Do you suffer from anxiety? Have you ever given it a thought?

Sad 3D Man

Have you ever tried to avoid a situation and wished that you had another way of dealing with it? Is it a recurring theme in your life with respect to some particular set of situations? If yes, you are not alone! Many people suffer from anxiety, perhaps without knowing it. No, really, it's very common.

The most common form of anxiety is the fear of snakes followed closely by the fear of public speaking. Do your tremble while giving a public speech? Do you feel bad about being under a spot light? Does talking to unfamiliar people make you nervous? Does that affect the quality of life you are living?

If you have never given it a thought, perhaps, it's the right time to stop avoidance and start to look for a better solution.

Stress Meter

But first of all, it's important to differentiate between depression and anxiety (as well as various other psychological disorders).

Depression takes away your motivation, and you feel low in general. Anxiety on the other hand is usually related to some situation in particular where you try to avoid it needlessly (e.g., fear of heights or meeting new people, etc.) While depression degrades your quality of life in general, anxiety stops you from realising your true potential. If you have anxiety, won't you like to conquer it?

Some psychological disorders are better left to be treated clinically while others benefit tremendously from self-help.

Overcoming anxiety for dummies is a nice to read book which could help you in determining the exact nature of anxiety. A lot of ground is covered, yet the book is an easy read. Once the type of anxiety is unearthed, the book provides some strategies to deal with it. One of the most highly cited behavioural therapy to deal with anxiety is "gradual exposure". After making a list of things that induce anxiety, you start from the one which has the lowest fear factor associated. Make yourself exposed to that thing consciously. Gradually, the fear will pass away and it will give you an opportunity to move to the next level.

While the book provides good strategies to deal with anxiety, I believe that once you have identified the nature of anxiety, you would like instructions/ suggestions specific to you. Since this is a general book on anxiety, a lot of material will automatically become irrelevant to you---just skip what is not relevant or too basic.

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Note: Sad 3D Man and Stress Meter images attributed to FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Emperor's New Clothes

A stupid story read in the childhood seems so relevant and to the point in the mid-ages! I am sure you have read The Emperor's New Clothes in one form or another.

Time and again, I have seen people praising something just because some other people were praising the same thing! In fact, people seem stupid (or backward or conservative) if they don't appreciate the "new clothes" which either do not exist or are very low quality from what they actually have. Usually, the person "demonstrating the new clothes" is a consultant or a new inductee, who tries to impress others by his "vast experience" and acumen---not necessarily duping them but selling them an idea without facing any resistance. Finally, the ideas are very well appreciated by the people attending the presentation, even though very little would have gone in their heads.

I remember someone told me years ago, "God has created a fair share of stupids for each one of us; it's upto us to find them."

The Aha! Moments

I am not sure who coined this term. I first encountered it while reading Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley. An Aha! moment is when you have a sudden insight into something (it's more enjoyable when you had thought that you already knew that "something"). Some books of Scott Meyers also talk about it; see, for example, his article titled My Most Important C++ Aha! Moments...Ever.

It's weird how something becomes clear all of a sudden. I was going through the following problem last night (taken from Programming Pearls): You have to find an efficient algorithm to find the maximum sum of consecutive numbers in a series (which can include both positive and negative numbers). For example, the maximum sum in "-1, 2, 3, -4, 1" is 5 which starts at 2 and ends at 3. Any other sequence will include negative numbers and thus, reduce the sum.

A brute force algo for the problem would be as follows:

maxSoFar = 0
for i = [0,n)
   sum = 0
   for j = [i, n)
      sum += x[j]
      maxSoFar = max (sum, maxSoFar)

Its runtime is O(n²) which isn't good. How can we optimize it?

• One first observation is that you can scan the array and keep counting until your sum becomes negative. If that happens you have to start over from the next index in the array.


• However, your maximum sum might be the one just before your sum became negative. That is, without any negative numbers in the array, you can safely sum up all the numbers and declare the maximum.

If you keep thinking about this problem, and try out various examples by hand, you might encounter an Aha! moment :)

I once encountered a similar explanation by Kraig Brockschmidt in his book Mystic Microsoft:

Then suddenly, as if magnetically drawn by my intense concentration upon it, the singular question that I so deeply yearned to answer returned: “How do all these pieces of OLE 2 fit together?”

BOOM! A bolt of lightning flashed into my consciousness with tremendous power and in one timeless moment I simply understood OLE 2. Not just bits and pieces—everything! It was magnificent.

A scientific explanation of the phenomenon states that

It may not appear in the shape of a light bulb above your head, but researchers say "Aha!" moments are marked by a surge of electrical activity in the brain.

That is, there is more to "creative problem solving" than "usual problem solving." The creative part requires an insight, the ability to get out of context and look at the problem from a higher level/ different perspective. It won't be surprising if such problems require a different kind of physical activity in the brain, as suggested by the article quoted above.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

[The title of the post has been shamelessly copied from a Jim Carry's movie with the same name. The title doesn't have much to do with the post itself.]

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of The Art of Living is visiting Gothenburg this week - there are ads in the newspapers and posters have been put up everywhere in the city. Quite interestingly, there is an entrance fee for listening to him. He will also visit Chalmers and there it will be free for students.

While he has some devoted fans who are eager to attend his lectures, I am a bit skeptical. As always, I find some marketing elements in such things. Those who work for world peace and service of humanity are like Mother Teresa or our very own Abdul Sattar Edhi. And contrary to what some people will like you to believe in, life is not full of joy! Suffering and grief are as much part of it as are happiness and blessings. Tell the prisoners of Abu Gharib to be happy or say the same to someone who has lost a close relative.

However, there is a difference between real suffering and self-inflicted suffering. Let's see if Ravi Shankar differentiates between the two when he says that life is pure joy.

The Quest for Completeness

Much has been said and written about the quest for completeness in human beings and thus the attraction towards the opposite. What we term as attraction is actually "completeness being sought." This completeness can't be attained by merging the opposites but by merging things that complement each other.

Take example of two opposite poles of a magnet. What the north pole possesses isn't available to the south pole and what the north pole lacks can only be fulfilled by the south pole. Thus, they get attracted and combine to manifest unity.

Look into another example of two oppositely charged particles. Both positive and negative particles actually seek "completeness" which makes them come close to each other and thus unite. Positive and negative charged particles are not opposites [They don't cancel each other. "Light" and "dark" are real opposites.] Charged particles complement each other to form unity. Everything in this universe is in search for its missing parts.

What makes Na (sodium) react with Cl (chlorine)? If you remember lessons from your high school chemistry, sodium has 1 electron in its outermost shell while chlorine has 7. Sodium can "complete" its outermost shell by losing one electron (where completeness is defined as having the last shell 2 or 8 electrons) and chlorine can "complete" its outermost shell by gaining an electron. Thus, its the universal quest for completeness that makes them have an attraction towards each other and hence combine to form sodium cholride (table salt).


And based on my experience I would say that people who are almost alike in personalities can never constitute a good friendship; there is usually a teacher-student relationship in these cases or worse: there is professional jealousy in these cases. So even our friendship is a manifestation of a lost part of our-self. And this brings me to a very perplexing question: "Where exactly do I end and where exactly do you, my friend, begin?"

Patterns for Humanity?

The effect of diversity on the quality of a solution is interesting. But I must say that diversity is itself a manifestation of unity! Otherwise, what good these patterns are! One would be justified in saying that application of these patterns to human beings is really complex. Actually, the complexity arises from only one thing: choice! This very word is one of the core issues discussed in the trilogy of Matrix movies.

Agent Smith: Mr. Anderson, you must know it by now! You can't win, it's pointless to keep fighting! Why, Mr. Anderson, why, why do you persist?
Neo: Because I choose to.
(Matrix Revolutions)

The issues are getting out of my grasp but still the comments provide an alternative view point of some intelligent people. On with the show:

Stagnation is Death:

Have you ever wondered why 0K (Zero Kelvin) is the lowest possible temperature? Life is all about being dynamic. Everything in the entire universe is moving - from things smaller than electrons to solar systems and beyond. Matter can't be at rest. If it ceases to move, it ceases to exist! An atom must retain at least one quantum of energy and this keeps it from cooling below Absolute Zero. This means that nothing can ever be at rest.

What we term as death is actually a portal - from this world to the presumably broader one. Another form of death within this world lies in being stagnant or in other words, having the state of in-activity - a scholar who no more thinks of new ideas is dead, an IT professional who can't pace with the emerging technologies is obsolete, etc.

Occurrence of events is must for imparting knowledge. The amount of knowledge gained from the occurrence of an event is directly proportional to its rarity (or inversely proportional to its frequency).

Building on the example of the last pattern, when you are pushing a car even in the wrong direction, at the least, you are doing something. And this doing something is very important. In no time, one of the enlightened persons, amongst those who are pushing the car, will realize the wrong way! He would announce it and make sure that people understand the idea. And making mistakes (and learning from them) is as important as doing it right.

But what if there is a stalemate - a situation where everyone is waiting for everyone else to do things for them? Or when everyone is motionless just to avoid some inescapable situation; to avoid a future that exists only in the minds? In the words of Noon Meem Rashid (if I can recall them correctly):

Un-kahi say dartay ho?
Jo abhi naheen howa hai, us ghari say dartay ho?
Un-kahi to tum bhi ho, un-kahi to hum bhi hain.
Khud say tum naheen dartay?

where khud: self,
ghari: moment,
un-kahi: something that hasn't been said yet.

Patterns Debate Continued...

Some of you might be right that life exists only when "the part lives and dies/ has identity within" the whole. As one can argue on anything, I might say that what exactly is within? And we will never reach anywhere. Instead of putting questions just for the sake of argument, I am trying to demystify things and thus will come back to this question sometime in future (when I have a reasonable answer). But do keep your thoughts pouring in!

Present day science and common sense do not explain everything. Still both are the tools that have enabled mankind to come this far. There is a parallel way of being powerful: the paranormal explanation of things. Having interest in both paranormal experiences and scientific laws as well as their intersection, I am not going to support either. This blog is about life in general and practical social life in particular. So this time I am going to discuss the alignment of elements:

Alignment of Elements: The Power Hence

What is the difference between an iron bar and a magnetic bar? No, I am not interested in being told that one attracts the other and hence has power. What I want to know is the difference in internal structures. You can take a piece of iron bar and magnetize it by rubbing a magnet from end A to end B repeatedly (always in the same direction). This would magnetize the iron and give it power; but what has actually changed? It's the orientation of atoms within the iron bar.

Take another example, think of a group of people that are pushing a car where everyone is disoriented and pushing it in a different direction. Where would it take them? Nowhere! What if they are properly aligned and asked to push the car in one specific direction? If all the elements get aligned the power originates from within!

Re-apply this pattern to anything and you would conclude that dis-orientation is powerless and alignment gives you power! The first example is more enlightening in the sense that it seems a bit esoteric. Taking a step further I would say that merely thinking in the same direction (alignment of thought) is very powerful - perhaps that's the basis of importance of prayer with jama'at (congregation).

Do share your thoughts.

"Because you didn't come here to make the choice, you've already made it. You're here to try to understand why you made it. I thought you'd have figured that out by now."
Matrix Reloaded: Oracle

Design Patterns in Nature

Design Patterns is a fancy word in the field of computer science, frequently abused. I take this opportunity to apply the word with reference to Mother Nature. Just as a design pattern serves as a blueprint for solving one particular kind of problems, there are patterns in the nature itself. And just because I have a limited vocabulary, I have used the word Design Pattern for these patterns. Let me know if you can term the following something else:

. System within Individual: Life and its Definition
. Orbital Motion
. Ingredients of a Genius
. Alignment of Elements: The Power Hence
. Attraction Towards the Opposite: The Quest for Completeness
. Generalizing Khans, Blacks and Sikhs (without any racial discrimination)

System within Individual: Life and its Definition

Let me start by putting a question: What are you - an individual or a system? If you think for some time, you are both. And your answer would /should be: "depends on your level of abstraction."

I would then like to put another question: "So if you are a system, why do you think you have life?" And if you are not a thinker this might be a perplexing question.

Let me approach from another direction. If I say that a room in which you are sitting alone is full of life, would you believe me? Think about the micro-organisms and the activities they are doing every moment. If a cell has life then each cell of your body might think that "it has life and it's actually working inside a dumb system with other cells."

Now consider the organization where you work/ study. Isn't each individual person part of a system - whether it's a company or an institute? Does the company have life? Is your educational institute an 'organism'?

Start examining a bee hive - it's a complete system. See inside the hive, you will find individuals - the bees. Take a bee as an individual and dig deeper, see the digestive, neural, respiratory and other systems. Look further inside, you would see a system of tissues and then cells. Don't stop, explore a cell thinking it's an individual and not a system - you would find another complete system (cell membranes, nucleus, acids, etc.). But does it end here? Isn't an acid a system of atoms of various elements? Is an atom an individual or is it again a system of electrons, protons and neutrons? If you think that an electron is not a system, I sympathize with your knowledge of quantum physics [There are Leptons, Baryons, Mesons and the forces].

Is an electron matter or energy? Are you matter or energy?

Re-start from the bee hive and this time start moving in upward direction of abstraction. You will move up and up and will never finish. There is a system within every system! Our concept of life validates only the systems that work as an individual at our level of abstraction!

They say a little knowledge of science takes you away from religion and a comprehensive knowledge of science brings you back! Think about it and let me know via your comments!