Category: Random Draws

The Utility of Suffering

The question of the utility of suffering has been asked for as long as sentient beings have walked the earth, I suppose. And it is unlikely that it would be answered any time soon — an answer that does not insult the head nor outrage the heart, that is.
Continue reading “The Utility of Suffering”

Zen and the Art of Development

I was asked recently to ask a quotable question. My facetious response was that I only ask quotable questions. But I did consider the request seriously for a bit, and among the numerous questions that I wish people would ask themselves, I selected one that I think is particularly worthy in the context of development and economic growth. The question is this—and you may quote me freely—is there any instance of a technological development that was specifically created for the poor? The same question in the policy arena would translate into: is there any instance of a policy which was ostensibly pro-poor which actually helped the poor?
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A Trivial Economics Question — Part 2

Yesterday I posed a couple of trivial economics questions. The first was: “I have an object X that I wish to assign (gift or give away) to one of three: A, B, or C. How do I determine whom to give it to if I am concerned about allocative efficiency? Assume that A, B, and C have different preferences and abilities to pay.”
Continue reading “A Trivial Economics Question — Part 2”

Linking Poverty and Hinduism

A couple of paragraphs from Alvin Toffler’s The Thought Leader Interview (hat tip: Anish Sankalia) caught my attention: Continue reading “Linking Poverty and Hinduism”

Gordon Dryden on India

New Zealand author Dr. Gordon Dryden, who showed me around his home-country last year (mentioned before here and here), breezed into India last month, and a week later flew out “head filled with a haze of contraditions”:

Air travel: Horrified at the Air India trip from Hong Kong to New Delhi (“Do they really have to spend several minutes, first up, showing what not to push bottles down the toilet? Have they not heard of the power of negative suggestions? Possibly my worst flight since the Soviet Aeroflot slog from Moscow to Tokyo in 1970.”) But thrilled at the Jet Airways flight from Delhi to Pune (“Great airline; beaut service.”)
Continue reading “Gordon Dryden on India”

Give me Peace on Earth

Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
heart and soul

Om
My Lord . . .

PLEASE take hold of my hand, that
I might understand you . . .

George Harrison (1943-2001)

Outlawing Child Labor

My position is that child labor is not the problem, but rather it is the symptom of a different underlying problem. Merely outlawing child labor will not fix the underlying problem any more than malnutrition will be fixed by outlawing hunger.

Also see related post on Banning Child Labor on this blog.

Your thoughts?

Interested in Transforming Education?

Want to transform education? Want to re-engineer the whole system of education so that it is effective, efficient, and relevant to the world of today?

I have the business plan and the funding. I need committed smart people who want to accomplish an important task, have fun while doing it, and make a lot of money (exactly in that order.)

Email me for details.

{Go to part 2 of this post.}

Found on the web – 2

Illusions of the senses tell us the truth about perception.

That is a quote from the website 67 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena. To me the site is treasure chest.

Take for instance the Motion Induced Blindness. Pretty amazing. Or how about the Freezing Rotation Illusion?