Strange

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Roman Urdu - English Dictionary

My vocabulary in most languages is pretty low. Urdu is a language I love. And it was painful not understanding dialogs in movies. So I started this post a couple of years back. Every time I came across a word that I didn't know I would add it here along with the meaning and a hyperlink to where I got the meaning from. I should say it was a sweet exercise.
While native speakers of Hindi, Urdu would find most of these words to be rather elementary, it was not so for me. As I mentioned my vocabulary in vernacular languages is abysmally low.

https://urduwallahs.wordpress.com: This seems especially good.

I got an online "Roman Urdu" - English dictionary here and here

Meanings of some words (mostly Urdu):

Aabroo: Honor, Fame, Dignity
Aab E Haayat: Fountain of life
Aahat: A feeling of someone or something is close by when usually when one is alone, Approach, Sound. Noise
Aarop: Accusation
Aarzoo: Desire
Aas: Desire, Faith, Hope
Aafat: Evil, Disaster, Misfortune
Aamdani: Faaida, Profit
Aaqil: Intellectual, Wise, Discerning
Aarakshan: Reservation
Aashiaana: Home, Shelter
Aazmaana: Prove, Tempt, Test, Try
Abhari: Obliged
Ada: Style
Albeli: Charming Young Woman
Alfaaz: Words
Anokhi: Extraordinary
Anushaasan: Discipline
Afsaana: Fiction, Romance
Afzal: Superior
Ahl-e-siyaasat: Politician
Ahtaraq: To light up, inflame something
Alhamdulillah: Praise be to Allah
Ahmaq: Fool, madman
Ahmiyat: Importance
Akdu: Stubborn
Alfaaz: Exotic
Amantran: Informal Invitation
Anivarya: Unavoidable, Compulsory
Anushaasan: Discipline as in which discipline
Aib: Culturally inappropriate
Ajooba: Miracle
Akad as in Akad ko: Putting on air, Fastidious
Amaanat: Something precious given to a person for safe keeping
Anhonee: Impossible (Honee: Possible)
Apaahij: Incapacitated or disabled person as Sanjay Dutt was in Saajan, handicapped person
Arj: Esteem
Ashk or Ashq: Tears
Astitva: Identity
Atal: Unswerving, Adamant, Consistent
Ayadat: To go to meet someone when they are facing troubling times
Ayat: Sign, Clue, Proof, Holy verse
Ayyash: Debauchery
Baaghbaan: Gardener
Baariki: Close
Badaulat: By the grace of, Through
Badchalan: Ill mannered, immoral
Badgumaani: Not having good thoughts about another person
Bahumat: Majority (as in election)
Bajaaye: Instead
Balma: Lover
Bataur: As a
Behnoi: Sister's husband
Behuda: Frivolous
Bebas: Helpless
Beghairat: Without esteem or honor or empathy or Shameless
Bekas: Friendless, Lonely
Bekhudi: State of being hopelessly in love, forgetting other things, senselessness
Bemisaal, Apoorv, Anokha: Unprecedented (or unsurpassed)
Berahm: Merciless
Berukhi: Callousness, aloofness caused by anger, indifference
Betaab: Impatient
Bewas: Beware
Bewasi: Not in one's control
Bhatak: To wander in search of something
Bheja: Brain
Bikhra: Scattered
Chaman: Garden
Chand: Some (as in few)
Chataee: Mat, Paai (Tamil)
Chetavani: Warning, Admonition
Chhutkaara: Relief, Exemption, Acquittal, Disengagement
Chipkali: Lizard
Chunauti: Challenge
Churail: Witch or female ghost
Daagabaaz: Someone who betrays, Daaga means to betray
Daakhil: Enter (as in enter data)
Daaman: Skirt
Daaroga: Inspector, Superintendent, Governor
Darasal: Actually, In fact
Darj Karaana: Enter same as Daakhil
Darkhwaast: Request, Appeal
Darmiyaan: In the middle of
Dastak: Knock
Dastaras (mein aa jaaye): At hand
Dastur: Law (as practiced not theory)
Dayaar: Placehttps://urduwallahs.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/habib-raqeeb/
Dauraan: During the course of discussion
Deedaar: Pleasure of seeing someone, glimpse
Dhong: Pretense, Hypocrisy
Dilnawaaz: Attractive, Beloved, Mistress
Dushwaar: Difficult
Faasle: Distance
Fakr: Pride (as in Mujhe fakr hai)
Falak: Sky
Faaqa: State of living without food
Faraar: Absconding
Fareb: Deceit, Fraud
Farig: Free, not busy
Farishta: Messenger of God
Fariyaad: Plead, Shout, Scream, Request, Complain
Fasaana: Tale, Romance, Afsaana
Fitrat: Nature as in behavior
Fitur: Madness or obsession
Fiza: Atmosphere
Furqat: Separation (as in Teri furqat ne pareeshaan kiya mujh ko in the song Mere Mehboob)
Gadar: Upsurge or Rebellion
Gagan: Sky as in Neele Gagan Ke Tale
Gaigar: Self-respect, Honor, Shame
Gesu: Hair, Strand, Tress
Ghan Chakkar: Person with a fickle mind, Crazy person
Ghatak: Lethal
Girah: Knot
Gulfaam: Rose color, Rose like, Metaphorically a mistress
Gulshan: Flower, rose garden
Gumaan: Pride, Feeling of love
Gumshuda: Lost person
Guzarish: Request
Gumraah: To pervert or distort
Guroor: Pride
Habeeb: Lover
Hallaat o Waqiaat: Circumstances
Hairaan: Confused, Amazed
Hairat: Surprised, Amazed, Astonished
Hakim: Doctor
Haraam: religiously prohibited
Hasrat: Unfulfilled desire or wish
Havaadis: Misfortune
Hawas: Lust, Desire
Hosla: Courage, Spirit
Humdum: Partner in a journey, soulmate, conformity or like mindedness
Humnawaaz: Friend
Ibadaat: Worship, Devotion to God, Penance
Inaayat: Kindness, Obligation, Favor
Inteqaal: Means dead. But in literal sense, inteqaal is to get transferred. From Islamic perspective, it means transferred to hereafter
Inteqaam: Revenge
Iqbal: Blessed or Fortunate
Iqraar: Pledge, Promise, Confess
Iqtiaar: Haq, Right
Izhaar karna: To express
Iztiraab: Painful anxiety, anguish, trouble, tortured/agitated
Jaahil: Ignorant person or disbeliever (of Islam) - see usage here: https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-review-of-Jolly-LLB-2-2017-movie
Jaanib: Taraf, Towards
Jaagrukta: Sensitization
Jalwa: Charisma/ Lustre/ Splendor
Jasbaat: Emotions (Jasbaati: Emotional)
Jashn: Feast, Celebration
Jehd-e-Musalsal: Continuous effort
Jigar: Kind Hearted, symbolizing love and affection, Liver
Jugaad: Innovative fix or a nice workaround
Jugnu: Glow worm
Junooniyat: Obsession
Justajoo: Connection, Curiosity, Desire to achieve something
Kaarnama: Miracle
Kaayar: Coward
Kaifiyat: Explanation
Kajra: A woman with kaajal
Kambakht: Damned, Cursed
Kankar: Pebble
Kaleja: Heart, Liver - Metaphorically Courage
Karishma: Miracle
Kasak: Continous pain
Kasauti: A stone to determine purity of gold, An ordeal
Kashish: Sensation, Reflection, Emotion
Kashmakash: Dilemma
Kathhai: Brown, (Absolutely? As in kathhai pasand nahi)
Khaalish: Unease
Khafa: Displeased, Angry
Khairiyat: Well, fine as in Everything is well, I am fine
Khanjar: Knife
Khaleja: Liver - Metaphorically: Courage, Spirit
Khata: Mistake, Slip, Oversight (as in Huzoor kya Khata hui)
Khauf: Fear
Khidmat: Service
Khokla: Empty
Khuddar: Self respecting
Khud Numaayi: Ostentation
Kirdaar: Role
Kosna: Damn
Kukkad: New target (as in murga)
Laalach: Greed
Laachaar: forlorn = pitiful
Laanat: Shame
Laazim: Necessary, Compulsory, Important
Lakeer: Line
Lalkaariye Mat: Do not challenge
Lehsaan: Garlic
Lihaaz: Regard, Consideration, Respect
Maajra: Incident, Condition
Maansik Tanaav: Tension, Psychosomatic disorders
Maayoos: Despondent
Maazrat (Ke Saath): With Apology
Madbhari: Heady as in heady breeze (Madbhari yeh Hawaayein)
Majaal: Strength, Power
Mansooba: Iraada=Intent
Maqaam: Place, Location, spiritual stages
Masla: Problem, Complication
Masroof: Busy, The root word is “srf” which means spending or consuming. So In Arabic Masroof means: 1) something that is/has been/to be spent 2) someone busy i.e a person’s energy and time is being spent in something
Mauj: Waves of a sea, wave, surge, enjoyment
Mazhab: Doctrine, Faith, Religion
Mazloom: Victim, Downtrodden
Mehfoos: Safe, Secure
Misaal Dena: To give an example, To compare
Mithhaas: Sweetness
Mohtaj: Wanting, Lacking
Muddat: Long time
Mukammal: Complete, Finish
Mulzim: Accused
Mujahida: This word has been maligned severely since it comes from root JHD, which reads jihad. It means facing hardships to progress spiritually. However, more commonly, it is used to refer to state of hardships in general
Munaseeb: Appropriate
Muqammal: Unblemished
Muqtasar: BriefMusht-e-gubaar: A handful of dust
Naajaayaz: Illegitimate
Nafas/Nafs: Comes from Arabic and denotes self. Also used colloquially in Hindi as nabz/nafs to refer to heartbeat. However, the original term popular in Urdu is pretty complicated and is spirit of life
Nafsiyati: People who love everyone, Psychotic
Namuna: Specimen, Sample
Nargis: Beautiful white flower, sweet and soft
Nasihat: Edification
Nau Do Gyara Ho Jaana: To run away from a scene
Nawaasi: Resident, Granddaughter
Nauj: Seek protection or preservation
Nawaaza: Prince, Kind, Generous
Nawaazi: Hospitality
Nawaazish: Thanks
Nazaaqat: Nice, Softness, Delicacy, Neatness
Nazar Andaaz: Ignore
Nazraana: Fine (penalty) or a forced contribution
Nehooda: Crass, Course, Indecent, Stupid
Nek: Good Natured
Nichaawar: Shower (as in Nichaawar karna = shower you with)
Nichorna: Squeeze
Nigaahen: Eyes
Nimantran: Formal Invitation
Nisaar: Submit, Sacrifice
Nishpaksh: Impartial
Niyat: Intention, Purpose, Will
Nochna: Scratch
Numaaish: Exhibition, Fair, Pretentious
Osool: Doctrine, Principle, Essentials
Paighaam: Advice, Message, News
Paleet: Soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime; "dirty unswept sidewalks"; "a child in dirty overalls"; "dirty slums"; "piles of dirty dishes";
Palkhein: Eyes, eyelashes (as in jhuki palkhein)
Palkon: Eyelids
Panoti: Difficulty, bad omen, disgrace
Parakh: Test
Pari: Fairy
Parinda: Bird
Paryaavaran: Environment
Pehar (as in Is Peher): At this HOUR
Pehlu: Side or shadow
Prakratik: Natural or Innate
Prashasan: Administration
Prashansha: Compliment
Pratibandh: Committed, Restraint, Forced
Prerna: Inspiration, Stimulation
Qaatil: KillerQaraar: Peace
Qaayam: Subsist, Dwell
Raahein, Raahon (Raah: singular): Paths
Rafa Dafa Karna: To get rid of something
Ran Neeti: Strategy
Rasiya: A man of emotions - pleasure seeker
Raqeeb: Rival in love
Rawaaiyaan: Attitude, Stance, Behavior
Riqqat: (Almost) beg softly
Riyaasat: Estate
Rochak as in Rochak aadmi: Interesting
Rongte Khare Hona: Goosebumps
Rukhsat: Same as Ijazat, Permission, leave, indulgence
Saahil: Beach, Coast
Saangdil: Merciless, Zaalim
Sahaafat: Journalism or press
Sailaab: Flood
Sajjan: Good person
Samet: Rolling up, Gathering together
Sarfarosh (also here): Revolution, fearless, traders of head
Saaya: Shadow
Samarthan: Support
Sammedhhaan: Constitution
Sarguzasht: Autobiography
Saudaagar: Merchant or trader
Seerat: Inner beauty, Quality, Nature, Disposition
Sehra: Shore (Desert?), "a poem sung at a nikah (Muslim wedding) in praise of the groom, praying to God for his future wedded life. Sehra (headdress), a headdress worn by the groom during Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi weddings."
Shab Bakhair: Good Night
Shabaab: Youth, Jawaani
Shabe Intezaar: Night of waiting
Shaita: Polite
Shaulat: Power, Dignity
Sheen: Beautiful, good
Sheetal: Cool
Shiddat: Intensity
Shistachaar: Etiquette
Siyasat: Politics
Siaasat e Madani: Politics of a city or state
Siddhaant: Canon, Theory, Dogma, Philosophy
Sirphire: Mad
Taalim: Nurture, Educate
Tabaahi: Disaster / Destruction
Tabdeeli: Change, Translation
Tabela as in Tabela Banna: Stable
Tajurba: Experience
Tale: Beneath as in Neele Gagan Ke Tale
Takalluf: Ceremonious, Formal
Tanqeed (as in Tanqeed nahi karte): Criticism
Taraana: Harmony, Symphony, a kind of song
Taras: Pity
Tarqueeb: Solution, Plan, Method
Tasleem: Submission, Salutation
Tauheen: Disgrace, Dishonor
Tehzeeb: Good in something, Well mannered, Humble
Thoom: Garlic sauce
Vidhaata: God
Viraasat: Legacy, InheritanceUjad gaya: Ruined
Ukhaad: Dislocate
Ulfat: Love, affection
Unsiyyat: Acceptance or state of neutrality or mild acquaintance
Upaasana: Worship, Devotion
Uttejit: http://dict.hinkhoj.com/उत्तेजित-meaning-in-english.words
Vaardaat: Instance
Vipul: Plenteous
Viraasat: Inheritance
Waadiyaan: Valleys
Wahdut al wajood: Unity of being
Wajood: Existence
Waqif: To be aware, familiar
Watan: Country (a patriotic word)
Zaalim: Cruel, Sangdil
Zaahir: Visible, Present, Fact, (Someone or something which, once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else.), (Zaahir si baar means Obvious)
Zameer: Mind, Heart, Thought
Zariye: By way of, equivalent words in Hindi: Dwaara / Madhyam se
Zehen: Acumen, Wit, Sagacity, Memory
Zehmat: Inconvenience / Trouble
Zehreela: Poisonous
Zikr: Memory, Reminder

Additional reading:

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Define Freewil

Free will is the ability to take a decision without being coerced by other parties. For example if I am doing recruitment, I do not have freewill if I am forced to select / reject a candidate by someone else (say, X). That X is overriding my free or independence assessment.

Taking this analogy further.. What is free will within me?

If I am able to make a decision - it doesn't matter if the decision is right or wrong, good or bad - so long as I am able to make an independent decision I have freewill. Now if subconscious thoughts or emotions or whatever (STEW or what Daniel Kahnemann calls System 1) force or guide me to make a decision then this STEW is no different from the X mentioned previously - meaning the STEW has taken over my decision making process. All that I am allowed to do is sign the document and take credit for having made the decision.

So a decision or action made with freewill is one where the STEW either has no role to play or it may suggest some options but where I am aware of these suggestions and am capable of overriding these suggestions each time. Meaning that if I overrode the suggestion for one decision, I dont feel guilty and won't give in to STEW for the next action or decision. If I give in, I don't have freewill.. But if I believe that STEW's choice was justified then I might go for it. That is freewill. Freewill, perhaps, is then System 2 (=S2, terminology of Daniel Kahnemann) at work. In which case 2 is supposedly lazy, it won't do if S2 does a sloppy job and just endorses what S1 said. Then that isn't freewill at work. So decisions whete S2 puts in a lot of effort will result in expression of freewill.

Now, how many times are we aware of STEW's decisions which we implicitly follow? How often do we act or decide which are not dictated by STEW?

Which act or decision of ours is not mostly or wholly impacted by STEW? Even if your System 2 (S2 for short) was invoked, it was invoked by S1=STEW. If you didn't have access to the STEW how will your decision be? It will be like that of the first man on earth during his initial stages of life who had no STEW. What kind of acts would he have done? I guess only random ones - learning to eat and procreate. Hardly an evolved being.

We evolved from no S1 to S1 to high S1 actively invoking S2.

Additional reading:
http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2015/03/krishna-and-kalyavan.html

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Me And Trains

About six years back I was traveling from Chennai to Calcutta en route Guwahati in Assam. My train was to reach Howrah at about 1130 and my connecting train from Howrah to Gauhati in the Northeast was at 3:20PM. I thought there was sufficient time between the two trains, enough even to go to a favorite egg roll joint in town. Unfortunately my train from Chennai was delayed by about 4 hours when it started from Chenna Central. And, well, at 1:3.PM when we reached Kharagpur it was still running late by 4 hours. And we were expected to reach Howrah at 3:30PM. My train to Guwahati was to leave at 3:20PM. I could now only hope now that the connecting train would be delayed. Even then Howrah station has 23 platforms. My train from Chennai being SER (South Eastern Railway) and the Guwahati train being ER would likely be in two platforms on opposite ends of HWH station complex far from each other. Plus Kolkata's Howrah station being a terminus, there are no overhead bridges to go from one platform to another. One had to go to the beginning of the platform (near the station exit) and then walk to the other platform and... You can imagine it. Then I thought. Until about half a km from HWH station, both eastern railways and SER run next to each other. After that SER goes West while ER goes North. So there was one last hope. I hoped that before reaching HWH station I could spot the Guwahati train, in which case I could alight from my train, cross the tracks (remember 23 PFs) and climb up the other train. Guess what!! At around 3:25PM, when our train was slowly edging into HWH station, I spotted the Guwahati train about 4 tracks away slowly moving away from HWH in the opposite direction. I had my backpack on my back.

I slowly climbed down, then walked across the tracks. It was monsoon season and there were puddles of water. I stepped over them gingerly constantly look at the two trains and to see if any other trains were coming on the tracks that I was crossing. Luckily there were no other trains. In my hurry, one of my slippers got loose. I didn't wait to retrieve it. The Guwahati train was now picking up speed. It was now about 10 to 20 seconds since I had alighted from the Chennai train.

When I was very close to the Guwahati train, I realized one more thing. The vertical steel bars that you hold on to near the door is more than 6feet above the ground. I had to jump up into the moving train ensuring that I should catch those steel rods. Luckily I did. I was on the steps of the train holding on to the rods tightly. The door was locked. I knocked on the door - a passenger was kind enough to open the door for me. The compartment that I got into wasn't the one in which I was alloted my berth. I walked to my compartment, got into my seat, locked my backpack and then went to the toilet to clean myself up wearing only the one slipper I had on, the other still lying somewhere between the platforms. Later at night a young guy lent me his extra pack of old slippers. In subsequent trips I always packed an extra pair of light weight slippers. No vendor sells slippers on trains or at stations.

I noticed one interesting thing after I got into the Guwahati train. It was only about 2 minutes since I had got out of the Chennai train. The features of people in the two trains were starkly different. Wow.

About a month back when I was returning from a short trip something happened in train. I was standing near the exit door of my compartment after we crossed Vyasarpadi. As the train neared Basin Bridge a gentleman asked me to move back so he could alight at that station since the train was moving slowly, it being an express train it wouldn't stop at Basin Bridge. He got down and slipped and was falling backwards towards the crack between the train and the platform. I caught him with my left arm and wrapped my left hand around his neck and pulled him back into the steps of my train (I was holding on to the train with my right hand). People behind me were loudly telling me to leave the man and that he would pull me down with him.

The man got his balance with my help, got into the steps of the train and then alighted into Basin Bridge platform easily now since the train was moving very slowly. He didn't look back or say anything. He kept walking. This incident is kinda similar.

Anyway.. It was like a movie scene - actually both the incidents were so... I was wondering. I usually only observe and never do anything heroic in life. Do i become a different person when I am in a train?

A lady RPF constable saved a passenger from getting run over on the tracks: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/rpf-woman-constables-quick-action-saves-commuter-from-being-crushed-under-train-at-chennais-egmore-station/article65356145.ece/amp/

I was reminded of myself when I read this on Apr 26, 2022.

This post was typed on a phone.

Additional reading:

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Lord Ganesh, Munna Bhai, Kabhi Haan Kabhi SRK And Shortcuts

A student wrote herself additional marks in an exam paper in red ink and tried to fool her teacher into believing that the teacher had not totaled the marks correctly. The student did this because her (student's) mother had warned her daughter that if she didn't get good marks she, the mother, wouldn't talk to her daughter. The daughter was not interested in exams or in marks and she chose the red pen as the tool to address this issue.

This is very similar to what SRK did in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa where he got a fake certificate and Mark Sheets to prove that he passed his exams because he couldn't stand the taunting of his father. SRK again, in the movie, had no interest in marks or in passing the exams.

We come to Munna Bhai MBBS. Sanjay Dutt (or Kamal Hassan in Vasool Raja) couldn't stand his father's taunts and hence fooled his parents into thinking he was a doctor. Again in the movie Sanjay / Kamal had no interest in being a doctor.

Now we come to the final example. Lord Shiva and his wife conducted a test for their two children. They said whoever could go around the world first would get a reward. Now Karthik (one of the sons) was physically adept and he immediately set off for on his around the world mission. The other son Ganesha was a boy who lived in a mental world and he was physically not strong. He twisted the target set by his parents - he went around them and claimed the prize explaining that for any person their parents constitute the world. The parents were dumbstruck and then very pleased and rewarded Ganesh. Whether Karthik (aka Murugan) complained about his brother's unfair practices is not known.

Now we read 4 stories. In each of them the parent expected something from their child. The child had no interest in it. But in order only to satisfy the parents, the child took a shortcut. In the first three cases, the shortcut is found unacceptable. In the case of Ganesh, the shortcut was found admirable, even though his parents never imagined such a solution..

Did Ganesh violate the rules of the game? In my book yes.

Now, Kabhi Haan and Munna Bhai are fiction stories. The first example I mentioned is a real life example. It is quite possible that the girl's parents had often told her the very same Shiva-Ganesh story mentioned as the 4th example in this post. And yet we blame the girl while we adore Ganesh for his smartness.

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Vikram, Vetaal And Some Friends

This is a (true) story about a married friend of mine and two of her friends.

1. She had a friend SUT a few years back. My friend had a strong marriage - she and her husband were quite close. Now this friend SUT, for some reason, couldn't stand my friend's good marriage and tried different ways to mess it.. My friend was unaware of what was happening while her husband figured it out. Her husband couldn't stand SUT. He told his wife to stay away from SUT. My friend, being a docile person, did exactly the opposite and let SUT spoil her marriage further.

2. My friend had another friend SUD, a neighbour actually, who was a businessman with a wife and children. One fine day the man returned home from work, told his wife to pack her bags and go for some time to her parents' place. After the lady left with the children, the man committed suicide. He apparently had run up huge debts.

Note that we do not know whether he was a dirty businessman or not.

Now this is all I know about both SUT and SUD.

My friend felt that the man SUD was guilty of 1. having had poor business acumen 2. Having given up and ending his own life 3. Leaving his wife and kids in dire straits

My friend was more positive about her lady friend SUT who despite everything was, most importantly, alive and also happy.

Like the Vetaal I ask this question: was my friend right in her appraisal - that the man SUD was a more awful person than the lady SUT?

Is there any Vikram out there? Is surviving somehow more important? The most interesting thing in this whole story is that my friend is one of the cleanest people I have come across and would never do anything like what SUT did.

I guess my friend gave more weight to surviving against odds (which SUD didn't) than to character (which SUT didn't have). Well, my friend has been under a lot of stress recently and has been known to make mistakes with weights elsewhere too.

I forgive her.

Recently, in Mar 2018, my friend told me she was pissed off with another friend of hers (TLS). The reason being that TLS gleefully told my friend that she, TLS, had helped her (TLS') good friend (P) divorce her spouse. TLS, incidentally hates the institution of marriage. One can only speculate what exactly the problem was between P and her husband. And even whether there was a problem.
Now, here comes the twist. My friend was furious with TLS because, as per my friend, TLS had helped destroy a family and then bragging to my friend about it.

I pointed out to my friend that TLS had, most likely, good intention at heart and thought that P world be better off without her husband. And that TLS had only done P a good turn. But, SUT truly had tried to destroy a marriage, and to this day my friend comes in support of SUT. But her anger against TLS is enormous.

Women...

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Phone/Internet Location / IP Used in A Legal Case

https://newsstand.google.com/articles/CAIiEC24XTnV1GfoBd5IXieTm0IqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowzrL9CjDC7vQCMK2y1gU

I always used to wonder about phone location being used in legal cases to prove / disprove the presence of a person at a location.

Now in the link above, a person was proved to be online and hence acquitted from a murder rap. Since the person was online as per the Google's IP records. Now he could have

been online on a computer / phone and taken a break and committed murder. Especially on a phone. Even from a laptop with a mobile wifi or Jiofi (or its equivalent).
Someone else could have been using his phone from a phone or even from computer and accessing stuff online.

That my user id was online from 4PM to 11PM - does it necessarily mean I wasn't doing anything else offline?

Thinking Fast and Slow: Daniel Kahnemann

Quotes from various sources (without permission):

Thinking Fast and Slow: Daniel Kahnemann:

Intelligence is not only the ability to reason: it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory and to deploy attention when needed.

Meaning if attention is not deployed or if relevant data isn't retrieved it is a shortcoming of intelligence. If you have retrieval problems or amnesia hence would your IQ be low? Or did the author mean that metadata with respect to specific relevant memory is stored in S2 and intelligence in S2 gets this metadata and hence sends a lookup request in S1 where memory is stored. And in case of amnesia, the lookup doesn't return anything. We say that we knew something but we are unable to recollect.. So this metadata or cross-indexing does exist. I am assuming it's in S2. If it is in S2 how is intuition - a property of S1 explained?

Most of what you (your System 2) think and do originates in your System 1, but System 2 takes over when things get difficult, and it normally has the last word.

Does this mean that S2 can be invoked by something other than S1? What can invoke S2? Or can S2 just wake up (invoke itself) and start acting?
In this context F people (as in MBTI) who primarily run on S1 constantly monitor their own behavior, which they do, which uses S2. On the other hand T people who constantly use S2 do not monitor their own behavior. Meaning everyone uses S2 - F for one purpose (Self control of behavior) and T for thought processing. I am reminded of a lady who said I think little before I speak and I know exactly what she meant. I would say the same thing of her and of course my meaning would be very different (I would refer to her absence of rationality).

Picture below is loc 1995 of 9376. The law of small numbers chapter 10

The associative machinery (S1) seeks causes.. This is in order to make the story more coherent.. All F (as in MBTI) people do this easily. I say don't look at the reasons. Look at the WHAT independently. Later perhaps at WHY. For feelers the what, without why, doesn't make sense at all.

it seems almost impossible for S1 not to do more than S2 charges it to do.

An inability to be guided by a "healthy fear" of bad consequences is a disastrous flaw.

Most emotions including desire come from s1. Intelligence exists in S1. Even a sense of humor is from S1. It exists in N or F people only - i am predicting now.

Subjective confidence in a judgment is not a reasoned evaluation of the probability that this judgment is correct. Confidence is a feeling, which reflects the coherence of the information and cognitive ease of processing it. It is wise to take admissions of uncertainty seriously, but declarations of high confidence mainly tell you that an individual has constructed a coherent story in his mind, Not necessarily that the story is true.
Individual winners like to lock in their gains by selling "winners" - stocks that have appreciated since they were purchased, and they hang on to their losers. Unfortunately for them, recent winners tend to do better than recent losers in the short run, so individuals sell the wrong stocks.

My question
Doesn't regression to mean happen? Won't recent winners become losers?

Whether professionals have a chance to develop intuitive expertise depends essentially on the quality and speed of feedback, as well as on sufficient opportunity to practice.

if so how do we explain Einstein's intuition which led him to understand about speed of light, theory of relativity etc. what experience did he have?.

You know you have made a theoretical advance when you can no longer reconstruct why you failed for so long to see the obvious. " this quote is so beautiful.

When we know doing something is not good (S2 decision), and we still do it e-g., drinking alcohol, carrying bitterness, taking a non-optimal option we are using S1. This is obvious but it struck me forcefully.. (For example read this: Why do we have a conversation with a person whom we don't like much - http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/what-drives-conversation.html)

Subjective confidence in a judgment is not a reasoned evaluation of the probability that this judgment is correct. Confidence is a feeling, which reflects the coherence of the information and cognitive ease of processing it. It is wise to b admissions of uncertainty seriously, but declarations of Hugh confidence mainly tell you that an individual has constructed a continent story in his mind
The average selling price was double the average buying price. The magic of the market didn't work for a good that the owners expected to use. a basic rule of fairness we found is that the exploitation of market power to impose losses on others is unacceptable.
When you take the long view of many similar decisions, you can see that paying a premium to avoid a small risk of a large loss is costly.. Constituent overweighting of improbable outcomes - a feature of intuitive decision making-eventually leads to inferior outcomes.

A brilliant example from the book:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion

Ego depletion has also been implicated in guilt and prosocial behavior. The feeling of guilt, while unpleasant, is necessary to facilitate adaptive human interactions.[17] The experience of guilt is dependent on one’s ability to reflect on past actions and behaviors. Ego depletion has been shown to hinder the ability to engage in such reflection, thereby making it difficult to experience guilt.

From: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_process_theory

In their theory, there are two different routes to persuasion in making decisions. The first route is known as the central route and this takes place when a person is thinking carefully about a situation, elaborating on the information they are given, and creating an argument. This route occurs when an individual's motivation and ability are high. The second route is known as the peripheral route and this takes place when a person is not thinking carefully about a situation and uses shortcuts to make judgments. This route occurs when an individual's motivation or ability are low.[5]

Now we know that often children who were not good performers turn out often times to be good later on as adults. Now did their ability improve or their motivation? I am inclined to think its the latter. As children were perhaps not motivated to do things which did not lead to meeting any objective of theirs (which is fun, eating sweets, playing games etc.). As adults with the motivation to get things for themselves they perform far better than they did as adults - also they tend to perform far better than people who performed well as children.
http://upfrontanalytics.com/market-research-system-1-vs-system-2-decision-making/

Market researchers should keep in mind that the more complex the research collection process becomes (more question types, complex answer matrices, thought experiments etc.), the more likely they are to collect responses generated by System 2. Since most of the System 1 decision making process is unconscious, respondents are more likely to offer what they consider to be plausible rationalizations for their decisions rather than their true underlying attitudes and motivations. In situations where there is social pressure to respond in a particular way, System 2 may even filter these rationalizations to create “appropriate” responses.

http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/kahnemans-mind-clarifying-biases.amp

He was astonished that economists modeled people as “rational, selfish, with tastes that don’t change,” when to psychologists “it is self-evident that people are neither fully rational nor completely selfish, and that their tastes are anything but stable.”

http://bigthink.com/delancey-place/the-two-systems-of-cognitive-processes.amp

People who are cognitively busy are also more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language, and make superficial judgments in social situations.

Some people are strong in system 1 (S1), some strong in S2.

For example, a friend of mine was planning to buy an apartment. She had to pay an advance. She did not have liquid cash to make the down payment. She had an FD the value of which was much more than the advance that was to be paid, but that was to mature only after 6 months. So she was stuck..

Now which system of hers decided that she couldn't do anything? The system that believed FD should not be broken prematurely - regardless of circumstance.. Where is this rule stored? This is a blind reaction from J - unthinking response. Like i tell you often.. J has a builtin idiocy.. This "won't break FD" is such an example. This is system 1.

If you hand over control to system 2:Cost of breaking FD = penalty comes out to about 15,000. The house cost is 30+ lacs.. How big is 15k (=15000)? The penalty for breaking FD is a very small amount - but before S2 can handle, the J in S1 comes with a silly answer. CANT BREAK FD and hence CANT BUY HOUSE.

S1 is the system that makes 1000's of decisions everyday in our lives without us being even aware of it. And most decisions are good.. That's why we are still alive. If we let S2 handle all our decisions we can handle only 100 in a day max and then have a splitting migraine everyday. Plus we would be too sore and tired to do any S2 work required by our job.

Most animals survive having S1 only. How do animals know which food to eat and which to avoid? Through efficient S1. Evolution is all about System 1. When S2 is handed over control, the decisions are calculated and not intuitive. Not using S2 is not too bad.

Intuitive Feelers (largely S1) would not be impressed by this book - unless they can profit tangibly by it. Some people invoke S2 only for abstract things such as for reflecting on this book. For them reading it feels good and they may get a better understanding of the decisions of human beings. Any profit from that understanding is remote. Both types may have good S2. But both use it for very different purposes.

As per DK, good mood, intuition, creativity, gullibility, increased dependence on S1 form a cluster. At the other pole, sadness, vigilance, suspicion, an analytic approach and increased effort go together.
Amazing. The 1st set seems to be of Venus and the 2nd of Saturn.

The questions I have:

Is everyone's S2 at the same level or my S2 is more powerful than yours? And yours is lazier than hers because you abort your S2 sooner more often?
What causes or propels use of system 2? How is ambition related to system 1,2?
What is the role of energy in personality trait? A person with a strong Mars behaves very differently from a person who has weak Mars - other things being same.
What kind of people have larger System 2 and what kind of people are primarily System 1? My belief is that N, F, J (as in MBTI) are largely S1 people and T, P are system 2 people.
If S2 can not be ever invoked by anything other than S1 and if S1 cannot be controlled, being automatic, then S2 also cannot be controlled. In which case which part of our mind is under control? Is there a free will?

Interesting Books / other artifacts referred to by the author:

A Checklist Manifesto How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
Baynesian Statistics - the logic of how people should change their mind in light of new evidence
Big Short film by Richard Thaler
Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
Clinical Vs Statistical Prediction. A Theoretical Analysis And A Review Of Evidence by Paul Meehl (Must read)
Decision Making In Organizations by Herbert Simon (Nobel Prize Winner)
Expert Political Judgment. How Good Is It How Can We Know by Philip Tetlock
Halo effect by Philip Rosenzweig
How To Solve by George Polya
Judgment In Managerial Decision Making by Max Bazerman
Articles / books by Kathleen Vohn about how money priming affects our behavior.
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Nudge by Richard Thaler.
Rationality and the reflective Mind by Keith Stanovich and Richard West (on why some people are more S1 or S2)
Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smarter (Oxford Univ Press) Gerd Gigdrenzer
Sources of Power by Gary Klein
Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowieci