Is this the beginning of the end?
Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Floods, Blasts, Heavy rains, Unlimited corruption….
The pain that the world seems to be going through leaves a bitter taste in the mouth to say the least. One fears if this is the beginning of the end of the world as we know it….
An analysis of why we are going through this has been done and has resulted in various findings. But do we care? Could we care any less? We continue to pollute the world. We continue to harm the environment. We continue to think short-term. We continue to be selfish. We continue to be ourselves….
I hate to be pessimistic. I like seeing the positive side of everything, but the series of continuous destructive events in the recent past thrusts forth the obviousness of the mistakes we have made and continue to make and their repercussions…will the world last another century at least?
Thoughts on Blink (The Book by Malcolm Gladwell): Warning: The thoughts are raw/unfinished
One reason why one should rely on intuitive feelings rather than on technical/scientific analysis, at times, is that those who gather data and utilize statistical tools to analyze could be parties with vested interests. They are prone to pick up information that are advantageous to them and simply base their analysis on those few selected numbers and conveniently ignore/turn a blind eye or, even worse, mask the other numbers. And anyways - vested interests or not - in most situations - analysis or no analysis - it is all about the one of the most-abused words 'perception'. Even analysis can be based on perception; The inputs taken for analysis can be CHOSEN/FILTERED/TWEAKINTERPRETEDTED to suit one's preferences/prejudices/biases/understanding. In other words, using intuition to decide what to analyze is a possibility that may lead to an intuition based decision despite an analytical process occurring in between the preliminary data collection and final decision!
Having said that, I should also add something that is a contradiction of sorts - I think that practiced and deliberate analysis irrespective of whether they lead to successes or failures (rights/wrongs) also teach, in the long run, us to be intuitive. Yes... because, ultimately they give you a feel for whatever you're doing; they get things ingrained in you; they become your extension and transform your thinking by converting continuous analysis into intuition (inherent knowledge not necessarily uninfluenced by external factors). In the book Blink, the very first example of art connoisseurs involves snap decisions, but one has to take into consideration these snap decisions are made by experienced folks, that is, people who've seen, felt, analyzed (etc etc) art before. It is this very experience and practice that eventually leads to a situation wherein one can make snap decisions. Snap decisions rarely come without practice/experience. If a small child shows exceptional talent in a particular field, the phenomenon is admittedly almost impossible to explain except if it has medical roots. But in the case of adult skill sets and expertise, it is probably only information overload over a period of time that helps one learn how to filter information in the first place, distinguish between the important and the insignificant and eventually almost automatically/mechanically, get to only that which is required. This does not mean that this person can do without outside data - An essential trait to be retained would be the ability to listen to one's own reasoning and feelings despite overwhelming data from the outside world. One should be able to think her way out despite contradicting information bellowing for attention. That is also intuition to be able to analyze (speed of analysis may vary from person to person and this would perhaps be a reflection of one's inherent intuitive abilities) and make sense out of the multitude.
Update - Hey, what the hell am I trying to say here, after all? Okay. It all boils down to 2 things:
- Let's not forget that analysis does not mean absence of intuition and 'subjectivity' as we do use subjective opinions to choose what to analyze and ignore data that doesn't fit into our paradigms
- Intuition (as in the talent) is many a time, the result of shrewd analysis and pattern recognition over long periods of time!
And, ahem....I recently read in an article (The discipline of innovation) by the late Peter Drucker that even he believed that intuition does not come easy...it comes after arduous years of analysis!
I engaged in paradox thinking yet again. :-) I was in the office bus on what was to be yet another 3-hour journey home from office, last week. As I looked out the window at the fellow travelers and billboards, I observed an advt. for couches. It triggered off my thinking and in about 6-7 seconds I was thinking about various things and connecting them all together. One of the obvious thoughts on my mind was solutions for the traffic problem in
So, how did I get the idea? By combining 2-3 thoughts! Traffic, an advt, the concept of paradox thinking….combining many thoughts indeed works wonders. Collaboration invariably leads to innovation. Combination of ideas creates the knowledge sundae a la the combination of ice cream, chocolate and nuts. :-)
Related post – on one another day last week, I was in my bus and happened to look at the bus next to mine and saw a newspaper sticking to the window. Saw the headline “
A Thought for the Day From Sri Eknath Easwaran
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October 18
He that loveth, flieth, runneth, and rejoiceth. He is free, and
cannot be held in. He giveth all for all, and hath all in all,
because he resteth in one highest above all things, from whom
all that is good flows and proceeds. - Thomas a Kempis
This spring I watched six baby swallows learn how to fly. They
were huddled on the telephone wires observing their mother, who
came flying slowly by in front of them, doing the easier turns
and showing them the basics of flying. There was no need for
these baby swallows to read books or attend lectures on how to
fly. They have an inborn instinct for it. Learning to fly may not
be easy, but this is what birds are born to do.
The Lord sees us sitting on a perch made of pleasure, profit,
power, or prestige, quaking with every variation in our bank
account and every critical comment that comes our way; and he
asks us if we would not rather forget our failings, weaknesses,
and insecurities and become united with him.
This is what we are born to do: to leave our perch of selfish
interests and soar aloft. To soar to union with God means to give
all our love to the Lord, so that all the faculties and resources
which have been hidden in us can come into our lives to the great
benefit of those around us.
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>From Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By" (Nilgiri Press, 1997)
http://www.nilgiri.org/Html/Thoughts/today.html
I am technically back. ;0 But, it’s going to take me a while to break the silence on my Blog… :-)
I’ve got lots of posts planned but it’s going to take me a while to pen them.
Got some interesting thoughts that ‘came’ to me on my one-week –blissful- vacation. Thoughts on birds I met, people I met, books I read et al….but they will all have to wait... :-(
Till then….toodle-oo!
