Universe and its mysteries

We, as human beings, are always driven by the desire to discover the roots of our existence. Are we made of stardust? Did we evolve from apes? What is that super particle that can make anything? (Thinking Alchemy anyone?) These are some questions that intrigued human beings for centuries.

The more curious of the lot experimented with organisms around us. And some with things (elements/substances). The adventurous explored every corner of earth - and oceans - and some even beyond earth in search of roots of life. While the quest continues, there's a lot we know now more than some centuries ago and a lot more we don't know!

That's what I sought to ponder over today.

Let it be a futile exercise to summarize our disillusionment. The deepest of the mysteries that surround us are astounding!

The atomic/sub-stomic models of elements, for instance, went through different representations. Some called it like matter as ether and some calling it seeds-in-watermelon-like. Some finally zeroed on orbital model of electrons revolving around nucleus with positively charged protons and neutral neutrons. And then Planck, Maxwell and Schroedinger added radiation and uncertainity models which created a confusion between particle as a entity or wave. EPR paradox called out spooky phenomenon across sub-atomic particles that surprisingly revealed some unpredictable linking. It came to be famously known as quantum entanglement later. This phenomenon also allowed us to design computation layer which uses the dynamics of quantum states especially the superposition to augment/challenge the existing classical computing architecture (look more about quantum supremacy here). Stephen Hawking brings attention to second law of thermodynamics stating particle systems forming unique seemingly disordering mixtures of their own. He strongly feels this, in turn, also asserts the big bang model of a more ordered system tending to form a less ordered system.

Traditionally we observed systems and phenomenon on electro-magnetic dimensional spectrum on a time scale. Einstein's general theory of relativity introduced the space-time dimension, which was initially very hard to wrap heads around. This eventually led to the re-interpretation of Newton's law of gravity.

Gravity, on the other hand, proved to be the most mysterious of all the particle phenomena. Our minds and system analyses are boggled by the manifestation of gravity on celestial bodies. It looks like it is not simply an acceleration "g" as we all have known it. Instead, it represents the curvature of space-time that is formed by the presence of a mass.

As always, Physicists are not the souls to let the systems be. They had stayed busy building their nuclear reactors and hadron colliders to let us understand the fundamental phenomenon - fissions and fusions. Trying to answer questions like "What initiates the high energy reactions in the stars?" "How does gravitational field span out at different stages of a star's existence?" "What happens if stars collide?"

Our quest, is fuelled by the research and capabilities that we built to get beyond our homes and probe our dearly neighbour, the moon. And fuelled further by the strong hope to find living beings like us, we built inter-planetary probes. Our spectroscopy evolved to such an extent that we deployed telescope satellites to observe astronomical phenomena.

Some physicists argue that so far, the biggest mystery that surrounds us is the lack of a unifying theory that links general theory of relativity to quantum mechanics. This is so challenging that the events like black-hole mergers of the big bang model universe had to be studied more closely using specialized high-precision scientific facilities like Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories (LIGOs) to study gravitational waves from supernovae. One of the long term plans of space agencies is also to deploy LIGOs in space.  We will study more about astronomical events like formation of black-holes in the coming days.

With advances in AI, statistical modeling, natural language processing, image processing, spectroscopy, life science and material science, it is very likely that we make leaps in explaining such phenomenon in greater detail. However, to validate our understanding, we are quite limited in our ability to travel or communicate to distant celestial realms that can boost our understanding.  Multi-dimensional analyses and spacecraft technology needs an overhaul to extend our presence on to the edge of our known celestial zones few light years away. 

My graduation journey and lessons

Often, I ponder about how my grad school (Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani) moulded me for facing the real world.

Here's a quick list of areas I observed, appreciated and learnt at grad school. Hope this helps you too!

1. Making your own timetable:
Most challenges/activities in life don't come planned but for all those scenarios where you have the time and need to be organized, this definitely helps. You need to know what your areas of focus are, how you are going to approach and who you are going to consult. The registration system corners you to think and do this.

2. Freedom to choose your mentor:
Just because you are registered in a class doesn't necessarily mean you are bound to attend the professor's lectures. You can hear from friends, try out others as well and start gaining momentum with a mentor/professor of your choice.

3. Relative grading:
In an absolute grading system, you only know how you perform. Relative grades tell you how your class performed. In a way, that is like simulating the real world. The problems you are solving today may not be unique. That's why you always have competition and you need to know where you stand against your competition. Relative grading prepares you for it. You cannot be satisfied with only your scores anymore!

4. Composable Curriculum:
What you want to specialize in may not be clear to you when you set off on the graduation journey. It is like travelling on a foggy road. You know things ahead of you only when you get to a point. Having that flexibility to pick what you want at a later point in your study can go a long way in keeping you open-minded and keep watching for avenues to explore. Imagine you have an option to switch streams after an year or so. Or may be you have an option to bundle your masters along with your bachelors? Cool, isn't it?

5. Theory, Practice and Industry Exposure:
What you study, learn and solve on paper has to show results during the exhaustive practical lab sessions. And this is how you fabricate a chip or deploy an application on production servers. Just because you made sure all the data-points, simulations and observations are correct doesn't mean your product is error-free. You can ask any production engineer to share their experience. I bet you get to hear their bitter-sweet experiences.

6. Network, Research and Placement Opportunities:
If not the admission or job offer for your next adventure, grad school gives you friends who pull you along, offer you a shoulder and celebrate with you when you succeed. Needless to say, you will be at a much better footing for making a job in your favourite company or pursue higher education further or explore a new career path.

7. Uncomprimising evaluation:
When you miss classes because of bad health, you need to have options to avail a second chance. If you are not satisfied with the evaluation, you need to have ways to request a re-consideration. These aspects establish trust and confidence in the evaluation system.

8. Student empowerment:
When you are in the driving seat, you see the road ahead. When you manage your day, your money, your time, your emotions and your resources, you take charge of your direction. Inclusive activities, collaboration, debate and decision-making become part of you. Starting from food, hostel, external meets, conferences and sports, you engage in the activities. These are the activities which empower you to become someone beyond being 'mere you'.

9. Art-oriented:
Music, literature, dance, painting, photography, poetry and other forms of art inspire your thinking. You will find hobbyists sharing your interests and form buddy groups which grow beyond grad school days.

10. Original-thinking:
The buddy-group and faculty condone plagiarism of any kind. They encourage understanding and thinking through your mind. Knowing what we know and what we don't helps us collaborate in meaningful ways. We also grow stronger as individuals who can ask relevant questions and gather necessary data for  accomplishing what we set out to do. 
 

Feedback

We all understand how important feedback is during communication and in the systems.

A use case
Imagine you can't see the mobile screen. You are trying to click something. How do you know if your click went through? You can't see the button enlarged! Do you hear your screen reader to read out your click action? Do you expect your mobile to give you a vibrate notification?

Another
You are having a conversation. You don't understand the other person's reactions or intentions. Do you observe or assume or ask? 

We give and seek feedback in many ways. By doing so, we also experience how it works and how it doesn't work every time we try. Feedback mechanisms are tricky indeed!

You run into all types of specimens (let me tell you I have been such a specimen myself) :
You come across those who are conducive to feedback. Some are paranoid. Some resist. Some ignore and some listen but don't care.

For progress, building a robust feedback systems that keep communication channels alive is a challenging task for any organization.

#feedback #progress #commitment #challenge

Negativity in everyday life

[Inspired by this post]

I always overlook the hidden negativity that creeps into our everyday life. To get beyond this negativity, we can't simply avoid these traits and do opposite things or go against our instincts. We have to focus on the action in the direction of our destination. These traits are like some land mines to watch out for when we tread our paths. These are probably influencing your journey. It's high time we start paying extra attention to these and go forward.


Making excuses:

Giving reasons for not doing. Justifying missed deadlines or inability to accomplish. Defending actions instead of being assertive about results.

Quitting easily: 

Not persuing enough till we really know it doesn't work. Being disappointed by initial setbacks. Fearing failure. Paranoid about avoiding embarassment.

Waiting for permission:

Am I stepping on the toes of another? May be it's not the area of my responsibility. I don't want others to be worried about my presence or my persona. I'm not authorized to do that. There are experts dealing with this already. I am not receiving anything anyway. In what way does it help anyone?

Seeking attention:

I may not be qualified enough but wait so are others. I want to take the centerstage no matter what. A little bit of attention won't spoil the plan. I drew a dot on that painting, I don't see my name in the acknowledgements! How mean! What motivation do I have?

Constant Engagement:

Have been slogging since past 20 mins, nobody bothered to pay attention to my laptop! I need to keep pinging all the time, why doesn't the other person ping? Can somebody take care of my cat? Hey you, I'm talking to you. Don't you go away like that!

Procrastination:

Will have to do it now! May be not today. May be tom. The next day, I have something more important. I need to stop doing this. Oh wait, why am I so bad at prioritizing? Will install an app for this. Oh gosh, am late already for a meeting.

Lack of resources:

I'm short of time. I'm short of money. There are not enough people. I'm not skilled enough. I need to focus more. I need to read more. I need to practice more.

Being in the comfort zone:

Wait, I don't need to do that. I'm fine here. Wait, that's too risky. What will happen to my finger nail if I type so hard? Why are you so upset unnecessarily? Chill!

Passing judgement without knowing the circumstances:

He's successful because he cheated or he got lucky or he's rich or she has looks. All government organizations are slow. All politicians are corrupt. Media needs catchy stories. Marketing campaigns have lies.

Plagiarism:

This comes in various forms. One common form being quoting ideas, concepts or results as our own instead of referring to resources. Or it can be showing others work as our own. Doesn't a code copy-paste need a license copy-paste as well? Doesn't the creator need due credit to their IP?

Are you dispelling negativity from your day?

Today?

[High five!]

Accessibility Awareness

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be not able to see the world? Or hear the world?

There are around 1b people with accessibility disorders globally. In India alone, there are 28m. 

Imagine doing one of your daily activities for instance walking from your bed to kitchen with eyes closed.  You get an idea of how much we take our senses for granted.

Global accessibility awareness day gave a glimpse of what members with physical challenges go through in their life.

They fight through most/all of these challenges

1. Mobility
2. Assistance
3. Guidance
4. Communication
5. Social stigma

We can collectively do a bit from our end to make their life better and make a small spark in their life.

Here are some ways which improve the inclusivity in things we do

1. Making the products we create/design/build, more expressive.  For eg., if you are building a pavement, slanting the edges so that a person travelling on wheel chair can descend. Making ATM kiosks, shops, apps, banks, ticket counters and other places include appropriate assitance technologies.
2. Having a member with physical limitation use/test/certify the things we use and understand how they would use it. For eg., engravings on keyboards, markings on pavements and so on.
3. Having explicit media extensions for those with disabilities. If we are building some web pages, making sure we support keyboard navigation or screen reader utility.
4. Having a political and social representation from the physically challenged group so we take into account the challenges they face in planning and administration.  

Smart Investment

Here's a small tip I thought will be useful for us.

Are you paying a premium every year and wondering how much you should expect after x years?

I have a javascript code snippet for you to play around with...


--js code starts--

var calculateCompoundInterest = function(principal, rate, timeInYears) {
  return principal * (Math.pow((1+rate/100),timeInYears))
}

var calculateRecurringCompoundInterest = function(principal, rate, timeInYears) {
  var finalAmount=0.0;
  for(var i=0; i    finalAmount+=calculateCompoundInterest(principal,rate,i+1)
  }
  return finalAmount
}

//fixed one time premium at 5% rate of interest for 11 years
console.log(calculateCompoundInterest(100000,5,11));
 
//recurring premium at 5% rate of interest for 11 years
console.log(calculateRecurringCompoundInterest(100000,5,11));

--js code ends--

Javascript and us

Programming languages are getting as sophisticated as us!

Javascript, for instance, has "callbacks" that let us call the operation back when the output is ready. According to Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, if you are waiting for a callback (like you wait for your girl to call you back), you will either be in a pending state (waiting in the stack of execution leaving way for all unimportant processing to take place) or an unprocessed state (till you end up with a white beard!). So, we typically set a timeout and proceed with our expected chain of responsibility.

Javascript also provides a very beautiful "Promise" object that can nicely wrap the callback paradigm. Promise let's you transition seamlessly between synchronous and asynchronous chains of execution. A promise clearly sets the expectation on whether you can

1. wait, 
2. throw an exception (error) OR
3. exit/proceed

Very much similar to real world promises.Only these promises are slightly better than the real world ones. At least, you can debug. 

Libraries like RxJS provide ways to listen on to a (emitted) stream of objects. This emitted stream is processed in various ways using map, filter and reduce. This will let us sanitize/cleanse, transform and aggregate UI data. This is more like extending the previous promise paradigm to a stream of objects. Can't wait to get hands dirty with some code!

Parting with some residual thoughts from Scott Davis on false dichotomies of perception. Not everything is binary, most real problems may not be "Rocks Vs Sucks". Strongly reminds me of my dear friend, who says "The real world is not digital, Naveen. It's analog!" True he is!