Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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National Treasure | Learning by Proxy
The Americans had no idea how to launch a rocket. In fact, after having smuggled Nazi scientists out of Germany in the 1940s, they did not put them to much use. They were imprisoned at a mansion in America instead of in jail in Germany for nearly 10 years. This was till USSR put Sputnik…
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Grand as Ever | Learning by Proxy
Say, you had a sudden windfall of a million dollars. What would you do? You might save some. But in all likelihood, your consumption would rise. Now instead of a one-time windfall, let us say you were going to get a salary of a million dollars. It would send your spending (consumption) to another level.…
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Unknown Known
The model of knowns and unknowns. Known knowns are facts that you know. Known unknowns are facts that you are certain you don’t know. Unknown unknowns are facts that you don’t even know exist. Unknown known is fact that you do not know but others do. Also the most fertile ground of conspiracy theories. When…
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Subscriptions | Learning by Proxy
For most of human history, the supply of products was always far lower than the demand for them. It is hard to believe, how radically this changed in the last 30 years. Just as unbelievable as the fact that 15 years ago, if you wanted to find your way around a new town, you had…
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Your image of yourself
We all have an image of ourselves that we have constructed in our minds. I had this image of myself as being that person who loves to play the piano and would imagine myself playing fluently on a keyboard or a piano. Because of this image of myself, I not only spent money on buying…
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App Store | Learning by Proxy
In January 2007, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at the MacWorld. The announcement would cause seismic shifts in the entire computing world, but nobody realised it at the time. In an era where Nokia was selling $150 dollar phones; a $500 phone seemed like it was meant for the nerdy enthusiast. Steve Balmer, then CEO…
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Exponential Growth
The common Silicon Valley refrain goes – Solve a problem and then use technology to scale it. Do not build technology and then look for problems to solve. The underlying assumption is that technology would take the burden of scaling the solution rather than throwing more people at the problem. This can help achieve exponential…
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Video Games | Learning by Proxy
The first patent for Video Games was filed in Jan 1947. The Cathode Ray Tubes that had been invented to render the radar was to be used as an amusement device! There were a lot of experimental games that were launched in that era. Most remained in the lab for the purposes of demonstration. Either…
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Scientific Method
The scientific method is a series of steps – Observation – Research – Hypothesis – Test with Experiment – Analyse Data – Report conclusion This is prescribed by every university in the world as the blueprint to create knowledge. I think this is a huge problem. Here is why… Take for instance the theory of…
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Time
Almost all of us have gone through those important exams. In India, it is the 10th and the 12th class. Those board exams are supposed to make or break your life. Then there is the college entrance and so on. We remember them because they are unfortunately turned into life milestones. Do you remember any…
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