Category: Life

Ironies of a Confused Society

As kids we are asked to limit / stop playing. As adults we are asked to go out and play. To have a life !!

As kids we are asked to keep quiet and stay serious (life is no joke after all). As adults everyone recommends laughter therapy. At least once !!

As kids we are asked to stop questioning. And now we are taught otherwise. Develop curiosity !!

As kids we are asked to not break stuff. And as an adult you are questioned if you did break anything. Engineers do !!

There are numerous other scenarios you and I can relate to.

Something is wrong, somewhere. Why not question the normal ?

The “Real Man” decoded – Why some colleges are waking up to the fact that men may need to be taught to think beyond their own stereotypes?

Why do we continue to limit the emotional lives of males when it serves no one?

A recent New York Times article takes a dig into the Male psychology and why it’s so hard for them to emote there feelings, unlike Females.

Being a “Male” I can relate to the findings. If you consider India for instance, then from a very young age boys are conditioned (by their families and societies) to become “Strong”.

Being strong means that you should avoid public display of your emotions. You are supposed to be the head of the household. If you cry you will be reminded that  you are a Man, and a Man need not cry.

The emotions dry up gradually only to erupt in other forms. And anger becomes normal.

“Boys’ underperformance in school has more to do with society’s norms about masculinity than with anatomy, hormones or brain structure. In fact, boys involved in extracurricular cultural activities such as music, art, drama and foreign languages report higher levels of school engagement and get better grades than other boys. But these cultural activities are often denigrated as un-masculine by preadolescent and adolescent boys.”

“Bro Code” – The survival kit of many middle-class, white male students: online pornography, binge drinking, a brotherhood in which respect is proportional to the disrespect heaped onto young women during hookups, and finally, the most ubiquitous affirmation of their tenuous power, video games.

Surprisingly what studies have found is that from infancy through age 4 or 5, boys are more emotive than girls. But we socialize this vulnerability out of them.

The Article is worth reading and pondering on. We need to reevaluate things that have become normal and question if it’s of any benefit.

News Source : New York Times

Why do you want to Learn something ?

“If you can explain the WHY of things then that makes a huge difference to People’s Motivation. They understand Purpose. Process of Learning and how it should be. Make it interesting.” – Elon Musk

As Elon Musk has rightly said answer to the above question can be very useful to build and keep your interest to Learn something.

Elon also mentions the use of Gamification to make learning fun.

Here is a video in which Elon Musk talks about this and more at the Khan Academy.

http://swf.tubechop.com/tubechop.swf?vurl=vDwzmJpI4io&start=2171.64&end=2388.81&cid=7818654

Image and Video Source – Youtube – Khan Academy

I wrote a whole Post on this topic sometime back. You might benefit from reading that.

Shamsia Hassani prefers the medium of graffiti art and often paints over bullet holes

A burka isn’t a cage, if you take off a burka it isn’t freedom. Freedom is in the mind.

Here is a wrap up of great articles I found worth reading from the internet this week

First of a series of conversations with some of the world’s most prominent experts on the global fight for free expression and the role that technology plays on both sides of the struggle.

Read about Shamsia Hassani who prefers the medium of graffiti art (a term no one has heard in Afghanistan before), and often paints over bullet holes.

View story at Medium.com

Read  Google’s Eric Schmidt exclusive article on how he sees artificial intelligence developing, why it is experiencing such a renaissance and where it will go next.

Read how a principal -Nancy Hanks – met a student she expelled, and it changed her approach to discipline.

//www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/f97352c6-e552-11e5-a9ce-681055c7a05f

Image Courtesy

Thoughts on Freedom, Being Skilled and the quest for Meaningful Work

If you are not a Slave to someone or something then you are living in Freedom.

Freedom is the ability to live and work on your own terms. The Courage to stand up for your Ideas and Views.

Look around and you will find Slaves. It’s hard to break the conditioning that our Society has sold us. That Money is everything. Which means everything else takes a back seat.

People live in fear. What if I loose my Job, what if I am unable to repay Loans for the lavish Bungalow I brought recently? What if my Company doesn’t make Profits ?
What if my work is not Appreciated ?

The word Startup is also over hyped and lot of folks are running behind it. Most of them are running just for the same reason we have been running behind Engineering and MBA degrees. The idea being sold is the freedom to work for your self, but is Startup the only way ?

If you are someone who is solving a Problem then it calls for an initiative and funding. But not many are solving real problems. Be it Traffic, Pollution, Farming.

So most of the Startups are venturing in the same field. Be it E-commerce or Food delivery.

Not to say its wrong. It’s helping our Economy and creating Jobs. But Startups are not the only way I think. You can contribute in your own way also.

Speeding in the Wrong direction will take you nowhere.

Being skilled in something allows you to do meaningful work, maybe earn less but enjoy the stuff you do.

Continue reading “Thoughts on Freedom, Being Skilled and the quest for Meaningful Work”