The Eternally Surprised - On Food Psychology and Economy

I have moved to Posterous!

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:35:00 +0000

I have moved my blog to Posterous.Please visit me at http://shudh.posterous.com/

Remembering MJ: A Collage Competition

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:51:00 +0000

On Friday, 3rd July 2009 a collage competition was held in the memory of late icon Michael Jackson.As this competition was an intra-office event , not many people were able to enjoy the same.I have taken pictures of almost all the competing collages here (as I receive more entries I would update it) for you to visualize and to make it more interesting, I have given an option to vote (Digg – style) for the users to be the judge and to bring the most desrving collage to the top.At this point, I also feel that it would be just to bring to your notice that our collage-entry to this event is also displayed here (!)

I had to create two voting widgets below as PollsB would not allow me to put more than five photos for voting in one widget.It would be helpful if you can vote on only one collage (although you have the option to vote twice in both the columns).But if you like more than one collage you may vote on both columns!You are encouraged to post a comment on why you have selected one collage over another.

For those participants who would like to see their collage here,please feel free to write (or post a comment)

Resurrecting the dying arts and artists of India

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:59:00 +0000

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better. Andre Gide (1869 - 1951)

This weekend I visited The Fine Arts Institute where an event was organized to promote Indian Arts & Artists.I was impressed by the fine artwork and the use of vibrant natural colours.I spoke to the Mural Painter from Wayanad, Kerala (a southern state of India).I came to know that Murals,one of India's ancient folk arts,is dying out from a lack of patrons and the initiative that are taken to protect both (The Art & The Artists) are "Too Little,Too Late!"

A few steps ahead from the Mural exhibition were the Gond Paintings,a tribal art from Madhya Pradesh (a state in middle India).I also spoke to the Gond artist who told me that each Gond painting is inspired by a folklore and he narrated to me the pictorial discourse of "Birth of river Narmada" through his painting.Although he was proud to show me the "Best Gond Painter Award" given to him by the Government but the sad undertone in his voice as a consequence of lack of business & patrons was palpable. Below is a visual representation of my experience.


View in Maps

This morning on my breakfast table when I read an article in supplement of The Economic Times which states that the buyers of Art/Paintings are more concerned about "who they are buying' rather than 'what they are buying!" I feel that our poor and genuine artists are losing out in this digital age of shameless self publicity with big media houses and investment bankers only promoting the self-proclaimed "celebrity artists" which left me with a bitter breakfast aftertaste. I believe that ,with you, WE can make a difference! I request you to spare two minutes of your busy schedule to fill the form here and enable me with your valuable suggestion so that WE can find a way to resurrect this dying art form.I would publish this survey result shortly and based on the result of this survey SurprisedCloud would sponsor the entire application development and deployment effort for this cause. Loading...
By the way there were other handicrafts on display in the exhibition. I have also uploaded this video for a complete virtual tour.

Know the difference in your Twitter contact list from within Google Reader

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:37:00 +0000

If you have been thinking of writing a small utility which does a difference in your follower list based on predefined Twitter Time Synchronization,there is a good news.
You don't have to write this application yourself.I reviewed it yesterday and I was fairly impressed by the results unlike Qwitter.

I followed the following steps:
1) Created an account with http://twitdiff.appspot.com/splash (Basically giving Twitter OAuth permissions)
2)Consumed the RSS feed after setup in Google Reader (reader.google.com), which is my general purpose web content reader.
3)This morning I opened Google Reader habitually & my twitdiff feed was also updated here

Part I : The Evolution of a Cat from matter to mind & nothingness

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:35:00 +0000

This is the first part of my multi-part series through which I would track the quest of a clairvoyant cat through the annals of reasoning , faith , philosophy , physics and software engineering.

Background:Last month my mother-in-law presented me a book written by Immanuel Kant in German (Zum ewigen Frieden und andere Schriften). Although I don’t read German but my better half could always help me with the translation.The problem was that I suddenly remembered an advise from Will Durant that said “Kant is the last person whom we should read on Kant.To adapt Hegel’s phrase about Spinoza: to be a philosopher , one must first have been a Kantian.” During one such intense read of Durant in the backseat of office bus I imagined a mythical , clairvoyant cat which would travel with me through the brightest human minds of all times and reflect their reasoning,perception & deduction and finally arrive at our contemporary software era.

Let us adjust the space-time surrounding to reach George Berkley’s drawing room to meet our clairvoyant cat who is measuring him with a sidelong stare.The cat can almost hear Berkley’s thoughts in his ears :

“there is nothing in the mind except that was first in the senses” (1) which is untrue as the reality of the cat is only that its image is projecting on the retina of my eyes…the cat is a mere quantum of my consciousness made up of fur,tail , claws and other body parts..if I was devoid of senses the lazy cat would lose its existence … so the cat extrapolated to all matter living or non-living would cease to exist without mind (2)

</Out of the Cat’s Mind>

The cat now cognizant of destruction of matter curled its tail against its body in fear.But the same voice on the back of its head told that it would soon discover a mind so powerful that it would destroy itself!! It was essential for the mind to be destroyed now for the survival of matter. The wait following the anticipation was over soon , David Hume at the mere age of twenty-six wrote A Treatise of Human Nature in France, and our cat deduced:

Our understanding and the recognition of mind , is identical to our ways of recognition of matter , via perception!! “The mind is not a substance,an organ that has ideas ;it is only an abstract name for the series of ideas” (3)

</Out of the Cat’s Mind>

The cat heaved a sigh of relief now that the ultimate judge of the matter , the mind, is destroyed.But then after a little introspection it realized that both matter and mind have been destroyed by Berkley & Hume respectively. The history stood a mute spectator of this annihilation! The cat was in search of another brilliant mind..

(1)Locke (2) In the same way this phenomenon applied to household cleanliness would destroy all the dirt and unstable state being the most stable state (Law of Thermodynamics), together prevents us to have a clean and ordered living space (Is my wife listening!) (3) Wil Durant – The Story of Philosophy

PHOTO COURTESY : The evolution of cat photo is an wonderful work by Mzelle Biscotte , the license details are here and the black cat photo is a great work by fazen released with the following license

Part I : The Evolution of a Cat from matter to mind & nothingness by Shudh Datta is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 India License.

Idea Killers

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:42:00 +0000

Have you felt that your genuine ideas are being turned down at some level or the other during the process of conception to Intellectual Property creation?

Ever felt that an idea of yours had the capability of redefining the market but was still measured against the existing market! Ever felt that the Business Review Process applied to your technical innovation falls miserably short to assess the potential of your idea?

Well don’t feel lonely as a recent study shows what would have been the fate of the major discoveries of all times if they were “subjected to the type of reviewing process to which psychologists are forced to submit their manuscripts. In some ways, behavioural scientists are too critical, and in other ways they are insufficiently so.”

I find the following very interesting from the list of papers Trafimow and Rice believed would have been rejected. Newton's Laws of Motion and Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. Mr. Einstein would have been told that “At best, your theory provides an incremental contribution, which is not sufficiently strong to justify publication in a journal as competitive as ours.” and as far as Mr. Newton was concerned,following would have been the reply

“

Dear Isaac,

I had the good luck to obtain reviews from four experts and all within the relatively quick period of 3 months. Although there were some positive comments, the general consensus was negative. Reviewer A felt that your theory was too abstract and mathematical to be of interest to scientists who are interested in the real universe. In comparison with other, similar theories, even as far back as those from the ancient Greeks, your theory does not have the descriptive richness that is required. Reviewer B also complained about this, but is more willing to tolerate it if you could back it up with data. But, in fact, you do not do so. Therefore, Reviewer B considers your theory to be nothing but an ingenious story.

Reviewer C made the most serious criticism. This reviewer points out that you fail to provide independent definitions of your terms. What is mass? What is force? What is acceleration? Reviewer C acknowledges that you can define each of these in terms of the others, but that merely makes your theory circular. To avoid the circularity, at least one of these terms has to be defined independently of the others, and you fail to do so. Consequently, there is no way to know what your theory actually means. Perhaps if your theory included more descriptive richness, as Reviewer A recommends, it would help with Reviewer C's problem.

Reviewer D also pointed out a serious shortcoming. According to this reviewer, your laws merely summarize what others, such as Galileo and Kepler have found, without actually adding anything new to the literature. In fact, your first law is a restatement of Galileo, and your other laws do not really tell us anything new. For example, Kepler's laws explain the orbits of the planets, and Reviewer D states quite frankly that there is simply no need for your manuscript. After my own independent reading of your manuscript, I agree with the reviewers' criticisms. Therefore, I am declining to publish your manuscript. I am sorry to have had to be the bearer of bad news, but I trust that you will find the reviewers' comments useful if you decide to submit your manuscript to another journal. Thank you for considering our journal as an outlet for your research.

DECISION: Reject

”

To conclude it might not be very cheerful to have one’s idea analyzed & perhaps criticized.May be next time the key stake holders of the business should think twice before turning down the idea of a mere developer.Who knows they by their very act of rejection is setting the mankind ten years behind.

Do read the full paper here.

Photo Courtesy: Posted By smlp.co.uk and issued under the license detailed here

Special thanks to the wonderful posts from “The British Psychological Society’s Research Digest Blog” for the conception of this article

When a million droplets merge…………

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:57:00 +0000

While coming back from work tonight , the office bus took the by-lane.Unfortunately, barely after 10 minutes of motion we came to an abrupt halt.An ant-like queue of vehicle was formed as far as my eyes could see ahead.Little depressed i picked up my phone to call home and say i would buy the vegetables tomorrow. Unmindfully , i casted a glance on highway beside which was moving.The highway was separated from us by a concrete divider.

And then i saw in disbelief that our driver walked out and started to collect the road side boulders to bridge the gap.Alas,that was not enough! And then the HCLites in the bus flowed out like tiny droplets and together as a stream they moved cement bags. We finally managed to bridge the gap amongst the rising cheer of the stuck vehicles.The bus finally jumped to the highway and a strong wind kissed the foreheadof the winners.

I looked back to see other vehicles were following the path just created and thought to myself a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.And together HCL is capable of taking that step.

Photo Courtesy:

The droplets photo is produced by aussiegall and the license details are here

The other photo is taken on my HTC Smartphone

Is someone predating on Collective Intelligence

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Are you a modern traveler? Do you research through the
endless travel sites, bulletin boards , google maps mashups with travel sites to get context sensitive travel data ? You may need to re-think before you do so next time!!As a recent study suggests that entities with vested interest are trying to manipulate the wisdom of crowd by giving incentives for a favorable review.As explained here

Consequently,the economist travel advisory is moving away from the bottom of the pyramid where the so-called wisdom lies to the vertex of the pyramid towards the single-source guides!(Referece:The Economist)

But what I feel is the better model would be not to base ones deductions on the object of interest , say hotel if you are a traveler.Instead you would be more precise and less gullible if you base your decision making process with the selected sample size of the crowd who have similar tastes or likings.
I do agree that there is a huge challenge in finding the right sample population from the astronomic crowd.But applications like Likaholix
are taking steps in this directions.

I believe that wisdom of crowd is still relevant provided we use it as a vector quantity having both magnitude and direction rather than a scalar quantity with only magnitude!

Image Courtsey : The source of this image is Rathika Ramasamy and is available under the following creative commons license.

Is someone predating on Collective Intelligence by Shudh-Eternally surprised Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 India License.

Offbeat : Food For Art

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:06:00 +0000

Her eyes were large and dark, the fire of life had taken half her bitterness away........ suppressing the other half was the shiny steel of time, then through the soft disguise of pure grains flashed an expression more of pride than ire, And love than either; and there would arise, A something in them which was not desire, But would have been, perhaps, but for the soul, Which struggled through and chastened down the whole.

CASTING

The eyes Sliced bitter gourd burnt slowly in low fat

Base for the eyes Re-warmed sliced potatoes from lunch

Steel of Time New stainless steel plate

Pure grains Noorjahan Basmati Rice

Nose Proud drumstick

Behind the Idea My better half

Time and Location Tonight's dinner plate @ home

Inspired By Lord Byron

Under Fork: Chole Bhature in Koramangala

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:54:00 +0000

There is nothing like a warm plate of Chole Bhature on a lazy Saturday morning.Unlike Delhi,one hardly finds the omnipresent Chole Bhature with the divine green chutney that goes with it in Bangalore .
So, last Saturday morning found me in the Halwai Shop of Koramangala in search of those rare golden discs.The sign board before the shop looked promising and we went in.The menu card was a polythene wrapped photocopy of the vision of shop owner which was edited numerous times due to lack of demand!Chole ,which was ready to be served, was an warm amalgamation of a non-viscous charcoal colored broth with over-soaked chole.The bhatures took almost half an hour to arrive.It looked very pale compared to the original chole bhatures of Delhi and the green chutney was missing.My friend ordered gobi paranthes and the stuffing was made from cauliflowers fished out of cauliflower curry.Although visually pleasing they failed to stimulate the taste buds.Might be they should find themselves a Punjabi Cook as both chole bhatures and paranthes are not the core-competencies of the eastern India (assuming the chef hails from either Orissa,West Bengal or Bihar).

Go there only if :

You dont know of any place serving authentic chole bhatures and paranthas
You want to sit n eat (as Anand sweets which is in vicinity makes you stand and experience their delights)
You are badly missing chole bhatures and you would stop at nothing

Pricing Information: Both the prices of Chole Bhatures and Paranthes were Rs. 45 /plate which my friend complanined are anything but value for money.

How To Reach There : Please click the map below to enlarge and follow the blue line from Forum Mall in Koramangala..
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;small&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a style='color: rgb(0, 0, 255); text-align: left;' href='http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;msa=0&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;ll=12.933818,77.619106&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;spn=0.004758,0.009398&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;msid=111941116164710074827.0004526007b7caeaf79d1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;source=embed'&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;View Larger Map&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/small&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a target='_blank' href='http://s312.photobucket.com/albums/ll360/destined2doom/?action=view&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;current=AccountofLifeLogocopy.jpg'&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img border='0' alt='Photobucket' src='http://i312.photobucket.com/albums/ll360/destined2doom/AccountofLifeLogocopy.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;ALL Rights Reserved &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Generation of Egos

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:12:00 +0000

A few days back I had to admonish my younger brother for his irresponsible and "not so mature" behavior.During his summer break from engineering school and "Meet the Parents" time of the year , he suddenly decided to disappear without informing anyone in the family!

Our discussion concluded in the mundane phrases which boils down to "this is my life..and...I can decide" and usual communication gap that ornates the generations from aeons.
Instead of getting upset I was surprised to find myself smiling on the phone and pondering that I might have tried to resolve the issue more amicably, had there been a role reversal.

Today I discovered a research paper viz. "Egos Inflating Over Time: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory" in the Journal of Personality.
The research headed by Jean M. Twenge, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University found that the individualistic traits comprising of egotism and narcissism shows almost 30 % increase from our generation (1979–1985).

The research abstract states that a cross-temporal meta-analysis found that narcissism levels have risen over the generations in 85 samples of American college students who completed the 40-item forced-choice Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) between 1979 and 2006 (total n=16,475). Mean narcissism scores were significantly correlated with year of data collection when weighted by sample size (β=.53, p<.001). Since 1982, NPI scores have increased 0.33 standard deviation. Thus, almost two-thirds of recent college students are above the mean 1979–1985 narcissism score, a 30% increase. The results complement previous studies finding increases in other individualistic traits such as assertiveness, agency, self-esteem, and extraversion. Although the sample of the selected population are Americans but I find that the rate of increase of individualistic traits in India almost proportionate to that in Americas.Below is an extrapolated snap shot of quantified ego :)..

References
The British Psychology Research Blog here
Twenge, J.M., Konrath, S., Foster, J.D., Keith Campbell, W., Bushman, B.J. (2008). Egos Inflating Over Time: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality

Under Fork: Marwari Food in Koramangala

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:28:00 +0000

I was never a big fan of Marwari food.But somehow down south it is touted as something exotic.And thanks to the no-onion no-garlic school of thought its hugely popular for niche taste-buds.

This weekend we visited one such place in Oasis center's food court.The food was not exceptionally good but the front end staffs
were very polite and accommodating.

A quick chat revealed that the nice and charming youth is from Darjeeling and is concerned about his homeland situation.But that did not deter him from showing warm hospitality and serving huge proportions.
A "Maha Thali" ("the enormous platter") costs 165 INR and the choice is vivid to somehow please the palette of a hardcore non-vegetarian like me.

How to reach there:The landmark is the SPAR mall in SONY World junction.
The food court is located in the topmost floor.
The Taste Index: Average but as you may or may not find Besan Ka Gatta et al. nearby ,so it's worth giving it a try.

Cafe Coffee Day: An extrapolated premonition

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:40:00 +0000

Reuters New York yesterday reported that "Some coffee fans get grim delight in Starbucks woes" .
Financial woes at Starbucks Corp., which is planning to close 600
underperforming U.S. stores, is evoking glee and little sympathy from
aficionados who say they resent the coffee shop giant and favor small
independent cafes.

"I'm so happy. I'm so not a Starbucks person," said Melinda
Vigliotti, sipping iced coffee at the Irving Farm Coffee House in New
York. "I believe in supporting small businesses. Starbucks, bye-bye." [source:Reuters.com]
In Indian scenario the omnipresent Cafe Coffee Day dominates the domestic market.Might be it can draw some clues from its Western

counterpart and reduce the mechanization & commodization (!) of coffee any further and promote the coffee culture that once were the cornerstones of various Indian Coffee Houses.

Counterintuitive--The Paradox of Time -- Koramangala SPAR

noreply@blogger.com (destined2doom) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:07:00 +0000

A recent paper by the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden has found that we are ineffectual in making correct judgment/selection on time-saving options.

"Consider an administration overhaul at a hospital clinic, such that the number of patients treated by each doctor per day is increased. In each pair, which improvement would free up the most doctors to go and work elsewhere?

a)Each day 11 patients treated per doctor instead of 5.
b)Each day, 8 patients treated per doctor instead of 4.

a)Each day, 8 patients treated per doctor instead of 4.
b)Each day, 16 patients treated per doctor instead of 7.

Svenson again found that her participants consistently applied the Ratio Rule, so that most of them said erroneously that option (a) was more time saving for the first pair, and that option (b) was more time saving for the second pair."
[Reference:BPS Research Digest]

.

Last weekend in SPAR supermarket (Koramangala,Bangalore) a seemingly minor incident reminded me of the same.To avoid a huge queue the shop floor management have installed an automated token announcement system for the fish counter.

I, religiously took my token and was waiting in a convenient corner of the shop whence the token number display board is both visible & sonorous!

After waiting for almost half an hour or more and getting frustrated on the snail-pace of queue movement , I came to the conclusion that it is unwise to buy fish in SPAR Bangalore on Sundays.
Finally on behest of my companion we pushed through the fish lovers nest to find out that the "person-in-charge" of the fish section was delivering fish to the guys who took the last tokens in order to cut the queue short from end (!)..While the actual automated queue was moving at sloth pace for those who adhered to the process..

End of the day I managed to get some Catla and thanked the disordered state -- thinking that its the most stable state!!!