How to read minds

Welcome back! How have you been? We’ve both got to admit that it has been a long time since the last time I said anything to you – but here I am again.

Reflections in retrospect

Today I am going to talk to you about EMPATHY. Dan Pink, in his book A Whole New Mind, talks about how the world would be a much better place if we were all empathic towards each other. He gives an example of how a doctor who really listens to his/her patients is usually more successful in diagnosing them with the correct ailment. Empathy really does have the power to show us the true side of a situation and help us understand where its origins lay. Most of the time these days, everybody just looks at what others are doing and estranges their behaviour. We all do this to make ourselves seem socially acceptable in comparison to others, however, in reality if we try to put ourselves at everybody’s level, try to understand why they are the way they are and accept them, we become more acceptable within a larger group. In my own life, I have made the strongest friendships where I have connected to people on the level of why they do certain things.

Staring at the present

My world, personally, revolves around empathy. I have always wondered about how it would feel like to put myself in someone else’s shoes. I have always wondered whether or not I was any good at really knowing what someone else was thinking or feeling. Well –

I finally have the chance to put that to the test.

In his book, Pink gives a link to a test provided by the BBC that tests how well you are able to distinguish between a fake and a genuine smile. I took the test within 10 minutes and found that I was rather good at it. After all, I got a score of 15 out of 20, however, when I thought back to what I had just done I realized that there was more to this score than a mere two-digit number. I realized that most of the times I got the answer correct was when I felt the smile radiate right through me or simply just dull me, even if it was on a computer screen. I got the answers wrong where I didn’t follow my emotions or intuition, but rather followed the path of logical and linear analysis of the facial expression. I found that my intuition fired up like the ignition of a car when I looked into the eyes of the person who was attempting to smile. I suppose the old proverb is right

“The eyes are windows into a person’s soul.”

A look into the future

TAKE THE TEST YOURSELF and see what you get. Share what you learn through the test, in the comments section below.

Assign Value [Meaning]

Courtesy of unknown author

What is the meaning of life?

In all honesty, I don’t know and I doubt I could answer that question for you within the next 15 years, but believe me I’m working on it. In the meantime, WELCOME to my latest and humble blog post which is all about the question you are supposed to have asked me above.

In my recent endeavors, I have been reading Dan Pink‘s A Whole New Mind as i was before. This time, anyhow, I have been reading his seventh chapter on Meaning and all I can say is that doing so has rather elucidated my view of the world in a few ways. The idea proposed by Viktor Frankl  in his momentous work Man’s search for Meaning that Dan Pink relates to us moved me far from where I stood 5 minutes before I read it. Meaning in life is what propels me and it is the reason why I strive to do the best in all the activities that I do. Now that I think about it more deeply, I can’t find a better way to explain my own behavior or that of anyone else.

ANYWAY!

Once again Dan Pink puts forward a few activities that one can engage in, in order to increase his/her sense of meaning in this world. One of these talks about dedicating every single piece of your work to somebody that is not you. He says that doing so will make all of your work richer in quality because your motivation becomes a lot more intrinsic, meaningful and emotional.

Alright… I will do just that then… I will write a song for a friend who is in a long distance relationship.

Now that I have written my song, I am amazed by how much dedicating my work to my friend has affected my motivation and the result of my effort. Most times, I eventually run out of words to write half way through the second verse. Today, I ended up writing a whole song because I wasn’t just doing it for the sake of pleasure and stress-release, but for somebody else who would find more meaning in what I was doing. I made bigger strides in trying to find more lines that expressed more of my friend’s situation.

While I am not allowed to disclose who my friend is, I can tell you a little bit about her story. This summer, my friend was finally asked out by a guy who she had had a crush on for a few months already. The couple had spent a rather happy summer until the moment had arrived when both had to leave Thailand for two different places. My friend had to leave to Europe for her undergraduate course, while her boyfriend had to leave for the USA to pursue an MBA. While both keep in touch on Skype and Facebook, there is no real way of overcoming the obstacle is distance without physically meeting at some place. The days can get lonely at times and I know that my friend misses her boyfriend a lot.

So that is what I had to write a song about. I’m going to share the song below. You can read it if you wish to – If you do, I sincerely hope that you can relate to it and feel the feelings I have embedded in it.

—

I lay here in my bed,

trying to survive the moment,

I watch the walls bleed red,

against an empty sky,

The cold seeps through the floor,

I trip over life back then,

I can’t find my next step,

You’re the only reason I try,

–

Can you hear me…

There is so much I want to say.

Can you hear me…

It keeps getting harder to pass each day,

–

But you’re so… far away,

And I wonder if you’re the same,

I need you

right here by my side today.

–

With the new pictures of you I see,

Makes deeper the chasm  in my gut,

I wish I could place myself,

where ever you stand,

And no matter what I do,

I  feel like i’m stuck in a rut,

I decorate the past in a frame on the shelf

When all I want is to hold you once again,

(everything I do reminds me of you)

–

Can you hear me…

There is so much I want to say.

Can you hear me…

It keeps getting harder to pass each day,

–

But you’re so… far away,

And I wonder if you’re the same,

I need you

right here by my side today.

–

I miss how you held me close and tight,

You’re not here and I can’t find the light,

The pain never goes away, the days never stop turning gray

When I look far away, the future’s fading out,

When I look around, I’m the only one alone,

Tell me you’re coming back and you’ll never be gone again,

I spend my days just standing by the phone,

Will we ever see each other again.

–

Can you hear me…

there is so much I want to say,

Can you hear me…

It keeps getting harder to pass each day,

–

But you’re so… far away,

And I wonder if you’re the same,

I need you

right here by my side today.

—

Source of Image: http://www.kurzweilai.net/cartoon-what-is-the-meaning-of-life

Catharsis

Image Courtesy: Noah Shachtman

Bullets don’t stop for time. The gunman pulled the trigger on the man before him. Years of anger and frustration poured out of the barrel into a metallic projectile. Red memories poured from the painful wound. The gunman walked away from the man he shot – the image of his past.

You must be wondering what that was all about. I have been reading Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind again. Recently, I read the chapter “Story”, which happened to include 2 activities that caught my attention. Write a Mini-Saga is about writing a story in 50 words, while Play Photo Finish is about writing a story based on an image – I thought that instead of doing just one, I should do something that is the mix of the two.

The image you see on the left was one I found by Googling “Bullet.” I must confess that I am rather fascinated by the power and impact of these little objects. One shot can change someone’s life. It holds the power of allowing somebody to live and causing the death of another.

In reflecting upon the story I have written, I find that it is very personal to me as it relates to certain painful experiences that I have been through and how much strength it took me to overcome the pain they caused me. I’m quite sure you’d like me to elaborate on what kind of painful experiences I am talking about. As a young student, I did face a lot of bullying of various forms for unimaginable reasons. While one might imagine that it can’t be bad enough to scar someone for years on end, bullying is the worst thing that one can go through in the early years of their childhood. Personally, I have only begun to pick myself back up from the memory and forget what had once conspired.

Although I don’t know how well my story can connect with anybody else, I am quite sure that I have at least made a start in trying to express what I believe in and communicate an emotional state to the rest of the world.

Image source: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/images/2007/06/27/bullet_from_revolver_1.jpeg 

Wanna talk before we talk?

I’ve got homework today. I’m out in the cold on the SAC fields and my hands barely work, BUT I’m doing my homework.
I’ve decided that I’m going to interview my PL, an industrial engineer, about his professional life. My homework, however, or at least the first part, is to come up with a few questions. So here goes:

• What inspired you to become an industrial engineer?
• What were the reasons behind you changing your major from Physics to IE?
• What are some of the creative applications of your field?
• What are the main things that are motivating you to do well in your courses right now? Externally and intrinsically?
• What, in your opinion, is still lacking in the profession of Industrial engineering?
• How do you hope to contribute to the Industrial engineering community and society?
• What are some of the things that disappoint you in your field?

So I am doing this homework as practice for the other three interviews that I plan to conduct in the future. This would basically be a test run of how I do in my interview.

Want to talk?

Over the next few days, I have to interview at least 3 people at Georgia Tech who are influential in my field.

Akhil Modi

The first person that I would like to interview is my cousin, Akhil Modi, who is a third year undergraduate at Georgia Tech. One of the reasons I would like to do this is because I consider him as one of the reasons that I came to this university. From all previous conversations, I have gathered that he is mostly interested in ‘internal combustion engines’ as an area of specialization and that he has already interned once with Cooper Lighting.

Interview questions: 

• What were the initial reasons for your choosing to pursue a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering?
• How do you feel about your decision now that you are 3 years into your course?
• What have been the highlights of pursuing this degree?
• What were the first few areas of specialization that interested you and why?
• What made you choose “internal combustion engines”?
• What are you doing academically in order to develop your expertise in this field?
• How long did you intern at Cooper Lighting for? Please describe the kind of things you had to do as an intern.
• What were some of the highlights of your experience?
• What did you learn about your profession field and your career path from this experience?
• What are you doing outside of your major at Georgia Tech that you believe will help you in the future in pursuing your area of specialization?
• Is there anything about your degree that has disappointed during the time that you have been pursuing it?

Dr. Erica E. Ryherd

The second person that I would like to interview Doctor Erica E. Ryherd. The reason for this is that she is interested in the same area of specialization in mechanical engineering as I am. Acoustics. Not only in the mechanical aspects but also in the psychological and physiological responses of humans to sound and noise reduction. How is this related to me? I have a great interest in the effect of the sound from transducers on the human state and my dream job for the future is to work at Bose.

Image 1: Dr. Erica E Ryherd

Interview Questions:

• What was it that led you to conducting research in noise reduction and the effects of sound on the human mind?
• Besides using your research in the medical fields, how else do you hope to apply it?
• What are some of the greatest challenges when doing research in your field?
• In your opinion, what are some of the biggest problems in the field of Acoustics today?
• What are some creative applications of acoustics in the field of mechanical engineering and in society today?
• How important is research to the field of Acoustics as compared to design? Why do you think so?
• How much do you think is missing in our knowledge of Acoustics?
• Do you think there is a link between and Acoustics and Energy systems? If yes, how so?

Dr. Alexander Alexeev

The third person that I would like to interview is Dr. Alexander Alexeev. The reason behind this is that Dr. Alexeev is involved in heat transfer, combustion and energy systems, which is my other interest besides acoustics.I find Dr. Alexeev’s research particularly interesting because he is using biological systems in order to inspire his system designs.

Image 2: Dr. Alexander Alexeev

Interview Questions:

• What was it that led you to conducting research in Energy systems?
• What are some of the greatest challenges when doing research in your field?
• In your opinion, what are some of the biggest problems in the field of fluid mechanics and energy today?
• What are some creative applications of your research in the field of mechanical engineering and in society today?
• What inspired you to use natural bioligical processes in engineering your designs?
• What have been some of your biggest disappointments in your work?
• Do you think there is a link between and Acoustics and Energy systems? If yes, how so?

Sources:
Image 1: http://www.me.gatech.edu/faculty/ryherd.shtml
Image 2: http://www.me.gatech.edu/faculty/alexeev.shtml
Both Images: Courtesy of The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

All about heroes

Steve Wozniak. Thomas A. Edison. Albert Einstein.

What do all of these people have in common? They bought about paradigm shifts in the world of technology. Bringing about paradigm shifts is not an easy job in the current technological climate, however, this is what I aspire to do so; especially as doing so involves a great deal of creative and critical thinking. I am basing this off 3 people who are influential in my profession discipline. Although not all of these were mechanical engineers, their work and life was related to engineering nonetheless. Furthermore, I wish to invent something amazing in the future, thus, the lives of these people are most relevant to my professional future. Nonetheless, I will profile all of these people in order to analyze what it was about them that led them to achieve such greatness.

Steve Wozniak

Image 1: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1975

Steve Wozniak was in fact an employee of Hewlett-Packard when he first invented the first ever computer to have a keyboard and a screen. Having read his semi-autobiography (iWoz by Gina Smith and Steve Wozniak), I can clearly see why it was him and not anybody else who managed such a feat. Wozniak experimented a great deal with circuitry and worked upon and tried to better all that had already been created. His main feature was that he did all of these things as a hobby first, before even considering it as a profession. This could be better put by saying that he led a professional life for the sake of self-satisfaction and that income and success was just a by-product of his endeavors. Another fun fact I’d like to add here: Steve Wozniak was also the first person to ever create the Universal Remote Control.

Albert Einstein

Image 2: Albert Einstein

Einstein was a man of questions. As the story goes, he once argued with his history teacher over the usefulness of history. It is Einstein’s search for answers that were acceptable and universal that led him to discover the photoelectric effect and postulate the theories of relativity. Perhaps this can be best described, again, as the desire to better what is already known and has been made. Einstein was also a great philosopher who constantly tried to take into account the bigger picture. In his statement “God does not play dice with the universe” it is apparent that he was always in search of aesthetic as well as functional value in his theories. In terms of my profession, aesthetic value is also starting to establish an important position as it adds to the significance of a machine in many functional ways. A machine is quite if its functionality does not cohere with one’s intuition for beauty and worldliness, as it would never fully be used. In many ways, this is the reason behind the Mac OS X’s user-friendliness comparable success to Microsoft Windows impressive functionality (with much credit going to the late Steve Jobs).

Thomas A. Edison

Image 3: Thomas A Edision

Thomas A. Edison is known for revolutionizing the electrical industry through inventing the light bulb and many other devices. It is a well known fact that Edison made over 2000 failed light bulbs before making one that worked. Basically, Edison had a lot of perseverance. This is important especially in a field where not much is known about the mechanisms because one really cannot discover without at least once engaging in the trial-and-error process. He is evidence of the fact that one needs to keep pushing in the direction of change for the better if he/she is to achieve it. One other thing that I’d like to add at this point is the fact that Mr. Edison had patented over 1000 inventions over his lifetime. This goes on to show that one does not have to stop after achieving success only once; instead, one must always strive to achieve more and more and to expand the horizons further.

Sources:
Image 1: http://www.realgeek.com/apple-not-against-iphone-hackers/
Courtesy of Steve Wozniak
Image 2: http://www.bhm.ch/de/news_04a.cfm?bid=4&jahr=2006
Courtesy of Ferdinand Schmutzer
Image 3: http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-edison
Courtesy of Library of Congress

Drawing my dreams across the sky

I can say a lot about where I have come from. I can say a lot about how and what my circumstances have made me. Anyhow, I will talk about how I will make the most of my circumstances and my personality.

The last and purple box is what this is all about - moving forward. Courtesy of myself

Ever since the age of 4, I have nurtured a creative sense within me. I am primarily a musician – I play guitar and piano and compose a lot of music, however, I also like indulging myself in the visual arts. I have demonstrated my skills on many occasions and have been told that I am rather dexterous at being creative. Personally, I find great delight in designing aesthetic aspects and mechanical aspects of systems. Therefore, in the future I would like to pursue a career that entails creativity in this manner and also involves a lot of lateral thinking.

An example of my creativity

On the other hand, I have always unfailingly loved the sciences and engineering. I have constantly demonstrated a proficiency in all of these throughout my secondary school career and found that my desire to solve problems matches those of mechanical engineers. to me, finding the simplest solution to mechanical problems is gratifying beyond description.

 

 

Image 1: Silver Lining

Finding the silver-lining between both of the interests that govern my life, I have been told, is tough but it exists nevertheless. Acoustics is the one career path where I can amalgamate my creative and technical skills for the sake of engineering beautiful sound.

However, it is not just my interest in the sciences and music that has instigated me to choose this path of action, I have also been inspired by being able to recognize room for improvement in the acoustics industry. I recognize that sound can have a great impact on the state of the human mind, thus it is necessary to filter and emphasize particular components of sound. I find that many a time, companies producing acoustic transducers tend to overlook this. Furthermore, developing such technology can also have a great impact in the medical industry. This, I hope, will be my focus in acoustics in the future.

Thus, my aim at Georgia Tech is to receive a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and find ways to specialize in acoustics. I would like to develop skills in design and research and apply these in my future job.

Nonetheless, academics aside, I would like to develop leadership and communication skills at Georgia Tech as well, as I believe that these would help me in my professional life, where the ability to communicate is as important as being proficient in all technical aspects. Furthermore, acoustic transducers are all about communicating through beautiful sound.

Image 2: The dream. My dream.

My dream is to land myself a job at Bose, as I believe it is one of the leading companies in acoustical design systems. In my opinion, it is the one place where the aesthetics of a product (visual and aural) are at par with technical flamboyance.

Ever since I first came across this company, I have admired their work ethic. They always strive to make the best by making sure that they always apply their research in creative ways and always strive to produce the best that they possibly can.

However, this does not mean that I am not open to working for other companies in the future. Other companies that I would like to work for include: Bang&Olufsen; Seinheisser; Meridien.

Besides acoustics, I am considering a career path in Energy aspects of production in companies. This is a field that my father works in, which is the reason behind my fascination. My growing understanding of the mechanisms that cause the waste of energy has made me evermore passionate about the issue. I find that this field too requires a mixture of creative and technical skills due to the immense number of possible solutions to the problem of energy waste.

 

 

 

Sources:
Image 1: http://finkorswim.com/2011/07/17/silver-linings-an-explanation-and-an-apology/
Courtesy of RABBIFINK
Image 2: http://tekarazzi.com/2011/04/30/bose-gives-majority-of-shares-of-company-to-mit/
Courtesy, Trademark and Copyright of Bose

 

 

 

 

Reflections – a mirror for the past.

Creativity is not only the evolutionary growth of ideas but also the amalgamation of multitudinous elements to create an idea that is bound to flourish.

In working with 3 other people on making a music video over a period of five weeks, I have learnt that the best ideas are never somebody’s sole creation but are produced and executed when we work in groups.

The project began with my group members and I each bringing in to class one self-made object, each of which initially seemed to be unrelated to the rest. However, two of these (Kanye West shades and a song) inspired us to make a music video. This was new for me because it was the result of four lines of thought collaboratively stimulating creation. I could never think of making a music video on my own, let alone produce one.

The team. BTW I'm the guy wearing the waistcoat.

Another highlight of the project was the diverse ideas coming from each of us to collectively, rather than sequentially, develop the project like dots in an impressionistic painting. This helped make the music video more dynamic and relatable to larger audiences; because the music video was about showing people that loneliness was universal, in order to remedy their feeling it was important to show its multiple facts. No individual is capable of empathizing with everything. Once again, working in a group helped facilitated this. All in all, input from each individual did not have much significance but when coupled with input from others, the result was grander.

In addition, feedback and criticism from peers was necessary during all stages of the project. Often we were questioned about issues pertaining to the project and we could not answer. For example, we were asked what the purpose of making the video was, which we eventually had to devise. Feedback enhances our creativity and elucidates the missing elements in our processes and goals. Consequently, the internal peer critiquing was successful, as it was a source of constructive developmental ideas and destructive criticism for elements that just didn’t work.

On the other hand, we found that due to working in a team, the brainstorming dragged on for a while and many ideas unintentionally tended to digress from our goal. In order to solve this, we found that placing a limit on suggesting new ideas that modified our goals solved our problem. This coerced each group member in only putting forward ideas that enhanced the video and develop the idea rather than change it.

The culmination of 5 weeks of work - the final display at the Invention Mob fair.

Besides this, I realize that due to past experiences, I initially took on a very autocratic role in the group and immediately placed my self in a managerial-like position. It took me a while to realize that I had to be more open-minded and flexible with my group members, thus let everyone lead the progress equally. In the future, I would like to assume the role of somebody who didn’t lead but who rather made sure that group members were doing what they needed to do in order to achieve the final goal of the project. This would allow for creativity to flourish within the group and make sure that the action doesn’t stagnate.

To conclude, when working in a group the creativity takes place collectively rather than sequentially. I suppose that team work is required to bring together components synergistically to achieve a more significant goal, however, individual work is required as well in order to optimally develop each component to enhance the synergy created.

Both images are courtesy of myself

X = MUST WATCH! + Retrospection

As promised, the production work has finished and the video is ready for show.

I am proud to present to you

In retrsopect, it was interesting to see all the diverse reflections about a single line or the whole song that people put down on paper. Even though they were all different and irrelevant to each other when juxtaposed, they came together in the video to create one very cohesive and powerful message. The biggest lesson from the collaborative aspect of this project was that everyone is interconnected one way or the other. Nobody’s alone. It is usually this interconnectedness of all the different components that make the world that shines through and provokes the creation of one whole magnificent entity. For me, that magnificent entity is the music video. For the late Steve Jobs, it might have been Apple.

“Connect 1,000,000. Create 1.”

Not to be cheesy, but that’s probably that one concise motto (that everybody loves coming up with on their own) that I can take away from this project.

I thoroughly hope that the video was worth your waiting, our effort and that you enjoyed watching it.

Here’s an overview of the whole project.

Breaking News – Read post for more information.

I haven’t posted in a while, and if you’ve been looking out for new posts all this while, I’m extremely sorry.

BUT

Guess what I’ve got? GOOD NEWS!!!

Over the past week and a half, I’ve been going around campus filming for the music video that my group is supposed to make for the invention mob. It’s been incredibly fun walking around Tech campus watching everyone wonder why I was walking rather purposefully with a strange looking object in hand. I’ve gotten some pretty good results so far.

This is the camera that I've been walking around with. I didn't want to show my face in this picture though.

What exactly have I been doing?

I’ve been working on getting footage for the instrumental parts of the song. I figured that for the first part of the song, the title of the song and the artist (That’s me!) would be introduced, and possibly some footage from around campus would be shown. This would help set the atmosphere for the audience by portraying where the video is set and also because this footage would not have any emotional intensity. I plan to dub my voice over the music at this part in order to introduce what the rest of the video will be about and give some context to the song.

Besides this, I’ve also had the job of creating footage for the instrumental part in the bridge. For this, I went around my residence holding in one hand a paper with a question mark drawn on it and in the other a pencil. I asked people to draw or write what the song made them feel like when they listened to it. Each time, I asked the person to hold up the paper with the latest addition included and filmed them. Many drew the most prominent image that they were left with after listening to the song, whilst some wrote their favorite lines from the lyrics. People kept adding to the image that was forming on the paper and the end result, I must say, was rather brilliant. This will be shown as a growing image in the video. It was interesting to see how so many different thoughts that wouldn’t be related otherwise came together as one solid piece to convey one single emotion of loneliness.

The end result of all of the drawings - a masterpiece.

Try it out yourself!

If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, listen to the song and draw what comes into mind after listening to it. Keep adding to the image every time you listen to the song over the next few days and post up the final artwork in the comments section below.

That’s all from me for today! Next time I write a post, I’ll hopefully return with a big surprise. I hope you’re just as excited for the video as my group and I are.

Stay tuned my dear friends!

Both Images are courtesy of myself.