The TRUTH

One theme I get a lot of discussion about is on my idea of fact vs. Fiction. To get a feel of my position and the comments I get, go over to my earlier blog linked here. http://mathaifenn.blogspot.com/2004/06/story-telling_28.html

Comments made by Vinod brings up the question of relative truths.

" ... aren't the truths of our life supposed to be absolute? Isn't it that we choose something to be the truth, because we r convinced about its absoluteness and veracity."

I thought it may be a good idea for me to post my reply so that others can also see.

There used to be an urban legend about potassium cyanide when I was in school. I was told that the stuff is so poisonous that no one knows what it tastes like. The story goes that many people had died trying to find its taste and a guy was able to write only the letter "S" before he died.

I will differentiate between Truth with a capital "T" and truths with a small "t". The "truth" represents what each of us believe to be true and "Truth" represents the absolute Truth, if indeed such a thing exists.

• My first argument is that Truth has no meaning if it is not knowable. If all we know as individuals, are our own truths, then WHO knows this absolute truth? If no one knows it, of what use is it? Maybe its a good political game, whereby certain people take power because they say they have access to absolute truth.

• My second argument is that all "truths" are not equal. The problem with many people is that once they accept the possibility that there is no Truth (for practical purposes), they feel that what is left is total anarchy. This is not true at all. Certain ideas are valued above others and certain people are valued as "knowledgeable". My contention is that this is not indexed to the veracity of the statements, but based on a complex process involving a set of relationships which "constitute" knowledge. For example, when a white coated scientist tells us the effectiveness of a medicine we are more inclined to accept it, rather than when an old aunt tells us.

• And thirdly all knowledge is dependent on something. My favorite story is taken from "Aaakhiri Raastha", where Amitabh Sr. (he is in a double role in the movie) draws a 9 on his palm and shows his son. He says it looks like a 9 to me, but when I show it to you, it is inverted and looks like a 6. My relationship with my mother is not the same as my father's relationship with her, yet they are both indexed to the same person. Hence to understand anything truly, one has to accept the position one approaches the problem with.

• Finally, I use this same logic when discussing religion. If God is, by definition, infinite and our intellect is finite, then there is no way one can encompass the infinite God with a finite mind. Perhaps our hope is to accept ourselves as part of the infinite God and look within ourselves to understand the nature of the God. But its like understanding other people. How do I know the other person experiences the world the way I do? I can only extrapolate from my personal experience. There is bound to be differences in the way I experience things and another person experiences things. I can never know exactly what these differences are, only that they exist. Hence my knowledge of the Absolute is coloured by my own perceptual/epistemological apparatuses. That is not necessarily a bad thing.

An important business lesson

I was recently involved in trying to get a project running.

First I thought that what mattered is the creative idea:

I was impressed with myself because I had identified an unmet yet strong need that is felt in the society. I knew there was a need for this service. I was not sure how I would package it or price it, but I was sure it could be worked out if the need is strong enough. Whoever I talked to, felt excited when hearing about it.

A good idea to me is something that does both making money AND meeting a genuine need felt by society. For example, if a society has a growing number of senior citizens, it seems logical to assume that they will at some time need attendants.

But a good idea is nothing if you don't have people to execute it. I got carried away with Peter Drucker's statement that management is the art of getting ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Well I found out that even with a good idea you need someone who has the courage to take it forward. Mind you, EVERYONE thought that the idea was great.

I put people on the job:

I thought if I could find people who will trust me, it would be ok. I could give them ideas that they could execute. But ideas were not as simple as I thought. I would give them an overview and then leave them to work out the details. In my mind the details were clear enough, but I learnt that is because these ideas were ones that I thought up, that the implementation was clear. Obscures now I am beginning to think its not easy for everyone to see the connection between an idea and its implementation. I guess that is what experience gives you. Experience of implementing someone else's ideas.

Next Step:

Perhaps the next step is for me to get my own hands dirty. To actually get out there and DO whatever it is I believe in. Perhaps I need to set the ball rolling and create things myself. Perhaps once the show is on the road, it would be easier for others to join in. After all an existing process is easier to perceive than an abstract idea.

The important part of business:

I believe there are three important rules of a good business.

1. Compassion - The ability to emit with society and sense their unarticulated needs. To be able to care enough to do something.



2. Vision: - The ability to translate that compassion into something concrete, a business or otherwise implemented idea, to see its connections with other things, and to be able to visualize the drill down, the executional details.






3. Courage: - The ability to stay with your convictions even when things are not going your way, even when you find that other people are not doing things the way you believe in. To have the faith in your convictions and the courage to do whatever it takes to get the show going. A corollary to this is the fact that you need a sense of distance from whatever it is that you are doing. Bhagavad Gita calls it being unconcerned about the fruits of your labour. It means that after you plant a seed, you don't have to keep digging it up to see if it is growing roots.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?