Ravit's Blog

 I remember a story from my 11th grade Literature class. I and some other classmates were put into a small group. I had told a classmate a fun fact I remembered about the Robert Frost, concerning his poem "The Road Not Taken". The fun fact was as follows--that Frost, when asked about his poem, shared that he had not intended his poem to be ascribed the deep meaning that was given to it. "Over-analyzing" seemed ridiculous to me. I mean, what meaning could a work of literature or art truly carry, other than by coincidence, that wasn't what the creator or author originally consciously intended? I was therefore rather surprised to hear Dr. Peterson, in his recent interview of his illustrator Juliette Fogra, claim that certain works of art carry deeper but powerful meanings that cannot themselves be expressed by the originator. Then I thought about the nature of dreams. Dreams are typically not controlled at the conscious level. But they are certainly not irrelevant ...

 The tendency of the mind to centralize the present is an interesting phenomenon. To be concrete, when I think of my life, as I would when someone would ask me the question "Who are you?", I would think about my present self--my current lifestyle, goals, interests, and ambitions. Sometimes, I wonder whether in answering that question, I would underrepresent my past self, say five years ago, which was the same in many ways as my present self, but also different in important ways. Five years ago, I had different interests. I used to watch more TV downstairs and be less active. I lived in a less structured way, and had little in the way of a daily routine. But I was also more competitive. And made friends more easily as well. I wanted to be a doctor. Now I'm a CS major. In the past five years, there are days I can reflect on with pride, for having successfully executed an uncomfortable goal, such as studying for APs in my second year of high school, or reviewing a painful La...

Would we get anywhere if it weren't for pressure? Seriously. Social pressure. Pressure at school. Pressure at work. I mean it's uncomfortable, but isn't that exactly what enables us to get stuff done? I suppose, it is first important to establish what is meant by pressure. For the purposes of this brief discussion, let's say that pressure constitutes external regulation, such as reinforcement or punishment, or action (or inaction) or behavior (or lack thereof). It's clear that pressure can make stuff get done. We had a 10-15 "historical fiction" paper due for history class in 10th grade. I saved the majority of my rough draft revisions for the morning of the due date. Though that was quite uncomfortable, and I'd like to think that my experience with that encouraged me *not* to procrastinate, it's nevertheless impressive to look back upon what I was able to accomplish within one hour by waking up extra early around 5:30 to make my changes before lea...

 In Of Mice and Men, George in Lennie fall in love with a dream they have--a dream to one day become financially independent and run their own peace of land. Their captivation with their dream is great, and they begin pooling together money and making plans. Their plan is beautiful and exciting, but one that is never achieved. It is a plan that George is forced to suddenly and unhesitatingly sacrifice after coming so dramatically close to achieving, when he shoots Lennie in the head. He shoots Lennie, his beloved companion, who like a child, gave him a sense of responsibility and purpose. As George himself often says in frustration to Lennie, his responsibility for Lennie is the reason that he forsakes other pleasures. Caring for Lennie is a responsibility left behind to George by Lennie's aunt, and it is a responsibility that George takes upon his shoulder and faithfully executes by saving Lennie from predicaments, guiding and instructing him, and not leaving the side of Lennie. L...

 I probably won't be able to give this post as much time as I was originally intending for a topic of this nature, but let's have at it. I watched the movie Pursuit of Happyness  today. It was a touching tale of a man named Chris who struggles with family and finance and finally digs himself out of his hole through diligence and truth of character--who, like a human, made mistakes, such as recklessly investing his life savings into scanners, which he thought he could sell easily, and not upholding his relationship with his wife. But like a noble human, and like God as depicted in Christianity, sacrificed and toiled and suffered. As part of his pursuit to become a stockbroker, Chris loses his home, his money, and his shoe (haha!). I think it's not fair to call these sacrifices, since these were taken from him involuntarily. But, Chris makes difficult decisions nonetheless. He sacrifices his comfort and leisure time, and dedicates the time he could have spent in self-pity and...

I think it'd be useful to explore the appeal of nihilism to the mind. Nihilism is the idea that one's actions and life are, on the grand scale, meaningless. It suggests that our individual emotions and actions are meaningless because we are but a speck in the midst of an expansive universe. But this is true, so what does it mean to be a nihilist? To me, it seems that the thoughts of a nihilist, such as thoughts pertaining to one's future or reflections upon one's actions, are centered around and influenced to a large degree by the notion that our lives are insignificant. Why go to college, if in a hundred years after you die the world will hardly be any different? Why, in fact, do anything responsibility? But as Dr. Peterson points out in 12 Rules for Life , anything is meaningless if a large enough domain is chosen. To paraphrase an idea I heard from Dr. Peterson's lecture titled "The Meaning and Reality of Individual Sovereignty" (boy, I really am fangir...

Proactivity. The name in itself expresses some concern with the future. Problems that can be addressed now are better solved now than in the future. If left unaddressed, they grow in magnitude and plague one in the future. Prioritizing the future over the present is not an easy thing to do. After all, it is expedient and tempting to ignore one's problems and to pretend they are not there. (Kind of like how an infant covers its eyes when scared or anxious, blocking out stimuli as a crude way of making its world disappear.) Sometimes I implicitly try to prevent myself from thinking about the problem, as a means to avoid rationalization ("implicitly" because while I think the act of prevention is voluntary, I think it is a choice made sneakily and subliminally by the self-centered part of my mind). Because the wise act of rationalization, if successful, would result in my decision to forsake maximum possible present happiness in the interest of my future self. And part of me...

If today were to be last day of one's life, what would one do? We have plans for the future. Those would become irrelevant. Two thoughts come to mind. One is a thought of dejection and disappointment. Perhaps this thought would be a manifestation of our will to continue living. One would be looking forward to time spent with friends and loved ones, to participating in a particular activity, or to continue working toward one's long term goals. One would have to forsake the activity with which one preoccupies themselves in life, or the hedonistic high one encounters when in love or becoming addicted to a video game. The second is a sense of relief. The former would perhaps be more strongly felt by one repenting for their sins or atoning for what they have failed to do. When one suffers, one does not enjoy the suffering, particularly if it is prolonged. Third is that of calm acceptance--when one has neither an attachment to nor a revulsion towards the pleasures of life. Though I a...

I think ignoring the imperfect in one’s life is a mistake. Imperfect aspects of life are inevitable and undeniable. No matter how naive our conceptions of life may be, difficult situations arise. Life simply cannot remain paradisical. Given this, it seems to be a natural consequence that the responsible course of action is to step up and deal with difficulty, rather than putting them off, mentally or actually. Dr. Peterson expresses in his book 12 Rules for Life (Chapter 10) how his experience as a clinical psychologist contributed to his belief that not confronting a problem is a significant mistake, and that even simply by not confronting such imperfection or undesired responsibility, one can incur a comparatively much larger burden waiting to be acknowledged. Naive thinking may try to resist this truth. I certainly did during at least one instance several years ago (nearly 10 I think) from my childhood. To me, the moral of this memory has solidified my conviction that problems cann...

  Is failing to come to terms with the truth a lie? For example, if I know I have to take the trash out, and refuse to do so out of laziness, is it any worse than forgetting to take the trash out of mere carelessness? I suppose an argument can be made that carelessness or recklessness is certainly culpable. I was reading Peterson’s book, and heard him make a related book--in the Bible, there is a story of a man who recklessly touched a tree he was not supposed to touch. God struck him dead. So, I suppose the same is true morally as is true in the legal world--that recklessness is not a good enough excuse. Attentiveness and care is important.

Is toxicity real? I certainly think so. Humans have infinite capacity for evil, so, the possibility of an unhealthy relationship characterized by mutual despair over benefit is a real one. I recently listened to Louis Armstrong’s song--“What a wonderful world” And I think to myself- what an interesting song. Can the world really be beautiful? Well, I suppose so. I suppose it can be beautiful. When the beauty of it is well earned. If however, if one does not earn the beauty, they may not experience it. The very same world of beauty to one may be a dull world to a mind that does not provide itself with the experience of beauty. And this is not to claim by the way, that one’s actions are unrelated to one’s mental state, or to downplay the responsibility one has to tend to their own body, mind, and life. But I have often heard of the biological component that is associated with such dullness, and how the chemistry of one’s brain affects one’s mood. For some reason, I sometimes find it surp...

  It is strange that I sometimes want to see myself fail. As if I were taking pleasure at witnessing my downfall. I have a physics exam tomorrow, and could not bring myself to do homework in preparation for the exam. I played chess instead of studying. I procrastinated studying by working on research. It wasn’t as if I knew that I should likely be spending my time on physics. Why did I not choose to stop myself?  Did I want to experience the displeasure and pressure that I knew would be inevitable if I had not done it? Was I just not in the mood to make myself proud. Was I just not fighting hard enough to free my actions from devilish interference? I think it’s clear that it’s not always easy to act in the way that one knows to be most beneficial in the long run. Or perhaps a part of me was hoping that the physics exam wasn’t real--that if I could somehow stop thinking about its existence, then it would not plague me and come back to pinch me in the future. An infantile assump...

  I noticed that there is a cycle of complacency that repeats in my life, and heard Dr. Peterson talking about it, which validated my theory. Sometimes, I feel very satisfied with my day and the work I was able to accomplish. Other times, I regret not accomplishing the goals that I set for myself, and not disciplining myself to the required extent. In both extremes, I end up assigning myself a sense of satisfaction with myself, and an assessment of how well I am working towards my long-term goals. Currently, my primary long-term goal is to prioritize work, and to divest passion and energy into learning. Today, while I was moderately successful in achieving this goal, I know I could have done better, and know the points in the day when I failed, and will make it a goal to address these issues and ensure that they do not repeat tomorrow and for the next few days. Going back to the cycle of complacency, when I am happy and satisficed with myself, I become more reckless and less carefu...

  Work is a necessary part of life. For me, since I am early on in my career, and since the majority of responsibility in my life is centered around school and studies, the larger part of my energy and priority third only to health and family is work. Work is meant to be meaningful, not fun. And I feel that work begins to lose its meaning if it is also fun. Now, I do think that motivation to work is helpful, and that enjoying one’s work can be beneficial as a means to improve the quality and quantity of one’s work. If one finds motivation in doing what they do, they can do the job better. But, there is something about work that makes it meaningful. I am a strong believer that meaning is not derived from happiness. Happiness and pleasure are meant to be experienced when one rewards oneself or achieves a milestone in their work, not in the mere act of doing the work. If one learns to expect happiness while working, then they would be rather disappointed and demotivated when they enco...

  Just one day off. It won’t hurt. Just one day. Just one day. Just one day. You know that exercise is needed to maintain your health. You wish to uphold the daily habit. But some days you are tired, others you are lazy, and sometimes you just feel fed up. Your frustration with the activity upsets you, and you wish that you didn’t have to do the activity. One day, you read online about a local 5k race, and realize that you have forgotten to go on your daily run for the past three days. Just forgot. You had forgotten the reason you had made a commitment to daily running. Now that judgement day has arrived, you wish you had kept up your regular running over the past month, so that it may come in handy on race day. You regret your decision to not keep yourself disciplined, and wonder where you could have been if you had kept up your habit. You also remember the pain you endured, and how you had succumbed to the tender and ignoble desire to ease your way out of the pain. The devil had ...

There is too much that can go wrong in life. The sentence in itself is pessimistic, but it is one that is important to think about and periodically recollect. And the motive behind the exploration of this sentence is a realistic one, rather than a self-indulgent or a self-pitying one. There is so much that can go wrong in life. We depend upon many things to help us get through the day, ranging from our toothbrush that we use to brush our teeth, to the floor beneath our feet, to the interpersonal relationships that determine our social network. If a connection or link becomes loose or broken, then there is a dysfunctional aspect of our life that is in need of mending, either by removing, replacing, or repairing the broken link. I think it’s human nature to treat the dependencies in our life as second nature, and to neglect thinking about the things which we rely upon. And I think it’s fairly natural to be slightly inconsiderate for such things. After all, by the time I get to thanking m...

  I’m quite familiar with the exciting feeling of exuberance, the warm sense of tingling and excitement on a summer evening as I head out to play in the neighborhood park. The world is full of adventure and blooming with ecstatic plants and creatures, ecstatic just like me. The world seems perfect, and I feel nothing but joy as I climb and sit down upon the lowest branch of the neighborhood tree. At least superficially, I feel satisfied, as if I were in paradise. The feeling doesn’t peak for long, and goes down after a few minutes, but while it lasts, boy does it feel heavenly. I’m also quite familiar with a deep sense of drudgery and gloom--a mixture of desperation, disappointment, and emptiness, the darkness on a dull winter night as I recall the amount of work on my todo list that I don’t want to do. The world seems devoid of pleasure, and as long as I know that my todo list is full, my mind cannot accept the feeling of cheer. I am eager to drift into the limbo of sleep, and am ...

  A recent discussion with my parents sparked a thought within my head. We were talking about the issue of marriage, and my parents were expressing some tentative plans for arranging my marriage or allowing me to do so on my own. The issue of marriage, if handled by others, would be one fewer life decision I would make. It would suggest therefore, that while I had a lower degree of freedom in my life, a somewhat large burden would be removed off my shoulders and that I would also be practically guaranteed familial and social approval. This seems like an age-old dilemma. The issue of parental involvement in relationship decisions. When there is such parental involvement, there can sometimes be tension between the child and parent, if the child does not wish to marry the proposed individual. There can also be a smoother process of marriage, greater support by the family, an established line of support, and perhaps best of all, approval. Approval, I suppose, is much less likely if the...

  Recognizing a problem is tough. I have a bad habit of browsing through Quora instead of listening to online lecture. Perhaps part of the reason behind this problem is that I don’t ascribe enough value to lecture time. School environment and home environment have become so similar, that they have blended together, and have lost their independence. Back when I used to go to school, recognizing the distinction, and focusing in class wasn’t too much of a problem. Electronics were mostly out of the question at school, and the situation in which I was placed made it difficult to become distracted. Not the same in the online learning environment. So, I’ve recognized that this is a significant and recurring problem that I’ve been facing, and now must make a conscious decision to work against this bad habit in order to break free of it. I recognize its importance, as I prioritize my school work above all other work. In my life right now, my top priority as far as work is concerned is to e...

  I’ll start this section with a provoking thought experiment. Let’s say there is a rich man, one with lots of money and resources. He starts off with plenty of such belongings:  a spacious mansion, plenty of gold jewelry, a spacious garden, uncountable rows of guest rooms, innumerable employees, and an array of high-end cars.  One day the man sits down to think, and suddenly remembers that he hasn’t visited his movie room in, oh, what must be over half a year by now. He fears that something terrible has happened, and walks across the corridor, down the array of expensive rooms, and stops at the door of his movie room. He takes a deep breath, heart pounding, opens the door, and turns on the lights. Nothing. All is in order. Somewhat relieved, he turns back, and heads back to his bedroom. That man is made miserable by his own possessions. He certainly does not need all that he owns, and he knows it. The memory of, and the responsibility to tend to, all the things in his li...

  A hummingbird's nest is fragile, and can be easily broken. A hummingbird is afraid of humans, and will fly away from a person who gets too near. I don't know how the hummingbird feels when someone approaches its nest, one built from endless dedication. Especially when a hummingbird has eggs, it has divested a large part of its resources into creation and maintenance of the shelter, as well as the protection of the eggs. But it is easy for someone to approach the nest still, and utterly rend it to pieces, and that too, without much emotional consequence. What a one-sided emotional consequence this seems. That person, upon destroying the nest, may forget about it even later that day, but the hummingbird has lost weeks of effort spent in building the nest and protecting the eggs. If the bird could speak, I bet it would be cursing the heck out of the indifferent perpetrator. Our creator must play with us the way a naughty boy plays with a hummingbird's home. Indifferently. Pr...

  I recently was asked to limit my chess. Having been faced with a scenario not unlike addiction, and being quickly asked to reduce the activity, I feel this is a prime time to discuss what the process of healthy withdrawal would be like. There is a part of me that doesn't wish to see chess go. It says that if chess goes, I will not be as good of a player as I could be otherwise. But today, I also read a Quora post, in which a chess player wrote how, during his period of rapid improvement in chess from 1800 to 2100, he retrospectively wishes that he had spent more time on other activities. Unfortunately, in that category is his education. Now, I had cause today to reflect on my priorities. Chess to me is nothing more than a hobby. It is a fun hobby. It is one I feel enjoyment and pride partaking in, but one that is nonetheless a hobby. It would be a source of regret if I let my adoration of the game come in the way of my academics. The idea is that, even there are indeed 24 hours i...

  The devil is an evil person. But he doesn't let us think bad of him. At least he hinders us from thinking bad of him while he controls us. And while we know that his influence is bad, and he is at heart a purely evil being that wishes nothing but to distract us from our goals, and push us aside from the straight and narrow, but difficult path, he cloaks himself with the disguise of benign relaxation or leisure, when in reality the things he tempts us into are in their heart evil. We do not at heart resent the devil while we live, for if we did, there would be nothing different between us and Jesus Christ, who went starving for forty bloody days, out of his devotion and commitment to God. If he were to eat and break his fast, his decision would be characterized as gluttony. Really man, doesn't that seem a bit harsh? Well, yeah it is harsh. But life can be unreasonably cruel as well sometimes, miserably so, and if we truly wish to exonerate ourselves from the tight grasps of it...

  There is something adventurous, yet burdensome about taking control over one’s life. One has to make optimal decisions, be responsible for fending off bad fortune, and setting up one’s house in such a manner that it is most robust to rough winds. Such a task is not easy to do. There is an interesting characteristic of Charles’ behavior in East of Eden that is interesting to explore. He takes care of his farm as though it were his life. He wakes up early, and spends a good day’s worth of work, without complaint. Yet, when he returns to his home, he lives in filth, and neglects care of his house, to the extent that his maid claims that he lives like a pig. Farm vs house. One well-kept, the other neglected. Charles is such a man, that works hard, but doesn’t have high esteem. Much like Cain in the story of Cain and Abel, he feels a sense of jealousy his brother, and though he outworks his brother, his sacrifices are not well appreciated. I’m not sure of the significance of him not ...

  Could it be true that no other person feels the way I do? That no two people have the exact same set of virtues, ideals, and standards. Psychopaths are born differently from the rest of us. They experience no remorse for their actions, and feel no connection with most human beings, some not even with their own parents. Steinbeck, a great novelist, who evidently, thought much about the characters in his books, created a heinous character of Kate in East of Eden. Kate was a person without much compassion for others, who took advantage of others' feelings, and simply twisted these feelings in her favor, to the point where she hurt other people, by killing her own parents, by shooting her husband, by poisoning her own employer. Such people do exist in real life. There are people, too, who not only do not enjoy, but abhor philosophical conversations. To them, discussions about life, morals, and understanding "What the damn hell is this weird notion of life, and how is it supposed...

  Patience is what we call the willingness to endure a long line at the grocery store. Patience is important because it enables us to delay rash decisions, anger, and to subdue our impulsive desires. Because of patience, I am able to think through the proper move in a chess game before making the decision. Long-term goals are critical to growth over time and ability to grow into a skillset. Those who can delay their impulses longer are stronger-willed, and can make decisions of better quality. Easier, but sustained habits sustain themselves longer than habits which are harder but not followed as stringently. One most hold oneself in such discipline as a sports coach holds his best sprinter. He must not push the sprinter to the point where their relationship starts to fall apart, or the sprinter loses his will to keep pushing. But, he must ensure that the sprinter reaches his full capabilities. To do so, he must instill a deep sense of self-discipline in the sprinter, so that they c...

  When the avalanche comes crumbling down, life feels miserable. Emotions are wildly affected, and the mind becomes clouded with the crisis at hand. Everything around is tainted with the hue of the source of your grief, and averting your attention from it is tough. I had one such experience last night, where I experienced feelings of stress and sadness that came pouring out of me. I cried loudly, unlike I ever had before. I mean, I've cried loudly, but yesterday, whether due to sadness or as a symptom of sickness or cold, my hands and knees started to tremble, and I was shaking. Even my dog was surprised as she heard my wails, and I've not often seen my dog surprised. As I let my cry out, I was expecting a flow of emotion, but not as long and sustained as what I experienced. The emotions I had harbored in my heart for the past twenty or so minutes, and the growing feeling of anxiousness concerning an argument ongoing in my parents' bedroom climaxed and displayed itself in t...

  Good and Evil are enemies to each other. One is long-lived and glorious, while the other is short-lived and ignoble. Seems like we wouldn’t have a problem in choosing between them, but it turns out that both often cloak each other in the appearance of the other. Evil presents itself, and wishes to present itself, as if it resembled the pleasure and reward created by goodness. But evil is too good to be true. Offers of expedient means to success and a route to reward without toil are made emptily by the actor of evil, often embodied by Satan, who wishes to trap us, to confine us in the desolate, miserable world of fear, anger, avarice, and misery. The potential for good is as high as the well of evil is deep. The idea of good and evil is a banal one and is repeated often in the context of religious text. But, there are some interesting paradigms in human mind and behavior that I have trouble getting past. The idea of procrastination: now vs later, a selfish favor for the present d...

  Living in the jungle is a fantasy that I have often entertained, and a story which I watch myself build in my mind. What makes the jungle different? The jungle environment is apart from other people, apart from the comforts of civilization; it embodies a mode of life that is not unlike those that animals pursue--one characterized by foraging, independent living, exposure to risk, and an intimate, but not always friendly, relationship with nature. Mother nature is fierce, and quite fierce in the jungle. When a tree falls, a bird loses its home, and must build a new one. When the winds blow strong, a deer’s scent is carried into the expectant nostrils of its predator, and its life is taken at the whim of the currents. The jungle is not unaffected by forces of nature, such as rain; it is drenched to its very core, and its inhabitants are burdened with the responsibility of packing their things and moving out at the snap of Nature’s fingers. Or worse yet, they are stripped of all the...

  A time often comes in my life when I have to choose between (dull and routine) and (exciting and different). And I choose to write about this topic in this section because it doesn’t strike me as immediately obvious that one should always, or even most of the time, be chosen over the other. Sticking to routine has value. Following a schedule, maintaining positive habits and building upon one’s skillsets are useful because the pursuit of a single skillset over time gives one an advantage over one’s competitors, in career and most venues in life. Even a scenario as simple as spotting a public piano while with some friends is enough to demonstrate the value of sticking to routine. When you spot the piano, there is a large crowd nearby. You both take turns and sit down to play. Your friend had intended to practice regularly, and had once made a commitment to daily practice, but had given up on it, and never taken it back up. Now, when he plays, his rustiness is quite evident, and tho...

  Weird as this topic sounds, I promise it is rooted in reality, and not some mere abstract philosophical musing. What I mean by not confronting one’s emotions is postponing the inevitable, usually negative emotion that one knows they are bound to experience. It is an action that reflects a glimpse of our illogical but wishful thinking that ignoring a certain impending bad fortune would somehow prevent its occurrence or alleviate its effects. Or maybe it is an indication of ourselves sympathizing with our current state of being, and pursuing an expedient solution rather than fixing the larger glaring problem. Procrastinating is one such example of such non-confrontational attitude with respect to one’s emotions, but not the full topic. Generally, not confronting one’s emotions means to be lacking the self-discipline and willful effort required to make an adjustment to one’s planning, accept that the state of one’s plans and emotions would be less than what would be immediately pref...