Note: Some of the following could be half-baked thoughts/opinions. But I still decided to share it, since the notion of a perfect thought/opinion is a mirage. Thoughts/Opinions, as with everything, evolves/changes with space and time.

“Any clod can have the facts, but having opinions is an art.” – Charles McCabe

  • It is sad to see that academia has fallen into the business/management jargon “data science”; I wonder “When did science exist without data?”. In fact, the entire scientific process lies on the founding principle that theory should be in agreement with observations/data. To quote Feynman, “If your theory disagrees with your experiments, then your theory is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.” YouTube video of Feynman on scientific process. Of course, it is to be noted that with the amount of data collected, huge computing power and newer/faster algorithms available now, we can discover new laws of science. My only crib is with the name “data science” and not on the work done by people. In fact, the debate on “What is/constitutes science?” is not new. It is a fairly old debate. Some people tend to dismiss mathematics as not a science since a mathematician is free to construct anything in his mind as long as it satisfies the axioms of logic. Others tend to dismiss social sciences as not a true science. So I guess the name doesn’t matter. In fact, at the end of the day, all these are human constructs. One could even argue that what we call as “science” constitutes only a tiny speck of our understanding/experiencing “reality” and it alone may not be sufficient to understand/experience “reality”. From John Nash’s autobiography, “…at the present time I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However, this is not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health. One aspect of this is that rationality of thought imposes a limit on a person’s concept of his relation to the cosmos.” – from the autobiography of John Nash

  • Those who are “sane” are those who are not brave enough to be insane.

  • Obedience is a vice not a virtue.

  • It is better to be an honest rogue than a slippery good, nice hypocrite.

  • On the topic of QS rankings and getting to the top of QS rankings. “Imagine an UK agency ranking breakfasts. Probably it will have some cakes, some breads, some potatoes, some sausages in the top 10. Now to make it global (more “diverse” and “inclusive”) the UK agency recruits some Indian guy, US guy, Chinese guy, Middle east guy, etc. They also use some “formula” to ensure that people belonging to different races, sexes, etc. are part of this “elite expert committee”. They also decide to make it “transparent” (Okay, now all the “right adjectives” have been ticked) by listing out the calorie content in each food, ingredients, nutrients, etc. and the formula to arrive at the ranking. The Indian guy (who say happens to be say a Gujarati) pulls all his might and manages to get Dhokla in the top 10. Now as a Tam should I switch from my Idli/Dosa/Upma/Vada/Pongal to say Bagel with cream-cheese because it is the top ranked breakfast according to an “expert committee”? Or as an Indian should I switch to Dhokla for morning breakfast? Or should I switch to oatmeal because another competing agency gives more weightage to low glycemic index in its “formula” to arrive at the rankings. Should I go out of my way and invest all my might in ensuring that Idli gets into the top 10? or is it more worthwhile to rather perfect the art of making Idli/Dosa/Vada/Upma/Pongal to cater to people who have a natural liking towards these and others who may start having a liking towards the food?”

  • 20th century: Astrology is crap, fake;
    21st century: Data science is the holy grail and future.

  • We have exhausted only 5 Greek alphabets so far (as of Jan 1st, 2022). We still have 18 Greek alphabets remaining (not 19 since naming a variant as “Xi” has been banned for scientific reasons).

  • Diversity/Inclusion for the sake of diversity/inclusion is the most regressive step a society/organization can take. If men are good at and are over represented in certain domains/areas, then women are good at and are over represented in other domains/areas. I have always wondered why no one seems to talk about diversity/inclusivity in fields such as truck driving, plumbing, welding, car servicing, etc. What society needs is not an equal distribution of men and women in each and every profession. Rather the society needs to appreciate and respect each and every profession; appreciate and respect each and every individual. Let’s try to work towards appreciating and respecting each and every profession, each and every individual, instead of corrupting young minds and dividing the society.

  • Simple decisions to be rich and happy

    • Read, Learn
    • Have hobbies. If one of your hobbies is your profession, consider yourself to be lucky and have few more hobbies.
    • Avoid social media, 24x7, emails, chats, etc.
    • Never own a credit card
    • Never take a loan/EMI
    • Buying a house is not an investment
    • Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves
    • Buy things that you will utilise
    • Invest money in good business and invest time in yourself

    All the above are not only easy to preach but also easy to practice. The irony is that majority in the modern society won’t practice, thanks to mindless consumerism and FOMO.

  • “The difference between a rogue and gentleman is that the former is capable of roguery while the latter is not capable of roguery or the latter pretends to be a gentleman.”

  • “Two of the biggest scams of our time: (i) Insurance, (ii) Vaccines; Both these scams rely on fear mongering. And as with all good scams only a tiny part of the scam is in principle useful/true/valid. Modern art is a close third.”

  • “Any civilized society by definition has to be a pretentious and slave society”

  • “Goodbye Theory! Hello, Data and Computing”.

  • “The pleasure in the pursuit of useless research is amplified by the fact that it cannot be put to misuse.”

  • “The pen is mightier than the sword only when people are willing to read/listen. The sword, hence, still has its relevance.”

  • “It is better to be not successful in things you find interesting than being successful in things you do not find interesting.”

  • “A good computation is the one that does the least computation to obtain the right answer.”

  • “It is more worthy to believe in good people than in God.”

  • “We are drowning in data but starving for wisdom”.

  • “Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. Data, data, everywhere, No one knows a thing.”

  • “The art is more important than the artist.”

  • “Science and technology are great, but nothing beats love and care.”

  • “The culmination of mathematical understanding of a problem is the ability to compute the right solution (to a desired accuracy) and the ability to plot & visualize it. If you are unable to solve a problem, you haven’t understood the problem.”

  • “A person who forgives is a great human being; A person who seeks for forgiveness is an even greater human being”

  • “Gentle hypocrisy is the salt of civilized society.” – Krishnamurti Ramanathan Iyer

  • “I despise rascals who want me to think the way they want and who want to believe their opinions/interpretations as facts” – Krishnamurti Ramanathan Iyer

  • “Only the weak, poor, jealous, incapable idiots keep talking about fairness, justice and equality.” – Krishnamurti Ramanathan Iyer