Convincing Ourselves

  Trends move the world. It doesn't matter who we are, where we live, what social strata we belong to, or how educated we are, the world, and the society at large, moves in trends. Ideas, social norms, thoughts, products, people, books, political ideologies, and everything else, that everyone seems to be going towards, and sometimes like waves, die out as well.   Trends are real A woman in Los Angeles tries out a new restaurant because it's ‘fashionable’. The hype is so great that she herself ends up hyping it up. After all, it's considered ‘trendy’ to be seen here. Similarly, liberal human rights activists suddenly out of the blue, starts to tweet against what is happening in South Sudan because George Clooney started campaigning about what is doing in Darfur. It's on peoples minds and being a human rights activist A trader in New York buys up Amazon stock. There was a great news article probably published by Amazon’s PR but it has pushed higher and the trader's in...

The below discussion was a result of an argument between me and an Indian nationalist on Quora.  This might be considered controversial, however, I feel facts or more important than nationalist feelings and propaganda.  Feel free to leave a comment. In my discussions with many Liberal Indian Nationalists, I have come across a sort of victim mentality and bitter resentment towards the British Raj on the subcontinent. The 'complaints' are of two nature in my experience. The first is that the 'Indian Subcontinent' was looted and it was this money that financed the Industrial Revolution in mainland Britain. The second is that if the British had not 'looted' the subcontinent, it would have been a far more developed and prosperous land. More conservative Indian religious nationalists also make a similar argument against 'the Muslims'. However below I am only going to discuss the claims against the British. To begin with, it is important to understand that when...

  We know high performers, in the field of management, sports, art, academia and other crafts, have to go through a considerable level of daily stressors. In fact, it is often thought that stress and anxiety are inevitable when achieving high-quality results in a competitive environment, especially one where the margin of error is small or there are time constraints.   This is a common stream of thinking, in high-performance fields as well as everyday perception. We have all seen Gordon Ramsay screaming at his staff when things go wrong at a Michelin starred restaurant. We have seen Serena Williams erupt into a bullying frenzy when she lost. We all know of stern bosses who have no problem in confronting and resolving problems, even if requires a considerable amount of screaming.   But the question is, is that how one is supposed to feel in a high-performance situation? Is there a correct ‘feeling to feel’ in a high-performance situation?   Well, as is usually the cas...

Whenever we go to therapists or doctors, as to assume we are walking into someones' office who, unlike us mere mortals, knows better and behaves better. It seems like we are the ones who need a flu shot or a prescription for sleep, but the doctors, the therapists, the coaches, always seem to have it together. Is that even possible? A 2008 study "Doctors as patients: a systematic review of doctors' health access and the barriers they experience" by Kay et al , describes how there is little research on the area, but acknowledged that they have as much access to healthcare, especially mental health care, as the general population. There truly exists this 'veneer' that our dentist, our doctors, our upper management, our coaches, anyone we deem more knowledgable, skilled or authority, does not have the problem that we suffer from. The reality I believe is different. Psychologists need help too, and they need it on an ongoing basis, to help solve their o...