A Story that will win your Heart

Puranakashyap (a disciple of Buddha) on attaining enlightenment wanted to preach the teachings of Buddha in some province X. He asked Buddha, "Can I go there?". Buddha said, don't go there. The people of province X are too rude. Puranakashyap said, someone has to go there otherwise they will remain like this forever. I want to ask you three questions if you answered them correctly then I will let you go there, Buddha replied.

Buddha: What will you do if people of province X disrespect or abuse you?

Puranakashyap: I am thankful to them of not beating me.

Buddha: What will you do if they beat you?

Puranakashyap: I am thankful to them of not killing me.

Buddha: What will you do if they kill you?

Puranakashyap: I am very thankful to them because if I am alive I am bound to do mistakes. I have realized my soul. These people are helping me to free my soul from this body.

Buddha said, Puranakshyap now you can go anywhere in this world. No one can harm you.

There is good in everything if we look for it. Laura Ingall Wilder

Having a positive mindset towards life will help us to see opportunities amid obstacles. Puranakshyap worked so much on his inner self to create a mindset that will help him to see positivity in every situation of his life. Entire universe exists only in our minds. The kind of mindset we have determine the quality of our life.

Dr Carol Dweck in Mindset described two kinds of mindset: Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset. People having a fixed mindset believes they can't change themselves. Their traits are fixed. No matter how hard they can try, they can't change the quality of their life. People having growth mindset believes they can change themselves. Their traits are not fixed. By doing hardwork and using better strategies, they will change the quality of their life. Mindset can be summarized in below picture. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Assume you are preparing for some exam having 60% chance of success and 40% chance of failure. You gave the exam and failed spectacularly.

Fixed Mindset Approach: Don't take another chance. It's not going to help. I don't have that genes which will help me to achieve success in my life.

Growth Mindset Approach: I will take another chance. Never ever give up. Persist but experiment is the mantra of success.

Let's calculate the probability of success in 8 attempts assuming exams are independent of each other.

Probability of getting failed in all exams = (0.4)^8 = 0.0655%

Probability of getting success in atleast one exam = 1 - 0.0655 = 99.93%

People having growth mindset will succeed if they have the patience and the will to keep attempting the same exam over and over.

Watch this wonderful talk of Dr Carol Dweck on Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset

Whatsoever changes us is good. Whatsoever gives us growth, expansion and increase in consciousness is good. Whatsoever makes us static and whatever protects our status quo is not good, it is fatal, suicidal. Osho

Ryan Holiday in Obstacle is the way explains about Growth Mindset as 

When People are

• Rude or Disrespectful -----> They underestimate us. A huge advantage.

• Conniving ----> We don't have to apologize when we make an example out of them.

• Critical or Question our Ability ----> Lower expectations are easier to succeed.

• Lazy ----> Make whatever we accomplish seems all the admirable.

A wise person dyes events with his own color..... and turns whatever happens to its own benefit. Seneca

Conclusion: We all have the mixture of both mindsets in various domains of life. Having an awareness of having these mindsets in us is the first step towards our improvement. Human beings are the most powerful creatures because of their ability to choose. What we choose will determine the course of our life.

Law of Least Effort

Which one of the above line is bigger?

Before answering this question. Let me tell you a story. Once there were a male butterfly and female butterfly passing through some city. Male butterfly told female butterfly, "You know with one blow I can destroy this building". A wise man was standing there. Upon hearing the remarks of male butterfly, he whispered in his ear "What nonsense how can you destroy this gigantic building with one blow". Male butterfly responded I am just trying to influence my girlfriend. Wise man smiled and left away. Female butterfly asked male butterfly, "What did wise man say to you"? He replied wise man said "Please don't destroy this building". Female butterfly happily agreed by thinking that his boyfriend is very powerful.

You might be thinking that how crazy the female butterfly is. She accepted the statements of her boyfriend without thinking about them. Most of think we are very smart and rational creatures but actually we aren't. Same happens with us in above question.

Most of us answer that the second line is bigger but actually both are same. Even if you encounter this problem before and know its answer still intuitively it seems 2nd line is bigger. Why do we make this error? It's answer will be given by Law of Least Effort.

According to the Law of Least Effort, if there is more than one way of doing the same thing we usually gravitate towards the one which takes least amount of effort.

This is true from evolutionary perspective also. When we lived in jungle and want to move from place A to place B. If there are multiple paths to go from Place A to Place B we take the one which takes least amount of effort.Why? Because our energy is limited. We take necessary steps to save it as much as possible. Genes which we have today is passed down to us from millions of years of evolution. Evolution supports the law of least effort because of which our effort should be in consistent with it.

In Thinking Fast and Slow, Nobel Prize winner psychologist Daniel Kanheman divide the brain into two parts, System 1(Male butterfly) and System 2(female butterfly). System 1 is very fast where as System 2 is very slow(deliberate thinker). What's the result of 2*4 and 39*47? Answer to first question comes to our mind within seconds which is an example of System 1. The answer of 2nd question doesn't come to our mind immediately because we need to compute the intermediate results in our head, doing multiplication and adding them requires more effort which is an example of System 2.

How do we take decisions in our life? System 1 gives an intuitive answer or suggestion to System 2. Because of law of least effort we have lazy System 2 which gives an endorsement to the suggestions given by System 1 and required action is taken.

That's the reason we gave wrong answer to above question. System 1(Male Butterfly) gives a suggestion to System 2(Female butterfly) that 2nd line is bigger. Our lazy System 2 gives an endorsement to it. Hence we gave an answer that 2nd line is bigger.

Let's look at another example.

The prize of a bat and ball is Rs 1.10. The prize of a bat is one more than the prize of a ball. What is the prize of a ball?

More than 50% students at Harvard, MIT and Princeton gave an intuitive incorrect answer. At less selective universities, the rate of demonstrable failure to check was in excess of 80%. The correct answer is 0.05 not 0.10. How?

X + Y = 1.10 ---------------(1)

X - Y = 1 ---------------(2)

By solving above equations, we found that X (price of a ball) = 0.05

Impulses & Intuitions arise in ourselves if endorsed leads to voluntary actions and beliefs. Impulses & Intuitions are refined by an evolution which might be wrong sometimes. So double check them to avoid taking incorrect action & the formation of wrong beliefs.

While taking high stake decisions don't rely on intuitive answers which can be wrong sometimes. Invoke your System 2, check your assumptions then take the decision.

Why be concerned with gossip? In Thinking Fast and Slow, Kanheman wrote because it's much easier, as well as far more enjoyable, to identify and label the mistakes of others than to recognize our own. Questioning what we believe and want is difficult at the best of times, and especially difficult when we most need to it, but we can benefit from the informed opinion of others. Many of us spontaneously anticipate how friends and colleagues will evaluate our choices, the quality and content of these anticipated judgement therefore matters. The expectation of intelligent gossip is a powerful motive for serious self-criticism, more powerful than New Year resolutions to improve one's decision making at work and at home.

Let's see how can we use Law of Least Effort practically in our day to day life.

Habits

We are what we repeatedly do. In other words we are the product of our habits. As we are learning a new skill more and more neurons are involved to perform a skill. Once neural circuitry is developed even minute cue is enough to trigger our behavior. If someone has to develop a good habit he has to make it as easy as possible. Law of Least Effort play an important role here, we need to reduce as many steps as possible to produce our desired behavior.

Let's say if you want to develop the habit of Journaling. Keep your diary under the pillow. As you wake up write down the three important thing you want to do today. It'll start your day in pro-active mode. It is known as habit stacking. If you are alive you have to wake up and then the habit of journaling is stacked over the habit of waking up. Similarly, if you want to improve your physical health after brushing your teeth drink one glass of water. Again drinking one glass of water is stacked over brushing your teeth. These are very small steps but as time went by habits will compound and start showing its results.

Invert the Law of Least Effort it becomes the Law of Most Effort. We can use it get rid of bad habits. How? Add as many steps as possible in your habit which you want to prevent.

Let's say if you are playing too many video games on your mobile phone. After playing the video game uninstall it from your phone. Why? Because if you start craving again now you have added more steps to prevent your behavior. To play again you need to perform the following steps.

Turn on your mobile data----> Go to play store----> Install game-----> Play.

According to Law of Least Effort we are lazy creatures and addition of more steps will prevent our bad behavior.

Modern struggle is against weaponized addiction. Naval Ravikant

Relationships

We are born with a pessimistic attitude. This is true from evolutionary perspective.

Suppose two persons (A and B) were going through the forest. A was optimistic and B was pessimistic. As they were passing through it, they heard a strange sound in nearby bushes. B thought it might be possible that a predator is hiding in the bushes and it's unsafe to go this way but A is optimistic and argued that it was because of wind so it's a safe path. Pessimistic turned back and optimistic continued his journey. If pessimistic is correct 1 out of 100 times he would have saved himself while the optimistic one would become the food for predators. Genes which are passed down to us from million of years of evolution are in consistent with pessimistic attitude. Hence we are born pessimistic.

Now time has changed we no longer live in forest and have to fear from predators but our thinking remains same. If someone did something which is no longer aligned to our best interest. We think it more negatively because according to the Law of Least Effort our default state is pessimistic. We are lazy creatures and to think positively effort is needed which is against the Law of Least Effort. Hence we ruin our relations with our loved ones.

To counter it we need to use the Hanlon's Razor which says " Never attribute malice to those which can be explained by some other reasons". Next time if you caught yourself in such situations use Hanlon's Razor and foster deep and meaningful relationships with your loved ones.

The quality of one's life can be determined by the deep and loving relationships with others.

Business

In Business world we want to maximize our profit with least amount of work. Long back if someone wanted to watch a movie he had to go to theater. With the development of new technology Television came in market. As time went by Vcr came now we no longer has to go to theater to watch a movie. We can watch any movie at our own homes. With the advent of the internet we no longer need Tv we can watch any movie on our smart phones provided if we have subscription of Netflix, Hotstar etc. Do you see any pattern? As technology developed user's effort reduced to a great extent to buy any product. In modern world we are just one click away to purchase any product. It seems as if Business is never ending quest to deliver the same result in an easier manner.

In an article published in New Yorker titled "Better all the Time," James Suroweicki writes:

Japanese firms emphasized what came to be known as lean production, relentlessly looking to remove waste of all kinds from the production process, so workers didn't have to waste time twisting and turning to each their tools. The results were the Japanese factories were more efficient and Japanese products were more reliable than American ones. In 1974 service calls for American made color Televisions were five times as common as for Japanese Televisions. By 1979, it took American workers three times to assemble their sets.

In Atomic Habits, James Clear wrote, I like to refer this strategy as addition by subtraction. The phrase addition by subtraction is also used by teams and businesses to describe removing people from a group in order to make the team stronger overall. The Japanese companies looked for every point of friction in the manufacturing process and eliminated it. As they subtracted wasted effort, they added customers and revenue. Similarly, when we remove the points of friction that sap our time and energy, we can achieve more with less effort. This is one reason tidying can feel so good: we are simultaneously moving forward and lightening the cognitive load our environment places on us.

Food Production

In Guns, Germs and Steel, Jarred Diamond made a fantastic observation. The dominant axis for some countries is from North to South while for others it's West to East. You might be thinking that what axis has to do with food production?

In above map America and Africa's has dominant axis is from North to South while for Europe and Asia dominant axis is from West to East. The area covering same latitude will experience same climate, rainfall, sunlight and seasons. For farmers if an area experience same climate it's easier for them to stretch their farm from west to east rather than North to South where climate differs significantly. Because of this reason European and Asian countries had grown more crops than American and African countries. More crops fed more population which leads to the rapid growth of population. With more population these countries will be able to build stronger armies and were better equipped to develop new technologies. The changes started out small but over time as they compounded gave substantial advantage to European and Eastern countries.

In this scenario, Farmers also followed the Law of Least Effort. They wanted to produce the maximum amount of food production with least amount of effort. Stretching the farm form West to East is easier than North to South. The countries whose dominant axis is from West to East gained advantages over the countries whose dominant axis is from North to South.

Computer Science

In Computer Science, Law of Least Effort can be translated as Law of Least time and Space. Whenever a Computer Scientist is solving a problem, he has to solve in a minimum time and space. Why? If a computer completes an operation in minimum time,then the remaining time can be utilized to compute other operations which in turn increase its efficiency.

Conclusion: Law of Least Effort is very useful tool which helps us in solving problems across multiple domains. Sometimes it is working for us while in other times it is working against us. An in depth understanding of this law will help us in fostering good relations, developing better habits and making decisions which will improve the quality of our lives.

Neuroplasticity : A Science behind Learning

To understand how Mr Nishant Kashibhatla able to achieve this extraordinary feat we need to understand the basics and structure of brain and how it works.

Neuroplasticity is made up of two words: Neuro and plasticity. Neuro is a greek word related to nervous system where as plasticity means something which can change its shape very easily. Neuroplasticity means the ability of the brain to change itself throughout life. To understand it we need to understand the basic structure of nervous system.

Our Nervous system is divided into two parts: Central Nervous system and Peripheral Nervous system. We can correlate Nervous system with a circle which consists of a center and periphery. The Central Nervous system contains brain and spinal cord which are known as the command and control center of Nervous system. The Peripheral Nervous system carries the electric signal from sensory receptors to spinal cord and then to brain where it processes the signal move back to spinal cord then to the corresponding muscles and glands of sensory receptors. Our Central Nervous system is not known to be plastic initially unlike Peripheral Nervous system. If Peripheral nerve is cut it can heal itself with time.

Our brain is made up of neurons. These neurons are densely interconnected to each other. Let's draw an analogy to understand what it means. Suppose you were standing in the middle of Cricket ground and by extending yourself you can communicate with everyone present in that stadium. Substitute yourself with neurons and spectators with neighboring neurons.

A neuron is made up of three parts: Dendrite, Axon and cell body. Dendrite receives an electric signal from neighboring neurons. A cell body sustains the life of a cell and contains its DNA. Axons are usually compared with electric wires as they carry electric signal in them at a very high speed.

Dendrite receives two kinds of signals: Excitatory and Inhibitory. If a dendrite receives enough excitatory signal then it also fire itself by releasing its own electric signal. If dendrite receives inhibitory signal then it is less likely to fire. The Axon of a particular neuron is not directly connected to the dendrite of a neighboring neuron. There is a microscopic gap between the axon and the dendrite of a neighboring neuron known as synapse. When an electric signal reaches at the end of Axon it releases a chemical signal called neurotransmitter which moves through the synapse and reaches at the dendrite of the neighboring neuron. When we say neuron rewire itself it means strengthening and weakening of connection occur at synapse.

Dr. Wilder Penfield Neurosurgeon at Montreal Neurological Institute in 1930 made few remarks on Brain map. Brain map means where are the different parts of our body located in brain and how does our brain respond when an input is given to various parts of our body. Our frontal lobe is the main seat of sensory system. The three lobes behind it are occipital lobe, parietal lobe and temporal lobe. These lobes comprises the brain sensory system which processes the input coming from our sensory receptors.

A newly born baby's brain map is undifferentiated. As he gets stimulation from environment changes occur in his brain to make it differentiated. Time period in which brain map changes from undifferentiated state to differentiated brain is known as Critical period.

To test above hypothesis David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel did an experiment in John Hopkins on newly born kitten. During its Critical period they close its one eye so that it doesn't receive any stimulation from environment while the other eye remains open. They found that visual area of brain which doesn't receive any stimulation from environment has failed to develop itself leaving the kitten blind in that eye for its entire life. They also made an another remarkable discovery that brain map of closed eye doesn't sit idle and starts using the input from the open eye as if it doesn't want to waste its cortical real estate. They also got Noble prize for this experiment.

Competitive Plasticity

Merzenich(Neuroscientist) with his friend John Kass of Vanderbilt University in Nashville performed an experiment on adult monkeys which leads to the discovery of Competitive Plasticity.

A Monkey's hand consists of three nerves: Radial, Median and Ulnar nerve. They cut out its median nerve to prevent its brain map to get any input from middle part. After two months they observed to their surprise that as they touched its radial nerve its median nerve brain map also lit up leading to the discovery of Competitive Plasticity. It mean our brain works on the principle of use it or lose it.

If brain map is not used for long enough period of time then its brain map should be taken up by other brain maps. That is why if calculus(any skill) is not practiced for a long time we are more likely to forget it.

Competitive Plasticity also explains why bad habits are difficult to break? We think that brain is likely an empty vessel and acquiring new skills is like putting new things into an empty vessel which is a wrong concept. As we acquire any habit our brain maps gets stronger with every repetition. Changing old brain map with new one is very arduous and require lots of effort. That is why it's difficult to break or unlearn a habit. Hence, Childhood education is very important. It's better to start early before bad habit gets competitive advantage.

Merzenich with his friend Bill Jenkins performed various ingenious experiment which leads to following observations:

1. With training our brain maps become bigger. As time passes by individual neurons become more and more efficient and only few neurons are required to perform a given task. For example as we learn a new skill(Algebra). In the beginning we experience lot of strain while solving problems because our brain map is increasing its size. With enough practice we solve problems with much ease because brain map becomes more efficient with time.

2. Individual neurons got more selective with training.

3. As neurons are trained and become more selective then they can process faster. If you are practicing Algebra from a long time you can answer any question merely by looking at it.

4. When neurons fire faster then they give clear signal to our brain. In 1949 Canadian behavioral psychologist proposed a model which says if two neurons fire at the same time repeatedly (or firing of one neuron causes the other to fire) then they are more strongly connected to each other. If neurons fire faster then it's more likely to connect with neighboring neurons and their tendency to become better team player increases. Powerful signals have very great impact on our brain.

5. Paying close attention to something will bring lasting change in the brain.

In "Brain that Changes itself" Norman Doidge wrote, The difference between critical period plasticity and adult plasticity is that in the critical period the brain maps can be changed just by being exposed to the world because the learning machinery is continuously on. It makes biological sense for the machinery to be on because babies can't possibly know what will be important in life, so that they pay attention to everything. Only a brain that is somewhat organized can sort out what is worth paying attention to [...] Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen isolated the protein responsible for nerve growth and called it Nerve Growth factor for which they receive Nobel Prize in 1986.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) a one of the nerve growth factor plays a crucial role in reinforcing plastic changes in the brain in the critical period. According to Merzenich it did in four different ways.

When we perform an activity that requires specific neurons to fire together, they release BDNF. This growth factor consolidates the connection between those neurons and helps to wire them together so that they can fire together reliably in the future. BDNF also promotes the growth of the thin fatty coat around every neuron that speeds up the transmission of electric signal.

During the critical period BDNF turns on the nuclear basalis, the part of our brain that allow us to focus our attention- and keeps it on throughout the entire critical period. Once turned on, the nucleus basalis help us not only pay attention but remember what we are experiencing. It allows map differentiation and change to take place effortlessly. Merzenich told me, " It's like a teacher in the brain saying 'Now this is really important -this you have to know for the exam of life." Merzenich calls the nucleus basalis and the attention system the "modulatory control of plasticity" the neurochemical system that, when turned on, puts the brain in extremely plastic state.

The fourth and the final service that BDNF performs- when it has completed strengthening key connections- is to help close down the critical period. Once the main neural connections are laid down, there is a need for stability and hence less plasticity in the system. When BDNF is released in sufficient quantities, it turns off the nucleus basalis and end that magical epoch of effortless learning. Henceforth the nucleus can be activated only when something imporatnt, surprising or novel occurs or if we make the effort of close attention."

In "Peak", Anders Ericsson wrote "The years spent mastering the knowledge had enlarged precisely that part of the brain responsible for it.[...] The human body is incredibly adaptable. It is not just the skeletal muscles, but also the heart, lungs, circulatory system, the body energy stores and more-everything that goes into physical strength and stamina. There may be limits but there is no indication that we have reached them yet.[...] Homeostasis refers to the system of the body that acts in a way which preserves its own stability. When a body system - certain muscles, the cardiovascular system or something else is stressed to the point that homeostasis can no longer be maintained, the body respond with changes that are intended to reestablish homeostasis.

This is how the body's desire for homeostasis can be harnessed to drive changes: push it hard enough and for long enough, and it will respond by changing in a ways that make that push easier to do. You have gotten a little stronger, built a little more endurance, developed a little more coordination. But there is a catch: once the compensatory changes have occurred - new muscle fibers have grown and become more efficient, new capillaries have grown and so on-the body can handle that physical activity that had previously stressed it. It is comfortable again. The changes stop. So to keep the changes happening, you have to keep upping the ante: run faster, run faster, run uphill. If you don't keep pushing and pushing some more, the body will settle into homeostasis, albeit at a different level than before, and you will stop improving."

Spend each day trying to become a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day and at the end of the day if you live long enough like most people, you will get out of life what you will deserve. Charlie Munger

Conclusion: Our traits are not fixed but keeps on changing throughout our life. During childhood we go through the period of intense learning. In middle age we don't push ourselves instead replaying our already mastered skills. We think we are improving but we aren't. So, challenge yourself, disrupt your homeostasis and become better an inch smarter everyday.

Happy Learning!!!