Do you know how far is your office from home? Do you know how many square feet is your house? What is the time now? How heavy are you, did you lose or gain any recently?
Each and every question above seems like a very reasonable question. Distance, Weight, Time seem very measurable. But are they really that easy to measure? We'll come back to this one.
But did you ever wonder why are we not able to know the ultimate truth? There are dead ends to every lead that may attempt to explain the universe. Our scientists are studying new phenomena heads down, but will they ever make so much progress enough to answer it, is something we may not find out in this lifetime.
So I am going to pitch a theory that I want you to try and disprove:
Human beings are all Objects inside a video game program that a superior being has created. The characters have more intelligence than our average video game, obviously. Every video game imposes constraints on the players freedom. Just like, playing the latest version of Socom or Call of Duty, you cannot navigate beyond your war zone's perimeter, you cannot call off your mission in the middle etc. Similarly, there could be governing rules for humans:
1. They cannot leave Solar System
2. Everything outside of Solar system is probably only just an illusion and it is not there in reality.
3. Our life is short enough for us to never be able to decipher the governing code.
may be some more rules, but these are enough to do a lot of fun thinking.
So what is wrong with that, why can't that theory be true? I don't see why not. The illusion of certainity is what is confusing us. The theory of relativity rules out the possibility of simultaneous occurances. Not that it is not possible to have things happening simultaneously, but it is impossible to measure it.
Consider a little experiment, where you are standing in the middle of bus that is going from left to right. You place 2 peices of paper, one at the drivers seat and one at rear end. You have a laser lighting device that you turn on which sends laser towards both directions and you can tell that both the papers lit simultaneously, right? well, that depends. After lighting the peices of paper, the light ray that is coming from the rear end meets your eyes somewhere in the middle because the light is coming from Right to Left, whereas you are moving from left to right. And the light from paper near the driver's seat is racing to catch up with you while you are moving away from it. Therefore, you THINK that Paper at the rear end lit first compared to paper near front end.
But if you are standing on the road witnessing these 2 occurances and the laser was turned on the same way as above, you will see them in different orders depending on whether it is approaching or departing from you. This means the time difference between any given two events can be Simultaneous, Greater than zero and Lesser than zero all at the same time, depending on the relative position of the observer.
The theory expands a lot more and finally tells that that distance is not the same for all view points, time is not the same for all viewpoints and even weight is not the same! Weight increases with speed, and at velocity close to that of Light, it is close to infinity. This is proven mathematically. This means, you need infinite force to move even tiniest of masses to take it as fast as light, which you won't be able to generate anyway. But until you move with velocities comparable to light, you cannot travel in time, cannot go outside of solar system and live to tell the tale. With so many constraints - how the hell will we ever come out of this maze?
This ties into my theory of the governing rules of the super video game that we are all a part of. The video game character's life is simply not enough long to get to the bottom of this.
Coming back to our social scenario, we have a lot of issues to worry about in a day-to-day life. We have needs, things that seem equivaent to typical hurdles for players while crossing levels and accomplishing missions. You have rewards in real life just like those video games when you find a secret or cross a level.
aahh.. what's the use... this theory goes on forever... forget it! I am convinced that we are never going to get out of this Matrix - not without the help of some genius, going forward from where Einstien stopped.
-Sridhar
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
The never ending ladder...
My day began with yet another frustrating 7:30 am corporate meeting, which almost seems like a reminder of my helplessness - the voracious urge to cope with the challenge of an early morning rise to make it to the meeting on time, just for once in my life, but yet realize that even if I did wake up early, it is possible only for the previleged few who live in a 10 mile vicinity to our company's office building in Olympia, WA - unlike me who is atleast 45 miles away (well, I think it's 50, but I tell myself it is just 45 miles).
So having given up on the hope to be there in person, I called into the bridge line that I carefully made a note of in my PDA phone the previous night. My phone connected into the meeting, and I said "hello!". My voice got totally absorbed in the usual cacophony of the early morning meeting, lots of hungry stomachs and sleepless minds trying to ignore their problems by joining the steady noise like discussion, with a couple of very young children furiously playing with their Dads' cordless phones, one singing rhymes into it while the other was learning words. I think by the end of the meeting he even managed to say "papa" or something similar to that.
The meeting coordinator - the young project manager, finally broke through the shackles of hesitation and borderlining the boundaries of social courtesy, said out firmly but being as polite as he could, "If you are not talking in the meeting at the moment, and if you have a mute option on the phone, would you please use it because I am hearing all kinds of sounds?". It was received promptly by most of the people on the call with a cell phone, suddenly the noise fell by about 10 decibels. But there was this father of a young kid who did not have a mute button, but does not want to tell that he does not have it, because then everyone would know who it is to begin with. So he chose anonymity ....Understandable I guess.
There wasn't a lot for me in that meeting, so wasn't for some other participants - it was meant for project wide awareness, a typical corporate meeting during a project crisis. Then I started slipping into my thoughts everytime I detect an unfamiliar topic being spoken about. First thing that struck my mind, why the hell was I trying to be here in person? I am struggling to get some facetime, but seems impossible given the agenda. I like technical stuff, talk about network protocols, infrastructures and database solutions and I love to participate, but not so much about a project progress report out of a dully designed excel spreadsheet or even worse a Microsoft Project plan... I say "No, Thank you". But then the career path of a successful individual is up the corporate ladder, right? As we climb higher and higher, all we are left with is pretty much Excel spreadsheets and Project plans. I began to think if that is probably why they are generally paid better than the lower level technicians - to survive the pressure, routine, boredom and the resultant physical ailments like hypertension, diabetes etc.
But hey c'mon it's not all that bad... there is some good to it. You get to lead a few people, contribute for the bigger cause etc. "Bigger Cause", hmm.. what is it? What cause is so big, that it needs a huge team of people to work their asses off, put in days and nights and weekends, sacrifice any bit of personal lifes they have left, be subject to their spouse's wrath one too many times.... what is that "big cause". Oh, I know - that big cause is a major shareholder of the company making major profits. And the funny thing is, what I just said is not a big secret - every random Joe completely realizes this. Then, what is really the motivation for a person to work hard.
There are several theories about motivations, but I like this one the most. This is the theory of a famous psychologist called Maslow. He has developed a theory of heirarchical needs. It goes something like:
Actually, I observed my own level of happiness for sometime and I realized that when I get the next milestone accomplished in my life, I feel happy and stay happy for about a day at the maximum and then it doesn't mean much anymore. I am already looking forward to the next big thing that I can and invariably should accomplish to feel good. When I am working hard to get there, I am feeling good only because I am feeling closer to my next milestone. See where I am going with this? Happiness is not constantly there, but it's there only when something good happens to you. And then it gradually dies out.
So, does it matter how high you climb up the ladder? Does it really make you happier? Actually, I think it is the other way around. Meaning, when you are an important person, for you to be even slightly happy something big must have been accomplished. There won't be too many of those, compared to smaller and more easy achievements when you are a small time Developer, for example.
Not to be a total geek, but when I try to analyze my happiness pattern it appears like below:
The "equally happy" line means that you have steady supply of good things that are happening to you and so you are just as happy through out the timeline. You could have more and more good things happening for you (which is a bit unlikely for anyone) and then you would have the green ascending line pattern going for you and the other way around is to have less and less good things happening for you and that means you are less and less happy (very easy to happen if you take it easy for a briefl while). I think if you keep working hard, then there is a good chance of good things happening to you at a steady rate and which is why there are always those "hard workers" at every place.
So that is probably why some of us like to work hard, so as to stay happy at work place. But the real observation is that it won't make your life much more better just because you're at the top. Infact, you are giving enough rope to hang yourself doing that. But it does not seem very logical if you are not thinking with such a mathematical mindset.
What do you think?
:`)
-Sridhar
So having given up on the hope to be there in person, I called into the bridge line that I carefully made a note of in my PDA phone the previous night. My phone connected into the meeting, and I said "hello!". My voice got totally absorbed in the usual cacophony of the early morning meeting, lots of hungry stomachs and sleepless minds trying to ignore their problems by joining the steady noise like discussion, with a couple of very young children furiously playing with their Dads' cordless phones, one singing rhymes into it while the other was learning words. I think by the end of the meeting he even managed to say "papa" or something similar to that.
The meeting coordinator - the young project manager, finally broke through the shackles of hesitation and borderlining the boundaries of social courtesy, said out firmly but being as polite as he could, "If you are not talking in the meeting at the moment, and if you have a mute option on the phone, would you please use it because I am hearing all kinds of sounds?". It was received promptly by most of the people on the call with a cell phone, suddenly the noise fell by about 10 decibels. But there was this father of a young kid who did not have a mute button, but does not want to tell that he does not have it, because then everyone would know who it is to begin with. So he chose anonymity ....Understandable I guess.
There wasn't a lot for me in that meeting, so wasn't for some other participants - it was meant for project wide awareness, a typical corporate meeting during a project crisis. Then I started slipping into my thoughts everytime I detect an unfamiliar topic being spoken about. First thing that struck my mind, why the hell was I trying to be here in person? I am struggling to get some facetime, but seems impossible given the agenda. I like technical stuff, talk about network protocols, infrastructures and database solutions and I love to participate, but not so much about a project progress report out of a dully designed excel spreadsheet or even worse a Microsoft Project plan... I say "No, Thank you". But then the career path of a successful individual is up the corporate ladder, right? As we climb higher and higher, all we are left with is pretty much Excel spreadsheets and Project plans. I began to think if that is probably why they are generally paid better than the lower level technicians - to survive the pressure, routine, boredom and the resultant physical ailments like hypertension, diabetes etc.
But hey c'mon it's not all that bad... there is some good to it. You get to lead a few people, contribute for the bigger cause etc. "Bigger Cause", hmm.. what is it? What cause is so big, that it needs a huge team of people to work their asses off, put in days and nights and weekends, sacrifice any bit of personal lifes they have left, be subject to their spouse's wrath one too many times.... what is that "big cause". Oh, I know - that big cause is a major shareholder of the company making major profits. And the funny thing is, what I just said is not a big secret - every random Joe completely realizes this. Then, what is really the motivation for a person to work hard.
There are several theories about motivations, but I like this one the most. This is the theory of a famous psychologist called Maslow. He has developed a theory of heirarchical needs. It goes something like:
- Self-Actualization
- Esteem
- Love\Belonging
- Safety
- Physiological
Actually, I observed my own level of happiness for sometime and I realized that when I get the next milestone accomplished in my life, I feel happy and stay happy for about a day at the maximum and then it doesn't mean much anymore. I am already looking forward to the next big thing that I can and invariably should accomplish to feel good. When I am working hard to get there, I am feeling good only because I am feeling closer to my next milestone. See where I am going with this? Happiness is not constantly there, but it's there only when something good happens to you. And then it gradually dies out.
So, does it matter how high you climb up the ladder? Does it really make you happier? Actually, I think it is the other way around. Meaning, when you are an important person, for you to be even slightly happy something big must have been accomplished. There won't be too many of those, compared to smaller and more easy achievements when you are a small time Developer, for example.
Not to be a total geek, but when I try to analyze my happiness pattern it appears like below:
The "equally happy" line means that you have steady supply of good things that are happening to you and so you are just as happy through out the timeline. You could have more and more good things happening for you (which is a bit unlikely for anyone) and then you would have the green ascending line pattern going for you and the other way around is to have less and less good things happening for you and that means you are less and less happy (very easy to happen if you take it easy for a briefl while). I think if you keep working hard, then there is a good chance of good things happening to you at a steady rate and which is why there are always those "hard workers" at every place.
So that is probably why some of us like to work hard, so as to stay happy at work place. But the real observation is that it won't make your life much more better just because you're at the top. Infact, you are giving enough rope to hang yourself doing that. But it does not seem very logical if you are not thinking with such a mathematical mindset.
What do you think?
:`)
-Sridhar
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