eras

1. Pre-colonial

2. Colonial and

3. Post Independence

Pre-colonial India was a well planned village economy (99.3% of Indians used to live in villages in 1872) running in the self-sustained format from the Indus Valley Era. Largely barter was the format of trade even though coins were issues by many kings... We never trust our politicians ;) ... The Hindu caste system was a form of division of labor on genetic lines... and.. my favorite =)

IN 1600, in Akbar's Mughal Empire, the total Revenue was 17.5 Mn pounds while that of Great Britain in 1800 was 16 Mn Pounds ... It took Britain more than 200 years to come close to Akbar's glory day... No wonder India is the country with modern day wonders like The Taj Mahal

By the time, the British arrived in India, we were still an agrarian economy using primitive technologies.... Nothing gives competitive advantage like Innovation !!...

After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the Maratha empire grew and took over a major chunk of India, but after their decline, smaller states were left, which were later easily defeated by the Britishers!

Under the Britishers, the taxation environment was revamped and led to mass impoverishment & destitution of many farmer .... I wonder why the Indian Politicians don't ask for a quota from the firangs in Oxford now... after all the poverty of our country is a gift by them to a great extent!

The economic policies of the Raj effectively bankrupted the Indian handicraft scene.. there you go another quota-able caste =) .. Oxford will need to start a new course.. B.A (Indian Handicrafts)

India became a major market for British & European goods, because of the gap due to Industrial Revolution... which India was deprived of for almost 250 yrs... according to an analysis by Angus Maddison .. India's share of world income fell from 22.6% in 1700 comparable to Europe's 23.3% to a meagre 3.8% in 1952 ... to almost 2.01% now (my calculation).... This literally makes me want to cry... I mean.... WTF!!! ... we are approximately 23.3% of the world's population now.. and Imagine an India with a GDP of over 14 trillions USD ... DAMN!!

Anyhow, no point crying over spilled milk, we gotta make the best of what we have now!

The good things about the Raj was... they created a single currency, established standardized weights and measures and capital markets. Railways, telegraph, civil service aimed to be free from political interference, a common law and the adversarial legal system are also remnants of the Raj.

However the fact is, The Raj coincided with the time when the world was developing through the Industrial revolution, moving forward at a thrifty pace and India was being sucked off leaving it one of the poorest countries in the World!!!.. agriculture system unable to feed the growing population, one of world's lowest life expectancies, and low rates of literacy.

From all of that!!.. we have still become a respectable force in the world market!!... we are agriculturally self sufficient, our life expectancy will soon be at par with the developed economies of the world! and even though literacy is still an issue, we have now become a powerful knowledge economy with a bigger number of people with IQs above 120 than there are people in US.

Post Indepence, Indian politicians being heavily influenced by Fabian Socialism of Britain & being wary of the capitalist (which many read as imperialist then) style, made India a heavily protected economy. This according to many did India more damage than good, yes!! we had the green revolution but besides that, Indian economy was still limping while the world was hopping away.. S.Korea which had compared income levels in the 1950 to India.. has more than 8 times the income levels of India by 1995

India's planning of the economy was to a great extent influenced by the soviet system, but unlike the soviet central command system, India's was more based on direct and indirect intervention.

India's govt concentrated on capital & technology intensive industries while simultaneously subsidizing cottage industries. This was criticized by Milton Friedman as it would waste capital & labor and stunt the growth of small industries.

The sad growth rate of India from 1947-80 was derisively called the "Hindu Growth Rate" while the "East Asian Tigers" were roaring ahead.

The Rockfeller Foundations reasearch into High Yielding Varieties of seed, their introduction in 1965 coupled with increased use of Fertilizers & Irrigation brought about the Green Revolution.. again... India never really developed the Innovation muscle.. always a follower.. We seriously need to work on it, if we wish to move forward!!

In the 80s, under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi, price controls were removed, corporate taxes reduced, and restrictions on capacity expansion were eased for incumbents, although these spiked a higher growth rate, they also raised the fiscal deficit and worsened the current account. India still has one of the highest fiscal deficit in the world hovering at above 10% and the world keeps talking about Greece!!

Post the collapse of Soviet Union and oil-price rise due to the Gulf War, India was facing a major balance of payments threat crisis and the threat of default. India thus asked the IMF for a bailout of $1.8 Bn which in return asked for reforms... India has just not been the same since then.

In the reforms under then Economic Minister and now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, license raj was done away with, many public monopolies were ended .. (allowing waves like the telecom wave which has enabled so many to own a phone now, which was once a luxury).. and automatic approval of FDI in many sectors.

But still, due to the heavily pusillanimous nature of Indian Political parties on the real issues, and avoided any labor reforms or agricultural subsidy related issue so as to not be on the wrong side of the trade unions or farmers.... but hey!! can you blame them even the most developed countries of the world have high subsidies on agriculture =P ... the thing with democracy is that it ends up in an all-appeasing system instead of the developing system thought by many to be.

In a complete reversal to the situation of 1991, India bought 200 tons of gold from IMF for $6.7 Bn in 2009. India is expected to become the third largest economy in the world, second only to US & China.. =)

India has the second highest farm output in the world, second only to China.. but the fact is that 60% of our workforce is still employed by agriculture which is a whopping 16.6% percent to 19% (various estimates) as compared to the 1-2 % commonly prevalent in the developed economies ... even the rates of agricultural productivity are some 30-50% below the highest average yield. Which means that not only is 60% of our workforce doing work which contributes less to GDP but also they are not very efficient at it... I have nothing against agriculture and I am all for a country being agriculturally self-sufficient but still we need to be able to manage our resources well and use them efficiently.

Industries in India aren't any better either, they account for about 19.3% of GDP and again below standard in efficiency. Indian small scale industries are said to make up 5% of all the CO2 emission in the world.

Services on the other hand, constitute about 60.7% of the GDP,employing 23% of workforce... again proving the Pareto principle, ... I just cannot emphasis how important the creative class is for India... India might live in the villages, but it's the cities which help India run... two very different countries.. =(

The IT sector, ITES & BPO are amongst the fastest growing sectors. This has been due the a workforce which is specialised, educated, skilled, english-speaking but low cost and available in large numbers on the supply side matched by the demand for the same in the Global scenario.

The IT industry now boasts of producing 7% of India's GDP. It is one of the key areas which has changed the image, many had of India

In terms of resources, India is a resource rich country, boasting of 10% of the world's coal reserves which feed India as of now and about 25% of the world's thorium reserve which are expected to fuel the ambitious nuclear energy program... and in case the world moves to nuclear power in the search of cleaner fuels, India might just become the next middle-east.

The same could change India's fortune from being energy depdent to an energy state. India is currently amongst the biggest importer of crude oil in the world.

Since Independence, India's Balance of Payment and it's current account has been negative. Even the 1990s liberalization was a precipitate of the balance of payment crisis. Even though exports have risen significantly post 1991, the huge crude oil imports of India are one of the major reason for it's current account deficit.

Although India is still a net importer, it's BOP has been positive since 1996-97 largely due the FDI and deposits by NRIs... no wonder we saw the Pravasi Bharat Diwas post 1996.. before that NRI was often the traitor who left his country, now he is a representative who does good for his nation.

As the fourth largest economy in PPP terms, India is a preferred destination for FDI. India has strengths in telecommunications, IT and other significant areas such as auto components, chemicals, apparels, pharmaceuticals and jewellery.

Guess which country has the highest amount of FDI in India?? No.. not US, not any European Country,... it's Mauritius and that too a whopping 44.24% of the FDI inflows. This is so as Mauritius is a capital gains tax haven and there is a treaty between India & Mauritius so double taxation is avoided, hence it effectively creates an almost zero-tax FDI channel.

Hmm.. now let's move to Income in India.... Sad Sad figures =(

1. 85.7% of India lives on less than $2.50 (PPP adjusted) which even though is less than 92.5% in 1981 is still higher than Sub-Sahara's 80.5% .... we are actually poorer than Sub-Saharan people in this respect =(

2. Similar is a figure for other such lines.. the World Bank says that a third of the world's poor live in India..

Unemployment exceed 9%.. Almost 30% of the workforce consists of casual workers who get paid only when they.. Only 10% of the workforce is in regular employment... Somehow I find this truly hard to believe =P ... Hogwash!!!.. I look at the source and Voila.. it's from a Pakistani Newspaper... when will we grow up.. Wiki will always be wiki.. but's it's imperfection which gives it the human touch, so much more fun =)

There is tonnes of other stuff like this on the Wiki page.. it's literally huge, it took me almost 2 days to get this one done.. yes I am lazy I know.. but that is why I took this project... it will so much fun... I really like how much I learnt from this post =)

Hope you guys like it too.. Ciao!

Day 4 Post 7 - Lévy Flight

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lévy_flight

Ohk, the fact is this, the Levy Flight is some sort of really complex function used to describe a random walk in which increments are distributed by a heavy-tailed (wtf... ohk... I wikied this too.. and I was like wtf all over again...... all I can get is there are two types of heavy tailed functions, long-tailed and subexponential... whatever they mean, I have atleast heard long tailed enough times =P... anyhow... the definition is functions which are not bound by exponential tails or something.. God!! I thought I was good at maths) probability distribution.

The thing which Levy Flight is that they are Markov procecces ( i.e. they have stochastic property.. english.. they are random and in a Markov process the future probability distribution only depends on current state).

Why am I talking about this?? .. lol.. well a) this is interesting, it is based on chaos theory... b) it is used to measure and simulate functions which are random or pseudorandom in nature..

So.. they are used from everywhere in earthquake data analysis to financial mathematics to cryptographics!!!

And .. now.. Seth Godin is proposing that they can be used to analyse behaviors of consumers.. he says that we behave a lot like such Levy Flight functions when we choose a mall, a bar or any other place we frequent.... we go to a bar.... we like it.. we stay there... we get bored after going there n number of times... and then move to another bar.. we don't find one we like... we keep moving!!

Imagine if you are doing the same in your relationships, your friendshsips and your career... LOL.. I like Wiki My Tutor, it is getting more fun everyday =)

Day 2 Post 6 - The Tipping Point

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point

The tipping point is a book written by Malcolm Gladwell, also the author of books like Blink & The Outliers. Mr Gladwell is recognised as one of the most influential people in the world as of now.

On the whole the book is a treatise on critical points or tipping points, points of inflexion which demarcate small and big changes. He talks about sociological phenomenon gain momentum up-to a certain level when they become unstoppable.

How much of his theory is valid is still out there in the open to be questioned but what I admit is that the man is a great author, and that the knows how to weave stories which intrigue people and then provides solutions to the same problems in forms which not only seem to make sense but also entertain the audience. This is one of the reasons for his wide public acceptance, the book sold about 1.7 Mn USD till 2006 and Mr. Gladwell charges as high as USD 40,000 for a lecture.

Mr. Gladwell in the book largely relies on case-based analysis or what we can also call anecdotal data, but the fact is that he is able to present the cases very vividly and thus be effective in almost convincing his audience, I have a saying "Anything said beautifully enough seems to make sense", I am not accussing Mr. Gladwell of propogating false theories just simply that his books seem to lack a certain academic rigour but then again, I have always been a big fan of Peter Drucker and nobody could question his intuitive analyses. Thus my relationship with Mr. Gladwell is like OK, I will listen to you but don't expect me to trust you fully till it really makes sense to me.

Mr Gladwell in the book describes, three basic rules of epidemics

1. "The law of few" - this is almost like the pareto principle, he states that the success of such social epidemics relies to a great extent on a few people with exceptional social prowess (Based on his research on experiments by Milgram). I agree with it to a great extent, seems to make sense to me =) ... he further describes these social disseminators (my invention) ;) ... as broadly belonging to following three types

a. Connectors - People who are exceptionally well connected and have a naturally knack of creating big networks

b. Mavens - People on whom we rely for new information, they are information brokers. Seth Godin describes these people as the people with Otaku - Japanese term for people with obsessive interest, I think I fall in this category.. what do you guys thinks??

c. Salesmen - These are the persuaders, people with charisma and powerful negotiation skills. People just want to agree with them ;) .... lol.. imagine living that life where everyone wants to agree with you...

2. "The Stickiness Factor" - It is the specific content of a message which renders it memorable, the message has to be vivid to be remembered. Chip Heath wrote a complete book on the topic if it interests you, the book is called "Made to Stick"

3. "Power of context" - Human beings by nature are contextual beings and react differently in different contexts, Now here is where my problem with Mr Gladwell begins... I totally agree with him on the other two points.. but here he is like saying.. well in the end it depends on luck, lol, and he wrote a book on the same concept on individual success too ;) .. also his explanations for this particular topic have both being totally demolished in Steven Levitt & Stephen J Dubner's book Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics and somehow I have a natural inclination towards the theories put forward by both of them in their books... I shall deal with these two books soon =)

People looking for good book reviews or summaries ;) ... the following are about to come soon

- Blink

- The Outliers

- Freakonomics

- Superfreakonomics

- Many others =)

Day 2 Post 5 - Network (Film)

First Up, This movie is amongst one of my all time favorite movies. It is one of those super-smart movies which captures so much of The Human Experience in the post industrial era that it just blows you away.

If you want a sample of what I am talking about just have a look:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_qgVn-Op7Q&feature=related *(The I am mad as hell speech, people just want to feel and that is about it, we all feel worthless, like zombies living mechanised life, we want to explore, we want to be angry, but there are explanations for everything, the ordinary human doesn't seek explanation, he simply wants to FEEL.)

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFvT_qEZJf8&feature=related *(Mass media has created this society of mass opinion, although maybe in the USA of 1976 it might have created a strong single segment, in the present day with the segmentations and customised products, we have diversity but still is that doing us any good, I love malls because they somehow make me feel like I can see the Human Animal in his zoo-ish imprisonment, with the chain of brands, values and ideas holding him so tight and telling him how to feel .. I just love to laugh)

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzSj1yNZdY8 *(And this is this is just one of my favorite scenes ever... the explanation by Jensen, the losing interest of audience. It's like the world intentionally wants to stay blind, No wonder the new version of matrix was a success.. lol, I am so going to become a geek after I am done with this.. meanwhile watch this.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHiX0FZcjkA)

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_(film)

Network is a 1976 American Satirical film released by MGM, about a fictional TV network UBS and it's struggle with poor ratings. It was written by Paddy Chayefsky, and directed by Sidney Lumet *(Sidney is a genius, if you ever have a chance try to watch 12 Angry Men and Network and you will realize what I am talking about).

The movie won 4 oscars

1. Best Actor - Peter Finch (He was the first to receive an Oscar after his death)

2. Best Actress -Faye Dunaway

3. Best Supporting Actress - Beatrice Straight

4. Best Writing, screenplay written directly for the screen - Paddy Chayefsky

The film was and still is an extraordinary movie and continued to receive many awards decades after it's initial release. In 2000 the film was selected for preservation by US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". The movie is a standard in the American filmmaking (Producers Guild of America, 2002).

The WIKI in this particular case doesn't do much justice to do this movie. It talks about the movie in a very dry dissecting form. I love this movie and would recommend it to all of all my friends. So I would like to say that this movie is one which has become part of the the cultural repertoire of Americans these days and missing out on a legend like this is like missing out some of those good things in life like eating only protein and missing out on the good food in the world.

Without culture a man isn't worth much and also from some of the previous blogs I have been getting a feeling that they are being a bit dry, like taking notes for myself =P ... although that is the intention, I think it doesn't really serve the purpose of doing it publicly except maybe that it puts a certain social pressure on me to deliver on my word. lol.. well the thing is like, I will try to keep getting more and more fluid, mixing my opinions with the data given on WIKI, but what I am trying to do is to provide a distinction between the wiki knowledge & my opinions but I guess if you want the exact info you can always visit the Wiki page I give as the source =)

So here is to more opinionated blogs for the future... Next one, the tipping point ;)

And yeah, any recommendations for future blog ideas are invited =) .. I am not doing it for myself, knowledge gained has power.. but knowledge shared gives great pleasure =)

Day 2 Post 4 - The Third Wave (Book)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(book)

Third Wave is a book published by Alvin Toffler in 1980. It is a sequel to Powershift (1970) and second in the trilogy also containg Powershift (1990). A new edition Revolutionary Wealth (2006) maybe considered a major expansion of The Third Wave.

Toffler in the book describes transition in Developed countries from the second wave Industrial societies to the third wave Information age societies. *(The book to a great extent is a futurists peek into realities of today, one of my favorite reads)

THEORY -

Toffler describes three types of societies, each pushing the older society and culture aside like waves in an ocean or any water body.

1. The first wave came with the discovery of agriculture as humans moved from hunter-gatherer style of living to cultivators-domesticators

2. The second wave came with the industrial revolution. It started in western Europe and later spread to the rest of the world. *(still hasn't reached all of humanity). The key aspects of the second wave society are NUCLEAR FAMILY, a FACTORY TYPE EDUCATION SYSTEM and the CORPORATE *(Like I say the demands of economics shaped the society, the principles of industrial success became the valued traits of the society, the successful were the ones who were best fit for the new system and their traits were upheld in the society, Monkey See Monkey Do, we humans aren't very complex after all)

3. The third wave in a broad sense refers to the post-industrial age in the developed world from 1950 onwards. He coined many words to describe the same with Information Age being one of them.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION

The first wave in anthropology is referred to as the Neolithic Revolution, demarcating the Mesolithic era (Middle Stone Age) & Neolithic era (Late Stone Age).

In the classic anthropological three age system having namely Stone Age, Bronze Age & Iron Age, the boundary between Bronze & Iron Age (1300-1200 BC) is seen to be as dramatic as Toffler's Waves. None of these are clearly recognized in Toffler's system

The transition as ascribed in Toffler's first wave is though often recognized as the transition from Iron to Steel Age. At present there is no clear delineation but the term post-industrial society (Daniel Bell) is often used in conjunction to Toffler's "Third Wave Society".

KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF A THIRD WAVE SOCIETY

Though the society is still seen to be largely emerging, with the dramatic transitions over the past 2 decades we have begun to see several distinguishing features, some of these are :

1. Rolling back of the Industrial "standardisation" *(this has been followed by a change in society which earlier valued discipline, punctuality and now has a "Every child is special" attitude as they realise the importance of the creative class, read my previous blog - http://learningmalik.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-1-post-3-creative-class.html)

2. Obsolescence of the Nation-State concept *(which if you ask me was a best fit it the first wave, used to great advantage by the industrial imperialists and now has only relevance in the form of currency exchange rates & country of origin bias among other things, Also I recommend that you watch this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzSj1yNZdY8 - I love this movie, will write my next blog about it, don't take every word of what he says, movie script writers get paid for histrionics)

3. The eclipsing of Monetary wealth by Knowledge & Information as the primary determinant of power and it's distribution. *(Knowledge was always power, but it is only now that it offers a person the same in the simplest of forms, he discusses the same in detail in his book PowerShift, I still have to read the book, so you to wait sometime before I discuss that)

4. Eclipsing of manufacturing and manufacturing goods by knowledge production and information processing as primary economic activity. *(As has been already iterated quite a few time, the movement from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy where no longer you are required to follow codes like those of a factory by those of the new creative regime, If you are not cool you can kiss your success goodbye. Companies are looking for culture-fits instead of the tested traits like hardworking, punctual, sincere etc.)

5. The emergence of high technologies

6. Transformation of the very meaning of Democracy with a more direct interaction between the government and populace *(The media is doing something right, the RTI Act in India is another example, even though India isn't a developed economy, presidential debates on youtube and online voting after 2000 are similar examples of the same)

Despite the emphasis on the obsolescence of Nation-States, the possible form of future states was left open. Same with the transformation of democracy.

FOURTH WAVE?

A closing word on the same is still out ... and though discussion about the same can go on, they can not be concluded

The book is one of my favorites and even though I do fail to comprehend many a concepts stated and explicated in the book and their implications, I do appreciate the work put in. I think Toffler did an exceptional work by identifying the beginning of the new generation of humanity for all of us and since we already have an Idea of the things to come, we can be better prepared for them. Besides this, the book is one of those books which form the basis of my understanding about everything else, thus hard to comment upon as us humans have a limitation that we can not analyse anything we do not comprehend. I know that 1+1 is 2 but why? I know not.. it just is.. like a law of nature. Using that understanding I can add all the numbers in the world but if you ask me about why is 1+1=2? My answer would be a shrug!! I still bow to Toffler as he atleast taught me how to add =) *(I feel like MKS =P)

Day 1 Post 3 - Creative Class

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_class

The creative class is a SocioEconomic Class identified by Prof. Richard Florida. He feels that this SEC is the driving force behind post-industrial cities. *(One of the reasons you see such a strong push in the recent days on creativity and the every child is special propaganda)

Florida says that 30 percent (40 mn) of American workforce come under this creative class. Of this there are two broad types

A. Super Creative Core : 12% of all US jobs. Wide range of occupations - science, engineering, education, computer programming, research, with arts, design, and media arts workers forming a small subset. THEIR PRIMARY JOB IS TO BE CREATIVE & INNOVATIVE. ALONG WITH PROBLEM SOLVING, THEIR WORK MAY ENTAIL PROBLEM FINDING.

B. Creative Professionals : Classical Knowledge-based Workers, those working in healthcare, BUSINESS & FINANCE, the legal sector and education. THEY DRAW ON COMPLEX BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE TO SOLVE SPECIFIC PROBLEMS. *(These people are more likely to be taught by a textbook with the complex body of knowledge as the base, while the Super Creative Core have no limits)

He adds a small subset of Bohemians to these two large groups.

Florida concludes that the Creative class will be the force behind the growth of economy and expected to grow by over 10 mn in the next decade *( Indians are mostly into industrial or labour jobs, even the aspirational jobs are Medicine & MBA - professional jobs rather than the really creative jobs of research, computer programming - not coding =P, engineering is just not seen as a creative job, there were special programs in Bocconi for management of such industries and I am sure there are in other developed industries too. India is supposedly the IT Giant and yet most commercial software developers are in Silicon Valley, while Bangalore and other cities are simply solution providers - a step in the value chain of somebody else who is creating the real value, Although we are better most other developing countries we need to be make more conscious steps)

Florida's theories have sparked a lot of debate & discussion. It proposes that the new emergent class will cause the shift away from typical agricultural or industrial based economies and there will be a general restructuring into much more complex economic heirarchies. *(Alvin Toffler talked about something similar in his book the Third Wave, where he says that after the Agricultural Revolution & the Industrial Revolution the third revolution to hit humanity and change it was the Information Revolution - I will cover more about the third wave in my next blog)

The Nebulous creative class has been on a rise for atleast the last four decades with shifts towards technology and R & D and the internet (and related fields) occuring in post-war economies of most countries. *(Another correlation I can think of is the growth in the semiconductor technology which also grew exponentially in the last 4 decades and has changed the way information is handled, hence it became like a positive loop, more technology --> more information --> more research --> more technology, all at lower costs than before)

A number of cities and regions have been identified with these economic trends including California's Silicon Valley, Boston Route 128, The triangle in North Carolina, Austin, Seattle, Bangalore, India, Dublin, Ireland and Sweden. *(Luckily Bangalore is there on the list, thank all those parents who pushed their aimless kids into engineering, did something good for the country, but what we need to do is form similar hubs in other domains, in R&D, education, Science etc.)

Florida argues that the creative class is economically relevant as it's member have the ability to create and increase economic outputs with new ideas, new high-tech businesses, and regional growth.

The creative class occupations are described as jobs which create new meaningful forms. People in design, education, arts, music, and entertainment who economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or creative content.

Another sector of the creative class is that they are quite "knowledge intesive" meaning they require high amount of formal education. Examples are people in healthcare and business managers considered a part of creative professionals whose primary job is to think and create new approaches to problem.

Creativity is becoming more valued in today's society. *(I love how societies adapt to the economic requirements, infact I believe it is economics and economics which is the basis of human civilization) Employers see creativity as a channel of self-expression and job satisfaction in their employees.

Around 30% of Americans workforce is now part of the Creative Class, increase of 10% over the past 20 yrs *(Outsourcing??)

Creative class is not a class of workers among many but a group believed to bring economic growth to countries that can attract it's members *(Marketing of countries and perception management is critical, which is one of the reasons India has a chance of outstripping China someday but we seriously need to take care of some serious issues before we are able to do that, these are discussed in the form of 3 Ts below)

Economic benefits conferred to the creative class are :

1. New Ideas

2. High-Tech Industry

3. Regional Growth

The creative class has been around for centuries *(I still remember a presentation I attended in MDI by a guest lecturer called in by Prof. Pillania who taught us Strategic Management 1, the guy talked about the Medici effect and how the Medicis made Florence the starting point of the Renaissance and we all know what that did for Europe & the western world in large), the US was the first large country to have a creative class for IT in the 60s and 70s *(talk about first mover advantage). Europe now has a similar sized creative class compared to America, but now we can almost see an inter-city competition to attract the class *(I again would like to mention an article I read in the Bocconi ACME magazine BOB which indicated how Amsterdam is losing it's creative edge to Berlin which is becoming the new home of the Europeans Bohemes - Talk about studying a different ballgame)

Rindermann, Wailer & Thompson had a study published in 2009 where they studied 90 countries and argue that high-ability classes (smart classes) are responsible for economic growth, stable democratic development, and positively valued political aspects in the form of government effectiveness, rule of law and liberty *(I hate when I sound Elitist but Hey! this is how the world works, a country, city, state is as good as the amount of the ability in it's citizens)

Various works of Florida & one by Ross Honeywell indicate that cities that retain the creative class prosper while those that do not stagnate. *(Caveat for all those Shiv Sena supporters, I hope you are reading Amay) This research gained traction among businessmen, politicians and urban planners *(Time India acknowledged it too, How else do you explain the bursting growth of India being to a great extent being confined to the cities and suburban areas. In my opinion we need more SEZs and planned ones)

In cities and the creative class, Florida has elucidated three main prerequisites of Creative Cities. These are :

1. Talent - A highly educated/talented/skilled population *(Hmm!! I think Pune is going to go big soon)

2. Tolerance - A diverse community which has a 'live and let live' ethos

3. Technology - The technological infrastructure to fuel the required entrepreneurial spirit *(Major roadblock for India)

In the rise of the creative class, Florida argues that the class values meritocracy, diversity and individuality, and look for these characteristics when they relocate *(Ha ha, No wonder I want to move - Except for diversity most Indian cities fall flat on their face on meritocracy & individuality, Mumbai does seem to embody these ideals a bit though)

"The creativity Index" is another tool which Florida uses to describe how members are attracted to a city. This uses four parameters

1. Creative class share of workforce

2. Innovation (measured by patent per capita)

3. HighTech Industry (Milken's Institute's widely accepted Tech Pole Index)

4. Diversity (measured by Gay Index, a reasonable proxy for area's openness)

Florida also found a strong correlation between the cities and states that provide more tolerant atmosphere towards culturally unconventional people like gays, artists, and musicians (indicated by Gay Index & Bohemian Index) and the number of creative class workers than live there and move there.

Florida noticed that where people choose to live can no longer be predicted according to traditional industrial theories. *(will cities like Jamshedpur decay?) There is a gradual and broad shift in values over the past decade. Creative workers are looking for cultural, social and technological climates in which they feel they can best "be themselves"

The diverse and individualistic lifestyles enjoyed by the creative class involve active participation and experiential activities which are multidimensional. Florida uses the term street level culture to define this kind of stimulation. They would rather be participants than spectators.

CRITICISMS

Numerous faults have been found :

1. Hoyman and Faricy using Florida's own indices could not find any statistical evidence that cities with higher proportions of Creative Class correlated with any type of Economic Growth in 1990-2004 *(Hmm!!)

2. Markusen in 2006 stated that there is no group identity in the creative class and that the occupations aren't inherently creative, and it based largely on educational attainment and controlling for the same, the results become insignificant *(Should it be changed to the educated class then?? It is time for the Illuminati to come back?? Anyways words are just words and like I mentioned earlier, the quality of a city or state depends greatly on the ability of it's citizens)

3. Jamie Peck accuses Florida's theory of having no causality and having circular logic *(Well we don't know wether the chicken came first or the egg, but we know how chickens and eggs come right?? Isn't that good enough for us to make more chickens or eggs as we desire?)

4. Montgomery says that Florida has devised a set of indices which mirror more fundamental truths about dynamic cities or creative milieux *(I would be very interested in those more fundamental truths)

5. Similarly other questions have been raised outside the academia to question these theories

The creative class is simply a theory propogated by Richard Florida, I feel that it somehow resonates with me and being or atleast thinking that I am an educated man who sees himself as a learner and problem solver, I might have a strong bias to readily accept such ideas, it might simply be a self-serving bias. But otherwise also, I do think that the Agricultural & Industrial Era are past and in this information era the people who are able to structure information will be the ones with highest value in the economic system. Some of them - Wall street brokers, Inventors of softwares like the Google search engine will be able to capitalize on the information available to them, while others will not invest their resource - the information into fruitful areas and hence not get as high returns but anyways the opportunity to create high economic value lies mostly in the information domain and for the same you need people who can ideate. No wonder innovation is a buzzword in various domains!!

At the same time, if I may mention, the information diffusion curve is similar to the PLC and while the inventor of Laser may have created huge opportunities for the future generation by a completely new invention, the people who made money were the ones who used Laser once it was economic enough!! Google must've built upon it's preceding search engines and so much have Microsoft on it's preceding OS's. I feel there is a golden harvest region somewhere when a new idea is growing, just after the tipping point *(will do a blog about this too) and that is where the money is.

But if you are in it for the creativity and believe in 'art pour l'art' I salute you too, you are one of those people who make the world a better place for the future generations

Day 1 Post 2 - Rote Learning

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_learning

Rote learning is a learning technique which avoids understanding of the subject and instead focusses on memorization. LEARNING BY REPETITION.

Routinely used when quick memorization is of key importance, widely used to form foundational knowledge. BY DEFINITION ROTE LEARNING ESCHEWS COMPREHENSION, THUS NOT A GOOD TOOL FOR REACHING ADVANCED LEVELS.

Rote learning is disparaged especially in the developed world where tools are readily available for performing complicated functions at the push of a button. Learning how to use technology is becoming more and more important rather than learning about technology.

Rote learning is an effective tool when time is of critical essence.

Rote learning is promoted as a tool of learning in countries like India, Pakistan, China , Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Italy, Turkey, Malta & Greece. Some of these nations score highest when tested internationally, while others score amongst the lowest. *(Hence indicating a low correlation between rote learning & test score or some other hidden factor at play)

In the US, new standards by NCTM & NSES call for more emphasis on active learning, critical thinking and communication over recall of facts *(I was reading about the creative class recently, the developed countries are slowly moving from industrial class to the creative class, while that work is outsourced to other LDCs where labor is cheaper - will elaborate in my next blog)

ROTE LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT -

The UN Arab Human Development Report for 2004 has Arab researchers claiming that rote learning is a key reason for lack of progress in science and R&D in arab countries *(I wonder if there is a correlation between the same and tolerance too, Could this be the reason for higher level of dogmatism often seen in religious people - Merely the difference between a thinker & a parrot? I wrote a blog about this some time ago - Do read if you want - http://5wn1h.blogspot.com/2009/03/children-of-echo-and-narcissus.html)

ROTE LEARNING & RELIGION -

Rote learning is prevalent in many religions across the world *(Hmm, and then they ask me why I distrust the religious, lol, See here is my take, rote learning is all about setting patterns in your head and these patterns are made by somebody else for some situation or other and I am a big fan of Peter Drucker's paper on Theory of Business, just makes sense to me. Yes we are all rote at some level, but Hey! atleast I try)

ROTE LEARNING & SUZUKI METHOD -

The Suzuki method describes three forms of learning Music

By Rote - Simply doing a set of instructions for desired response

By Symbolism - Learning a sequence of notes

By Mind's Ears - Having basic skills and understanding of the logic of the instrument *(I think the same or a similar set applies to almost all learning)

I think we are off to a good start, I intend to get more fluid as the blogs progress =)

PS - * and ( ) indicate my opinion

Wiki My Tutor Project

I have always been a learner, deep down I always had a quest to understand how things work ever since I was a kid, this has taken many forms over my lifetime. From touching things when I was a baby to breaking open radios and fixing them when I was 7; from the endless Discovery TV marathons from the age 9 onwards to experimenting with every part of my personality to see how people react to each tweak from the age 16 onwards. I found books again when I was 20 and I had just fallen in love, the getting into somebody's mind, understanding their perspective to later on having that extra pair of my eyes in my repertoire for looking at the world was just too exciting for me. I jumped into the ocean of knowledge with arms wide open, but now that I have started working I don't think I will have enough time to devote to the leisurely reads.

I have thus come up with a project for myself. I call in Project WIKI - My Tutor. I intend to go through thousands of wiki articles over the next 18 months (roughly 500 days) and write at least 1000 entries (besides this one) on the ones which interest me =) ... I think it will help me in reinforcing the learnings.

So here is the target --> 1001 articles, 500 days , time starts now =)