Learning is not for the genius, as there are really none!

So, recently I have doing quite alot of reading about memory and learning, and I must say that so far I am baffled at the realities of the world inside our skulls and outside. Research has shown that the difference between a chess grand master and a novice player is in their ability to recall the board setup. If a board is shown to a grand master and a novice, chances are the grand master would be able to recreate 90% to 100% of the board, but the recall rate drops to around 40-60% for a novice on average. So, this might make you believe that the grand masters are super human, but the reality is that they are every bit human, just trained ones.

Why is volunteering so complicated?

Open source communities are often very strict in their adherence to basic principles of communication as without such rigorous, yet limited, rules the general goal of the projects would never be achieved since the maintainers would banging their heads together to just understand what others are trying to do, integrating alien code would be out of question. Although this creates a threshold which prevents total noobs from entering the community, it also works as a weed out process to let the most motivated to pass through and join the herd.

Fear of failure.

All my life I have always strived to travel the longest path because it always helped me distinguish myself from everyone else; now that I look back, it has been tremendously beneficial for me as it I always had a much clearer vision than those who opted for a quick escape down the rabbit hole. This is the story of myself, hidden away in the cracks of time, when I was naive and willing to risk it all to reach enlightenment.

What's the priority?

As I was walking down the escalator, I was not very mindful of how I was walking as my habit loop was there to keep under control. I noticed that a young lady clad in heavy black coat, standing at the corner where the escalator meets the corridor which leads to the turnstile to enter the subway platform. I did not mind too much about her reasoning for being there and so I took a left and began walking towards the turnstile. At the very moment a thought popped into my head as I watching the stranger in front of me pulling out his wallet from his back pocket and I was about to do the same.... Why do men keep their wallets in their back pocket? ( and this includes me) This popped up because for split second, I was observation my self from then point of view of the young lady and she must be perplexed by the fact that two very unrelated men, about to enter the subway, follow the exact same routine even though it's not exactly convenient. She must be asking herself, why in the world would you make things more complicated for yourself?

Are you an expert since you took a class?

In our modern era, information is most widely available, compared to any period of human history. (Almost) Anything and everything is just a Google search away. This leads to creation of two distinct and one not so distinct groups of learners:

1. Self taught

2. Formally taught

3. A mix of both at varied degrees.

For any learner, being in group 3 is optimum as they are exposed to both sides of the fence, but from personal experience, I would say most people are part of either group 1 or group 3, as in, they are either personally motivated to go scavenger hunting or rode the tides of school curriculum.    

Did I just say cappuccino or...... crappuccino?

My trip to my first python meeting was quite eventful today, full of lessons. I have been planning to attend a python meetup for sometime now as it is very difficult to appreciate all the nuances from just reading blogs and books.

But today is not a day of python, today is a day of life lessons on habit; my commute is regularly along the same routes so I only check Google Now (yes Google probably stalks me) who almost always pops up those travel card at the exact moment. So I checked Meetup(link) on my phone and clicked on the address and Google maps pointed to 568 11th Ave; I did not bother to check the actual address, as I know (deep down in my heart) Google CAN'T be wrong. So I embark the moving city (at any given time there's more people in NYC subway system than small town in Alabama) under the ground. After almost 45 min of riding in two trains and waiting over 10 min I begin my walk down the street trying to appreciate the diversity and culture NYC has to offer, and smiling at all the intriguing newyorkers around me. Almost 15 min later and over half a mile of walk I reach the pin and start looking for building number 568. I walked up and down the  street looking for my destination, but alas, Google only mislead my until I met a nice newyorker out with his dog for a walk. As he ask me for the address specifically, I looked at the address carefully on Google maps for the first time and then went back to recheck on meetup. And low and behold, I needed to be in East Village but I was in Lower Manhattan!

As I bid farewell to the benevolent newyorker, and was on my way again, I had not yet learned my lesson. I looked at Google maps and walked back to Port Authority station to get on A and then F to get to East Village. And once again, I was waiting for trains to show up and they did not. While waiting for the F, 2 Ds passed by and I waited until I realized that D also goes to the same station, but I had wasted 20min waiting for F! :(

So I hopped on the D and in about 20min, I was on a soft couch in the 11th floor, with an amazing view of the city through the window left of me. I was almost one and half hour late to the meeting but it was still great to see all the python programmers.

So, whats the point of me filling you in with all these boring details of my stride through trek through the city? I have been recently reading The habit loop (listening to be absolutely truthful) and so reflecting back on my travel endeavor made me realize how intricately Google services have become pillars of my travel habits. When a habit is being execute, there is no escape, as our brain stops focusing on the specific habitual activity. There are only two moments of awareness for habit execution, prior to and after execution, and my behavior is quite a strong evidence supporting the idea. Its not my singular experience which matters, as I believe there are experiments to backup the claim, but experience the affect gives a far more nuanced appreciation foe the idea.

And as for the title, I am not sure which one I actually said while ordering my drink at Starbucks a few minutes ago ..... something else I can explore!!

I am almost done reading the habit loop, and you can expect a review pretty soon!