Evolve and Elevate: Hofstadter’s law, What is Chetna and True Purpose

Idea of the Week

Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.

Hofstadter’s law is a self-referential adage, coined by Douglas Hofstadter in his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (1979) which describes the widely experienced difficulty of accurately estimating the time it will take to complete tasks of substantial complexity.

Hofstadter’s law refers to a type of planning fallacy.

It is the observation that we tend to underestimate the time that is required to complete any given task.

This is why project time estimates fail so often, even if the project itself is well-managed and well-controlled.

It’s also why actual time durations are always longer than the worst estimates, even estimates that account for extra time by considering Hofstadter’s law.

Lesson of the Week

Bhagavad Gita says:

What is Chetna?

To believe that “Mae Hun” (Iam).

Then what is “Mae  Hun”?

It is believing I Am the Bhokta (the receiver). I am everything.

I Am the authority.

The man believes He is the Srishta (Creator) of everything he has earned.

He assumes he is the owner of what he creates and earns.

In Bhautik Chetna, there are 2 categories:

According to one: I Am the Srishta (Creator)

According to another: I Am the Bhokta (Receiver)

That means I am the receiver of everything I have created.

Example: You got a great job, so you assume you are the creator. The one who fetched the job.

Then you receive salary, and you further assume you are the receiver of that money.

But…

The Reality is:

Srishta (Creator) is only Parmeshwar (God).

But Bhokta (receiver) is both God and Man.

But because Jeev (living creature/man) is a part of Parmeshwar (God), He is neither Srishta (Creator) nor he is a complete Bhokta (receiver). 

He is just an associator/ participant.

That means whatever you achieve is coming to you from God.

You are just a medium.

And what you receive as a result, is not entirely your credit.  

As this quote says: 
Your mind is just a receiver, there is a core in the Universe from where all knowledge comes.
∼Nikola Tesla

Inspiration of the Week: 

How did Alexander Graham Bell find his True Purpose?

In the problems, lie your True Purpose.

Let’s call him Bell.

Yes, the one who invented the bell that rings on your phone.

What looks easy to us now was not made easily. 

We overused phones, and Bell overused his mind.

Son of a Deaf mother and Deaf wife and two brothers passed away from tuberculosis by the time Bell was 20 years old. 

Irony!

The one whose family could not hear invented something to help people hear voices.

When one door closes, another door opens.

But the regret of the closed-door blinds us from the one which opens for us.”

 Our purpose stares us in the face, and we just don’t see it.

The calling never meant someone will come to escort you.

It just means your gut will get a strong feeling. 

And how strongly you act towards it, confirms your purpose. 

Bell’s deaf mother and wife gave him the purpose. 

He was living with a problem and the problem became his purpose. 

 Bell’s career as an inventor began at age 12 when he witnessed his mother go deaf. Later, while working as a professor, he married one of his students, also deaf – and Bell was determined to invent a technology that would help people like his mother and wife. 

That technology turned out to be the telephone, which did not accomplish its original task but brought people of the world closer together. 

As happened to Bell, there is something in your life as well that you feel compelled to fix. 

What are you curious about? 

The secret is: You become curious about fixing the problem that you suffered the most with.

Curiosity is the seed.

If you have found the seed, leaving it untouched is like rejecting a Blessing. 

When it comes to career and business planning, the question isn’t so much:

“What should I do?”

but rather

“What can I help solve?”

“A person, as a general rule, owes very little to what he or she is born with – they are what they make of themselves.”

 Bell believed that our life purpose would become a lot more clear if we just looked around & paid more attention to our surroundings. 

He believed that it wasn’t any natural gifts that led him to success but his commitment, focus & keen curiosity towards finding answers to questions that puzzled him. 

Life Lesson: Your true calling in life becomes clear when you focus on what you are curious about & are compelled to fix. 

So many of us are hoping for a “break” “chance” or even a miracle. 

But we have forgotten that studious preparation is the only pathway to results. 

Let us begin today – to take a single baby step towards our dream. 

Each day needs only one step. 

Bell’s angst over his mother’s deafness and that of his wife, put him on a mission to search for solutions. 

You too have something around you that bothers you, that pushes you to find a way out.

But you are dodging the signs. 

Today, you too can look at your life and identify problems to solve, thereby uncovering your true purpose.

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Happy Reading!