The essence of an idea

Often, I had the opportunity to be part of many brilliant heated discussions with my fellow physics enthusiasts. Oh who am I kidding - fellow Geeks. But more often that so, the question that forever remains a battle of debate was about the “essence of ideas”. So today, I have taken the liberty to write about my views on the whole subject.

 An idea in itself is a thought process, that carries with it great energy and enthusiasm. So, why are our other musings not as powerful as our ideas? If every thought is nothing but an electrical impulse that flows in our brain, why does it not carry the same buoyancy of an “idea”?

Let us come back to these questions later. But, before we begin, we must understand what an “idea” is? Often, many are misled with this concept because of the common social misconception. In philosophy, the term “idea” has been used to cover a plethora of concepts. Often so, they are either mental representational images or constructs. But quite frankly, I think an idea is the culmination point of many individual thought processes over a given period of time.

Think about it?

 Every thought, ever notion, even every action we do, is directly or indirectly influenced by “Society”. When I say “Society” I mean the mass media, culture, education, a group of people and even the written word. But, what influences this abstract concept of “Society”?

For knowing this, let’s us conduct a small thought experiment. Let us go back in time.

It is common knowledge that Isaac Newton is credited with deducing mathematically – “the force that pushes or pulls (or) Gravity”. But if we effectively trace back further in history, we can see that man was very much aware with the existence of such a force, much before Newton. They referred to it as “gravitas”. The seed of this line of thought was planted not by Newton but by a Greek philosopher, Hagnon of Tarsus. Newton just found the mathematical evidence to sell this idea better.

The same thing can be effectively attributed to Albert Einstein’s very famous “Theory of Relativity”. Einstein was certainly not the first to propose it. Many physicists before him discussed, argued and debated about the cause and effect of “time dilation”. But, it was this wily German physicist who formulated a structured pattern for relativity. That much I give him credit for.

So, in a nutshell- every idea we think we are having, is not new. Someone out there, is already having it or worse had it. So, is he plagiarizing the idea? No, course not. This is because we still remain well within the matrix of imagination laid down by the said “Society”.

The problem statement we fail to address.

The problem statement we fail to address.

I am really upset today, and am thoroughly disappointed. I am upset because I flunked both my semesters. Big reason to be sad, why you ask?

I come from a place where toppers are worshiped as god men. You need to get a good decent grade to even show your face to the security guard. So for people who just don't make it, we are treated like outcasts. Your best friends don't know what to say, because they passed just fine. Your friends call you in the evening asking how you are doing. But in fact they are trying to prove it to so hard that they have an upper hand in the current scenario. Everything that follows the conversation would be you trying to re-assure them that you would do better next time and the icing of the cake is the relatives that call you only when the results are out. Don't get me started on them. The so-called "genuine appraisal to see how you’re doing" calls are just a taunt, no let me re-phrase, an extreme sarcasm accompanied by well-drawn out ironical dialogues to show that their sons or siblings are way better than you.

Now, if that's not just it, everyone starts treating you as a handicapped patient. Your parents are awfully disappointed with your work, hence blame all your previous mishaps on your hobbies, friend's, even you’re eating habits. Some very rare parents start blaming the misleads that happen to themselves also on you. For example, if you say flunked in any subject then the said parent comes up to you and starts ranting about how his day in the office was bad because his colleague’s son has aced IIT. Now , after a while you just start to wonder whether you are the thorough dork as said by the people around. Then, you go on thinking about your future. You start wondering, frankly speaking exaggerating many a scenarios that don't even concern you. For example, that night you probably are sad and will be brooding about your life ten years down the lane as a waiter!!! Oh come on!! Be realistic, you have a definite chance of striking a lottery than as ending up as a waiter. This is the problem with India.

We all focus ourselves in impressing others. Always it’s about what my parents think? What will my friends think? What my teachers think? What will my girl-friend think? We always seem to need a definite approval from the society, that we forget the fun of the game.

The said scenario above is merely a fictional work of mine, but if you can anywhere relate yourself to it then you are leading a life full of compromise. My close friend had always had a knack for accounts; his talents lay on the entrepreneurial line. His board exams went thoroughly well and he wanted to do C.A. His parents were obviously against this line of action. They made him join M.P.C (not because his talents lay there, no because it is a better secure life course). He reluctantly joined an engineering course and the example I mentioned prior to this is his life.

So, Indian students are going way ward in choosing their branch of specialization itself in a very wrong fashion. Indian's thus don't have any respect for a job. Most of them don't enjoy their work; they only do it for the cash. If your reading this article for a solution to this problem. Well I have one but many of are not going to like it.  Be passionate that’s all. If you ask a counselor or even a parent they will tell you to plan way ahead, to start studying from day 1 and stuff like that. Frankly, that does help if you’re a geek and have no life. DO SMART WORK, NOT HARD-WORK.

Try learning for the need to apply this god-forsaken knowledge somewhere, never do it for exams. Many of us hate mathematics. We look at calculus and start question as to who invented these draconian formulas. That's because you still didn't figure the fun of physics and math’s. Take your phone for example, we have many Fourier series functions representing a phone-call but this you are not aware of. These codes functions are what engineers write for developing new tech-gadgets for simulating the prototype before market-release. This is what you would be doing had you taken engineering as stream and hated calculus. Thereby hating your job, then disappointment strikes.

End of the day, all that matters is that if at all you are satisfied. For being satisfied, do what you love, love what you do. Keep innovating in whatever field you are. Keep thinking and read more, this broadens your horizons on any given topic. And don't give a damn about anyone that criticizes you. You are the pioneer of your own fate; you are the champion of your own destiny.