OrangeGuy: Fear is the projection of a memory from the past
into the future. You cannot be afraid of something you haven’t experienced
before.
Hooham: Why fear is created?
OrangeGuy: Depends on how your mind is designed to work.
Fear is created from pain and ignorance. If you have experienced getting eaten
by a crocodile before, you will feel the fear the next time you approach a
crocodile. If you have listened to so many people talk in fear about something,
you will experience fear when you experience that thing in your life.
Hooham: Can it be changed?
OrangeGuy: Yes, mind can be changed. But not until you are
identifying yourself with the mind.
Hooham: Am I fear or am I fearless?
OrangeGuy: Whether you think you are fear or you think you
are fearless, you are that.
Hooham: So from now on I will believe that I am fearless.
OrangeGuy: Whatever you believe, you become. Whatever you
know, you are.
Almost everyone of us
have listened to this rhyme as a child. In English, the rhyme translates to
“Laddu is round, poodi is round. Fat man’s potbelly is round. Earth is round,
sky is round. The whole cosmos is round round!”
This rhyme was usually
taught to us in the English class, but if it was taught in the mathematics
class, your math teacher would probably tell you that everything that is round,
or circular, carries a mysterious number called “pi.”
Pi is the God of the
mathematical world. It never ends, it lasts forever, and it never changes. Basically,
it is immortal.
Spiritual mystics
sometimes call it the ”Absolute truth” or the “universal constant.”
You may be fascinated
to know that in ancient times, understanding this number wasn’t just curiosity,
but a necessity, especially for astronomers and architects. Greeks and
Egyptians exhausted every method to calculate the full decimal expression of
pi, ultimately surrendering to the fact that it is just eternal, infinite, non-terminating,
and unchangeable.
In math books, pi is
represented by the symbol of two vertical legs supporting a horizontal roof,
like a table, with value represented either as 22 by 7 or 3.14….
These dots after the
decimal represent the never-ending decimal expression of pi, with first two
digits always remaining the same 14. It is also represented by the formula:
circumference of the circle divided by twice the radius or the diameter.
Scientists have spent
centuries decoding the mystery of pi, trying to calculate its complete value by
using strings to measure the circle, sometimes using sophisticated
supercomputers, but they never quite reached the end. Even after trillions of
digits, the number didn’t seem to end.
Pi is not just the God
of the mathematical world, but also the secret hiding in everything that is
shaped like a circle. The Ferry wheel, the merry-go-round, the planetary
orbits, the chapattis your mom makes, even the brightness of stars.
So the next time you
are visiting a temple to worship God, don’t forget to ask the priest why didn’t
they put a sculpture of this fascinating mathematical God pi alongside the
sculptures of other gods and goddesses.
Imagine you work as a ghost investigator and you’ve been
sent to a forest to investigate a ghost who resides in the heart of a secluded
underground cave. You need to travel to the forest, catch the ghost, and report
all the details to your department.
When you arrive in the forest, there are a lot of details
you can report to your department. The trees, the animals and birds, the
flowers, the fragrant breeze, the various sounds, the rocky walls of the cavern,
the bats and bugs; and all. Will you stop by and report these details to your
office or march right into the cave and report the details of the ghost?
Joan Didion’s writing style, also called “Single Observation
and Sparse Prose” bypasses the superfluous or unnecessary details from a piece
of writing and jumps right into the “shimmering” highlight. Joan starts her novels with a shimmering “picture in mind” and
her job is to decipher the grammar and the grammatical structure behind these
images. The technique works on “omission as power.”
As Tom Stevenson writes,
"Subtracting, Not Adding, Is
The Path To A Happier Life."
Didion’s principle works in the same way.
In writing, “single observation” is a stylistic device, but
it can also be looked upon as a “philosophy of perception.” In the same way a wild
animal strips away the prey’s skin, layer by layer, gnawing it down to the
bone, a piece of writing is stripped away of all the adjectives that are not
required or are unnecessary to the story. Didion emphasizes on exposing the
underlying structure of a situation, to make the reader feel its cold, hard
reality underneath.
Didion often described this type of writing as a whirlpool
of vertigo and nausea. The technique commits to structural austerity, raw
honesty, and an uncompromising “form-follows-function” technique while
stripping away too much of flowery descriptions or sentimentality with brutal dispassion
and cold detachment. It’s like focusing a camera so devotedly on one crack in a
road that the crack unfolds the entire city’s map and its backstory. She often
builds the piece around a single, piercing or devastating observation, from a
scene, a dialogue, an object, or any other element.
The Science: The Brain Process
Why does this "less is more" approach hit so hard?
It involves several key neurological and cognitive mechanisms.
It reduces “noise”
The very sad, lonely, and depressed woman sat quietly on the
library bench, apparently trying to read a book.
A sentence like this cluttered with multiple adjectives and
adverbs makes things difficult and noisy for the brain. It overwhelms the brain
with high cognitive load on the language processing centers.
By assimilating a cluttered description into a pointed focus
concentrates the energy of the brain, controls the information, and declares it
quickly rather than elaborating it with long-stretched descriptions. Not that
description is bad, but this is just one of the ways we can experiment with our
writing.
It exercises the brain with “predictive coding”
Since the writing style only enables very sparse, tight, and
specific description of the story, it is left to the reader to fill the gaps in
this description, which makes them an active co-creator of the story, rather
than just being on the other side of it. In the world of science, this process
is called “predictive coding.”
Reaches straight into the subconscious mind
Abstract concepts or sensory details might trigger certain
emotions in a person, but the “single observation” bypasses the world of
thoughts, intellect, and senses, and directly reaches into the depths of the
subconscious mind, making the reader “experience” the coldness or the sadness,
rather than just painting a picture of it. It is the written equivalent of the
psychological concept “emotional distancing.”
In many big brands, greatest percentage of the profits comes
from a small portion of their products. A tiny number of bugs are responsible
for a large percentage of crashes. Like an iceberg, a great percentage of our
life situation depends on our physical, visible actions, and a little
percentage is dependent on what we think, believe, or feel about our life. In a
restaurant, for instance, most of the orders come from the top few specialities
in their menu while the rest of the products are ordered only by a handful of
customers. Named after the economist, Vilfredo Pareto, Pareto’s Law states that
roughly 80% of the consequences result from 20% of the causes. It is also
called as the 80/20 rule or the "law of the vital few and the trivial many.”
The law is famously used by businessmen, leaders, economists, shopkeepers, and
is of immense help to anyone who desires to sort out their life.
I don’t want to complete that book of math, but I want to
score 100 in the test. I want to start my own business but I don’t want to read
about marketing or do deep analysis of my products. I want to sell my crafts,
but I don’t want to learn how to advertise them to people. Well, if you are
someone who loves to make money, which you probably do, and still find yourself
saying these lines, you might be missing a crucial piece of information you
need. The Wilson’s Law, also known as the “Law of wealth accumulation.”
Wilson’s law challenges the notion that money is the sole
purpose of your actions. The law insists that it’s not about chasing money, but
investing in yourself and your capacity to become a medium to create value for
yourself and others. The two pillars of this law are knowledge and
intelligence. Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Wilson, who specializes in
game theory emphasized the importance of constantly adapting to change,
continuous learning, and expanding intellectual boundaries to become capable of
innovation. Lastly, remember that knowledge doesn’t just imply information. It
also means radical and constant change. “If you put information and
intelligence into a system, but don’t change the structure, the behaviour stays
the same.”
Have you ever found yourself visiting a new place where
there is so much crowd that you can’t figure out the right direction to
proceed, which causes you to feel lost in the city? We all have come across
math and physics problems in school where we became puzzled with variables and
equations that we kept on circling in loops, never really arriving at the
solution. Honestly, everyone goes through this feeling from time to time. With
so much going through their mind, they feel clueless and paralyzed about what
to do next. Here comes the Kidlin’s Law, derived from the fictional character
of Kidlin from a 1962 novel King Rat. The law states that by writing down a
problem clearly and specifically, it is already half solved. The
problem-solving theory emphasizes that breaking down the problem into small
manageable components, clearly defining it, structuring, and putting it down on
paper cuts through the noise and guides you towards the solution.
The theory is also based on taking radical
self-responsibility. The first step is acknowledging the problem, observing it
with self-awareness, sometimes bringing external intervention, and ultimately,
writing it down on paper. So, the next time you find yourself jostling in an
ocean of ideas, so overwhelming that you can no longer decide how to take the
first step, remember the Kidlin’s law and instead of obsessing over your new
fancy notebook, just pull it out and write down your ideas.
You are reading a book and you come across a word that is
new to you. You type the word in Google search or pull out your dictionary to
check its meaning. And like this, a new word gets lodged in your brain in that
moment. You are strolling in the park and you pass by a group of young guys who
utter a slang word that you have never heard before. Again, you type the slang
in Google search box and check its meaning. Another word gets stored in the
vocabulary database of your brain. Then one day, an elderly relative visits
your house and as she’s talking to your parents in the native language, she
says a word that you feel is interesting, and you jot it down in your notebook.
Every day (If you are a writer, then every moment probably),
your brain absorbs zillions of new words, meticulously collecting them from the
world, from your experiences, from books, and information, and storing them in
your inner library. How does this happen? Why are we humans able to learn new
words while the lion and the ants seem totally helpless and incapable of
grasping them. Unless it is a movie with animal characters, you wouldn’t likely
hear a bear say “hey dude, what’s up?” or a crocodile tell you that he would
like to remain “lowkey.”
And even though every creature has its own vocabulary,
humans alone can grasp it in a way that no other creature can, thanks to their
super-intelligent brain.
Vocabulary sponging refers to a subconscious process in
which a person’s brain acts like a sponge. As they read a book of fiction, this
sponge absorbs or extracts interesting words from the book. The brain doesn’t
just absorb a word, it also absorbs its meaning, also generates interpretations
related to it, and decides when and how it can be used. Until then, the word
will be stored in the brain’s vocabulary database.
When it comes to learning words and retaining them in
memory, fiction proves way better than just ordinary dictionaries, manuals, or
encyclopaedias. You are more likely to recall a word that you learned while
reading a short story more than a word you learned from a typical vocabulary
flashcard. In fact, many of the words were originally coined or invented in
fiction novels. These words come under the category of “neologisms.”
For example, the slang “nadsat” was coined in Anthony
Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange. Famous terms like “freelance,” “Big
Brother,” and “Catch-22” too were first used in famous novels.
Science behind the process of “Vocabulary Sponging”
What happens in your brain when it absorbs a new word like a
sponge and stows it away in your vocabulary database?
Well, first of all, it does something called the
“Inferential Mapping” to fill the unobserved gaps or empty areas in the brain
using the newly-inputted information of the word.
The mapping process involves three parts of the brain - Visual
Word Form Area (VWFA), Wernicke’s Area, and Hippocampus.
Neural Triangulation
This mapping starts with a process called “neural
triangulation.” The brain activates three of its regions to decode the word’s
meaning. A region called the “Visual Word Form Area (VWFA)” scans and studies
the visual form or the physical shape of the letters.
The second part, called the Wernicke’s Area processes the
linguistic meaning, syntax, and other details of the word. The Hippocampus, the
emotion manager, starts forming connections between this new word and your
existing memories. Using these details, the brain constructs a
“High-Dimensional Semantic Space,” where it pins the word based on its
neighbouring words.
The second step is “Statistical Induction”
Human brain is a fabulous pattern-recognition machine. When
it encounters a new or unfamiliar word like “pulchritudinous,” it starts the
process of “statistical induction.” It starts associating this new word with
words like “beautiful,” “radiant,” or “stunning.” Based on how and where the
word is used, it calculates the probability of the word’s correct and nearest
meaning. A part called the “Inferior Frontal Gyrus” or the “context checker” narrows
down the word’s meaning through elimination of unsuitable ones.
The third step is simply deep encoding through repetition
When your brain picks up a new word from a book, novel, or a
story, your brain initiates the process of “narrative transport” by releasing
chemicals like oxytocin and dopamine. These chemicals signal the brain that the
information being processed is important and needs to be paid attention to. In
fiction, this impulse becomes even more charged up due to the addition of
emotion. Amygdala’ the brain’s emotional center, becomes active. The more books
you read, the more this process triggers in the brain, the deeper new vocabulary
gets encoded in the brain.
Inside a part called the “temporal lobe,” the brain creates
a placeholder or marker for the new word. Another part, called the prefrontal
cortex, uses the story to fill the placeholder. And then, the next time you
read that word, the brain fires that neural pattern again. By repetition of
this process, the new word becomes assimilated in your memory.
Let’s explore this fascinating feature with a short story:
He had just finished reciting the
spell and was about to wave his magic wand when something diverted his
attention. He stopped. He turned his head and saw two large glowing yellow eyes
staring at him from the glass window. Solmikki shivered and recoiled in horror.
Different elements of vocabulary in this short story,
including words and phrases, will trigger different areas of the brain to lodge
themselves in the brain.
For example, the Spell: “Abraduberahoohoodaamissishoo...” When
the brain hears this gibberish term, at first it feels puzzled because it
cannot grasp its meaning or associate it with a word or phrase. So, the
prefrontal cortex looks at the narrative setup instead to decide how to categorize
the term. After reading that the character of Solmikki pulled out a Magic Book
of Spirit Invocations and recited this term, the brain stows it away under the
category of “incantations.”
Another word from the book, the name “Googoodonyn” signifies
to the brain that it is related to a powerful character or a villainous entity due
to the narration associated with it in the story. Since he is the type of
character who had his eyes set on Solmikki’s kingdom and someone who abducted
this character, his name, though bizarre, is stored in the brain with the association
of a villain.
Another word, the kingdom’s name “BluBlaBoo” also
illustrates this process. Although the sound of this word indicates that the
word refers to something bouncy, babylike, or rhythmic, the story actually
depicts it as a “shadowy” kingdom. By creating a contrast between the babylike
vibe displayed by the sound of the word and the context “shadowy,” the reader stores
the word with the association of uncanny or dark fiction, something that is
strange and sinister.
The name of the character Nanto, who arrives in the ending
of the story, is stored in the brain through the process of “associative
mapping.” Although the brain is not too familiar with Nanto, it knows that this
character discovered Solmikki’s book on the hill. So, the brain creates a “neural
bridge” between the two characters to recall the word from the memory whenever
required in the future.
Lastly, the word “Nimble” used in the story shows how
fiction can “redefine” vocabulary. Nimble, the word generally refers to quick
and light in movement. In this story, it seems to refer to something which is “small,
faint, and delicate.”
