Unconventional sources of knowledge

Knowledge is acquired at school. Knowledge is acquired through books and knowledge is acquired through television. But these are not the only sources of knowledge. In this blog, I want to go through a few channels through which knowledge is acquired, at least for me

1. Music 

Music is an art. An art is the application of predetermined principles and theories. Playing music is hence an art and to some extent, even listening to music is. knowledge is not defined by any boundaries. Due to this, I believe that music can provide rich knowledge. It is true that we learn from others’ experiences and music does an excellent job in portraying others’s feelings. Of course, the kind of music does affect the gain. For example, music by artists like Logic, Nas, Nf and J Cole definitely improves one’s knowledge about the world. These artists speak about their lives and what their struggles were through life. They also speak about how they overcame these struggles and who motivated them. Logic speaks about social stigmas like suicide, racism and classism whereas Nf speaks about drug abuse and painful relationships. Even if you have not experienced these personally, you can always experience them through the eyes of artists like the aforementioned. conversely, if you listen to “artists” like 6ix9ine, NAV, Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Pump, you are bound to lose brain cells. 

2. Being alone 

Nobody likes to be alone. But, sometimes, one would rather be alone than be involved in something. Being alone has amazing benefits. However, it is very downcast by society as something nobody should do. But, if you are like me, you will eventually break norms. I have tried being alone voluntarily for long stretches of time. Being alone means not talking to friends outside school for a long time, not greeting too many people, not making conversation and even reading non fiction. So what can you learn? Being alone gives you a lot of free time. eventually, you will end up thinking about the world and slowly, you will start forming philosophies about yourself which you will stick to forever. It is in the adolescence when you really become who you will be for the future and it is essential to choose who you want to be. I feel like not a lot of people take time out to really ask themselves what they stand for and what is their deepest belief. I feel everybody should practice being lonely. But it is essential to end this practice in time just like I did.

3. ANIME

This year, anime has been the best source of knowledge for me. I can say that in 8 months, I’ve seen 52 anime shows and movies and i can proudly say that I’ve learnt something new from every show. My top 3 shows are shows from which I’ve learnt the most. 

3. Death Note- what happens when you have unlimited power? This story revolves around the smartest 17 year old in Japan who picks up a notebook on the ground in which, whoever’s name is written, that person dies within 40 seconds. Light Yagami decides to become the ruler of the world through this death note. however, the best Japanese detective, the mysterious L decided to play his game and probably the best cat and mouse chase begins. 

What I learnt- death note asks the question “what is justice?” It makes you ask what is good and bad and who decides whats good and bad. in the eyes of everybody, they believe that they are doing good but in others’ eyes, they may be wrong. The show also shows megalomania, where Light, decided to change the world killing every criminal in the world and the notebook actually manages to kill 259,000 people. It also shows how a person gets overly absorbed in power and how it causes his ruin. It is the smartest show I’ve ever seen and it was the second anime I ever saw. 

2. My teen romance comedy SNAFU/ oregairu 

Don’t let the title fool you. This anime is NOT about romance. It is about a loner. It is about a loner who chooses to be a loner and the whole show shows his ideology and his beliefs. In a strange way, the ideology is so perfect that it can be applied to any situation. But this is just the surface. If you dig deeper, the show shows that everybody has a facade which they put up. The whole show is about how Hachiman Hikigaya and his friends and peers break their facade. It is amazing how they do it and the whole show is a stereotype of teenage life, except Hachiman, who resembles a black swan. Oregairu is a must watch if you want a different perspective on life.

3. Shigatsu wa kimi no uso/ your lie in April

This is my favourite show of all time. I wrote the summary as an exam essay and got really good marks. The story is about the best Japanese child piano player who is dead accurate with his notes. He has a very very driven mother who is almost like an overlord governing his lessons until one day when she dies. Kosei Arima’s life changes and his life becomes grey. He becomes a loner with two friends. He stops piano and can no longer even hear his own notes, until he meets Kaori, a violin player. This is all I can  say about the story. It is the best story with the best animations, the best music, the best life lessons and the bets of everything. I’ve seen it 4 times in 3 months and the last episode is a masterpiece. 

I can never put in words what I’ve learnt from anime and I know that goes against the point of this blog but try watching a few and you will understand yourself. Your lie in April is available on Amazon Prime.

Weird choices which expose you weirdly

Consider a situation in which you have to choose one option- 

You have a sure chance of getting 900$ 

You have a 90% chance of getting 1000$

Which would you choose?

I tested this out on couple of friends and I found out that almost 80% of them would opt for the first choice. They would rather have a sure thing than risk a chance of gaining nothing. 

The problem I saw here was the people being very afraid of that 10% probability coming true. It is virtually impossible for it to happen and they would rather settler less than risk a higher gain. I feel like this is the kind of thinking I detest and this thinking will cause one to remain mediocre for the rest of their life. Another factor which led me to taking risk was that even if the 10% does come through, I am not losing money and I will remain the same. Sure there will be some regret, but a businessperson must learn to handle this.

Consider this situation- 

A sure loss of 900$ 

A 90% chance of losing a 1000$ 

Here, my friends opted for the risk of losing 1000$. 

This seemed weird to me. Why would they change their opinions on risk aversion and risk opting in the situations. Ideally, they should have chosen the same for both. 

The thing that irked me is that they answered without thinking. If you go to see, the chances of you not losing any money is only 10% and that is almost never possible. Even though the value of the loss is more for the second case, people still hang onto that ray of false hope that they will be the 10%. Everybody considers themselves different and they all try to think differently. But what they miss out in this journey is to think hard. They think with their automatic system, leaving nothing to common sense, which of course is hard to come by nowadays. Personally, when I looked up this experiment, I chose a sure loss and a risk for gaining.

Consider this: a coin is tossed:

If heads, you win 200$

If tails, you lose 100$

Is this gamble attractive? 

To understand this, you must assess how you would feel for both cases and compare them. Most of the test subjects did not find this attractive at all because they were more afraid of losing the 100$ than winning the 100$. This is generally and automatic response.

However, if you change the value the winning to 2000$, then everybody will jump onto the deal. All of a sudden, the loss, which is the same in both cases, is forgotten about and everybody is happy to risk money. These are the same people who opted for a sure gain and risked a higher loss. 

here, the human greed component comes in where humans would forego the loss part and jump for the gain. The truth is still that you have a 50% chance of losing. But if that were to come true, they would not mind it in the second case but would get enraged in the first case.