Anekantavada - Multiplicity of viewpoints

September 19th, 2008 admin

I opened wikipedia by chance this morning and the very first article I saw was on Anekantavada, a concept from Jain Philosophy, which observes and explains that there is always multiplicity of view points when trying to comprehend any truth. Limited, partial or conditional view points can lead to different interpretations of any truth. It is therefore important to respect the existance of other view points, while at the same time recognizing the fallibility of your own. Apparently the story of the blind men and the elephant is often used to explain this concept. This struck me as fascinating because only a few months back, I had used the same example to reach an almost identical philosophy! This philosophy may also help us understand the underlying meaning behind the millions of Gods that some religions accept - the acceptance of the existance of those millions of view points.

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Sandeep’s New Rating System

September 17th, 2008 admin

Sandeep Somani came up with this scheme of rating TV shows, movies, plays etc. It takes away the relative interpretation and quantization associated with stars, and instead gets to the meat of the matter with an absolute measure in terms of the dollar value you are willing to pay to see the show/movie etc. To add to your ability to express your dissatisfaction you may also choose to quote how much money you will need to be paid, to go see the show. For example, if you hate a show, but your wife wants you to go see it again, she’d have to pay you some amount of money before you will budge. A third innovation of this scheme (other than the abslouteness of a dollar value it allows and the negative dollar value it allows) is the ability to express “repeat potential” by saying how the dollar value you rate it at changes with each extra viewing. The rating allows changes based on “viewing format” (DVD vs movie hall vs TV) and “control potential” (access to the remote control to allow fast forwarding through non-sensical song sequences improves the rating a bit) . I buy it. A dollar value does make it a little bit harder to average across a collection of ratings, unless the number of reviews is large, because the absoluteness of the measure can be significantly skewed by what people consider a “normal” show should cost. That said, the dollar vlaue reveals a lot about the reviewer and what is being reviewed in a certain independent fashion, without being tied to a normalized scale. Could be an interesting experiment. Below is the explanation of the scheme in Sandeep’s own words.

“So, the idea is that rather than give a rating of good, bad, hopeless, etc., quote a dollar amount you would be willing to pay to watch a certain movie, play etc. given that the alternative is to watch a random sitcom on TV (like what i am doing right now ! )

Some examples  - You could say,
I’ll pay upto $100 to watch     O for the first time
…           $40    …        O for the second time
…           $60     …        spamalot for the first time
…           $20     …        spamalot for the second time
…           $60     …        sheer madness for the first time

for something more familiar (note the negative)
I’ll pay upto  -$50     …       taare zameen par for the first time in theatre
…                   - $10    …       taare zameen par for the first time on DVD with full access to remote
…                   - $40     …      taare zameen par for the first time on DVD with no access to remote
…                   - $100    …     taare zameen par for the second time anyhow 

Negative amount means you will have to pay me to watch this (this may be substituted by equivalent beverage servings)
So you see, this system is much more flexible and informative than the normal yahoo rating.”

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The 3 Ds

September 17th, 2008 admin

My father’s maternal uncle, Dr. K. Ramamurthy, whom I call uncle also, responded to my email about “Games Indians Don’t Win” with some of his own words of wisdom, which I believe will be useful to many people; I reproduce them here with his permission. Read and think about it.

“During my management consultancy days, I’d start my classes with “Three Ds”: Discipline, Dedication, and Devotion.

We have to start anything in life, commencing with our earliest education, with the rigor of Discipline: regulated studies in terms of time allocation, understanding of what we study, practicing to become perfect, and humility not to be carried away by early successes (or depressed with early failures). You keep at it in spite of obstacles to reach the goal you set for yourself.

When you’re sufficiently integrated in a disciplined web of working (doing things), you get to the stage of Dedication - a stage where you totally, intrinsically, get merged in what you do and what you want to achieve. You breathe, live, and think all the while of your chosen field and its nuances to be able to excel. That’s how great writers, poets, scientists, musicians, innovators, nation builders, and freedom fighters like Gandhi dedicated their whole life to a chosen cause.

From this stage comes Devotion, where your “life and work” become a Religion unto itself. That’s how Thyagaraja, Purandara, Meerabai, Aurobindo, CV Raman in our life time and people like Einstein worshiped what they chose to do. All the greatest achievers have gone through these stages, knowingly or unknowingly.

Consider the training of today’s top notch players who reach the very top, their journey begins at very early age and goes on unhindered and unfettered for several years to reach the top. Certain failures are inevitable during this long journey but they’ve to trod on incessantly to reach the peak.

Of all who tried, the number who did or did not make the final assault is immaterial. The very process and trial is ennobling - in fact, religious. It’s like seeking the elusive God, but there is bliss!!

In such pursuit, the teacher becomes the most important being in our life. It’s said in our scriptures that one cannot attain the highest pinnacle without a “Teacher.” In our daily prayers, we do give homage to our teacher: Guru Brahma, Gurur Vishnuhu, Gurudevo Maheswaraha, Guru Sakshsat Parabrahma, Tasmai Sri Gurave Namaha! Discipline starts with respect to the teacher - starting from our parents who are our first teachers, to others who have taught us, guided us, helped us, sustained us, given solace in our trials and difficult patches, and remained our “guiding lights” throughout our life.

Unfortunately, the teacher-taught, trainer-trainee, professor-student, employer-employee relationship has become now too commercialized to nurture a meaningful, respectful, disciplined way in life. Without this kind of moral and ethical approach, the society declines. It’s only the few chosen (by whom, I can’t say!), who are able to fuse the 3-Ds to be the Great in their individual life!!

By our performance, we’re not ONE of those.”

His observations on how to simultaneously achieve happiness (selfish motive) while at the same time being productive to the society (altruistic outcome) by following the course of discipline, dedication and devotion speaks to me and I hope to many of us. He elaborated in a later email thus.

“To further elaborate, the first D is the base or foundation on which the second D, dedication, is superimposed. The third D, Devotion, is necessary, along with the other two, for the final outcome, or assault, as it were. That is reaching out to the pinnacle. While the first and second Ds have a continuous nature, the third D could be even ‘momentary or fleeting’ but it’s that fleeting moment - like in deep, prayerful, thought that gives the final ‘push’ and the ‘answer.’

This is referred to in our books of lore about ‘Rishis’ in deep meditation; we see this in our scientists and researchers in their hour of ‘discovery.’ Philosophers of lore were of that genre.

Recently I read of an interview of Dr. Ramachandran, the Neurosurgeon-researcher and author of books on brain structure and functioning. He was alluding to his conversation with Chembe Vaidyanatha Iyer, doyen of Carnatic Music and said that while the music maestro was rendering a raaga and aalaapana, he was ethereal, as if he was in ‘devotional ecstasy.’ At that moment the maestro was not aware of his surroundings, the visitor, or anything else but his music rendition. That is the moment of the third D.“

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Bharat Ek Khoj - Shyam Benegal’s discovery of Nehru’s Discovery of India

September 14th, 2008 admin

My good friend, Rajeev, discovered this treasure trove online - Bharat Ek Khoj, a TV series based on Jawahar Lal Nehru’s book, The Discovery of India. Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India after the British Rule, wrote most of this book while imprisoned. The effort evokes in me pride, respect and awe. Attempting to capture the essence of the spirit and history of India in a 500-odd paged book, is in itself a courageous attempt. Doing so, while in prison, also shows inspiring determination, discipline, value for time and sense of duty. I cannot comment on the literary and factual quality of the book; I have not read it yet. However, this TV series, which started in 1988, is something I can comment on. Directed by one of the great Indian film directors, Shyam Benegal, and with a cast that clearly is stellar when you look back at those names (Om Puri, Roshan Seth, Ashok Kumar, Anjan Srivastav, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Neena Gupta, Salim Ghouse, Tom Alter etc.) with a couple of decades of work since then for proof, Bharat Ek Khoj is a gem in history of Indian television. Even though I was quite young when this series was on TV, and even though it was quite serious in tone and not a childrens’ show, I distinctly remember loving it. It’s catchy, yet philosophical, credits set the tone for the self-discovery that the series embidied. The seriousness of the attempt to discover that spirit of Indianness in each episode, the honest, accurate and non-fantasized version of epics and other historic records, and the wonderfully rich use of Hindi and Urdu languages were all aspects of the show that drew me to it. When I watch it today, I can watch it with the same dedication and curiosity to learn about India. I realized that though nostalgia is a part of discovering any such childhood treasure, that is just a fleeting feeling. I have seen several other old TV hits online, such as Ye jo hai zindagi, Hum Log and Mr. Yogi; however, with those the interest typically dies out after a few episodes because the nostalgia wears out and the paucity of quality hits you, and you wonder, “Well, may be it was good in its day, but it is not really that special”. Bharat Ek Khoj, on the other hand, still seems fresh. With each episode, my interest in wanting another one increases rather than diminishes. After 20 years since the show first appeared, I can still learn from it, and formulate a more complete picture of India. I found that series is available in DVD format for purchase here. It is quite expensive, with 2 episodes costing $30. This would run the total series to over $600. So the decision for now, for me, is I will read the book.

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On the role of the media in sports in India

September 13th, 2008 admin

Some things are only visible from the corner of the eye; they vanish when you try to look at them directly. Similarly, I believe, the best approach to religion  is not a headlong dive to grab its elusive essence, but rather, an indirect infusion of those ideas and ideals via a more concrete medium. One such concrete medium, which India seems to have never given much chance to, is sports. My friend, Akshay, sent me an article by Professor V. Raghunathan (author of the book “Games Indians Play: Why we are the way we are”) on why India’s performances in sports in general and Olympics in particular falls way short of what one would expect from a nation of over a billion people. The article is called “Games Indians Don’t Win“.

I agree with most of Dr. Raghunathan’s observations though I find that some of the arguments could be further strengthened by factual details. I also felt that the article does not point out one factor which can elevate the status of sports in India - media. I see many children and young people nowadays finding no outlet for their natural instincts to exercise their bodies and minds via sports. Instead much of their energies are being channeled towards unimaginative, creativity-sapping shows on the TV and the inescapable din created by the industry that religion is becoming. Lot of it is because in population heavy urban areas, there are not enough facilities and open spaces for the young to play. In rural areas where there are open areas and, arguably, time at hand for kids to explore sport, facilities and, more importantly, awareness are severely lacking. There is no incentive to try to be great at a sport.

The young minds of the country, with no reason or facilities to go out an play, are increasingly being moulded by what the see on the TV. Some get influenced by the western media and the western culture they see on the TV and blindly jump on to that bandwagon. The remaining shun the western influence so much that they lean to the other extreme, and get swept by fundamentalist religious rhetoric. In either case, the TV influences their ability to think for themselves. Instead of making the youth broad-minded in their approach to cultures, science and entertainment, it makes them confused, at first, and, dogmatic and narrow-minded, eventually.  Religion in India is losing its real meaning; it has become a service industry. It is encroaching the airwaves via loud speakers and TV and radio shows. It is encroaching every free piece of land, which should have been left as play areas for children, by temple construction projects. It is sucking up every rupee anyone can and cannot spare to feed its furnace of the self-fulfilling prophecies. It is taking over people’s ability to think. Its misinterpretation and misrepresentation over the years is reaching a point where sense and rationality no longer prevails, and democracy itself, that fairest social system, might no longer be able to see right from wrong. The opium of the masses, as Karl Marx called it, is finally taking over the sanity of a democracy. If a majority in a democracy are disillusioned, I wonder what keeps a democracy from self-destruction? The economic prosperity that India now enjoys is a great opportunity to keep religious and other extreme influences in check by clearly communicating to the masses the true reasons for this economic upturn; this upturn is in spite of the religious fervor gripping the country, not because of it.

Coming back to the topic on hand, I think the media is best equipped to extricate the population from such extremes and let some sense prevail. Sports is a great leveler and is one of the best ways to bring a nation together. The media has a huge role it can play to help kids play in their free time, rather than watch soap operas and immerse themselves in religious discourses. Here is a snippet from an email I wrote on this topic to some of my family members.

“Media, especially television, has a tremendous control over the nation’s psyche. Media can make or break national opinions. The current fascination with game shows, song-and-dance competitions or soap operas is by and large a media created state of mass-hypnosis. The same power of the media can get people to start appreciating the importance of physical exercise and sport. More importantly, it can be an enabler for pulling in interest and, therefore, money into regional and national sporting events. An example is the recent city-based cricket leagues. An entire industry, a multi-billion dollar enterprise, can be built around sports in India. It is an largely untapped market. Doordarshan’s depressing, half-hearted, monopolistic attempts at covering sporting events in India makes people even more reluctant to try sports professionally. Sports is real-life drama and entertainment. It needs professionally trained media-men to bring out that drama on screen. Once that excitement, that tension, and the drama can be conveyed, the audience will pay attention. This might require bringing out the personal backgrounds of the players, their histories, their stories of hardships and determination to the people. Once people are latched, competition increases both in the sport and the coverage of the sport. The advertising revenue starts to flow in. With money flowing in, there is a feed back effect. More people want to take part in sports, more people want to watch sports, more people want to cover sports and make money. For example, why do we prefer Harsha Bhogle to Sanjay Manjrekar in the cricket commentator’s box, and why do we prefer Star Sports to Doordarshan for sports coverage? Quality. People can perceive quality differences. Similarly, why is Praveen Kumar, the cricketer, evoke national interest? Because of his background as a wrestler from a small town. These small-town heroes are the media pets. They help catch the public’s fancy. “If it can be him…it can be me!”, they aspire.

In India, shooting, archery, wrestling, boxing are relatively easy to make popular. The sports persons have to be cast into media demi-gods… only then will people know their names and their existence, let alone pay much attention. When the drama of sports is discovered and conveyed by the media to the audiences, even shooting can be made into a heart-racing, edge-of-the-seat thriller.”

One thing that I should clarify is “Why should children play sports - a rather mundane, pointless exercise?”, “Why is winning medals at the Olympics that important?”, “Why not let the entire nation, instead, spend all their energy and time learning their place in God’s scheme of things?”. The answer, I think, is because they will discover their God, their place in the scheme of things, their goals, better, by participating in sports and playing their heart out, than by cracking coconuts, lighting agarbattis, exchanging bananas or watching TV.

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On Choice

September 11th, 2008 admin

My friend, Sandeep, sent me a link to a very interesting talk given by Dr. Barry Shwartz, a sociologist, who observes and persuasively argues that excessive choice is bad.

I agree with this observation. More generally, this observation applies to any kind of decision making. We make many decisions in life - in everyday life and in the grander scale of life. In everyday life, we decide on things like which vacuum cleaner to buy, or, which hair conditioner to buy, both of which were decisions I had to make last week. In the grander scale of life we need to make decisions such as who to marry, or, which profession to work towards.

To make a decision we weigh pros and cons across several dimensions and finally settle on a decision. If we do a good job at making the decision, we have considered all the dimensions and all the pros and cons along those dimensions. We are happy that we have come to a global optimum across the search space of the solution, and we can pat ourselves on the back for it. As the number of dimensions grow, however, the search space explodes in size. The resources and time to do this optimization become overwhelming. We are forced to work with a smaller search space that we can handle within the time we give ourselves to make the decision. Say we have an hour to kill and feel like watching come TV. We sit in front of the box, pick up the remote and flip through channels. We want to decide which channel to watch. We do not want to spend that hour trying to optimize that choice. To make a decision in some reasonable time, we need to make more decisions first. We need to decide which dimensions of choice we want to ignore. This is choice-pruning. For example, we might not care for a show if it is not in Hi-Def. Then the choice-space shrinks by an order of magnitude. However, once we do shrink the choice-space, we have to settle for something that may be a sub-optimal solution compared to the global optimum. And that can take away from the satisfaction you draw from your, potentially sub-optimal, choice.

For some of these decisions there is no way to know the optimality of the solution. For example, once you marry a person, you better make appropriate adjustments and make happiness out of it. There is no point comparing the decision to anything - what if I had married someone else, what if I had taken up that other job offer 10 years ago? In some ways not knowing the optimal solution is a boon. You can rest assured that there is no such thing as an optimal solution in that case. The decision you make is the only decision that matters. No one can prove to you that a different choice would have definitely been better. It is calming to know that your decision is beyond judgment. Still, too much choice can be paralyzing in this case also. The only saving grace is that almost any decision is really a pretty good decision.

For some other decisions however, there is a direct measurable impact. These are the decision that can haunt. The stock you choose to invest your money in may tank, while that other option you were considering just as fervently, does really well. The vacuum cleaner you chose sucks, while the one that your friend bought for just a little bit more money, sucks better. And it is for these decisions that too much choice can not only be paralyzing, but also be humiliating. You blame yourself for the sub-optimality of your choice; after all, you have proof to justify that blame.

I routinely find myself presented with this overdosage of choice. And being mathematically and engineeringly inclined, I tend to at least give choice-pruning and optimization a fair shot. As I wrote to Sandeep in my response email:

“Being an engineer I tend to compare the available choices across many dimensions, and the search space grows multiplicatively. I was looking for a hair conditioner yesterday, the dimensions were - ingredients (should not have any obvious bad stuff), the company (should be something I have heard of), the quantity (should not be measured in gallons), the price (should be reasonable), delivery mechanism (spray vs cream), application time (dry hair or wet hair - further subdivided into needs rinsing after application or not) etc. Comparing all this across the 30 brands in the store left me tired.”

In fact, excessive choice wastes time and energy, and therefore, wastes money. Just by spending 20 minutes to decide on a hair conditioner, I am sure I bumped up the price of the produce by a few dollars. Time is money, and this was time I could have better spent elsewhere.

And the solution to this problem of excessive choice is not communism, or even reducing choice, necessarily. Availability of choice is not the root problem. The problem is the excessive demand excessive choice places on the decision-maker. The decision-making has to continue to be streamlined. The choice has to be presented to the chooser in a structured, standardized, unbiased way. This is really a service, which I like to call “choice pruning”. It can be an industry in its own right. An example of this is epinions.com, where people’s past experiences with their decision-making about buying a product are collected, analyzed and presented to the customer to help speed up his or her decision making process. The opinions are not strictly standardized, and I can spend days reading through the reviews there, as I recently did when trying to decide on a vacuum cleaner; but still, it does help. At least you know that with hundreds of respondents, there is a chance that any biased views and any person-to-person variation in the interpretation of the measurement scale are evened out.

By spending time on what we are choosing, we affect what we are choosing. If I spend 5 years to decide which stock to invest money in, I have already lost more money than a sub-optimal decision could have cost me. In other words, as the time to make a choice increases, by the time you finally choose, the choices available to you might end up being different than the choices you optimized for! Thus anything to speed up the selection, anything to assist with the optimization, anything to reduce future repenting, is a much-needed solution. For me, rigorous, instinctive, choice-pruning, indifference to the actual choice made, and a poor memory, help make this process faster, reasonably optimal, and guilt free.

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