fox and the grapes conundrum

Fox and the Grapes Conundrum:

“Fox and the grapes” is one of Aesop’s most famous fables. Almost all of us learn the story of the fox which goes something like, “One day a fox came across a wine of grape on its path, it tried its best to reach the bunch of grapes handing from the tree that was covered by the wines, after several tries the fox goes away comforting itself saying that the grapes are sour”. I read from Wikipedia that this principle is known as Cognitive Desonance, whereby, you decide to give some explanation in situations which are unfavourable or unexpected by you.

We must however appreciate the underlying the idea behind this story, that we tend to be the fox from the story. In fact we lead our entire lives hanging to the underlying principles portrayed in this story.

For instance, say you have gone out on a wonderful day to buy yourself a shirt, probably for your birthday (^_^). And you see 2 shirts in a shop both of which look very nice, however you have just enough money for one. In situations like, we see a case of cognitive desonance, we somehow logically conclude that one of the two shirts are better and buy it. And on asking why can come up with flaws that might not actually be there.

This kind of logic is built into the human system of thinking. We decide things spontaneously and expect everything to go fine. We are programmed to carry on, when there is situations like this.

There are several illustrations which one might have already experienced. For instance, in the game Super Mario, we have to spontaneously choose between where to go next when we enter the pipe at level 2. Where a user can go to level 3, 4, 5 next. In the game it is seen that people often differ in opinion when they are overcome by such a situation.

When asked to comment about a beautiful picture. It is found that different people observe different things about a picture. Like the saying goes, “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. Every individual is unique and thinks differently. However the sees only what it wants to see so be sure you have exploited all options before concluding anything prematurely.

Though we tend to listen to the story of the fox and the grape. We realize its relevance only if we look back at our actions in day today life. This is one of the most consequential stories we tend to live by. For imagine if the fox kept going on and on, then nothing would have changed in its life.

While “Try and try until you succeed” stands to motivate the people who fail in some of their first few attempts. We are humans and we have limitations. It is possible to overcome some of them. However not everything has a true solution. Sometimes it is better to let things go, than to keep going on. “Most things need not be impossible, however, several things are illogical” - Ganesh Kamath.

At first we might not accept that we are like the fox because most tales from fables portray the fox as a cunning creature (probably including this one). However if you try to relate to the things that you desire as the grapes you will seen see what I mean here.

Learn from this story!!! Let go and keep moving forward. You might have seen a basketball player dunk. Where by the ring is over 9 feet high and might have tried doing it yourself. You might have even succeeded and might say that efforts bear fruits. Well look at it this way, instead of 9 feet if it was 9000 feet high, then the basket would not even be visible let alone you going for the dunk. Yes life is (a bitch) full of disappointment. But there are far better things to do than to think over and over about problems like these. When one door closes in our life we keep looking at the closed door for so long that we don't take the opportunity to venture other doors deterred by disappointment.

You might think of attacking this problem by reverse engineering the problem. Where in you can say that the wolf was stealthy enough to climb the tree and somehow managed to get the grape. Well we are looking at a different situation altogether now. For all you know, fox don’t eat grapes (^_~). There are several results we can derive if we look at the problem backwards...

I have seen the reverse engineered application of this problem first hand. For example, when you order a “Sev puri” and a friend comes close enough to take one of the “puri” from you, if you say that the “puri” is not good. He won’t take it from you. This is negative advertising and another defence mechanism which exists in the nature of human beings.

As human beings it is in our nature to make assumptions and conclusions, however, always keep it in mind that Wrong assumptions lead to wrong conclusions and the consequences can be severe in many real life situations.


P.S. : Those of you who have not yet referred to the word Conundrum, it means confusion in this context.

Outside the Box

When we say that a certain incident is the turning point in ones life, in most of the cases, it is associated with looking at the world in a whole new perspective.

A half-filled/half-empty glass of water is the classic example that differentiates optimists and pessimists. We also tend to categorize people as introverts and extroverts based on their behaviour in a group.

For the time being let us look at the concept of thinking outside the box with help of an illustration:

Most real life situations are solved either by:

1)     Top-down approach; where-in a problem is broken down into solvable parts.

2)     Bottom-up approach; where a problems are solved starting from the roots of the problem eventually solving the entire problem.

Here, one can also attack the problem top-down and bottom up at the same time and design of a rocket, sensors, microcontrollers, launching apparatus, design of body of the rocket are all addressed at the same time.

In the human specie, we find that

1)     2% of the people control the wealth of 98% of the people

2)     1% people have authority over 99% of the people

3)     0.5% people come up with solutions to a problem taking a totally new approach.

The reason for this is their thinking outside the box.

So what is this box that you have been reading about all this time?

            Hypothetically it is assumed that all human actions are contained within a box including whatever he thinks all the time. The fact being that this box itself is hypothetical in the first place, its not properly understood. However, the concept of ‘thinking outside the box’ refers to thinking unconventionally and looking at a given situation with a different approach.

As the popular saying goes, “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”, you will know what this statement means if you take time to visit an art museum. One person is totally fascinated at a painting while another might just overlook it.

Mr. Steve Jobs saw opportunity and revolution in computer while normal people overlooked this issue. Adolf Hitler saw an opportunity to gain control over Germans, while common Germans silently suppressed their aggression against the Jews.

While on one hand, we need people thinking outside the box; In order for a society to progress, an excess of such people can breakdown the very foundation of the society. For most of the real life situations, we need to solve problems by conventional approaches and we need to rely on what we have learnt and know.

The discussion of thinking outside the box will be incomplete without the mention of my all time inspiration Nicola Tesla...

When the genius, had asked his teacher why not make the engine run on AC instead of DC power supply, his teacher ridiculed him; However, when later in life he invented an AC induction engine, the invention was so marvellous that it replaced the DC engine all together in Industry.

Nicola Tesla is one of the very few inventors, whose inventions remain the same in all its basic principles. For whatever he achieved in his life time, he was certainly not given enough attention.

The fact being that it was all because of a battle between 2 great thinkers of that time namely Edison and Tesla.

This visionary had foreseen a common channel for voice, messages, file and videos what is referred to as Quadruple play today, and seen in the popular software Skype. But look at the beauty, he had mentioned this possibility a 100 years ago and it is only now that we are realizing it (^_~).

Our thinking is influenced by our actions, and the kind of environment we have been through for the most of our lives. In many situations, ideas that tend to be outside the box are ignored because they are not seen with the same approach as the person suggesting them.

If everyone was like everyone else then there wouldn’t be a need to address new problems every day. In fact evolution requires that there is thinking outside the box for species to survive. The evolution of giraffe is a good example for this discussion.

Conclusion:

• Stop looking for a box, it is hypothetical.
• We need people thinking outside the box.
• People thinking outside the box only differ from other people based on their experiences.

And finally when someone says that you think a lot outside the box it just shows that the person himself was not smart enough to solve the problem in an approach that you just provided and is calling you a genius.