I started reading "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen, Leiserson,Rivest and Stein. I was not able to get much past the first chapter which basically talked about how Algorithms in itself was a technology and all the real world places where Algorithms are used.
I did start off with chapter 2 which explains insertion sort and merge sort and does their analysis but my rusty rusty brain got tired very quickly and it is bed time.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Theorizing
I love theorizing.Since I spent so much time day dreaming, my mind tries to generalize everything into a pattern.I thought I can as well write about it here.It's just for fun.period.
So we can start off with "The purpose and meaning of life" , my favorite topic which I use for procrastinating just about anything.
I started off by reading about religion , specifically Hindu philosophy and a little bit of Buddhism and a teeny weeny bit of Christianity.Initially it used to fascinate me - with concepts of Soul, After life, Good vs Evil, Karma, Enlightenment,Existence of a fair and kind God etc.
The problem for me is that I cannot live on blind faith. Eventually Religion to me started seeming like mankind's need to explain the things he perceives around him in a naive way.Religion is just a Pre-Science version of explaining reality.
Religion which opposed Darwin's theory of evolution for so long actually fits into the very theory quite beautifully.Think about it - the gist of almost all religion is "Love" and "Peace", now with "Love" and "Peace" you have a good chance of surviving and passing on your genes into the future.So people are religious because it helps them propogate their species better
Have you seen typically what happens to people who interpret religion to be "Hate" and "War" ? - they get bombed the shit out of them by B52 stealth bombers these days - now unless your God actually strikes down those B52 bombers with a bolt of divine lightening - hard luck not getting your ass roasted :-).Obviously good religion with all that Love and Peace is good for species propagation and bad religion which encourages Hate and War will be weaned out eventually.
In my opinion Life is not even as "special" as we make it out to be.By special I mean it does not need some "magical" touch by the Gods to convert an inanimate thing to something which has Life.We don't have souls to make us alive.
Life for me is just a spectacularly complex arrangement of atoms or quarks or whatever is the fundamental particles of nature which gives all the properties of life as we know it.Simple as that.We basically follow the same laws of nature as everything else which does not have life follows.
But I don't think your or my life is pre-determined in the sense that if you know the initial position and velocity of a ball you can predict where it will be 5 hours from now.I *think* we do have free will, maybe some law of nature does accommodate for free will.If you even read basics of quantum mechanics you realize that everything is a probability wave - so it is almost like the particles have a "free will" on where they want to be at a given point in time.I am not equating human free will with the probability waves - all I am trying to say is it is not "unthinkable" for accounting will within the bounds of nature's laws without resorting to the divine.
The laws and the Good Vs Evil ideas we have been brought up on where everybody is encouraged to be "good", "kind" etc are just how we have evolved since being "Good" helps propagation of the species.By being "Evil" you will eventually end up killing each other, so "Evil" people get weaned out of the society. The corollary of this statement is even if you are the most dastardly cold blooded serial killer and rapist and if you can get away with your crime - you actually won't burn in hell.You are a criminal only if you are caught.Sad but true.
So with this definition of life what do you think could be the purpose of your life.My thoughts are you really don't have any "special" purpose.You are just dust of the universe in a particular form and hence you have "life" and when you die that dust just changes into other form ( for example if you are buried the form is called compost and if you are burned it is ash :-) ).
The only purpose is what you give it.Whatever you like to do is the purpose of your life.
I ,for one find life to be the most amazing thing around, not because we have divinity within us but because it is unbelievably amazing that the dust around you, if given a particular form can ACTUALLY figure itself out and it's surrounding!Tell me what can be more amazing than that!
So that's my theory.Maybe I am wrong and the Gods will strike me down for this blasphemous blog - but even if God does exist I am sure he is smart enough to understand the need of his creation to question it's creator :-)
So we can start off with "The purpose and meaning of life" , my favorite topic which I use for procrastinating just about anything.
I started off by reading about religion , specifically Hindu philosophy and a little bit of Buddhism and a teeny weeny bit of Christianity.Initially it used to fascinate me - with concepts of Soul, After life, Good vs Evil, Karma, Enlightenment,Existence of a fair and kind God etc.
The problem for me is that I cannot live on blind faith. Eventually Religion to me started seeming like mankind's need to explain the things he perceives around him in a naive way.Religion is just a Pre-Science version of explaining reality.
Religion which opposed Darwin's theory of evolution for so long actually fits into the very theory quite beautifully.Think about it - the gist of almost all religion is "Love" and "Peace", now with "Love" and "Peace" you have a good chance of surviving and passing on your genes into the future.So people are religious because it helps them propogate their species better
Have you seen typically what happens to people who interpret religion to be "Hate" and "War" ? - they get bombed the shit out of them by B52 stealth bombers these days - now unless your God actually strikes down those B52 bombers with a bolt of divine lightening - hard luck not getting your ass roasted :-).Obviously good religion with all that Love and Peace is good for species propagation and bad religion which encourages Hate and War will be weaned out eventually.
In my opinion Life is not even as "special" as we make it out to be.By special I mean it does not need some "magical" touch by the Gods to convert an inanimate thing to something which has Life.We don't have souls to make us alive.
Life for me is just a spectacularly complex arrangement of atoms or quarks or whatever is the fundamental particles of nature which gives all the properties of life as we know it.Simple as that.We basically follow the same laws of nature as everything else which does not have life follows.
But I don't think your or my life is pre-determined in the sense that if you know the initial position and velocity of a ball you can predict where it will be 5 hours from now.I *think* we do have free will, maybe some law of nature does accommodate for free will.If you even read basics of quantum mechanics you realize that everything is a probability wave - so it is almost like the particles have a "free will" on where they want to be at a given point in time.I am not equating human free will with the probability waves - all I am trying to say is it is not "unthinkable" for accounting will within the bounds of nature's laws without resorting to the divine.
The laws and the Good Vs Evil ideas we have been brought up on where everybody is encouraged to be "good", "kind" etc are just how we have evolved since being "Good" helps propagation of the species.By being "Evil" you will eventually end up killing each other, so "Evil" people get weaned out of the society. The corollary of this statement is even if you are the most dastardly cold blooded serial killer and rapist and if you can get away with your crime - you actually won't burn in hell.You are a criminal only if you are caught.Sad but true.
So with this definition of life what do you think could be the purpose of your life.My thoughts are you really don't have any "special" purpose.You are just dust of the universe in a particular form and hence you have "life" and when you die that dust just changes into other form ( for example if you are buried the form is called compost and if you are burned it is ash :-) ).
The only purpose is what you give it.Whatever you like to do is the purpose of your life.
I ,for one find life to be the most amazing thing around, not because we have divinity within us but because it is unbelievably amazing that the dust around you, if given a particular form can ACTUALLY figure itself out and it's surrounding!Tell me what can be more amazing than that!
So that's my theory.Maybe I am wrong and the Gods will strike me down for this blasphemous blog - but even if God does exist I am sure he is smart enough to understand the need of his creation to question it's creator :-)
Friday, September 18, 2009
About me
Things about me in no particular order.....
I am huge day dreamer.I day dream about all sorts of crazy things from killing terrorists who hijacked a plane and landing it safely to meeting Einstein to some day building a company bigger than Microsoft.It is almost crazy.Though I must say I have gotten a good hold of it now and avoid wasting my time day dreaming.That is the reason I am almost never get bored even if I am by myself for days.
I am the overlord of all forms of procrastination. I am so good at it that every time I have to start a little task - I start off by analyzing the purpose and meaning of life and how this little task fits into that big purpose and almost always the little tasks of paying bills and completing my code reviews never fit in the BIG scheme of life and almost always my tasks never get started or never get done.
I try to be funny all the time and probably am funny at least some of the times.I take it to a level that it is almost a fault because I have no problems laughing at myself or others laughing at me but unfortunately other people have problems when I make jokes and laugh at them.This has caused grief in the past and generally tends to situations where "serious" people don't take you seriously
I can NEVER keep a secret.I just have to tell the secrets to others!This has caused some grief in the past, so if you have a secret please don't tell me.
I am pretty sure I suffer from ADHD Predominantly Inattentive .My attention span is not more than 5 mins and especially if I don't enjoy the thing my attention is focused on.But I also truly believe going to a shrink to fix it is just a waste of my money
Reading up about how airplanes work and learning C Programming Language are in my opinion the only two things in my life in which I put my complete heart.
I liked physics and computer science when at school.I wish I liked Math better but always found it hard - I would like to put some of the blame for that on the education system :-). If you are a kid and not a genius then it is hard to understand something as abstract as math without relating it to real life and I can't remember one instance where anything but basic math was ever related to real world in the classes.
I like to believe that I am not egotistic (but my wife begs to differ :-) ). I have never had problems in dealing with almost anybody in my life.
I respect and worship competence in any field.period.I don't like people who try to put all sort of marketing fluff around their competence and I can't stand people who BS.
Einstein is my favorite hero of all times. I know squat about physics but still just understanding the basics of his work and how much radically different it was from the work of his predecessors and how beautifully it explained reality ,I think it is awesome.
I like programming but unfortunately I have never done any worthwhile programming worth mentioning.Maybe it is time to start
I would someday like to understand Computer Science, Math and Physics (especially quantum mechanics) in much more detail
Having a software start up of my own has been a long time dream on which I have made no progress.Again something hopefully I will get to during my remaining life.
I am not particularly excited about my current job.I do know there is a lot of potential for good work even at my current job but just I keep procrastinating it away.Something to improve on again.
I have no problems in talking about my flaws and short comings.
In my opinion my life has been more or less like Raymond's life in Everybody loves Raymond.Other people may beg to differ :-)
I am a socially awkward person if you know what I mean and I surely have scope for improvement in being more sensitive and empathetic towards others.Unfortunately I am not the type who remembers people's birthdays and anniversaries and sends them sweet cards for it.My wife is my mentor in this area so I will surely improve here.
I positively HATE phones of all types.I just am an anti phone person who will probably not pick 9 out of 10 calls.I need to force myself to even check voice messages.I hate phones that much.Luckily all my close friends are so used to me that they are hardly offended.
I am huge day dreamer.I day dream about all sorts of crazy things from killing terrorists who hijacked a plane and landing it safely to meeting Einstein to some day building a company bigger than Microsoft.It is almost crazy.Though I must say I have gotten a good hold of it now and avoid wasting my time day dreaming.That is the reason I am almost never get bored even if I am by myself for days.
I am the overlord of all forms of procrastination. I am so good at it that every time I have to start a little task - I start off by analyzing the purpose and meaning of life and how this little task fits into that big purpose and almost always the little tasks of paying bills and completing my code reviews never fit in the BIG scheme of life and almost always my tasks never get started or never get done.
I try to be funny all the time and probably am funny at least some of the times.I take it to a level that it is almost a fault because I have no problems laughing at myself or others laughing at me but unfortunately other people have problems when I make jokes and laugh at them.This has caused grief in the past and generally tends to situations where "serious" people don't take you seriously
I can NEVER keep a secret.I just have to tell the secrets to others!This has caused some grief in the past, so if you have a secret please don't tell me.
I am pretty sure I suffer from ADHD Predominantly Inattentive .My attention span is not more than 5 mins and especially if I don't enjoy the thing my attention is focused on.But I also truly believe going to a shrink to fix it is just a waste of my money
Reading up about how airplanes work and learning C Programming Language are in my opinion the only two things in my life in which I put my complete heart.
I liked physics and computer science when at school.I wish I liked Math better but always found it hard - I would like to put some of the blame for that on the education system :-). If you are a kid and not a genius then it is hard to understand something as abstract as math without relating it to real life and I can't remember one instance where anything but basic math was ever related to real world in the classes.
I like to believe that I am not egotistic (but my wife begs to differ :-) ). I have never had problems in dealing with almost anybody in my life.
I respect and worship competence in any field.period.I don't like people who try to put all sort of marketing fluff around their competence and I can't stand people who BS.
Einstein is my favorite hero of all times. I know squat about physics but still just understanding the basics of his work and how much radically different it was from the work of his predecessors and how beautifully it explained reality ,I think it is awesome.
I like programming but unfortunately I have never done any worthwhile programming worth mentioning.Maybe it is time to start
I would someday like to understand Computer Science, Math and Physics (especially quantum mechanics) in much more detail
Having a software start up of my own has been a long time dream on which I have made no progress.Again something hopefully I will get to during my remaining life.
I am not particularly excited about my current job.I do know there is a lot of potential for good work even at my current job but just I keep procrastinating it away.Something to improve on again.
I have no problems in talking about my flaws and short comings.
In my opinion my life has been more or less like Raymond's life in Everybody loves Raymond.Other people may beg to differ :-)
I am a socially awkward person if you know what I mean and I surely have scope for improvement in being more sensitive and empathetic towards others.Unfortunately I am not the type who remembers people's birthdays and anniversaries and sends them sweet cards for it.My wife is my mentor in this area so I will surely improve here.
I positively HATE phones of all types.I just am an anti phone person who will probably not pick 9 out of 10 calls.I need to force myself to even check voice messages.I hate phones that much.Luckily all my close friends are so used to me that they are hardly offended.
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