G for Genius!

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.    - Arthur Schopenhauer

Alright! Call it the effect of the bloggers' meet yesterday or something, I suddenly get the mood to write regularly (yeah, I call two posts in 2 consequent days regular :P). Anyway, it's been nice - going through peoples' blogs and finding some excellent work done by each of them. Kudos to y'all!! And of course, keep the good work going!!

So, another post. The title might suggest something about Parle-G biscuits, but no! This ain't got anything to do with any confectionery or something on those lines. I literally mean G for Genius as the title. Well, this is about Genius. Have you ever wondered how generously we use the adjective? I've been thinking for a while now and the answer is not good. Let me illustrate what I'm trying to say here. If a person gets more marks than you - genius. If someone can answer something esoteric you have no idea about - genius. If someone discovers something, however insignificant, - genius. B the W, I'm watching the DC match and hope we recover soon and make like a 180 runs. Fingers Xed on that area. :).  OK, genius, huh?? I simply don't like people call just anyone that. This post is where I try to describe what genius actually means to me. So, when you're around me, try to adhere to these rules before tagging someone a genius :P.

I draw upon a little bit of tutelage from Roger Penrose (author of A Road to Reality). I believe that, some things simply exist - in kind of a Platonic sense of existence (please don't ask me more about this. :P). Well, anyway, the thing about such things is, they are just there. It is not like the person who uncovers them is doing a great act in trying to find something that is already there. (Refer Mandelbrot plots here, they simply existed, like forever and Mandelbrot was just he person to uncover the underlying beauty...) With all due respect to all the great inventors and discoverers, most of them aren't anything close to genius. They might have been intelligent and persevering hard-workers, but genius, I don't think so! 

Let me give you some examples of people who are in my view, tagged genius rather liberally. The first, may be the oldest - the wheel. We all larn that the wheel was tone of the most ingenious inventions. But, on second thought, it is kind of obvious. Let us say Mr.X (or may be Ms. X, for all non-sexists like me...) invented the wheel. The fact of the matter remains that, eventually, someone would stumble upon the idea to make a circular thing. Same goes for Aryabhatta, who is credited with the "invention" of zero. Come on people! Definitely, i wouldn;t tag Aryabhatta a genius, if not him, someone, somewhere might definitely have stumbled upon the idea of having a number which had no value (tell me about it, Indians have a knack at these things - we like getting things for free, right?) Then there is the probably the biggest speculator of all time - Sir Newton. Gravity, they tell me, makes him a genius. But think about it twice,the idea of gravity can be attributed mainly to his being in the right place at the right time. So, I'm sure I made my point clear here, as to what kind of people do not qualify for the tag of genius.

Now, the obvious question. Who is a genius? I'll try my best to put my idea in good words here. A genius is a person, whose ideas and maybe inventions affect the world in such a way that - when the later generations look at the ideas, they go like what the heck was this fellow thinking? How the hell could anyone get this vague an idea. In simple words, the idea should be simple but so out-of-the-world that, no one would think about it unless they go mad. Like someone says, Genius is just another level of insanity, :P. Anyway, time for examples. The first one that comes to mind is Nikola Tesla. The man single-handedly formulated wireless communication (you might say Marconi did that, but the patent for Radio was later corrected to Tesla's name in 1943), the AC motor, Alternating Current itself and wireless electricity (not one of his successful ventures, I'd say...). Da Vinci is another. Then there are several authors who get into this category of genius-ness. Shakespeare, Tolkein, Milton, Crichton, Clarke and many others. Then there are mathematicians - Hawking, Penrose, Feynman, and how can I forget Einstein. Then there is the person who got the idea of a microprocessor - there wasn't anything analogous to that in earlier times, was there? Also on the list would be Page/Brin for Google and Zuckerberg for Facebook. And of course, Tim Berners Lee for the Internet!

Alright then, I take leave! Please don;t call undeserving people genius, for me at least. :P. And for any disputes, please refer to the disclaimer under the title of the blog. :D. Finally, i think it is important to draw a proper line between genius and geek.

Keep Rocking!!

The Uncertainty Principle

Now, this is physics. The Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Speaking with respect to Physics, this is possibly the most basic and un-foolable principle. It's simple to understand. The gist of the principle is that, it is not possible to measure any property of a system without changing the condition of the system. Let me define some terms here first, "System" is the body or group of bodies or practically anything which is being observed. "Observer" is the person or thing or machine that calculates any or all properties of the "System". Now, why am I freaking you out about Physics? I recently realized a certain way to put the Uncertainty Principle. The wording is something to this effect:

You cannot observe anything without changing it.

Sounds weird, right? I thought so too, until, of course, I tried to apply this. This is creepily true, believe me! Never thought Physics could touch lives in such simple ways (knew the complex ways, of course..).I'm sure you might have noticed too. Let me give an example. Now, a couple of weeks back, I was gloating about my book reading. This is something I totally do :P. Here, the "System" is my reading books. The "Observer", my friends. Next thing I know, I suddenly lose interest in books. I must have read like about 10 pages since that happened. It beat me at first, then, I realized the severe repercussions of the Uncertainty Principle. What happens is, you try to "measure" the future, by guessing or imagining. By the basic Uncertainty Principle, you change the future by moving into a little, if not totally, different Multiverse. Er, I just got lost, getting back to the topic. Another example, I have this friend of mine who was bragging about his date and indeed, we were envious :P. In just a few days, what we come to know is he's broken up. This is creepy indeed.

So, why am I telling this now? Well, I just want to see if this stands with the Principle itself as the "System" and the readers (must be a million by now, of which about 999,995 are from other Universes...) as the "Observers". Must be fun to watch the Uncertainty principle face itself!!

Finally, to all the readers, try to see if the Uncertainty principle is true for y'all as it is for me!! And yes, try and tell me about the experience!!

P.S. : By this post, I might make your life tough (believe me, it is tough to face it when it is right into your face...) but, it is a simple science experiment and I hope you help me out with this...and for more explicit examples, contact me personally...

Being Great?

Well, I'm back... I think about a lot of things, most of them useless, atleast as of now... Thing is, I've been reading some biographies lately, of the so-called "successful" people...  One thing I found in common was, most of them never had any formal education in the field they pioneered, and some of them were drop-outs from related fields... Let's take Bill Gates for instance, or may be even Steve Jobs, who were "successful drop-outs", kind of an oxymoron, right?

There was also this movie called "A Beautiful Mind", that I watched about John Nash the mathematician, and recollected the quote "Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity"

After reading about all these people lately, I has this whim, Why shouldn't I drop out too?? May be that'd make me great :). I looked at it from every angle, well, atleast as many as I could, and finally realised, it's not a plausible option for us Indians. No offence, but, let's face it, us Indians have got so many people to answer, right from our parents, neighbors, friends and who not? Even when we try to stay away from them, we are viewed as some - for want of a better word- heretics. Rebels simply are not encouraged in our social setting. The feeling is so imbibed in our minds that, we don't even realise that we believe in it.

Fine, enough of this, lemme not digress, let's get back to the main thing, dropping out..

So, here I was, all set up to take a crucial decision all by myself (All this happened about a couple of weeks back). I didn't discuss this with anyone - not even my friends (I'm pretty introvert see..). I was arguing with myself intensely and even considering making my own lab at home :). The actual reason behind all this was that, I was not able to get the hunch of most of the subjects I was taking under my curriculum, a pretty common thing when it comes to technical courses - I realised. 

Then I thought, "Fine, I've made up my mind!"

And I was gloating about the shock people around me would be in for :).

Well, call it fickle-minded or whatever you like, I suddenly decided to give my subjects just one more try. That, was when I fell in love, with a couple of my subjects. I dunno how it happened. just a week back, the subjects I couldn't make any sense of were beginning to look, well, just beautiful. I still believe that it was quite mysterious, finding no plausible reasons for the phenomenon. I'm delighted that I never publicised my decision and saved all the trouble :).

Bottomline, guys, is that I listened to my heart, my gut instinct and now I'm sure I can do whatever I like in my field. I decided to call it my "revelation". Now, i believe that, a person can be great only when he listens to their heart without any hesitation and follow it.. :)

Keep Rocking!!