“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

- Victor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning

As a Holocaust survivor, Victor Frankl went through some of the most horrific experiences ever known to man. Yet, from within the depths of extreme and severe suffering, he developed insights that helped change the world for the better.

Stephen Covey used Frankl’s insight to develop Habit 1: Be Proactive in his hugely popular book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

More importantly, I think Frankl’s insight is also the building block of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), developed by Dr. Albert Ellis. REBT is a cornerstone of the ‘change from within’ towards serenity and fulfillment.

Here’s a brief clip of Victor Frankl, on the search for meaning, with students at a conference in Toronto:

Related posts:

1. Xerox trumps Google in Natural Language Search

Six months have elapsed since I wrote about the challenges for 2010. It is painfully obvious that blogging is taking a back seat to social networking. However, that is not the complete story.

Time and again, I have mentioned that for me, writing is a vehicle to greater clarity of mind. Which is why I have used this blog as a vehicle to raise issues that made me unquiet. In the past couple of years, this unquietness has faded away and a serenity has taken its place.

I have spent the past several months thinking about whether this serenity is a cynical, nihilistic futility of an existentialist flavor or a true acceptance of the world around me. I am not entirely sure, and perhaps I may never know.

What I do know is that instead of becoming unquiet over how religion is misused for nefarious purposes, or how the spirit of scientific inquiry is lost in today’s education, or how politicians and gangsters are tearing the very fabric of society, I have come to accept that no one can change any of this by blogging about it. There is a quiet acceptance of this within me now, and a realization that there is only one thing I can do, and that is how I conduct myself as a person and raise my daughter as a father.

It is this drive, this force within me to continue to change and fully immerse myself in raising a child that makes me think that my quietness is not nihilistic, but simply realistic.

I wonder if I will blog more if I forget the title of my blog. There are times when I have felt like writing – about positive things, enjoyable experiences, fulfilling adventures – but did not because there was nothing ‘unquiet’ about them. Does this mean I will need to change the title of my blog that I have lovingly built over the years? Now, that thought certainly makes me unquiet.

Related posts:

1. An Unquiet Mind of A Social Geek
2. I Can Has CNN
3. Review and Rating for An Unquiet Mind

What distresses me to a certain extent is the debate I observe on social networks among the Indian youth frames it as a two-sided issue: either you agree with SRK’s opinion that Pakistani players should be invited to play in India, or you disagree with him and back the Shiv Sena.

The current storm of controversy will abate quickly, but what really matters in the long run is how the debate is being framed.

Whether you agree or disagree with SRK is immaterial and inconsequential.

The Shiv Sena appears to have achieved its goal. From being relegated to anonymity after the humiliating debacle in the elections, they are back in the spotlight.

Their intimidation and utter disrespect of democratic principles has gained a certain legitimacy by being considered worthy of debate. That is the real worrisome trend that matters and has disastrous consequences.

Related posts:

1. India Should Cherish Democracy, Not Ban Orkut!
2. Strengthening Indian democracy – What can we do?
3. Traffic Road Sign in Pune, India

They are still used by some school children in India. Millions of them go to school today like this (image credit):

With heavy burdens on their back, no wonder they hate going to school.

When Steve Jobs unveils the Apple Tablet in a few hours from now, I will be part of the thousands who will witness this revolutionary device remotely. But the real revolution in my mind will happen when such devices become mainstays in educational institutions worldwide.

No doubt the tablet will be great for entertainment, gaming, reading, and news consumption. But no other application has a greater, lasting impact, than that which revolutionizes learning.

As Joe Wilcox describes it, a “unified content platform, mixing different media types and live information” holds tremendous potential during the formative young years of our lives.

Imagine a classroom where students had access to live information about any topic under the sun. That is the world I want my kid to grow up in. When that happens, it will be the real tablet revolution.

(Written before Apple iPad launch; cross-posted from Skeptic Geek)

Related posts:

1. Timeless vs Real Time
2. Real Unreality of Stem Cell Research
3. Who’s the “Real” American Idol?

Cameron has uplifted the benchmark for Hollywood blockbusters and created a new level of entertainment. Suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. It will be an unforgettable experience.

The Medium

3D

Should You watch it in 2D if 3D tickets are not yet available? No.

It’s like this. Let’s say you’ve never flown in a plane before and are given a choice of flying business class in the flight next week, or economy today. You will enjoy the economy ride, but you will miss the comfort of business class. From another, more important perspective, it’s a question of experiencing an art form as the artist wished it to be experienced. If artistic integrity matters to you, watch Avatar as Cameron intended you to watch it.

Cameron has likened 3D to the addition of color in cinema, which reveals how integral it is to the Avatar experience. He invented a new generation of high-resolution, maneuverable, 3D cameras for Avatar and persuaded Sony to manufacture it. Read more of the background story here.

The use of 3D in the film is extremely subtle. It never distracts, but simply adds to the immersive experience.

Uncanny Valley

Cameron and Weta Digital’s greatest achievement in Avatar in my opinion is conquering the uncanny valley. The evolution from motion-capture to performance-capture is a milestone in film-making. It took Weta one full year to perfect its algorithms to map the actor’s expressions onto the animated characters without creating the uncanny valley revulsion and actually making them empathetic. You can read more about this behind-the-scenes technology here.

The Message

The Potpourri

Sci-Fi? Yes. Romantic Adventure? Yes. Action/War Movie? Yes. Political Statement? Yes. A Green Statement? Yes.

The movie is all of these packed into a 160-min blockbuster. Leave your fine cinematic sensibilities behind if you want to enjoy the immersive experience. Avatar was not made for art film critics. It was created to awe and it does that exceedingly well.

The Sci-Fi, Romance, and Action-War genres are given full treatment beyond your wildest expectations and imaginations. An alien civilization with its own language, inter-species romance, and futuristic battle spaceships in combat with aliens riding on monsters will leave your appetite for Sci-Fi, Romance, and Action fully satiated.

Anti-War

A moral message of anti-war underlies the movie, but is rendered impotent as the movie uses full-blown action war sequences for the intended purpose of entertainment. Artistic integrity? No. Hypocritical? Yes.

One line in the dialog on “answering terror with terror” almost made me feel that Michael Moore was involved in the script-writing. There are actually only fleeting passages in the movie that actually evoke an anti-war sentiment, the rest of it is where you actually enjoy the thrill of war.

The Green Balance of Life

The only personal review I had read before watching the movie was by Nita, who was moved by its green message that stressed the Balance of Life. I found the green message quite far-fetched, unsubstantiated, and unscientific. I’ve argued before that we need to pull religion out of environmentalism and take a scientific approach if we’re to care about our planet.

The nature-worshipping alien civilization on Pandora practices an occult environmentalism that harks back to mysticism. Such a mindset is actually harmful not just to planet Earth, but to human beings as well. Learning to live with nature requires scientific observation of nature, invention of medicines to treat natural diseases, the invention of disaster-response infrastructure to deal with natural calamities, and so on. It doesn’t mean relinquishing science to live in harmony with nature in caves or under a mystical tree as the aliens do on Pandora.

This nature-worshipping message is delivered to us via a medium of extreme hi-tech engineering. Does the message overrule the medium? In Avatar, the message fails, the medium triumphs. In this case, the medium is not the message.

Related posts:

1. A to Z of Films Meme (T)
2. TV Ad Break Intervals
3. A to Z of Films Meme (S) Winner

Highlights Of 2009

This has been a busy year. 75 posts on An Unquiet Mind in 2009 with about 1,500 comments! 46 posts at MakeUseOf.com and 30 on my newly started tech blog, Skeptic Geek, both of which involve several hours of work. Have I become a writing machine? I hope not.

The biggest news was of course, setting up two blogs on my own domain here.

The most popular series of posts here was undoubtedly the A-Z of Films Meme, now enshrined on its own page at Favorite Films A to Z. Thanks to all of you, for your participation, critique, suggestions, and involvement, that made it so memorable!

Unlike Krish Ashok and Asuph, I am not a good writer of humor. I did take a stab with my own attempts at satire, with Virtues of Politicians, Rulebook for Indian TV News Producers, The Straight Dope FAQ on Indian Elections 2009, and How To Become A Spiritual Guru.

There were two serious ethical inquiries that garnered a lot of feedback and commentary. The look at Religion vs. Gender Equality and Feminism remains one of the most popular posts. In Mentally Challenged, Raped, Pregnant. Abort?, we confronted difficult moral and legal issues surrounding the trial about an unfortunate victim.

Outside the blog, some of you have approached me via email occasionally for technical assistance with blogging, while I have had the fortune of meeting some of you in real life. Blogging has now permeated my real life. Some of you have placed trust in me, and I hope that I have respected your privacy despite solicitations for contact or other information.

The Social Networking Challenge

Blogging may be getting increasingly popular, but among my network of Indian Bloggers, it faces challenges from micro-blogging and social networking. From my blogroll, outstanding bloggers like Gauri (42), Rambodoc (A Twist of Word and Mind), Paul (Café Philos), Shefaly (La Vie Quotidienne), and Ruhi (Time and Again) have become sporadic. Some are active on Twitter, while others don’t use it at all. Some spend a lot of time inside Facebook, while others have recently started using it. Nita (A Wide Angle View of India) who is not into social-networking, is the most regular on her blog. Others, like Amreekan Desi, Priyank, Gauri, Atul, Prerna, Harini, and Poonam are fairly regular at blogging as well as online social networking in one form or another. Very few, like Asuph, seem to be able to strike A Fine Balance between blogging, Facebook and Twitter.

At present, I am pulled in multiple directions online. Apart from my two personal blogs here and my writing for MakeUseOf, I am active on two Twitter accounts (professionally as @ScepticGeek, personally as @Palsule). I also try to keep up with friends on Facebook, and now spend very little time on FriendFeed, once my beloved network.

I read all blog posts from all of you blogger friends, but I don’t spend time commenting on each of them as much as I’d like to do so. One of my goals for 2010 is to seek that elusive balance between my online activities, though I suspect it will always remain a struggle.

Blogroll Update

The concept of the blogroll held different meanings for different people, and now it has largely become meaningless. There is no point in me having you on my blogroll if you don’t read my blog or engage with me online and the same applies the other way around. There is no point in me sending visitors to your blog if you don’t blog regularly. I actually wonder if there are any such people who come to your blogs via mine. So, I am thinking of doing away with it altogether. Let me know your thoughts.

Blogging Networks

In my initial blogging days, I was an active blogger with Indian Mutiny, which has now gone into print media. Harsha, who introduced and pulled me to that network, no longer blogs himself. I had put a lot of effort and time into serious blogging for Indian Mutiny, particularly with my posts surrounding the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. Once bitten, twice shy, I have stayed away from networks like DesiPundit, DesiCritics, and BlogBharti.

However, current trends indicate that blog networks will play an important role in acting as a platform to take your blog to a wider audience. Some of you are active on these networks. I confess I am largely uneducated about these Indian blog networks and will appreciate your thoughts in this regard.

Subject Matters That Don’t Matter

Looking ahead to 2010, I see cynicism as one of the challenges for this blog. In my first two years, I wrote substantially on current affairs and politics. I have now realized that blogging about Indian politics doesn’t make an iota of difference to anyone in real life. Why take the time to write about it at all? Hence, at least at present, I don’t see myself writing much about current affairs and politics on this blog, except with satire.

I will continue to engage myself and my readers in fundamental issues within the spheres of society, ethics, democracy, psychology, and law. Writing is a means towards clarity of mind, and these posts and your comments help me refine my understanding of such issues.

A Time For Gratitude

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude for taking the time to read my blog posts, comment on them, disagree with my perspective, teach me new ways of thinking, and sharing your thoughts.

This blog is where an unquiet mind has shared itself, and you, my friends, have often made it quiet again. Thank you.

Related posts:

1. Indian Blogging Statistics
2. About blogging delays…
3. A Quieter Mind

Blood, bullets, and deaths. Brutal violence. Screams. Helplessness. Despair. Pain. Courage.

A nation of a billion aspiring to be on the UN Security Council brought to its knees by just ten armed terrorists.

Hundreds died. Thousands wept. Millions panicked. A billion were terrorized.

The killers didn’t distinguish between rich and poor. They did distinguish between foreigners and Indians, Muslims and Jews.

If you think this was insanity, you’re part of the problem. If you think this is simply misguided Religion, you’re part of the problem. This is Evil disguised as Insanity. The gunmen were plucking the flowers and hoping to snatch the fruits of this religious tree. The tree was carefully planted and nurtured by those who were controlling the attackers via phones. Just like it was by those who organized a “rath yatra” 17 years ago.

No method in the madness? There was no method in the response. There was meticulous method in the act. Strategic and careful planning by the perpetrators. Helpless, unprepared, panicked response by India.

Voices of society, columnists, media, bloggers, politicians, and the public louder than the gunshots. The latter achieved their goal, the former didn’t. The latter acted, the former didn’t. The latter didn’t distinguish between the Taj and VT, the former did.

Today, it is Thanksgiving day in the United States. I offer my gratitude to the official and unofficial heroes of 26/11. They were people who acted with reason, in response to the madness around them. Some of them saved many lives. Some of them died. I refuse to believe that they died in vain. Their courage has inspired many people, especially young people. They are saviors of our sanity.

A year later. A fatwa against a patriotic song. The response? A gracious visit by the Home Minister to those issuing it. Zealots from one religion destroying another’s structure, causing mayhem. 17 years later, wounds that have not yet healed. Every religion that has a sizeable following in this “secular” nation has seriously injured it. One man sits in its parliament as the Leader of Opposition, another sits in Pakistan. Does it matter whether the roots of evil grow within the nation or outside it?

But this nation and its billion people continue to believe that religion is actually for the good, it is only misused by a few who are misguided. Continue to nurture the tree, prune it’s misguided branches and it will grow right back again.

Water the tree, nurture it, feed it. Don’t act surprised by the violence, the blood, and the deaths. Don’t blame the gunmen. It was their form of “prayer”, you see? Haven’t we all been taught not to question or doubt another’s form of religion or method of prayer? That is what “secularism” means, right?

Are you protesting about the attack on MLAs or media outlets? You shouldn’t because the attackers were “provoked”. Just like the 26/11 planners & gunmen. You can’t blame one and not the other. Don’t paint nude pictures or draw cartoons of holy figures. Anyone who’s religious sentiments have been provoked have a right to violence.

Want to get votes but have no clue about economics, national growth, infrastructural development, etc.? Religion is your ticket, baby. Either encourage one of them, or claim to embrace all of them. Use it wisely, for it wields enormous power over millions of human beings. They will kill each other for it. Just like they have done so many times, repeatedly.

The intelligentsia? Don’t worry. They will methodically criticize government shortcomings, police inefficiencies, lack of emergency response plans, lack of coordination between security forces, etc. Religion is sacred, it will remain untouched and unharmed, as it has for centuries, even after millions of human beings have been killed by this evil power.

After 26/11, there will be numerous other such dates. There have been many of them over decades, over centuries. Generations have passed, millions of people have died. Religion is the sole survivor. And it will continue to kill, until mankind discovers that Religion is Evil in disguise.

Related posts:

1. Encouraging Superstition on TV
2. Religion vs. Gender Equality & Feminism
3. Tree Tops in Manali

Some online friends connected with me on social networks like Twitter and Facebook already know this, but I was waiting for an official announcement before I wrote about it here. You can also read TechCrunch’s coverage here.

If you’re not in the tech field, you’ve probably not heard of Techmeme. It is a news aggregation site that works for technology news where Google News fails. It is a combination of automated aggregation and human editing.

Techmeme is highly regarded in the tech world, and my boss Gabe Rivera was listed as one of the Top 25 Influential People on the Web by Business Week last year.

The Journey

I took a break from the cubicle farms of the IT industry last year. After spending some time with my baby daughter & family, I switched gears to working online. As most of my blogger friends know, I started writing for MakeUseOf.com as a contributor, and am now a staff writer. I still needed additional work to completely replace my full-time day job routine and have finally reached that goal with this opportunity.

The Change

In some ways, the change from the IT world to the online Media world is like my shift from Mumbai to Pune. A suburban local train getting delayed in Mumbai because of an accident meant being late for office rather than concern for the possible loss of human life. A team member getting sick meant the project getting delayed rather than concern about my team member. A world where I was a slave to schedules dictated by others, constraints imposed by others, filled with competition like in a rat-race. A world saturated with ambition, stress, pressures, politics, performance-based incentives, frustrations, commuting long-distance in traffic, and sometimes, disillusionment.

Pune is serene, laid-back, and relaxed. In my real and online life, I can focus on value, enjoy my freedom, use my judgment. I choose my own topics. I can express myself the way I like. I can use my editorial judgment to decide what to publish or exclude. Clean air makes you think clearly, and the comfort of working from home relaxes you.

The Job

Because Techmeme is so highly regarded, it is always under the scanner and keenly watched; at times, even criticized.

Being a human editor is thus a great responsibility, and one that I hope to carry well. My diverse experience in IT helps to fathom the spectrum of news that Techmeme deals with every day. I have always been reading and following online tech news since the early days of the Internet even before Google came into existence. Over the years, my appetite for information and ability to consume it refined to the extent that I was already researching and curating information for my CxO bosses in my IT job. Now, this hobby of mine is my work.

Can it get any better than this?

Related posts:

1. Himalaya: Personal Stories of Grandeur, Challenge, and Hope
2. Getting back from a hiatus
3. Favorite Films A to Z

If I were your personal diary, I will probably last your lifetime, even if you stop using me after a while. You’ll keep me under lock and key, and no one else will read it. You will always treasure me.

If I were a real greeting card, you must have looked at me fondly, caressed me as if I were precious. You may not look at me again for many years, but I’ll be stashed away in some drawer of “memories”. Some day, you will enjoy nostalgia going through that drawer.

If I were a photo from your childhood, I will be stuck in some family album. This family album will be a great source of joy during holidays when the whole family is together.

If I were a blog post, I will live for a few years at best. That is, unless my blog is hacked or accidentally wiped out. I will be happy if your children know the name of my blog.

If I were a JPEG, I’d be one among the millions on Facebook or Flickr. Some people you’ve never met in real life may look at me and write comments. If I offend the sensibilities or political opinions of the owners of such social networks, I may be deleted.

If I were an email, my life in your inbox will be a few hours. After you’ve read me, I will be deleted or archived, and forgotten forever.

If I were a status update on a social network, I’ll be real-time, one among many that flow like fallen leaves in your friends river of feeds. If I’m good, I might be “liked”, extending my life by a few more minutes.

If I were an IM or chat conversation, I am real-time. I exist for a few fleeting minutes. I am usually used just to say Hi, or pass a link. Nobody ever looks at me again, as I vanish from this universe usually without leaving a trace.

If I were a tweet, my value usually lasts a few minutes. I may be short, but I am real-time. If I am any good, I will be passed around, shared among people who don’t know much about each other beyond their 140 character bios.

[Cross-posted from Skeptic Geek]

Related posts:

1. The Terminal — For Real
2. Web Graveyard
3. Who’s the “Real” American Idol?

Background

Between 30 to 50% people suffer from a major depressive episode in their lifetime. It is generally considered to be a disease of the brain, an illness that needs treatment. In the millions of years of human evolution, natural selection was at work, ensuring that the ones among us who were best at surviving, adapting, and reproducing, carried the human species forward. Mental depression reduces ones ability to survive, adapt, and reproduce. It would then be reasonable to expect that those humans afflicted with this disease would have become extinct by now. The genes responsible for, or conducive to depression, should have eroded out of the thriving gene pool. But that, as we know, is far from the truth.

While animals are also known to experience depression, it is still an emerging field of research, and I am skeptic whether their sadness is just a rational response to external circumstances or is full-blown causeless depression like in humans.

Meredith Small, an anthropologist at Cornell wrote last year:

The capacity to feel presumably helps us solve problems and survive, and is essential for group living, and perhaps inconsolable depression is simply emotional baggage that tags along with the good stuff. Or maybe unhappiness and a tendency towards suicide is the product of the uncontrolled nature of our quicksilver minds. We think a lot, and our wondering minds are just as likely to think sad as happy.

LiveScience quotes Meredith in Why Did Evolution Produce Depression, along with Paul Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., who have argued in Scientific American that “depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits.”

The Hypotheses

The two scientists have published their views in a Scientific American article “Depression’s Evolutionary Roots”. The key points:

1. Depression should not be thought of as a disorder at all. They argue that depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits.
2. One reason to suspect that depression is an adaptation, not a malfunction, comes from research into a molecule in the brain known as the 5HT1A receptor….The ability to “turn on” depression would seem to be important, not an accident.
3. Depressed people often think intensely about their problems. These thoughts are analytical and persistent. Depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. This analytical style of thought, of course, can be very productive and can help you solve the problem causing the depression.
4. Analysis requires a lot of uninterrupted thought, and depression coordinates many changes in the body to help people analyze their problems without getting distracted.
5. Symptoms of depression make sense in light of the idea that analysis must be uninterrupted. The desire for social isolation helps the depressed person avoid situations that would require thinking about other things. Inability to derive pleasure from sex or other activities prevents the depressed person from engaging in activities that could distract him or her from the problem. Even the loss of appetite could be viewed as promoting analysis because chewing and other oral activity interferes with the brain’s ability to process information.
6. If depressive rumination were harmful, then bouts of depression should be slower to resolve when people are given interventions that encourage rumination, such as having them write about their strongest thoughts and feelings. However, the opposite appears to be true. Several studies have found that expressive writing promotes quicker resolution of depression, and they suggest that this is because depressed people gain insight into their problems.
7. There is another suggestive line of evidence. Various studies have found that people in depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas.
8. Depression is nature’s way of telling you that you’ve got complex social problems that the mind is intent on solving. Therapies should try to encourage depressive rumination rather than try to stop it, and they should focus on trying to help people solve the problems that trigger their bouts of depression.
   

Critique of An Unquiet Mind

1. The semantic difference between “disorder” and “adaptation” has huge ramifications and consequences in how society treats depressed people. These gentlemen have perhaps not thought through these ramifications. By their own account, they describe the unhealthy, self-destructive, treatment-worthy behavior of people in this state of mind, so what goals do we achieve by terming them an adaptation rather than an illness, disease, or disorder?
2. I am not sure if this is “missing the wood for the trees”. Humanity would benefit greatly if scientists studying the brain and depression focus on their excellence at dealing with trees and not try to paint the woods.
3. Analytical and persistent thinking in depression is usually in the form of obsession and brooding – two words, often associated with depression, conspicuously missing in the article. The obsessive nature of thinking in depression is rarely productive, and often self-destructive.
4. Dealing with lack of distraction in the next point, here I would like to point out the conspicuous absence of the discussion of anxiety in the article. Most forms of depression are closely associated with anxiety, and there is no discussion of whether anxiety also contributes to “productive analytical thinking”.
5. Uninterrupted “analysis” often leads to suicide. Not eating leads to serious physical harm. Substance abuse is also a serious problem with those afflicted with the illness of depression. The idea that suicide, starvation, and substance abuse “can be viewed as promoting analysis” is not just ridiculous, but very insensitive. The brains ability to process information is not enhanced by any of these activities.
6. The studies confirm that emotional expression is an important healing factor in depression. It is not just the writing, but the family, friends, consultation and therapy that follows it, which is often crucial for resolving issues.
7. The first study is of whether mood influences level of cooperation in people and had just two experiments. The second examines how family relationships are relevant to adolescent depression. The notion that people with depression are better at solving social dilemmas is again, preposterous and highly insensitive.
8. Many forms of human depression have no cause in the external world. It is not a rational response to an external social problem. It is often causeless and intrinsic or inborn. The scientists view of depression seems to be very narrow minded.

Conclusion

It is clear that we do not have any definite answer yet. Though Depression has been studied in all cultures, we do not know if it existed in early stages of evolution. If it didn’t, and we find that it has developed in recent history (in evolutionary terms), I’m sure natural selection will eventually eliminate it.

Meanwhile, it does not behoove Scientific American to publish such articles. If you want to learn about mental depression, here is the best place to start.

Related posts:

1. Fastest Evolution Ever Observed
2. Human Rights and Amnesty