Monday, January 12, 2009

Knowledge, Experience and Creativity

Every action performed by a person can be classified under knowledge, experience and creativity; some, under more than one heading. Knowledge is defined as the result of learning, perception and reasoning. Experience results from the accumulation and application of acquired knowledge. Creativity is the ability to use the acquired knowledge and experience to create new experiences. The result of these experiences may create new knowledge.

On a scale of 100, try ranking their relative importance.

My ranking would be:
Knowledge-> 30
Experience-> 30
Creativity-> 40

I emphasize on creativity a lot, mainly because while knowledge can be easily acquired and experiences are a part of life, unless you decide to be creative, you can lead your entire life without being so.

That said, creativity is the resultant of knowledge and experience. Suppose you know two facts which appear to be inter-related. You get curious and want to try combining them, to see what you get. That's a creative process. To be able to spot the places where you can be creative, you need experience with the said facts.

A simple example. Physicists identified the wave and particle nature of light. One brilliant physicist tried to relate both, in the form of a mathematical equation. This physicist was Louis de Broglie, and his creative work is the de broglie equation. This brought about a better understanding of the dual nature of matter and radiation.

To be creative, one does not need academic brilliance or years of experience. Creativity only requires a threshold level of knowledge and experience. Despite this, creativity is the most difficult of the 3 to obtain. Reason for that being a majority of the schooling focusses only on learning (acquiring knowledge) and lab work (first hand experience). Hence the witticism "I was brilliant. Education ruined me." That's creativity at work again.

How to become creative?

Creativity is inherent in all. It has merely been dulled by the constant influx of knowledge and experience. If you let your mind wander, creativity speaks to you. You'll start questioning things which you once thought of as logical, asking yourself new questions, and answering them too. That's creativity at work. It will not happen when you are busy with some task. Since most people keep themselves occupied all the time, they never give their creativity any time to surface, burying it completely in the long run.

For a start, give some time for your mind to wander. However, if you are under the grip of a strong emotion during this time, you'll harp on whatever is affecting you only.

Next, try out the ideas obtained. Create an experience and make note of the resulting knowledge. Guide your mind into thinking about these results. Creativity will strike again!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

10 Signs You're In Love

10. You've forgotten your ex
More often than not, a breakup is followed by a significant amount of time spent thinking about your ex and wondering whether or not you made the right decision in going your separate ways. Depending on how long the two of you were together, these doubts can resurface again and again.

Ever since you met this new one, however, the thought of getting back together with your ex is the furthest thing from your mind. Come to think of it, you barely recall what you found so great about her in the first place.


9. You can't stop thinking about her/him
Instead, you are consumed by thoughts of her/him. S/he just pops into your head for no apparent reason, and you wonder if s/he thinks of you half as much as you think of her/him. You wonder what s/he's up to and even consider calling her/him (but refrain from doing so for fear of looking overeager).

But it gets worse. You're out with your friends and you see something in a shop window and think about how much s/he would like that particular item, or you notice a poster for a show that s/he would love, but normally wouldn't even have looked twice at it.

If s/he's the last thing on your mind before you go to sleep and the first thing on your mind when you wake up — and you've even dreamed of her/him on a couple of occasions — then you don't really even need to read on to know if you're in love (but should anyway, just to be sure).


8. You care about her
There is a reason why you don't really want to know too much about the chick/guy you had a one-night stand with: You don't love her/him. When you're in love with a wo/man, you want to know all about her/him: who s/he is, what s/he thinks, what makes her/him laugh. You truly care about her/him and her/his feelings.

If you truly love a wo/man, you feel bad if s/he had a bad day or is upset about something. You don't try to cheer her/him up because you have to, but because you can't help it.


7. You find her quirks charming
The fact that s/he carries her/his passport with her/him everywhere s/he goes — just in case — and that, when s/he's eating, s/he can't help but construct every forkful so that it's the perfect blend of ingredients fills you with an inexplicable feeling of happiness. S/he does and says things that make her/him different, and you like it. You can't quite put your finger on why, but it doesn't even matter. You like her/him just the way s/he is.


6. You have great chemistry
You can't be in love with someone that you have no chemistry with. If you seem to always be on the same wavelength, and think in similar ways, that's a great sign. If you also generate enough heat to set off a five-alarm fire bell, then s/he is probably someone that you could fall in love with, if you aren't there already.


5. You don't notice other women as much
Did you see that gorgeous blonde that just walked by?

What do you mean, "no"?!? Although you can't help noticing a beautiful wo/man when one walks by, when you're in love, some of them tend to slip under the radar, while others just pale in comparison to her/him. Furthermore, you don't seem to be flirting half as much as you used to.

You are slowly realizing that s/he's often the only wo/man in the room that matters, and for some reason that suits you just fine.


4. You love spending time with her/him
This one is pretty obvious but important nonetheless. You look forward to seeing her/him and don't care much about what the two of you will be doing. Lately, just going for a walk with her/him sounds like the best way you could possibly spend an evening.

Furthermore, when you're not together, you miss her/him and wish you were spending time together.


3. You don't mind compromising sometimes
There was a time when it was your way or the highway, but with her/him it's different. Not that s/he asks you to, but you don't mind missing a night out with the guys/girls to be with her/him. And you find yourself trying to incorporate her/him into your plans or altering them to accommodate her/him.

You also find yourself not putting up a fight when s/he wants to go to Shakespeare in the Park. Although your friends find this very amusing, you know that deep down, they wish that they had found a love like yours.


2. Other priorities take a back seat
You used to train religiously, but lately, if s/he's free for dinner, you don't mind missing a workout. Not only that, but your workaholic tendency of bringing home your work on weekends to get ahead seems a bit excessive to you as of late.

Your ever-important "to do" list seems quite stagnant these days, as being with her/him always manages to render your other plans and obligations obsolete. What was it that you absolutely had to do by four o'clock again?


1. You start thinking about the future and s/he's in it
It used to be that the future with a wo/man meant your date on Saturday night, but with this wo/man, the future seems infinite. Not only do you plan to see her/him this weekend, but you want to see her/him a year from now as well.

When planning your next vacation, you know you want to spend it with her/him, and not a random beach bunny you happen to meet while you're there. And when you get an invitation to a wedding that takes place three months from now, you ask her/him to be your date without thinking that it's too far away to tell if you'll still be together.

She's the one
If you are currently dating a wo/man that makes you act in any of the ways mentioned above, then you, my friend, are seriously falling for her/him. It's time to put away the little black book for a while and enjoy the ride.