Viswanathan K's Thoughts

“Social reality” is a concept that exists only in the human brain, writes Lisa Barrett in Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain . Social reality is anything we consider real though nothing in physics or chemistry would make it real – examples include national borders; or the idea that a specific portion of the earth’s orbit around the sun is January.   Scientists believe that the ability to construct social reality is because of a suite of capabilities of the (human) brain called the Five C’s. Creativity : Someone needs to decide to draw a line and call it the border of a “country”, then define what a country is. That needs creativity. Communication : The idea of a country can be explained to others. Via, say, language. Copying : This refers to the ability to teach and learn the practices of others. Only if newcomers and children can be taught or if one can learn the customs of a new place can social reality continue to exist for very long periods. Cooperation : We ...

“We behave better when we believe we’re being watched”, writes Brian Klass in Corruptible . Today, that line brings to mind CCTV cameras that are all over the place, and government systems that could get info on our online habits. But long, long ago, when policing systems were practically non-existent, how could one make people follow basic rules? This wasn’t just a law and order problem for kings. As we know all too well, if we can’t trust people and there are no systems in place to penalize and punish wrongdoers, then economic activities (and associated prosperity) never get going…   Until policing and judicial systems could be built, the way to build some basis for trust amongst people in most places was the concept of religion: “The world’s major religions are overflowing with reminders that God is watching.” Religion helped build some degree of trust, as long as everyone believed that one would pay, “either in this life or the next”.   Klass humourously calls...

My 14 yo daughter has noticed what I do in my office calls. Unlike my wife, I am usually on group calls, not one-on-one calls. This means that the parts relevant to me in the call can vary wildly. Between hardly needed to needed periodically to being the presenter. Accordingly, how much attention I pay during those calls varies wildly. As you might have guessed, my daughter picked only the data points that made me look inattentive or worse.   Let me elaborate on the “or worse” part. Sometimes, a question will be sprung at me in the middle of a call and I would not even have heard the question! Upon which, I follow the time-tested practice of blaming it on bad network connection, and ask them to repeat the question. Such instances became Exhibit A for the prosecution daughter.   At other times, I have been on my phone during calls, scrolling through various social media. Not only did these become Exhibit B, but they also got me branded (with exaggerated finger wagging ...

  In Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain , Lisa Barrett describes the structure of the brain. The brain is a network of neurons, around 128 billion of them in case of humans. The neurons continuously fire and communicate with other neurons they are connected to. And here’s something not everyone realizes: “Your brain network is always on.” Put differently, that means neurons are not triggered into action only when something happens inside or outside the body. Rather, they are talking with each other continuously. But the strength of the signal will change based on triggering events and also, yes, frequency of usage of those pathways.   A metaphor that Barrett uses to describe the brain is the airport network. Just as every combination of airports don’t have direct flights between them, similarly all neurons don’t communicate with all other neurons. Instead, both have “hubs” – a small number of points that connect to a huge number of other points. The rest (majori...

We understand the importance of perseverance. But, as Seth Godin wrote : “You can pull out every stop, fight every step of the way, mortgage your house and your reputation–and still fail. Or, perhaps, you can quit in a huff at the first feeling of frustration.   The best path is clearly somewhere between the two. And yet, too often, we leave this choice unexamined.”   It is that choice that Annie Duke has written a book about called (what else?) Quit: The Power of Knowing when to Walk Away . I haven’t read the book but her interview with David Epstein was interesting.   The biggest problem to quitting is the sunk cost fallacy: So much time and effort has already been spent, so wouldn’t quitting mean all that effort was in waste? Projects don’t get scrapped even when the cost and delays have spiraled out of control. Stocks that we bought and can’t bring ourselves to sell at a loss. There are endless examples. She has an interesting perspective on that: “Wha...

For what purpose has the brain evolved? As humans, we are biased when we encounter that question, writes Lisa Barrett in Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain . We wrongly assume that the purpose of the brain is to think: “After all, thinking is the human superpower, right?”   Wrong, says Barrett. Long, long ago, unicellular life found itself in competition with others over limited resources, the importance of any capability to sense what lay where was an evolutionary advantage – Did XYZ lie to the left or right? Gradually though, raw sense organ signals weren’t enough. Choices had to be made – was it likely one could catch the prey? Make a wrong choice repeatedly and one would die of starvation. Thus: “Energy efficiency was a key to survival.”   So Barrett concludes: “Your brain’s most important job is to control your body… by predicting energy needs before they arise so you can efficiently make worthwhile movements and survive.”   But this created...