The Jai and Veeru that govern us

Here's a first on this blog. This is my first reactive blog - the first one I've written as a reaction to something. Well, technically, the one on the Aus vs RSA match was reactive too, but this is the first blog in reaction to another blog. This was supposed to be a comment on Mandar's blog, but it got rather bloated and inspired me enough, so I thought that I might as well just write a blog about it.

As I mentioned, I was reading Mandar's blog on how ideas seemed to pop out of nowhere. Before I begin my essay on what is essentially a borrowed subject, I thought a little quote from his blog here would be in order.

I was ill. I was in no position to "do research." Yet this idea had materialized out of nowhere. Where did it come from? How did it come? I have no clue! It is pleasant and unsettling at the same time. It is pleasant because there is a new idea. It is unsettling because I have no clue where it came from! Has it always been there in space-time? Probably not. Where did it originate then?

I found this rather interesting. Not because it was something strange and that I had never heard of this before, but because this happens to me with an amazing sense of regularity. I do not care to recall how many times I've gone to bed, tired of trying to crack a problem, only to wake up with the conundrum all but sorted out. So, in comparison to the few hours that I spent "sleeping on the problem", would I have spent less time if I actively worked on it, while awake? It's anybody's guess.

But it still begs the question - how did it happen? When we weren't actively thinking about the problem, that's when the solution presented itself. One must admit that it is strange. However, I do believe I have a theory for it. I believe the answer lies in our minds ability to do things subconsciously.

I am no scientist. I have trouble keeping up with my line of work, so there is little chance, if any at all, that I would have mastery in any other area of specialization. So, a large part of what follows is mainly based on my experiences and is definitely not a treatise on any scientific theory, controversial or otherwise.

In my general experience, I have found my body and mind to be two rather independent entities. For the most part, they work together, but there are often times when they don't - one of them just refuses to cooperate. For instance, when you are at work, your mind and body are both on high alert, churning away. For programmers, like me, most of the work is in the head. All the body needs to do is, literally, sit around and tap keys. But then, the body tires. Be it because of poor posture, or just tiring from sitting motionless in one position, the body gives up. One needs to get up, stretch a bit, walk around even. Even then, it is quite common in our fraternity that the mind continues working on the job at hand - it's just that the fingers aren't holding up their end of the bargain. For vivid proof of this, try lending an audience to coffee break conversations amongst team mates at a software firm. The reverse can also happen. Often, when I play a computer game for over a couple of hours, my will to continue playing ends. I'm not tired. In fact, I could very well get out of the house and run a couple of miles! However, the mind is tired, refuses to continue and calls it quits. In such a scenario, there's not much that can be done, especially if it involves both faculties working in tandem.

These two entities, that form the driving force that powers our existence, are beasts of somewhat similar nature, if one looks at it in some ways. What I'm trying to put across is that the body and the mind, essentially seem to exist in two states - active and fatigued. The stimuli that cause them to switch between states is obviously varied, but one can, for the most part draw parallels between the respective stimuli. While the body requires rest to recuperate, the mind requires a change of activity.

However, the one true aspect of difference is the subconcious. Many of us have this "ability" to push a problem into the background and start doing something else. The mind meanwhile works on it in the background, and this is the reason we get flashes - much like Mandar did. This, in my opinion, is the germ of our ideas. I do believe that a lot more heavy duty processing happens without our active involvement, than in the times where we try to “understand”. Little surprise then that you seem to understand concepts that you knew for longer better than the ones you just learned. It’s not like you actively thought about the older concepts everyday! So, that idea that you got was the result of a whole lot of thinking you were doing. You just weren't doing it as the primary activity.

The body, however, has no way of doing something "in the background". There is only the current activity, nothing else. However, the body is not without its share of trumps. Adrenaline is by far one of the body's most critical assets. At times when it is required most, the body's ability to up the ante is immeasurably beneficial. The mind has no way of doing this. You really cannot think any harder about a problem than you are already!

Remember all those stories about a strong character and a smart character and how they combine to emerge victorious? This is much a reflection of our selves, the two entities that govern us. I do admit Jai and Veeru don’t really epitomize the mind/body dichotomy, but they sure do make for an interesting title.