Fertility is a problem faced by almost every developed country in the world. But the real problem is that no country has ever solved this problem. That means we don’t know the solution to this problem, which makes this problem more serious. Governments have spent billions of dollars on this issue, yet no good effect is observed.

Japan has faced this problem for decades. Last year, the birth rate in South Korea had reached a record low of 0.92, which implies a woman on average gives birth to 0.92 children throughout their lifetime. With such a low birth rate, the population will be halved in 50 years (or in a generation). We need at least a birthrate of 2.2 to keep the human population stable. Even many Indian states have a birth rate below 2.2. (I never thought this is true).

It is weird, in the last century, we fought against overpopulation. Now we are fighting against underpopulation.

Spending money does not affect increasing the population. No country has solved this problem by spending money. Some Nordic countries raised their birth rate to 1.6 by increasing the maternity leave to 1 year and granting male parents leave of absence up to eight months during childbirth to support the child after pregnancy. But the birth rate is not enough for a stable population even though the benefits take a toll on the government financially.

In this blog, I want to share a simple story I heard during my childhood. Though it was not inspiring to me as a child, I am finding that story inspiring.

Story

“Three friends decided to walk in a desert in the evening. They walked for about an hour, but they didn’t go far, as they could see the hotel they were staying in. It started to get dark, and they were feeling colder. None of them had a phone with them. It’s because they were playing PUBG for the last two hours. Now, the phones are being charged at the hotel.

They decided to walk to the hotel. As they are walking to the hotel, it got pitch-black. Suddenly, they heard a voice. It said, “take those stones under you when you go. It will be useful to you”. Two of them got frightened and started to run towards the hotel”. But. One person just grabbed a few of them and began to walk towards the hotel. After 15 minutes, everyone reached the hotel. The person who took the stones checked his pocket for the stones. He found big blue diamonds.

Moral of the story

My high school principal said this story to our class. She said that the process of gathering knowledge is similar to that story. You may think the things that we teach you are stones. But the knowledge you gain here is diamonds. You may find it challenging to take them with you. But if you take them with you, you will find them valuable in the future.

Yeah, that is true. Everything that I learned as a child has helped me to get where I am. The knowledge was not only gained in class but from other sources.
I am not saying that this system of education is sound. I am pretty sure almost every one of us would have some bad things to say about our education system. If everyone started to write the faults and the ideas to change our education system, it would beat Encyclopedia in size and volumes.

I want to say that the power and value of the knowledge we gain are immense. We should respect it. No, we should celebrate it.

Nostalgia

Also, when I first heard this story, I never found it inspiring to me as a child. It was just another regular story for me. Though it was regular, it somehow stuck inside me for a lifetime. I don’t know why. It must be because of diamonds and the way they get them easily. Over time, the nostalgia associated with that experience became a part of me. Now I am finding that story inspirational. I think it became a part of me.

Conclusion

Have you ever had a similar experience? Did you find something regular as a child but inspiring when you had grown up?

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact me via email. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also, check out my Contact page for more information.

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In this blog, I will share my thoughts on the myth of lone genius, the power of Scenius and the greater mission to keep our field alive.

I used to think that achievers achieve things alone by discovering their born talent. They would rock their field by their intelligence and change it forever.
They are called the “Lone Geniuses”. For example, Einstein changed the way we think about modern physics. Newton changed the way we think about Physics. Gauss rocked the field of mathematics. So did Euler. Feynman’s contributions to QCD is immense.

But as read more about the life of those people. I realised they were never alone. For example, Einstein was in close contact with the scientific community in Berlin when he discovered the special theory of relativity. Have you ever heard of the Newton-Leibnitz controversy over the invention of calculus? If you have heard it, you will know the way people collaborated at that time.

Brachistochrone Problem

The story of the foundation of the calculus of variations is one of my favourite stories. Johann Bernoulli solved the problem of Brachistochrone by himself. But he challenged other great mathematicians to solve the problem. No one was able to solve it. Even Leibnitz asked for an extension. Then Bernoulli wrote to Newton, claiming that he could solve the Brachistochrone problem and challenged Newton to solve it. Newton solved the problem and mailed the solution anonymously. He even said that “Foreigners think that they know everything and treat us like novices”. Newton solved that over a night. But Bernoulli took two weeks to solve that problem. When Bernoulli received the solution, he said, “I can recognise the lion by its claw” and said it must be Newton. This problem is the first seed to the subject of the calculus of variations. Now, the calculus of variations is used in every theoretical physics field.

Scenius – Ecology of Talent

Scenius refers to a scene of individuals who shares their work, steals each other’s ideas and supports each other. Musician Brian Eno coined this term.
When I read about any major discovery in Physics, though it seems to be done by a “Lone Genius”, it was not. It was done by a group of people who shared their ideas with each other. If they didn’t share their ideas with each other, there would have been no such discovery.
If we analyse more carefully, throughout history there was no “Lone Genius”, there were only “Scenius”.
So, we need to be more careful not to fall prey to the myth of “Lone Genius” and waste our precious time in being a lone genius. We should try to create ways to share and listen to others ideas in our field of interest. Only by that we can grow.

Someone Would Have Done That.

One of my favourite professors used to quote a famous German quote which is, “If Einstein didn’t discover relativity, then Twinstein would have discovered it”. It is funny if you know that “Eins” refers to number one in German.

You don’t have to be an Expert.

Don’t think you have to be an expert to share your ideas. You can share your ideas even if you are an amateur. There are many holes that an amateur can fill as much that can be filled by an expert. In fact, an expert is just a better amateur.

“That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be
anything else.”
                                                                                          – Charlie Chaplin

One of the advantages of an amateur is that you can make mistakes without losing any of your reputations. But an expert cannot😊.

Power of Internet💻

You can create a scenius easily in this online world. We can create a Facebook group or make conversations on Twitter. You can share your ideas on youtube. If there are no scenius in your field, you can start one. The right people will eventually find it.

Online, everyone—the artist and the curator, the master and the apprentice, the expert and the amateur—has the ability to contribute something.
       – From the book “Show Your Work” bu Austin Kleon

Share Your Work – Don’t be Afraid.

Don’t be afraid to share your ideas. When you share your work, you would hear feedback about the mistakes you made and corrections that needed to be done. It makes you think more about your work. It forces you to improve your work.

Keep the Pitch Alive.

At last, when we share our ideas, we would keep the field active. We have a mission that is great than our comfort and interest.

The best players don’t keep secrets. It’s as if we have a greater mission beyond our own fortunes. And that mission is to pass it on, to keep the pitch alive”.
–  From the book “Wherever I Wind Up” by R. A. Dickey

Yeah, we have a greater mission, that is to keep the pitch alive.

Conclusion

There are no “Lone Genius”. There are only scenius. We have to share our work and create a scenius to achieve great things in our field. You don’t have to be an expert to share your ideas. Be an amateur, don’t be afraid. We have a greater mission than our own fortunes, that is, to keep the pitch alive.

Have you ever thought of sharing some ideas but didn’t do so, since you’re not an expert?

My inspiration for this blog is the book “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon.

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact me via email: sathish@sathishkannan.me. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also, check out my Contact page for more information.

If you like my work, you can support me at Patreon.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
                       – Henry David Thoreau

Today morning, I saw a notification on my calendar saying “World simplicity day”. I got intrigued and searched on the internet about world simplicity day. That search took me from simplicity to Henry David Thoreau to Dead poet society, one of my favorite movies.

First, let me say my thoughts on simplicity in four simple parts.

Our Greatness🙋‍♀️

One should never try to buy things just for the sake of showing our well being to others, even a little. Things never make you more extraordinary than others. Even any role in our life, such as a job, position in the family, can never make greater or lower than others. We are all the same.

Happiness is not in items😊

Also, if we think that having these things make us happier. We will never be happy. Happiness from objects is temporary; everyone will get tired of that entity and move on to a new entity. This cycle is everlasting. The same entities that brought us happiness will now bring unhappiness. Looking for objective happiness is like pouring water into a bottomless bucket. We think that it will fill, but it will never get filled. In the same way, object happiness is like a insatiable mania. We should only seek happiness within us, not outside.

Time⌚

We have lots of items in our life. Some things are essential for our life. Some items are there just for the sake of having them. Some people buy villas and spend 4 hours everyday just maintaining them. My dad’s friend has a 55 inches 4k TV, but he never watches anything in it. He only uses his iPhone for watching shows.
The point is, when we have more things, we have to spend more time maintaining and securing them. This consumes more time and energy. Having more fewer items means less time for maintaining them. Hence more time for other things and fewer worries.

Securities will be Liabilities🔐

Sometimes, we tend to give importance to certain things because those things give us some advantage and importance among others. From time to time, we may defend them in exchange for our morals, values, and even life. This applies to objects such as smartphones, video game consoles, to positions and roles such as our jobs, our existing identities, among others.

The same items that give importance over others become our liabilities. Those liabilities bring us pain and suffering. We tend to make ourselves suffer more just for fake significance and respect.

In my opinion, simplicity is about living a simple life by having only necessary items and viewing life as it is without self-made complications and conditions. To live simple, we have to be simple with our possessions and our morals.

Coming back to World simplicity day, it is celebrated to commemorate Henry David Thoreau. He is a poet and a philosopher. His works provide insights on understanding oneself and living an uncomplicated life.

Some of his inspiring quotes are below.

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.””It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.””The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.””Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.””Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”

Check out his quotes on BrainyQuote.

When I was reading about him, I found this quote.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
                       – Henry David Thoreau

I quickly recollected that this quote is mentioned in Dead Poet Society, one of my favourite movies. This movie is about a teacher👨‍🏫 teaching students to look beyond education and live life, in a school controlled by a typical conservative administration. It is very inspiring. If you like 3 Idiots, then you would like this movie too.

Conclusion:
We have to look within ourselves for happiness. Our securities will become our liabilities. To live a simple life, we have to be simple, not only at the items we have but at heart.
World simplicity day, it is celebrated to commemorate Henry David Thoreau. He is a poet and a philosopher who advocated simplicity in life.

What are your thoughts about simplicity? How can be follow simplicity in our life?

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact me via email: sathishkannan6000@gmail.com. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also, check out my Contact page for more information.

If you like my work, you can support me at Patreon. ☕

Have you read or heard about the novel “Lord of the flies”? Lord of the flies is a very famous novel, and it is the third favourite book from schools in the UK. This novel is based on the real-life story of six boys stranded on an island. In the novel, the six boys fought for food, been lazy, formed hierarchies, exploited each other, looted each other and murdered each other.

Almost every English professor I know has referred to the book at some point in class and said that there is a chance that children and teens would be consumed by their evil nature without adult supervision and correction.

But the novel depicted a false picture of children and adults without supervision. When left without care, the children and teens would learn the right things through the feedback of pain and comfort. They won’t spoil. They may make big mistakes. But those mistakes cause immense suffering. So, it is unwise to think they would turn into evil. In the novel, the author supported his story by adding people’s everyday experiences regarding kids, such as bullying, fighting, immaturity, to shape the story into a believable masterpiece.

In real life, the six boys got stranded on the island for 15 months. Unlike the boys in the novel, these boys lived well and cooperated with each other. They made huts together. They worked together to get food. They split responsibilities among themselves. They even made a set of rules to follow. For example, if one of them loses temper, the rule is to spend 15 minutes in a designated area (like a jail). They thrived on the island.

The novel gives an example of how we can be fooled by lies when supported by ideas based on our beliefs and experiences.

The book showed human beings as inherently selfish individuals. But in reality, they are compassionate with each other. They cooperate for survival.
The novel is widely believed like a real story.  If not for a youtube video exposing this, I would have never questioned the novel’s point of view.

So, I understood that we could fool ourselves from the truth by misleading well-fabricated evidence. Sometimes, the falsity can be made more believable from the truth itself. We need to analyse things we read and consume very carefully. Otherwise, we would tend to believe immoral things, and it can cause havoc in our life, especially in this era of the internet.

Conclusion:
Lies can be made believable by supporting them with everyday experiences. We should look for evidence rather than blindly accepting the truth just because it fooled the majority.

What do you think of the idea of lies fabricated as truth by supporting them with everyday experiences? Have you ever experienced something similar in your life? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Have a thoughtful day!

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact me via email: sathishkannan6000@gmail.com . Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also, check out my Contact page for more information.

If you like my work, you can support me at Patreon. ☕

January 21, 2020                                                                Adyar, Chennai

My mother and father were working that day, and I was free. My Grandmother is suffering from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and undergoing chemotherapy(she is well now). I have to accompany my Grandmother to the Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai. It was about 30 minutes from our home. Some tests had to be taken before the next chemo. I can assure you that this story is not about my Grandmother, me or cancer.

We reached the hospital at 9 am. In the morning, she took some tests, and I was waiting in the waiting area. The area is semi-open. We had a roof under our head, but it was semi-open. It means we have monkeys and dogs for company.

At about 1 am, my Grandmother went to take a test. I was hungry, and there was no sign of her coming back. So, I decided to eat. I washed my hands and started to eat. That time, a dog approached and sat beside me. To add some background, I am not just afraid of dogs, but super afraid of dogs, and I am 22 years old. It sat there looking at me. It was a street dog, but unlike any stereotypical street dog, it was healthy and clean. It was not terrifying as a Pitbull neither cute like a Pomeranian, something in between. It was quiet. I thought it want some food. Due to my fear, I never even thought of approaching it, even a little. My heart was beating fast.

To my rescue, my Grandmother came after finishing medical tests. She tried to shoo the dog away, but it didn’t move. But she started to eat. Since I was restless, she took the dog to the back and put some rice with some prawn curry in a rock. But it didn’t eat it and came back to us and just sat there. This dog reminded me of the dogs in MCC. They never eat rice. They only eat if we give them meat. I can confirm this from my personal experiences in the playground. But this dog doesn’t even eat prawns.

Oh my god! What does this dog want?
It just sat there for another 15 minutes and then moved to a young woman and her Mother. Her shaved head was covered with a red scarf. I think she is undergoing chemotherapy too. I would say this story is not about that girl (and definitely not about her mom).

The dog approached them and sat before them, looking at the young woman. The woman noticed the dog and got excited.  She started to brush the dog’s head and neck. She did that for few minutes, talking with her mom occasionally. And then dogs laid down and slept very happily. I can see it is blissful from the way it is sleeping. I was both intrigued and amazed in seeing the dog playing with that girl and sleeping.

Yeah, this story is about that dog. A happy dog in a cancer hospital.
Among death and fear, there was this happy dog that is content and happy.

The dog’s first need is food. Next, the dog seeks love. It lives a content life without any worries. It just looks for love. The dog lives day to day, looking for only food and love and living a happy life.
Why can’t I live like that? What do I need for that?
OMG! How to live a content life? I am seeking answers.

Have you ever thought of what you should do to live a content life? If not, should we think about it? Leave the answer as comments.

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact me via email: sathishkannan6000@gmail.com. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also, check out my Contact page for more information.

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The movie cover is from Wikipedia.

We want to happy. The last blog explained what happiness is? This blog explains the advantage of knowing it and the way to realise it in our life. Why shouldn’t we seek things for pleasure and enjoyment? What do we need to be happy? The above questions will be addressed in this blog.

Introduction

In the last blog, I try to explain my perspective on “what is happiness”. In this blog, I will explain how helpful the idea of happiness and emotions is in our lives. I will explain how I apply these ideologies in my life.
As we have seen, the happiness we get from objects is not true happiness, as it will only bring us unhappiness. There is another type of happiness called absolute happiness.
I want to explain more about the idea of absolute happiness
we found that happiness is a  state of mind. I explained the concept of objective happiness. We saw that happiness from sensations are temporary and only make us miserable in the long run.
From now, I will explain the idea of absolute happiness. It is the state of mind which we experience when we are not dependent on objects for happiness. It is when we realise we never need something to be happy. For absolute happiness, we are dependent only on ourselves, not on any objects. Since absolute happiness is not dependent upon the objects and the sensation they produce, we will never be bored of it. We will always be happy when we realise that state of happiness, nothing in the world can make you sad.

Absolute happiness

How to be in a state of absolute happiness?
It is simple. We don’t have to do anything else. We have to realise that it is within ourselves. As we have seen in the last blog, the happiness that we experience is produced by us. That implies we don’t need anything to be happy. It is just a matter of choice. We can choose to be happy.
Nothing in the world can stop or screw you with happiness. Even you cannot screw yourself from that happiness. Each and everyone in the world has the choice of happiness, and nothing can take away that ability from us.
Did you remember the happiest moment in your life? We produce that, and it is within us. We never need anything to experience that state of happiness.
In the same way, as we know, every emotion is produced by our mind. This implies the strength we require to complete anything is within us. We don’t need anything from external to make us get the force that is required. We can realise and become the force in a second if we want to since we are the creator of that strength.
So If you feel you can’t do something, you can choose to have the strength needed to do something.

Emotions

Ever felt bored of something. The same interest you show in your favourite movie, you can show it in the book you are studying. Because you are the creator of the interest, and that interest is within you. You can choose to be interested in anything. Nothing is needed for you to do that. Nothing can stop you from that. Knowing this can change your life. It has changed my life. Nothing is distasteful anymore.

Impact on my life

How it changed my life?
When I realised that happiness is within me, my actions were changed. Because I always have the power of choice within me.

Power of choice

If I have few weeks before the board exam, If my friends asked me to join them on the beach. Since I know that happiness is within me, I choose to study rather than the beach.
I read even the boring subjects with interest.
The vegetable I used to love became par with the vegetables I used to hate. Every taste became equal.
My grades improved. My health improved. Even my performance in sports improved. I understood I never depend on anything to improve in my life. Nobody can give or take away anything for me to change something.
Now, I am happy with myself.

Seeking happiness outside

We are just confused that we will be happy when we get things. No, we will never be satisfied from getting something. The wealthiest person in the world can be miserable. We have seen that many times.
There is a problem with seeking happiness outside. If we seek happiness from the outside, we will be only miserable because we do things to be happy, but as time goes on, we will realise we are not satisfied and will be tired of doing that to be happy. So, we should never seek happiness, even other emotions like strength, interest outside. It is within us. We have to seek inside.
Realise, You don’t have to be successful or have a good job to be happy.
No drug can make you happy, and no drug can stop you from being happy.
No wine is needed to be happy, and nothing can stop you from being happy other than you.
No wealth and money can bring you happiness, and no wealth and money can stop you from being happy.
You don’t have to holy to be happy. Neither you have to be sinful.
You don’t have to be educated to be happy. Neither you have to be uneducated.

The simplicity

The knowledge behind being is so simple. Anybody can learn it, and they may need minutes to know that. The knowledge is, we don’t need anything, or any action is not needed. We have to realise that happiness is in ourselves.

Purpose of objects

So, If we don’t need objects to be happy. Then what is the purpose of objects? We need objects for the sustenance of our bodies and the world. We will never be happy with the objects.

Everything is within you

Life can be a blessing if we choose it to be, but we think it is a nightmare. Nothing is needed can make it a blessing, and nobody can stop you from that.
The same thing that made Theresa, The Mother Theresa, is with you. You can have it without any effort.
The same thing that made Gandhi “The Mahatma” is within you. Nobody can stop using it.
Neither god can give you happiness, nor he can take it away from you. (Not that I don’t believe in god. Suppose we go behind god, for the sake of being happy. we will only be miserable because absolute happiness is not dependent upon anything, even god.)
Nobody can screw your life. Even you can’t screw it.
Everything that is needed is within you. Neither can somebody steal that from you. Nor you can attain it by doing or achieving a thing.

Conclusion

Happiness is within ourselves. So does interest and strength. There is nothing you should do to realise that. No object is needed to be happy or strong or interested. You have it within you. You can have it by choosing to have it.

Takeaway

If we know that happy is within ourselves, we will never be unhappy. If we know interest is within ourselves, we don’t wait for something to happen to make us interested in anything. You will never be disinterested. If we know strength is within ourselves. We will never be weak.

What do you think of my post? Do you think these ideas are too superficial or clear? Do you think it is complicated and not practical? Please leave your answers in the comments. Feel free to contact me anytime.

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact me via email: sathishkannan6000@gmail.com. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also, check out my Contact page for more information.

If you like my work, you can support me at Patreon. ☕

💌Subscribe to my weekly Newsletter: My Experiments in Life. Here I will share my thoughts, lessons and experiences I had in a week.

One of my inspirations and source for this work is Selfknowledge Channel.

In this blog, we are going to visit, what is the nature of the happiness, we experience in our daily lives. We first try to analyze the origin of happiness. Then we try to explore its true nature.

In the last blog, I have written about “what do we want in life?“. In the previous blog, I concluded that everything we do in life has an ultimate motive: to be happy. Link to my last blog: what-do-i-want-in-life?

In this blog, we will go over another crucial question, “What is happiness?“. Isn’t it a silly thing to ask? We experience and seek it throughout our life. But experiencing something and knowing something are very two different things. We see the light, but knowing what light is, is another thing.

Why is the question so important?

In the movie “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the galaxy“, the hyperdimensional beings build a supercomputer to find the answer to the question “What is the ultimate meaning of our life?”. The conversation went as follows.

Hyper beings👽:       We want to know the answer to the ultimate question. Supercomputer💻: Well, what is the ultimate question?                               Hyper beings👽:       Don’t you know, it is “The Ultimate Question”.               Supercomputer💻:  I don’t know the ultimate question. Can you say it?             Hyper beings👽:       What is the meaning of all of this? The meaning of our life. Supercomputer💻: Ok. Meet me in a million years. I will compute the answer to the question.                                                                                                                      Then the hyper beings went to the supercomputer after a million years.        Hyper beings👽:      Have you found the answer.                                Supercomputer💻: Yeah. The answer was 43.                                                       The supercomputer explained that they didn’t define the question well. The supercomputer said, “Questions are important than answers. Without right questions, one cannot find the required answer.” Then the computer said it would create another computer to find the question. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. If you wish, you can watch the movie.

So, it is more important to understand and define the question correctly to find the answer. Hence, to know “how to be happy?” We have to know “what is happiness?”.

How is happiness produced?

How to find out, what is happiness? The scientific thing to do is analyze its properties and origin and try the best possible explanation we can deduct from the facts. So, first, let us try to understand how it is produced? From a scientific perspective, I can say that a part of the brain is more stimulated when we are happy. So, stimulation in a particular part of the brain produces happiness. So, to be happy, we have to stimulate a specific part of the brain.

How could we do that? I have an idea, we can attach some electrodes to our brain, and we can be happy all the time.

But it is a bad idea. Not because we don’t have the technology yet. But we will drop dead just by doing that thing and being happy. We need to function for the sustenance of us and the world.

Source of happiness

Lets analyze again . Let us try to understand the source of happiness by finding things that make us happy and the process of keeping us happy.

Tangible Source

Let us consider a situation. Let us consider ice cream🍧. We all like ice cream. But if you are an adult, you may have some more important worries than ice cream, and they make you happy more than ice cream. You can also consider them instead of the ice cream and alter the analysis according to the worries. But I believe the conclusion will be the same.

We give ice cream to a child. It will be tasty. He will eat it, and he will be happy. So, the sensation created by the object(ice cream) is the cause of happiness for the child.

Intangible Source

Let us consider another case. We will be happy when somebody shows love💕 for us. So the sensation created by an abstract object is the source of happiness.

So, the source of happiness is the objects (both tangible and intangible).

But we found the sources of happiness. But what is happiness? It is nothing but a state of mind that we go to when we experience the sensation. By the same way of thought, we can realize that every emotion we experience has the source as sensation, and they are a state of mind.

Objective happiness – temporary and changing

But what if we give two more ice creams to the same child. Will he be happy after eating the two ice creams? If he is happy after that, then give him ten more. After a certain point, he will start to hate it. So, the object that gave him happiness is now giving him sadness. If we think more about it, every object does the same. The happiness we get from objects is temporary and changing. We grow bored of any object.

Though we get bored of a single object. After we get bored of the object, we go to other objects for happiness, but we will get bored of it too, and we will be restless and unhappy and chasing behind objects (both tangible and intangible) for happiness.

You may also like this example, In a famous Tamil movie “Arunachalam“, in a scene, the hero’s father wants his son to stop smoking. So he made him smoke for 24 hours. He grew tired of it and quit smoking. Now, the hero uses the same trick on his son. The hero wants his son to spend 30 crores in 30 days to inherit the wealth from him.

The insatiable hunger

The reality of objective happiness is it is like an insatiable hunger. We can never get full. We will always want more. We think if we pour water into a vase, it will eventually get full. It will never become full because it has a black hole at the bottom of it (or a bottomless vase). This is true for bad things like drugs, alcohol. It is also true for good things like kindness, knowledge and education.

So, what is my final idea? Happiness is a state of mind. But is happiness a devil that keeps us chasing a rupee note and never make it reach us? Yes and No. Happiness can be a bliss, when we understand the idea of absolute happiness, that is different from the idea of objective happiness. In my next blog, I will explain, “How we can be happy?” and the idea of “Absolute Happiness”. You must read the blog to understand my whole argument. Would you please not stop here? It will not make much sense.

Conclusion

Happiness is a state of mind. Objective happiness is produced from sensations from tangible and intangible objects. Objective happiness is an insatiable hunger, and going behind objective happiness will only make you an insatiable maniac. It is temporary and changing. This is true for alcohol and drugs, and it is also true for empathy, intelligence and kindness.

Link to my next blog: Happiness is within you

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact via email: sathishkannan6000@gmail.com. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also check out my Contact page for more information.

If you like my work, you can support me at Patreon.

Link to my next blog: Happiness is within you

Cover photo for the post: Photo by Stan B on Unsplash

Disclaimer: Only for the strong-hearted. Also, if you are allergic to rubbish, you better keep anti-histamines by your side while reading this. These are some of my thoughts on one of human life’s important question. 😏

There is always a question burning 🔥 inside me since the day I started to know the world. But, unfortunately, I still can’t find the answer.
I tried many things. Sometimes, I used to sit alone for hours just thinking? What could be the answer? But still no. Sometimes I used to put a tantrum with myself to find the answer. But still no.

Okay. Let’s raise the curtain and move on to the show. Please take your seats. The show is on.

Hellooooou.

Is there anyone in the world, who doesn’t think, “what life is all about?” “what do we want in life?”
In this blog post, I want to express armchair thoughts that came to me when I was thinking about “what do I want in life?”. (wait, some things could be ideas I read from books and others).

I did an exercise. If you want you can do this exercise too. I thought about that question, “What do I want in life now?” and wrote down on paper the things I have in mind to get or achieve in the future.

Let me tell you some of the things I wrote down. 😉

I may need a laptop with more specs.
A mobile phone with a good quality camera. (I’m not too fond of iPhones, by the way, I think they are overpriced and over-hyped, except for the new privacy feature.)
Maybe a house.
I may want to have a good healthy body.
Maybe a Nobel prize in physics 😜.
Maybe wealth and money.
I may want to be successful.
Maybe I want fame, just like Einstein and Newton has 🤔.

You may think my wishes are silly 🙂. But, I want to be truthful so that my shyness won’t skew my results. I think People have wishes like the ones I mentioned above. And you could be shy, or you may think that is stupid, just like I felt when I started to write them down 😳.
Maybe I want to be like Michael Jackson(I don’t mean dead 💀, I meant rockstar 🎸).
Maybe I want to be the one to achieve the most incredible thing or the one to solve the biggest mystery or a problem in the world? (Just like the alien scientist in the planet orbiting Bettleguese(it is a very interesting star, by the way), found the first evidence of extraterrestrial life in a blue planet in our solar system in 2020).
Maybe this is the one we seek “to invent time travel” ⏳? If this is the one thing that every human seek, then there is only one seat available? This makes so sad.

Okay. Suppose I get all of it. What would I do? What will I be?

Will I be seeking more things, even after I get all those things? Then I asked myself, “will I be happy?” even if I get all of that. Maybe not. We have seen many successful people being miserable. “What makes me happy?”.

Wait, this is weird. Why did I want to be happy?

Then I thought, why do I need those above things and why I wanted to seek those things? Maybe I want to proud and show others that ” I am a great man”.
Why do I want to show off to others and show myself as a great person? What will it bring to me?

Then after thinking more about that for almost an hour, by laying in the bed, with both hands wide open, looking into the abyss. I just realized I want to be happy. All those things just make me happy. That’s it. Nothing more.

So, my conclusion is, we humans want happiness (if not everyone, then at least I am 😅).

Me 1:OMG! This is so simple. I don’t think this is correct.
Me 2:wait a minute. Why things have to be complicated?
Me 1: Well, Life is something mysterious and complicated. Isn’t it?
Me 2: Maybe. .. . .. . . . .  Maybe not.

So, guys, I may be wrong, but I just want to think more about it.  I just shared a glimpse of my thought process. If you want to say anything, then you can say it to me. I would love to learn from others.

I believe we can only improve when we truly put ourselves without shame in the judgement of others so that we can know where we went wrong and where we are right. And what can we do to improve.

Curtains are dropping. The show is over. Once again, I would love your comments.

In my next post, I like to write my thoughts on “what is happiness?”. Consider reading it.

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact me via email: sathishkannan6000@gmail.com. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also, check out my Contact page for more information.

If you like my work, you can support me at Patreon. ☕

I was doing my mathematical project this week. It was about t-statistics 🤓.  A thought came to my mind about applying t-statistics to trend price of a stock and, in turn, make some sweet money🤑. Since I am going to have end semester exams soon in 2-3 days. It is on my bucket list for this summer.

Then this crazy idea hit me. Let’s assume there is a gambling🎲 game. The rules of the game are I can choose head or tail. More clearly, I can bet my money💲 on head or tail. Then a coin is tossed. If I get it right, then my money would double. If I lose, then my money would be gone.

This is my idea. I would bet, say, 100 in the head. If I win, I will take the 200, then I will bet 100 in head or tail according to my wish. Here is where things get a little interesting. If I lose, then I would bet 200 on the head again. Because the probability that I am going to get tail twice in succession is 1/4. Hence the probability of me winning is 3/4. Most probably, I will win now and go out with 400, that is 100 in profit.

Even if I lose the 2nd time. I would bet 800 on the head again. The probability of winning is 7/8 now. If I win now, I will walk away with 100 in profit in total. Even if I lose the 3rd time, I will double my bet as long as I want. In the end, I would always end up with 100 in profit. Cool!😎 Right? I found the infinite money glitch💸—no more worries for the rest of my life.

Now, I decided to test my theory, but I didn’t want to risk real money. I knew about the binary options in the Olymp trade📈. In which, you have to predict whether the price of a specific stock will be greaterup or less than the current price after a specific amount of time. If I win, I will get up to 82% to 10% of the money I have placed. To increase my chance of making a profit, since I wouldn’t get 100% of the money I placed. I decided to triple the betting amount If I lose. This would significantly increase my profit.

I downloaded the app📱. They have a demo account, where we can learn binary options trading using demo money. I started trading. Since stock price is set by everyday people like me who are trading. They would be random; they have an equal probability of going up or down (50-50 probability).

I started trading. I just started with 10 demo dollars. To my surprise, I doubled my money within 24 trades. Just kidding😜. I lost all my demo money which was 10,000, after trading 10-15 times. . This sounds wrong. Maybe the app is biased and just try to scam money from people.

I realised this is not app’s fault. It is my fault. I made an error in my calculations. I assumed that since the chance of something happening in succession is less, I have a good chance of winning. But when I do it over several times, the chance of me losing in succession (ex: getting tails in succession) at least once becomes larger. For example, the chance of getting two heads in succession in two throws is 1/4, but if I make four such throws, the chance of it happening at least one time is quite high. So, I would lose the second time, if I do that large number of times. Then you may say that just double the bet for the third time. If I lose again, then you would say, double the bet the fourth time.

But here is the problem. I assumed that there is no cap to the betting amount in reality, but I am wrong. Since I double or triple my bet amount every time I lose, the amount escalates quickly to a huge number. For example, if I started with 10 and tripled the bet amount every time. Then in the second bet, it would be 30, then 90,270,810, 2430, then 8290. If I lose that, I will lose all my money in my demo account. So, the max cap of money I have and the increasing probability when I do it many times say that I would lose all my money in the end. Luckily that was a demo account.

So, the takeaway for me is a small mistake in mathematics can cost you so much if you are not careful. I learned from my mistake. But I am going to apply t-statistic to the trend price of the stock in the summer.

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact me via email: sathishkannan6000@gmail.com. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also, check out my Contact page for more information.

If you like my work, you can support me at Patreon. ☕

One of my favourite quotes from Austin kleon,😇 the author of “Show Your Work” 📝

If you look back closely at history, many of the people who we think of as lone geniuses were actually part of “a whole scene of people who were supporting each other, looking at each other’s work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas.”

I always been a no-sharer. From kindergarten to bachelor’s degree. That’s not because I m selfish. It was because, I never thought sharing our ideas will bring any fruitful result. I thought instead of sharing our ideas, explaining and convincing people. We can just work on our idea by ourselves and try to improve and implement it.

But I decided to give it a try. I created along with two of my friends a whatsapp group called study club, where we would share our ideas, and even our progress. This made me somewhat accountable to them. As time went on, I found that the club thrived (though sometimes we stopped it totally) in the long run. I also found that my relationship with them also improved and I started to learn from them more than what I was giving away.

Two days ago, Ali Abdaal (youtuber) tweeted asking for ideas for his next video on making a personal website. I shared my idea of hosting a ghost.org website with github pages. In this way, we don’t need to pay any hosting cost and I suggested that it would be a boon for students who are starting it out. That comment got so much likes, and people commented asking for resources to do that. This made me realize, people really need  this kind of stuff. Also, I realized “something I thought to be simple 🤓, may not be so simple to others, who are beginners”.

Also, I found that sharing our work help us to get valuable feedback, which could totally change the work we are doing. No more days of spending days on a project, which is illogical but somehow our brain🧠 couldn’t catch that.

Thank you for reading. If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact via email: sathishkannan6000@gmail.com. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also check out my Contact page for more information.

If you like my work, you can support me at Patreon.

If you have suggestions or want to get feedback on my posts. You can also contact me via email: sathish@sathishkannan.me. Follow me @ Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook for updates on my blog and my work.   Also, check out my Contact page for more information.

If you like my work, you can support me at Patreon. ☕