Vivid appearance

Why do books begin with index? Why do specification documents begin with Table of Content? Why is classification or categorization important?

The simple answer is that it facilitates jumping to the point of interest. But what if entire book is point of interest? So, per me, this methodology gives vivid appearance of the content.

Index reflects school of thought of the author. Categorization gives vivid appearance of the concept as it highlights the thought process to get to the minor details of the concerned topic. You cannot systematize your knowledge of history unless you categorize as ancient, medieval and modern.

Long conversations (technical or philosophical) usually arouse boredom unless you converse categorically. What I mean is that before you begin your conversation which is intended to be long and intricate and you don't want audience to just give you their attention for formality, then it is best to first categorize your conversation and then give brief details of each category. Leave it up to audience to request elaboration on the particular category. This will invite audience to analyze categories and then get to the details of conversation avoiding boredom. I learnt this when my long technical discussion was greeted with confusion due to lack of categorization prior to conversation.

This art also helps in prioritizing phases and tasks in life. Every task in life should be categorized and dealt with expected priority. Prioritizing category is an outcome of consultation with wise personalities. Working in IT project, the categories of tasks could be project delivery, knowledge enhancement and employer compliance. Obviously project delivery should be highly prioritized.

Also Indian philosophy categorizes life as Brahmcharya, Grihasth, Vanprasth and Sanyas. Not looking at these categories only from orthodox point of view (philosophies of moving to forest during Vanprasth and so on) I think this is the systematic approach cited by erudite personalities which helps in getting vivid appearance of the phases of life. It helps in prioritizing the activities in each phase of life.

Categories of my blog para-wise are Introduction (Para 1, Para 2 and Para 3), Categorization in speech (Para 4), Categorization in life (Para 5 and Para 6).

Three Restaurants

I heard this excellent,short story from the talk by Morari Bapu.

There were three restaurants on the same street with their own advertising patterns.

First said "Welcome to Best Restaurant in the World!

Second said "Welcome to Best Restaurant in the Country!

Third said "Welcome to Best Restaurant in the Street!

Gentlemen, you have to decide which is the best restaurant in the World! - The one who tries to be best in himself.

Life is best lead by abstraction!

Well, this will sound a bit of philosophical blog but I am not worried as I have disabled commenting capability of my blog :)

I got to this conclusion, mentioned in the title, after imagining a lot of intricacies in engulfing into the details of each and every interesting thing you come across. You cannot relish the fun you are supposed to at a particular level of abstraction.

Above paragraph is again abstracted. I will get into the details now.Wiki says "Abstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose".

So every concept or phenomenon we come across has different levels of abstraction and you should be perfectly knowledgeable to determine your level and only then you can enjoy the concept. For e.g, you can enjoy using MS Word features only when you try to be at abstraction level of using these features to embellish your document and not diving into the details of how the hell these features are converted into bits to processor and graphics card. Similarly, as a technical analyst you need not to worry about the laborious task of functional analyst; each analyst has its own level of abstraction and only this understanding can help you relish you job.

Taking the same argument to situations we face in life, it seems for every phase in life the first thing is to determine the abstraction level required from us to deal with that phase.If you lose your job,your level of abstraction to deal with this predicament is to start building up your skills and start scouting another job. Leave it onto fate to decide on when your account would start getting credited; it is not your abstraction level.When you face some medical emergency, your level of abstraction to deal with this emergency to start scouting for required medical specialist. Leave it onto medical specialist and fate to decide on what would be the outcome of this emergency; it is not your abstraction level unless you are a medical student or practitioner.

At times it happens that if you try to trespass another's level of abstraction then you might end up in a situation which could be more grave than you were entitled to had you enjoyed your own level of abstraction.

I know this is easier said than done...but this is what has struck me since many days and I have charged my blog with it! Sorry for boredom :)