Dog wags the tail or tail wags the dog?

Despite a bilateral relationship, who needs who more? If one party has a bigger bargaining power, it will make the other party suffer.

Wolf-sheep model

Each wolf needs a minimum number of sheep to support its survival. Hence, there is a minimum wolfs to sheep ratio below which the number of wolves will start to shrink. This wolf-sheep model is analogous to the capitalist-worker model in which the capitalists have ownership and harvest on the labour of the workers. When there are abundant workers, the survival of the capitalists is favourable. When the workers are scarce, the capitalists start to worry.

Government, capitalists and workers

In this model, the government controls the printing of money which rewards the capitalists. The capitalists in turn capitalize on the workers. This can easily be done if there are abundant workers and they are not represented by a strong union.

Shepherd, dog and sheep

The shepherd is the controller who commands his dog to control the sheep for him. He treats his dog well and sleeps with it. The dog is driven by reward but the sheep isn't. Instead, the sheep is driven by punishment and is regularly harvested. Ideally, the number of shepherds and dogs in comparison with sheep should not be too many so that the resources harvested is enough to be distributed to the shepherds and dogs.

Who wields the carrot and stick?

In a society, people are driven by carrots and sticks. The wielder is the controller of the societal system. And that is none other than the government of the day. The government tweaks policies to decide the composition of the carrots and sticks. Money is an effective tool to control people with reward and punishment.

Leftists, rightists and moderates

The leftists or liberals have a set of ideologies that is opposing to that of the rightists or conservatives. They are 2 extreme groups of people with strong opposing opinions. Sandwiched between them is a group of moderates with no strong opinions. The central moderates try to gather information before judging or they may be swayed by one-sided information. Hence, they are swingers. The moderates can be left-leaning or right-leaning.

To leap or not to leap?

I am currently living on a platform. I may or may not be happy on this platform. There is a platform somewhere waiting for me to leap to. The gap between the the platforms may be too wide for me to leap across. There may be times the gap is narrow enough for my athletic ability to leap across. If I attempt to leap and fail and fall into the gap, I may be in a worse state than now. By luck, I may fall into a hole and settle in it and end up liking it.

Do I want to leap?

What is the top movie of all time?

To my surprise, IMDb rates The Shawshank Redemption as the top movie of all time based on popular votes. After watching the movie, I feel that the author of the story, Stephen King, is perhaps trying to convey a hidden message to me. I can imagine that I am locked up in an invisible prison. To escape from this prison, I need to have a workable plan, patience and persistence?

Does problem come from probing?

Sometimes, I wonder if the word problem comes from the word probe. If this is the case, does it mean that a problem requires me to probe? Or does it mean I see a problem after I probe? And the problem I see depends on how I probe? And if I don't probe, I do not see any problem?

Reality is virtual?

A Buddhist script writes 色即是空 which has been translated to "form is emptiness". I exist in a physical form. So are the objects around me. My eyes receive some images. After my brain performs some post-processing, it forms some interpreted images which my brain perceives. My eyes are basically a tool or sensing device. Are these images virtual?

What does optical illusion imply?

My brain likes to add interpretation to optical signals to form images on my brain. The interpretation can sometimes mislead me to judgement which is contrary to the actual situation. In a way, my eyes simply act as tools to receive stimulus from the environment. Ultimately, my brain decides what I see.

How do people assign value?

Why do people choose to go through the immense hardship of climbing mountain where there is no reward other than personal satisfaction? As an observer, I can't see any value in doing this. To the climber himself, the value is enormous. The sense of achievement and the rise in dopamine level in his brain is simply not experienced by any person other than him.

Is being abnormal bad?

I conveniently divide the people in a society into 3 classes by wealth in which most of the people are in the middle class in a normal distribution. The normal people, being the majority, forms the middle class.

There is a small group of people who don't like to follow the majority and choose to be abnormal. If they do well, they fall into the upper class. If they don't, they fall into the lowest class.

Leftist vs rightist

The terms "left" and "right" appeared during the French Revolution when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president's right and supporters of the revolution to his left.

A leftist generally advocates for individualism and egalitarianism. The individual tends to emphasize personal rights while neglecting personal responsibilities. When widely adopted, this leads to social decay. Egalitarianism is the advocation of equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity.

A rightist generally advocates a philosophy which revolves around not doing much. He, as a conservative, essentially argues keeping things the way they are rather than supporting change.

To be employed, self-employed or employing?

Take cooking for example, there are cooks who are employees, self-employed or employers. A punishment-driven cook can choose to be an employee. A reward-driven cook can choose to be an employer. A self-employed cook happens to be a hybrid. He represents a transition from an employee to an employer.

Handedness of US presidents

Since 1929, 6 US presidents are left-handed while 7 are right-handed. The percentage of the population who are left-handed is only about 10%. Amar Klar, a scientist who has worked on handedness, says that left-handed people "have a wider scope of thinking", and points to the disproportionately high number of Nobel Prize winners, writers, and painters who are left-handed.

Does this imply that holistic thinking can help to produce good scientists and leaders?

To be reward-driven or punishment-driven?

Reward-driven people are seekers who never feel enough. Once they get one reward, they will look for the next reward. They are self-motivated and don't have to be prompted to do something.

Punishment-driven people, on the other hand, like to relax under the trees. They are not self-motivated and have to be prompted to do something. Or they will do something out of fear.

Dopamine vs serotonin

Personality traits such as extraversion and reward seeking have been linked to higher sensitivity to rewarding stimuli of dopamine. Serotonin is popularly thought to be a contributor to feelings of well-being and happiness.

People who are sensitive to dopamine will be reward-driven and those who are not sensitive to dopamine will be punishment-driven, in which case a perception of punishment leads to a reduction of serotonin level in the brain?

Linear vs lateral thinking

Superior thinkers process information in a lateral manner, not linear. Unfortunately, most people are linear thinkers and only a few are lateral. Schools with teaching processes that encourage rote memorization and regurgitation for tests reinforce linear thinking patterns.

Linear thinking is characterized by exclusivity (if A is true, then B must be false) and narrow, literal interpretation. Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.

Using alternative ways to do the same thing also exhibits lateral thinking.

Handedness of the brain

The left brain controls the right hand while right brain controls the left hand. Most people use only their left brain for logical thinking and communication while a few people use their right brain together with their left brain to add holistic thinking, imagination and creativity to their logical thinking and communication. Music, art and reading books to spark fantasy or imagination can help to train the use of right brain.

Learning and reinforcement

Dopamine released in the brain is commonly associated with the reward system of the brain, providing feeling of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person to perform certain activities. I don't like to eat durian initially. After being persuaded to eat it time and again, I begin to acquire the liking for its taste. Is it the release of dopamine that makes me like durian? Is dopamine the cause of obsession and, more seriously, addiction?

How does talent become skill?

Specific profession requires specific domain knowledge acquired in the form of memory. With my inborn talent, I can acquire polished skill suited for the profession via training and learning. For example, my visual/spatial and bodily/kinesthetic talent can be translated into skill in one of the sports above via training to acquire memory, which in this case is muscle memory.

How to discover my Nature?

My Nature comprises of my first draft of morality and talent, which I do not know what their composition is. To find out, I have to go through many experiences to test whether my body and soul resonate with the experiences. Where there is resonance, I will have some form of facial or bodily expression that exhibits my happiness.

Nature vs nurture

I am born with a first draft of morality and talent. This is my Nature but I don't know what this first version of Nature is. Via continuous social conditioning, social engineering, education, training, etc, my morality and talent are iterated into subsequent versions. This is nurture. Through the process of nurturing, my original morality and talent may be suppressed or enhanced.

What are the channels of talent?

Howard Gardner proposes the theory of multiple intelligences in which human talent can be divided into 7 categories:

1) verbal / linguistic
2) mathematical / logical
3) visual / spatial
4) musical / rhythmic
5) bodily / kinesthetic
6) social / interpersonal
7) reflective / intrapersonal

Just like morality, I am born with a first draft of talent. After enhancement via learning and training, my talent can become polished skill which can be used to create values in a society. A combination of the above skills is required for a specific profession.

Hmm, what is the type of talent possessed by a good chef? Good sensory talent?

What is the moral yardstick?

I have my own moral yardstick that makes me suitable for a specific nature of work. And, I resonate with people who have similar moral yardstick. That is why specific types of profession are suitable for specific types of people?