Hundred fifty nine

Few mutations that altered the brain lead to Homo sapiens. Our brain is unique in the animal kingdom. One thing fascinated me is a never-ending "desire.". There are many books on how to live simple, zen-like, etc. In reality, we as a species always want new things, new comforts. This greed has led to wars and crimes. Is it good or bad? This desire has pushed us out of the forest and brought us to the present state of living condition. Do I want to go back to the forest? probably no. I love philosophy like many others but living the philosophy is a tough task, since it is against the fundamental nature of the brain, pushing the boundaries of desire. 

Hundred forty six

Theory and practice are so distant. I know all the recipes for the most successful person in my life. But I can't implement that. Our brain is hard-wired for instant gratification. I know that if I write this blog every day and write more and write on a specific subject and research and write on a specific topic, my writing skill would improve. However, I am not doing that. Because it is not a pleasurable experience as reading twitter. Being a successful writer and that happiness may happen after 5 years of writing and till then the brain is starved of pleasure. According to the timetable, I have to write for another five minutes. Already I am running out of the subject. As a species, we have evolved to live in the present moment. No animals plan for a long-term future. Some animals store food but definitely don't have 3 years or 5 years road map!  

Hundred twenty four

Hypocrisy no one wants to talk about. When I am driving, I found all jaywalkers so annoying. Now I am walking and I get annoyed with all the drivers and I expect them to drive dead slow. I keep observing myself and I find it so fascinating how our brain works. It tries to maximize the benefit for the body which carries it around. We call this hypocrisy. Maybe!

Hundred twenty-one

Working in compartments. I found myself distracted by small incidents. These incidents keep hitting me like waves and spoil an entire day. or am I fooling myself, because I don't want to work, just act like distracted? I need to introspect myself. Introspection is like plumbing work, you need to take out dirty things from the clogged pipeline. When you dive into your own brain, you see how dirty and shallow you are. Often clean water is at the top, if you get to the bottom, the dirt and sludge stirred and float to the top, now you can see that smell it and it is YOU. 

Ninety three

It is so difficult to write. The professional writers have to write every day. Film scriptwriters have an even tougher job. I am hardly writing a few sentences every day and I found it difficult. I can pickup subject from a book and write on that. But bringing own subject out from deep pockets of the brain is a challenge and fun. Often things are hidden deep inside the brain pop out on unusual occasions. As I am getting old, I am confused with true memory and false memory. I found that many times I am so sure about the information which is incorrect. 

Eighty Seven

As I was walking across the market, I saw a couple from a distance, and they were engaged in animated talk. All of us see anything unusual or usual we form an opinion. I thought about this couple why these people are fighting in public. As I approached them, I heard them and couple were talking in Kannada, that is my mother tongue. All of a sudden my opinion changed about them! Why so? In spite of knowing this bias, very often, I am a victim of that. Familiarity bias a strange thing. If a person belongs to your state or speak your language or belongs to your religion, without much thinking, we assume they are right. I suppose, when we have limited data points, the brain tries to find out some data, even it is absurd and irrelevant to make some decision. We can't remain uncertain, human brain always wants definitive answers.  

Eighty four

Yesterday I met with a minor accident. My left leg was sprained. By evening pain intensified and had to go to a doctor. When you get injured or sick you will notice that body part carefully and all of a sudden you realise the function of that body part in the day to day life! My left leg was sprained, just below the knee, top of the calf muscle. What is the function of this muscle? Not a scientific study but just an observation. You need this muscle for bending the leg and walking. Surprisingly not very significant for cycling. This muscle is crucial to balance on one leg in a slight slant position. I realised this when I am mounting on cycle/bike. You can't do sit-ups. Once the pain disappears, I don't pay attention to this. What does this mean? Our brain though knows theoretically that all parts of the body are essential for smooth functioning, the brain doesn't keep an account of that. This accounting will be too much work for the brain. So only when we get injured, the brain pays particular attention to that part. In life also we take many things granted. For example 24x7 internet availability, or ATM machine or fuel etc. Only we realise them when they are not available. The funniest part is, once service resumes we again get back to normal life. The brain only remembers very bitter, sad and traumatic incidents and not small mundane pain and loss. It is not like computer hard-disc, the brain makes its own choice of what to remember and what not and even we don't have any control over that.

Seventy two

Will power. I read and experienced the fact is that will power is not an infinite quantity. Often we forget that the brain is an organ just like leg or hand or heart or liver. It works like any other organ. It also would vary in its capacity to carry out stuff, just like some are good runners and some are not. In 100 meter finals of Olympics, you hardly find any white skin man/women. Why? Because they can't compete with a sports person from African origin, whose muscle built is unique for fast contrasting and giving the burst. Similarly, our brain has a different capacity to carry out tough tasks. Some have more willpower as compared to others. Further, if you use willpower in the morning in resisting buying an online phone, soon after you are offered a super calorie-rich food, you can't resist that food. Why? Because you have already used up your willpower in opposing of buying the phone. I just stated a simple example, but that is how it works. 

Sixty nine

Time is like carrying water in a sieve. Before I realized I had missed two days of blogging. Often I realized that it is extremely difficult to understand human behaviour. Nowadays I found that understanding my own behaviour and mood is also difficult. So large part of our own brain is beyond our grasp. Therefore, I need to think twice before reaching a conclusion. The conclusion on any given topic is not final it is flexible.