What Is Man's Purpose In Life?

This is a question that comes to us some time or the other. 

There could be very many good answers.

1. To be the best we can

2. To leave the world a better place than when we arrived

3. To quote Thirukkural (Thondrir Pugazhodu Thondruga...) - To be born to be famous (meaning to do something good that achieves fame)

4. To be a good person and do good to humanity

5. To make money (Ayn Rand way - this may be one of the toughest and nice ways)

And so on. 

Each of these options assumes we have freewill and hence that we are at liberty to do what we want,  achieve what we want.

What, now, if we don't have freewill? I have mentioned in earlier posts, quoting Daniel Kahnemann, that most (about 90%) of our decisions are intuitive and taken by the heart (called System 1 or S1) without conscious thought. Only 10% of our decisions involve conscious and logical thought (called System 2 or S2). Even when S2 is invoked, it is invoked by S1 over which we have no control. In effect we do not have freewill - this is my conclusion not Kahnemann's. You can also read the excellent article about the lack of freewill mentioned within this post: http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/11/free-will-or-paid-will.html 
and my other posts http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/freewill-contd.html and http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/define-freewil.html

In the absence of freewill what is our purpose in life? To put this in perspective,  assume we ask this question of a cat or a dog. What is the purpose of a cat in this life? Ask this question from the cat's point of view. Or ask the same question from our perspective. In either case can we list any reasons describing the purpose? 

In the absence of freewill, is the purpose different for a cat from that of man? 

Ask this question of a software program. What is its purpose? Only its creator (the author) knows the purpose. The program itself may not know what its purpose is. Maybe the same applies to man and cat.  

Only the creator knows what our purpose is. We, without freewill just like software, have no clue about our purpose. Just like software our purpose is to execute (as a software does) ourselves in the way our creator intended. Now if a software does not run as intended, do we blame the software? We might but then, we are actually blaming the creator. Same way if man or cat diverges at all from its so called purpose, it's not the man or cat at fault. 

Man, just like software in the absence of freewill,  isn't even aware of his purpose. And neither he not the software was designed to know his / its own purpose.

Additional reading:

1. http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/thinking-fast-and-slow-daniel-kahnemann.html
2. http://www.beinghuman.org/article/conscious-thought

Fake Footwear On Flipkart

I came across this article today.  https://m.indiatimes.com/news/india/us-footwear-brand-drags-flipkart-to-court-for-allegedly-selling-fake-products-on-high-discount-336443.html# 

Credibility of the intermediary is affected by the quality of entities it connects. True, a brokerage house isn't responsible for bringing the seller of a shoddy company to the market place. That's the job, perhaps, of SEBI. A shoddy company,  like shell companies, can be barred from the marketplace. 

But then how does one bar a shoddy seller of (fake) goods? Consumer protection forum? 

Presenting A Bill For Services Rendered

It's probably more healthy when we present a bill after providing a service. While trying to be generous, we don't provide a bill. Instead we carry it internally as AR = Accounts Receivable instead of writing it off as an expense.

This, charging to AR, is horrible because only we know we have debited the other person's account while they aren't even aware of it.

This has two disadvantages:

1. We carry a baggage = AR which will rarely get paid because it was never presented to the other party and hence ultimately has to be written off which is very painful. Our internal finance department, like any other external one, cringes at the idea of writing off an AR.
2. The other person thinks he has got it free because of his charisma and they think we are bound to continue to give it free because of the norm that has been established of getting services free.

We usually think more highly of a thing that we pay for than which we get free. 

God, what a crappy situation. And what an ugly game both parties indulge in.

WhatsApp From 2 Phones Simultaneously - Same Number

How do you access wa from two smartphones - for the same number? I do it all the time btw.

For example, one of your phones where was is installed is getting charged and you want to continue chatting (and there is no extension card and you don't want to stand next to the wall forever) or you and your husband want to chat with your son from different phones.

Tipping Vidyasagar

A friend sent me this:

[12/1, 23:07] Susmita Sivasankaran Pal: *Charity wrapped in Dignity!!!!*

She asked him, "How much are you selling the eggs for?"

The old seller replied to her, "Rs.5/- for one egg, Madam."

She said to him, "I will take 6 eggs for Rs.25/- or I will leave."

The old seller replied, "Come take them at the price you want... May be this is a good beginning because I have not been able sell to anyone today."

She took it and walked away with a feeling that she has won. She got into her fancy car and went to pick her friend, and invited her to a posh restaurant.

She and her friend sat down and ordered what they liked. They ate a little and left a lot of what they ordered.

Then she went to pay the bill. The bill was Rs.1,400/-. She gave him Rs. 1,500/- and said to the owner of the restaurant: "Keep the change."

This incident may seem quite normal to the owner of the restaurant. But it is very painful for the poor egg seller.

The bottom line is:

_*Why do we always show that we have the power when we buy from the needy and the poor? And why are we generous with those who do not need our generosity ?*_

Every time a poor child comes to me to sell something simple, I remember a tweet from the son of a rich man who said, "After every prayer my father used to buy simple goods from poor people at expensive prices, even though he did not need them. Sometimes he used to pay more for them. I used to get concerned by this act and I asked him about it. Then my father told me: " *It is a charity wrapped with dignity, my son.*"

Compare these two stories of social hypocrisy.

The first one is disappointing and the second one is inspiring...!

My takeaway from the 1st story:

We Love to practice our negotiating skills which we do with "low end" people. In a high end store, not negotiating and instead being dignified (big tip) is an expectation. Extrapolating this.. If we maintain a consistent image of being high end we end up being treated better than if we maintain an image of a "Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar".

Knowledge Comprehension Application (KCA)

Whether in the field of abstraction (such as logic = T as in MBTI) or in the field of survival (FP = Feeling Perceiving),  there are three stages in increasing order of ability. T = Thinker.  F= Feeler. 

1. Understanding something - as in ability to recognize it and provide a theoretical definition. This is equivalent to having a knowledge (K) of that thing. 

2. Know it well enough to predict its behavior. This is akin to having comprehension (C) of that subject.

3. Understand its behavior so well that when faced with a requirement to get something done we are able to pick that subject up as the right tool and use it with the right parameters and successfully finish our endeavor. This step is akin to an application problem (A). One knows not only how to do something, one also knows how to fix something that has gone awry.

If we want to take this 3-stage KCA to a T example, we can consider Vlookup in Excel. 

1. We know what a Vlookup is. We can explain with an example to show how Vlookup works. This is K.

2. When given a complex problem (large Excel table or array ) and we are asked to determine some value using Vlookup, we are able to formulate the expression correctly. Or when a complex Vlookup formula is given, we are able to evaluate the expression correctly. This is C.

3. We are given multiple excel sheets with some related data. We are asked to evaluate something. We correctly figure out that Vlookup, among hundred other formula like Match, Sumifs), needs to be used and create the Vlookup with the right parameters and get the desired value. Or we are shown what an amateur has done who got a wrong result. We are able to figure out where he went wrong. This is A.

We can create similar examples in any other field - For an Electrician, Carpenter, Financial Advisor, Cook, Surgeon...

Let's now apply it to people.

If I know my husband is very reserved, doesn't talk to my father when he visits us,  very even tempered, very affectionate towards my children - that is knowledge (K) about my husband. 

If my sister asks me how my husband will react if her husband talks to him about planning for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, I would tell her that he would prefer to contribute monetarily but he would prefer not to be involved in much else. That is predicting behavior. And comprehension (C) about my husband's nature. 

My husband loves my maternal uncle. Hence asking my uncle to request my husband to just be with him (uncle) while my uncle does all the things for my parents' anniversary and hence avoid tongues wagging in my family is an example of Application (A). I solved the husband problem by figuring out a solution involving my uncle.

KCA levels exist in abstract things as well as in survival (FP) things. Some people are at A level in abstract things while some others are A level in FP things.  Still others might be at C or K level in these things.

When we are at A level, we use our S2 - meaning our conscious thought process. S2 is used both, typically at A level,  for abstract and for survival purposes. The abstract people at A level think poorly of the survival people's ability to use S2. And interestingly, vice versa.

Surprisingly both survival and abstract people evaluate others in terms of ability to use S2. Einstein was one of the few people who believed that S2 should be the slave and S1 should be the master. Meaning that we shouldn't go overboard because we are strong S2 users.

Intelligence is encapsulated in S1. This certainly doesn't mean that if we use S1 almost exclusively we become intelligent. Intelligence is a result of lovely interaction between S1 and S2.

We use S2 only for things that we care deeply about,  S2 being a precious and rare commodity. Our core competence is that area which consumes the highest level of S2. If only we could develop a test which could record when we use S2 and what triggered the use (just like apps in Android determine which apps drains battery the most), we could perhaps find out what our core competence is. And when we do find what it is, are we in for a surprise or shock? 

When we bring MBTI into the picture, we might tend to believe that T people use S2 while F people largely use F1. This belief is incorrect. Both T, F use S2. Except as explained earlier T use it for abstract purposes while F use it for survival purposes. 

Compound Weighted Interest - Maths Puzzle

If P1 money is invested @ rate r1 and P2 is invested @r2 rate compounded annually both for the same duration, then what is the weighted avg compound rate for the total money P1+P2?

What is the weighted average rate if it were a case of simple interest? 

Solution:
Consider simple interest first of the following amounts:
300@5% and 500@7% for same duration.

Overall interest per year =3*5+5*7=50. overall Principal =300+500=800

Interest per 100 principal per year =50/8=(3*5+5*7)/8 which is the weighted avg of individual rates.

How does it work for compound interest?
Total Amount after n years

=P1*(1+r1)**n + P2*(1+r2)**n
And this should be equal to

=(P1+P2)*(1+r)**n where r is wted avg compound rate

r= [ [P1*(1+r1)**n + P2*(1+r2)**n]/ (P1+P2) ]**(1/n) - 1

In effect meaning that the weights for compound interest are the (1+r)**n factors.  Of course one has to apply the inverse root and subtract one finally

Analysis Of Financial Options - Maths Puzzle

Let's assume we have invested Rs 30 lacs in a particular debt instrument which used to give about 8% annual return. 

Now LTCG (Long term capital gains) tax on debt instruments is 20%. For the time being let's avoid the complexity of indexation. This means if a fund grew from Rs 100 to Rs 140 over a 4 year period, the gain is Rs 40. And the LTCG tax is 20% of Rs 40.

Now let's come to the problem.

I find that the debt fund returns have fallen from 8% to 6%. This means that while I used to get 8% returns till today,  the return from today to days in future wilI be 6%. I have another financial instrument which gives me the same 6% return but it does not attract any income tax - meaning the returns are tax exempt.

I am considering moving the funds from the first instrument to the second one. But if I move now, I will have to pay LTCG tax in Apr 2018. If I were to wait till Apr 1, 2018 and then make the switch, the LTCG would have happened only in the FY (Financial year) 2018-19 and the tax would have to be paid only in April 2019. We assume for the sake of simplicity that all tax is payable in April meaning the month following the end of the FY. So if I wait 4 months, I can postpone the tax by a year. 

Assume that the 2nd fund will remain tax exempt and that the return percentages will hold good for the next year or so.

Now the question:

Should I make the switch now or wait till Apr 2018?

Intermediate questions you need to answer:

1. Is the exact date that I made the original investment relevant (I assure you the date is such that the transaction will be termed Long Term).
2. Is the exact amount of original investment and the rates of return from the beginning till now relevant? Is the exact amount of LTCG till now relevant?

Assumptions:

• The LTCG tax payable on debt funds does not depend on your income. Even if you had zero income in a FY, you still have to pay the LTCG tax on debt funds that you redeemed (sold) and made a profit on in the FY.
• I do not know any IT assessor whom I can bribe. Answers pertaining to illegal methods not accepted.

Solution:

• The amount and date of original investment as well as the history of returns till now are same for both options - whether i switch right now or I switch on Apr 1, 2018. I need not hence bother with these values.
• What happens on Apr 2, 2018 or later is again not relevant since it is the same for both options.

• It is like saying you and I go on a trip.  For the 1st four days we travel together, then we split up. You go north, I go south. Then we meet up on Apr 1st 2018. Then travel together for the rest of the trip. How many more places did you visit than me? Would we start finding out how many places you saw and I saw before we split up and again after we rejoined? We need not, right? We need focus only on that portion of the trip when we were not together.

• The debt fund gives 6% but taxed @ 20%, hence nett it gives 4.8%. The other option gives 6% nett. Hence the "sell right now option" gives me 1.2% extra for 1/3 year (=4months). If the amount I have now is x, I get 1.2%*x* 1/3 more if I switch right now vis-a-vis waiting till Apr 2018 to switch.
• If y is the LTCG incurred till now in the debt fund then, if I switch now, I have to pay 20%*y as tax in Apr 2018. Remember, there is no tax on the fund I switch to. Now If I wait till Apr 2018 and then switch then my total tax will still be 20%*y (note that by using nett 4.8% as the return for the next 4 months, I have already considered tax) but I will pay the 20%*y in Apr 2019. If the cost of money is 6%, I get 20%*y*6% as interest on the tax I have deferred by a year till 2019 in case I wait till Apr 2018 to switch.
• Note that for finding out the cost of tax payment earlier I DO need to know the amount of LTCG (directly, if available, or indirectly through the amount of original investment and the avg rate or return from the date of original investment till now).
• Hence if I switch right now, I get 1.2%*x*1/3 (=30Lacs/3*1.2/100=12k) more because of higher return and 20%*y*6% less because of non-deferment of tax payment. Which is higher? Can't say.  It depends on the exact value of y. If for example y = 5Lacs, then 20%*y*6% = 6k. In such a case I should switch right now because 12 lacs > 6lacs. But if y is high enough the the expression with y will become higher then I should wait till Apr 2018 to switch. 
• If y=12Lacs, 20%*y*6% = 14.4k. In that case it may make more sense to wait until Apr 2018 to switch. This means that the 18Lacs of original investment became 30Lacs with a CG of 12Lacs. That means that the investment was held for many years so that the interest or LTCG is sizeable compared to the original principal. This also provides an instance where decision to switch to a more lucrative instrument (the second one) depends on an external forced factor of when the tax is payable - this is counter intuitive. 

Can Human Beings Recognize Others By Their Smell?

I had earlier (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-does-child-recognize-his-mom.html) raised a question as to whether toddlers recognize their moms. 

A friend of mine had confirmed that they can. Couple of other friends had also told me that they can recognize the smell of their husbands and their children. This was too much. I suspected that they were taking me for a ride. So I decided to get some details.

I focused primarily on babies and their moms. And Googled. And boy did I find some interesting stuff.

Now here is the stuff that I picked up.

Babies recognize their primary care giver (PCG) and is more comfortable with faces that resemble the face of their primary caregiver. (Meaning that in those rare cases where the father is the PCG, then the baby is attracted to male faces resembling those of their father.

Babies recognize the smell of their mothers (mothers breasts apparently) and hence can differentiate, within about 3 days of birth, the smells of their mothers's vis-a-vis others' (http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/pregnancy_articles.asp?id=742). If one of the breast is washed with soap, in order to hide the smell, the baby will avoid that breast. Quote from "Just as the baby rats would die of starvation if their mother’s scent was changed by washing her with soap, so also their mate preference can be manipulated by solely allowing them to be familiar with the scent of lemon. But this does not apply to rats alone: “After mothers apply a perfume to their breasts before nursing for a day or two, infants between one and two weeks old appear to prefer the familiar scent” (Kohl & Francoeur, 1995, p.77). While changing the mother’s scent does not cause a human baby to starve, it does change the scent that the baby prefers."https://www.inforefuge.com/science-of-smell-mother-infant-bonding 

Mothers also can recognize the smell of their babies. And these are true of humans, cats, rats (and God knows which other animals) https://thehumanevolutionblog.com/2017/11/27/cats-find-own-kittens-by-smell/. 

Research indicates that women who have been mothers recently feel differently when they smell the odor of babies (not their own) than women who never had babies. 

Quote from https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20050706/babys-nose-knows-moms-smell: "Babies [Baby rats] learn their mother's smell early in life, wiring the scent into their brains, new research shows... {A baby] may be engraving her mother's scent in her mind, making it one of her life's earliest discoveries.

Quote from https://www.inforefuge.com/science-of-smell-mother-infant-bonding: "Pheromones also serve as identifiers. Mothers and children can recognize each other by the pheromones each emits." 

In babies, the sense of smell is much better developed than sense of hearing or of vision. The instinct (S1) and keen sense of smell that babies have is a lot like that of animals. As we grow older we develop other senses and also S2 and thus veer away from the nature of animals.

Mothers find the smell of their babies delicious. (Does not mean that moms want to eat their child. It means that the same part of the mom's brain is triggered when they smell their baby as when they see / smell appetizing food.)

I am reminded of the Thirukkural:

குழலினது யாழினிது என்பதும் மக்கள் 

மழலைச்சொல் கேளா தவர்.

meaning that only a person who hasn't heard their child speak will think that the sound from a flute or a guitar is wonderful.

Additional reading:

http://www.parenting.com/article/what-your-baby-knows-about-you

Free Will Or Paid Will?

While I have been dabbling in freewill, I came across this excellent article (https://medium.com/@darwins_apple/my-bias-about-cognitive-biases-5e0a730b651) which explains exactly how much (or little) consciousness (S2 or System 2 as against Subconscious which is S1 or System 1) is involved in deciding what we do. 

As I explained to a friend yesterday, it's like a man (S2) silly enough to claim that he takes all the major decisions at home while the wife (S1) chuckles silently in the background knowing who exactly does.

And I wonder how is it that most people I talk to won't believe this - that S2 is given too much credit.

Additional reading:

1. http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/thinking-fast-and-slow-daniel-kahnemann.html
2. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious by Timothy Wilson: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B002OEBN92/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1