Monday, April 15, 2024

Aging Parents

A bit stressed the past 19+ months at the eccentricities and behavior of my parents. Getting used to it now when I realised that their brains might also be aging just like their visible bodies. Some things that they  have begrudgingly accepted are not as great as they were used to include eyesight, hearing, and physical abilities.

I guess the message of this video is true for all of us. Original source of the video is https://www.facebook.com/reel/1123445485367220

Many friends tell me to stop trying to make my parents obey me and to let them do as they please. It's easier for the onlooker to rationally accept the natural course of life because they are watching dispassionately. It is paradoxical that those statists don't realise they are talking to a libertarian who unlike them actually doesn't want to control others. I am only pissed that my parents are not doing things that prolong their lives or improve their health or make it easier to treat their various conditions and ailments. Anyway my friend Roji who had gone through a similar ordeal told me bluntly "Sanjay you cannot make your parents immortal". I had no comeback to it. I knew it was true and now I try to just agree with them and let them be happy as much as my rational brain permits me.

We do have old age homes but my parents are from a generation that considers it a stigma to go to places like that. But then they won't let me keep a helper at home to watch over them in my absence either. My friends and my parent's friends told me that the loss of privacy could be an issue for my parents.

I had a huge argument at home which I eventually won where I got a maid whom we all liked and had been with us many years ago to come back and work at home again. Both my parents don't seem to realise that my mother is also aging and cannot take care of the house as she used to be able to before.

Saturday, March 27, 2021

My advice to a friend who repeatedly asks me to proofread his letters to important people

Dear RJMV, 

There are a few style errors and maybe a few grammatical errors in your letter to MS. But to be honest, for a change, I liked it. I don't think I should correct it and inadvertently cause it to dilute it's genuineness through the insertion of my changes. It is a good letter and I believe MS will like it although he may not reply to it directly to avoid being trapped with evidence and for plausible deniability.

One example ... 
"I was as a Human Resource / Recruitment person in Falana

could be corrected as 

"I was working as a Human Resource Manager and Recruitment professional in Falana"

You seem to be in a hurry to mention many things as fast as possible to get on with it. Either this is not important to the subject at hand but mentioning it is unavoidable OR you are irritated that you have to perform the niceties and rituals common in some forms of human communication. One sentence will not always poison the reader's mind but several doses of such impatience and irritation in a letter will begin to have a slow arsenic like effect. Unless you want to delay things or create plausible deniability, I suggest you save everyone a lot of time and get to the point - as soon as possible.

---

Another example ...
"After leaving my job as a Human Resource Manager from Falnana, I settled back in Koalam in 2011

could be corrected as 

"After leaving my job as a Human Resource Manager in Falana, I returned to Koalam in 2011"

---

Your impatience is one big problem. You are slightly irritated that the reader (or the rest of the world) doesn't know about the situation (or not enough since you have the broader vision and keener insight) and you have to undertake the burden of explaining the situation. You should rewrite your "first draft" 4-5 times yourself. The above simple errors are examples that you could correct yourself with your knowledge of the language instead of lazily outsourcing it to others. By doing this outsourcing not only are you depleting goodwill but also preventing the development of your brain both in terms of language skills but also in terms of conceptual rigour and emotional control.

Another problem is that you often get inspired to add new points every time you redraft it. This is not altogether a bad thing. But at some point when you have run out of ideas you should accept that there will be no more dopamine hits and stop waiting for the inspiration which not come anymore. Effort ridden and tedious as it sounds, that is when you should get down to the boring task or actually just finishing off the letter.

What exactly are you looking to write or convey ? Are you looking to write a short message or a short letter or a long letter or a pamphlet or a manifesto or a white paper or an application or a petition or a death threat or a short story or a novel ? You need to decide an overall tone for the communication you wish to send and then also strictly decide a word limit based on the categories mentioned in the previous sentence. And then stick to it. There are no 2 ways about it.

Even if I correct  it, you will still add your masala at the end and kolammaakkify (ruin) it. So when you have finished your "last draft" be disciplined enough to not add any new points and ONLY focus on IMPROVING THE LETTER in STYLE, GRAMMAR, and SPELLING but not in CONTENT.

Also try to arrange the points in a structurally logical way to help the reader understand the story you are presenting as it unravels itself. The aim should not to be to burden the reader with your confused and disorganised ideas but to make it easy for them to understand without too much effort on their part. You presently not only outsource this task to me but also to your target reader. And therein lies your failure as a communicator both in the past and the future.

Also, if possible even remove some points.  This is a guideline. It is not the answer to your request. You are still avoiding the use of your inter-ear-muscles. The points that you need to remove will become apparent to you only after several redrafts - which is something you are trying to avoid by asking me to do it without trying it yourself a few times.

Last but not the least, you have not decided what the ultimate aim of your letter should be. Are you trying to offer solace, encouragement, criticism, advice, ideas, help, or even deliver a threat ? What do you want the person to ultimately have in his head after he reads your letter ? What do you want him to think ? What do you want him to think about you?

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

MIT Moral Machine

I did the MIT Moral Machine test and the results kind of confirm my impression of myself. I realise that my 15 year old theory that everyone embraces ideologies contrary to their nature is true. This is true both of me as an individual and of a collective entity like society. In the case of society's results (the aggregated results of others who took the test), I find that the conclusions agree rather well with my experiences and subsequent subjective conclusions.  Why this is the case I am not sure but I have an interesting theory behind it which I hope to explore in a later post.

As far as the results of the test go ...

I am pro-life.
I more interested in human lives than animal lives. I preferred saving humans at any cost unlike society which was slightly more compassionate to animals.
It seems that for me saving numerically more human lives has a higher utility value than the quality of those lives. This might explain my frustration with my life and my admiration for those who take great risk.

I am principled.
I want a auto-driving system that is idealistically fair to all while the others want one that protects the passengers at any cost. Funny how I preach about the Virtues of Selfishness (Ayn Rand, Babcock, et al) and others praise sacrifice.
Even f I oppose the laws, I believe in upholding them until they are revoked by general consensus made known to all or through other normal courses of action. Is this due to cowardice or due to stupidity or because I am the rare man with the courage to endure pain and temptation? You decide.
I did not lose sight of the whole point of the test. It is to equip the AI system with some pre-decided results based on situations it will encounter in the future. You don't change the rules after you agree to them and start the game.

The above might have led to the following conclusions due to the way tests are designed (and in this case only a few questions were taken to decide a person's entire mindset). But they are still correct in some cases anyway.

I am anti-Darwinian by Instinct but hyper-Darwinian by Intellect
I gave a greater value to male life than the rest of society which preferred to save female lives. I attribute this to [Ref: Esther Vilar : "The Manipulated Man"] men sucking up to women and performing their normal sacrificial role while women keep on looking out for themselves in general (though they will always deny this as part of their natural instinct to protect their occupation of the pedestal). This audio (YouTube video) elaborates this point.
[Edit 2019-06-25 The above video has been terminated by YouTube. Hopefully the video just below will last longer from censorship]

Women in general should be saved by the species to survive in a primitive ecosystem. The tribe or species can only survive if there are enough egg layers. It just takes one male to fertilise all the females but the reverse is not possible. Also male fertility lasts longer but takes a shorter time to execute.

I think the test was dealing with insufficient data as it showed me wanting to save older people at any cost. It also showed me as having less of a preference for athletically fit people. Neither of these are necessarily true. My being a stickler for principles (at least in theory) may have skewed the results  of the test which might have been designed to tease or trick people into revealing their true natures.

Social Value Preference
I did not understand this but it might mean this. Anyway the test says that I have a much higher amount than society in general. To understand this on a scale of 0 to 100, I had 100 while the rest of society had 64.89 (I actually used a ruler to measure the distance on my screen to calculate that).

Monday, November 12, 2018

ARealMe Test Results of "Quizzes you NEED to take:"

https://www.arealme.com/iq/en/

Your IQ Test Result:
170/200
“Albert Einstein”
★★★★★

https://www.arealme.com/eq/en/

Your EQ Test Result:
40/200
Not so good!

https://www.arealme.com/left-right-brain/en/

Left brain inclined · DIGITAL
DIGITAL
RATIONAL
ORDER
OBJECTIVE
SYMBOLIC
ANALYTIC
MATH


EMOTION
IMAGINATION
MUSIC
CREATIVE
MEMORY
ART
INSTINCT
Left brain 53%  47% Right brain

https://www.arealme.com/mental/en/

Your Mental Age is:
36
(7 years younger)
Young Heart
you were born in 1982

https://www.arealme.com/english-misspelling/en/

Your Score:
85/100
Newspaper Editor
You know the language, you just don't worry about it too much because you are used to having a backup like spellcheck. You have pet peeves about mispronunciations and misspellings, they just don't happen to be the ones you got wrong on this quiz. Read more, and surround yourself with people who speak with proper English. You'll be up to snuff in no time!
★★★★


Got bored ... will not do the rest later ... anyway I don't think the tests are really reliable but who will give up the chance to show the world in jest that some idiot test on the internet thinks they are as smart as Einstein.

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Advice to a young person - from a still extreme risk taker

The hardest thing in life is to not know a good thing when you have it.
The second hardest is to not throw it all away.

Be brave but not too much.
Be scared but not too much.
Everything in balance.

Sometimes you have to walk away from a new thing however good it looks in order to preserve the old, reliable, tried and tested. Motivational Bullshit gurus and "progressive" people will tell you to do this. Easy for them - the risk is your's.
Sometimes you have to walk towards a new thing however bad it looks and walk away from your comfort zone. Conservatives will tell you this as they are afraid of a change in the status quo - which is sometimes justified - not always.

Discretion is the better part of valor definition. Caution is preferable to rash bravery. Said by Falstaff in King Henry the Fourth, Part One, by William Shakespeare.

Sometimes you have to take risks which may bring losses. Never take risks where the loss can be huge or permanent - no matter how romantic or thrilling it seems at the time.

Experiments are good when the cost is low or the rewards are high - like for scientists (with funding) and media personalities. Always look for the risk to rewards ratio. Don't trust anyone who only sells you the risks or only the rewards.

Don't try to live the life of a celebrity even if you can - unless you are one. It's attractive and flashy but gives pain in the long run. Pain is good if you working towards something - not if you are losing something or have lost something.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Today's Internet Quizes


I got 3 Island Nations ... hmm ...
================================================================

What Nationality Are You Subconsciously?
 on 



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What Country in the World Best Fits Your Personality?
 on 


Which European Country Is Your Perfect Fit ?
 on 

Ireland

================================================================

The Definitive Political Orientation Test
 on 

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

You are (to a large extent) what you think you are.

=======================================
 Posted to Facebook on 18 April 2011 at 12:24
=======================================

Priority to a large extent determines capability. It determines where you spend your 10,000 Gladwell hours.

And capability to a large extent determines reputation.
Reputation to a large extent determines Compensation.
Compensation to a large extent determines Satisfaction.
Therefore Priority mostly determines Satisfaction.

Guess what ? Priority is determined by Perception. So does changing your perceptions change your satisfaction level in the long run? But we knew that didn't we?©