Tag: behaviour

  • Reflections on my OS – Part 1

    Alternately: Internal Pattern Recognition: IPR? 😉

    If there’s one thing that Stoicism has taught me, it is that the good fight is not with the world, but yourself. Many of the books I read and observations I try to make on family are to get a better understanding of the ‘why’ behind my thinking. Among the many things that “Behave” gave me insights on was this, and an explanation for how siblings can be very different in terms of mindset and behaviour, despite inheriting not just ‘nature’ but sharing ‘nurture’ too.

    ‘Another dogma was that brains are pretty much wired up early in childhood – after all, by age two, brains are already about 85% of adult volume, but the development trajectory is much slower than that. …the final brain region to fully mature (in terms of synapse number, myelination, and metabolism) is the frontal cortex, not going fully online until the mid twenties.‘

    “…the brain is heavily influenced by genes. But from birth through young adulthood, the part of the human brain that most defines us (frontal cortex) is less a product of the genes with which you started life than of what life has thrown at you. Because it is the last to mature, by definition the frontal cortex is the brain region least constrained by genes and most sculpted by experience. This must be so, to be the supremely complex social species that we are. Ironically, it seems that the genetic program of human brain development has evolved to, as much as possible, free the frontal cortex from genes.” 

    (more…)

  • Brood Mode

    [The title, while in context, is also a Hi to an old blog pal]

    The last week of November gave me a chance to engage in one of my favourite pastimes – people watching. No, I wasn’t stalking anyone, it was just that I got a chance to watch more and diverse masses (different occasions) of humanity than my regular outings.

    So gawk I did, at famed dancers, musicians and celebrities, at their tantrum-throwing best, egos in full display. I watched people standing in long queues, eager for a glimpse of them, so eager that they were ready to trample the folks ahead of them, or cheat the line. Even after they sat down, they changed chair locations and occupied empty aisles that had been kept for easier crowd movement, angering those behind. I also had an argument with a guy who had a differently abled child, clearly in no state to enjoy the show. He had a regular pass, but said the child’s condition warranted his family being shifted to the VIP class. He said he was from the army, and when I refused entry into the VIP class, he questioned my humanity. I bit back a comment about what business he had bringing that child to a  free entry event, which was bound to have unruly crowds, and how human he was while doing his duty at the border. I observed acquaintances at work taking advantage of the trust I had in them. In essence I watched a lot and learned a lot, again, on human behaviour, and myself.

    After I shared the last post with her, Mo had asked me why I was brooding these days. While I told her that I was reserving flippancy, wit and wordplay for the 140 character world 😀 , I thought she did have a point. A later conversation with Surekha gave me some insight, when we talked about social media and specifically Twitter. I had thought that the seeming transparency of that world would imply more fairness in our transactions, acknowledgment of other people’s efforts and a refinement in the way we deal with people. But no, the talkers still rule, popularity contests abound, and the meek still wait to inherit. These days I can hear some of them grumbling too. 🙂 On hindsight, this is the same mistake I’d made with blogging too. Something I thankfully corrected.

    What’s the connection? Expectations. Of others and from others. From the celebrities, from the people who came to see them, from acquaintances, from relationships on the web and so on. On how they ought to behave and interact. Expectations I set based on my concept of fairness. “It’s not about what I want, it’s about what’s fair!”, Harvey had said, in The Dark Knight. But while I try to be as objective as I can, there is a limit to that too. When the expectations are not met, I get judgmental, which is not something I like to do. Let’s just say I then don’t meet my expectations of myself. 🙂

    Earlier I used to be bitter about all this, and be rude to people, but now I just brood. I brood on how to get out of this cycle. How can I not expect, either from myself or from others, or ideally both. Does brooding help? No. Can I help it? No. Does that make me unhappy? No again, because like those processes that run in the background while I work on the computer, this is a question that’s being worked on too. 🙂  No, that doesn’t make it a pseud brood :p

    And every now and then, I am reminded of the words of Harvey Dent Two-Face (again), as he flips the coin, and I wonder about the truth in them “The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair.”

    until next time, happy Dent? 😉

  • Ancestral Traits

    thats because, in my blog habits, i am exhibiting some ancestral traits, i visited gandalf’s blog in the morning, got a link to a toon site and a copyrights site from there, so have added them, visit gandalf’s site, good piece of work…..also read wonderbug’s post (thats staple diet), today’s is especially good..so go have a look at that… essentially, i have been scavenging, and thats what some of my ancestors did, yours too, 🙂
    will write my bit on the same premise that w-bug’s post was, it basically says that after a certain age, you no longer feel you are ‘with it’…. i have experienced that feeling too, many times, i can recall one particular instance a couple of years back, i met this girl who was in kindergarten the last time i saw her, and a couple of years back she had just completed her class 10 exams, i realised that time was indeed flying, and the kind of things that were important to her and on which she spent ‘thinking time’ on, were not at all what i had in my set, when i was her age…..but , do i want to f9 my life, i guess not….my perceptions have changed, as each day passes, i become more defined as a person, i understand myself more and more, and i can relate better to myself……so i will agree with w-bug on that, at 25, i am happy, the way i am….now, for
    manuscrypts trivia
    a fwd i got…Three HDFC employees and three ICICI employees are traveling by train to a conference. At the station, the three ICICI employees each buy tickets and watch as the three HDFC employees buy only one ticket. “How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?” asks a ICICI employee. “Watch and youll see”, answers an HDFC employee. They all board the train. The ICICI employees take their respective seats but all three HDFC employees cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, “ticket please”. The door opens just a little and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on. The ICICI employees saw this and agreed it was a clever idea. After the conference, the ICICI employees decide to copy the HDFC employees (…..as they know how…….) on the return trip and save some money (being clever with money and all). When they get to the station,they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the HDFC employees dont buy a ticket. “How are you going to travel without a ticket?” asks a ICICI employee. “Watch and youll see,” answers the HDFC employee. When they board, the three ICICI employees cram into a restroom and the three HDFC employees cram into another one nearby. The train departs. Shortly afterward, one of the HDFC employee leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the ICICI employees are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, “Ticket, please…” The door opens just a little and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand the HDFC employee grabs the ticket and runs to his restroom. MORALE OF THE STORY: DONT IMITATE—INNOVATE!!