Likes & dislikes maketh a person. Earlier I thought this was a cliche. But not after reading ZAMM :-)
There are some things I am good at, but I dont pursue. There are few things I wish to pursue, but I have not started yet, and there are others that I really hate, but have not yet stopped doing :-) I am still in process of finding all the things that I really love doing. But here is a start
- Reading: I like nonfiction which explain something about ourselves, the world we live in, let us see the big picture and true state of affairs. This roundabout blanket wraps a wide variety of subjects ranging from philosophy, history to game theory. Here is my booklist, which I am updating. My biggest bottleneck in appreciating a book is my long term memory, which never seems to register anything more than inference, which makes recall & relation a real tenuous task :-)
- Math Puzzles: Though not very good at this, I truly love to go through cycle of intrigue, haunting by a good math puzzle, inspiration for solutions at oddest hours, and ecstasy at having solved it. And really cementing my belief in serendipity :-) I have been looking here for good puzzles lately. My inspiration in this is my great grandfather, who was a selfmade genius, an engineer in 1940's at Mulshi dam who used to say 'There is no joy comparable to joy after solving a math problem.'
- Sketching: Off late, inspiration to sit down and do this has been waning. So keeping the pencils crossed... plan to compile sketches here.
- Walking: was initiated in long distance walking by Suvrat in Bangalore, where we used to wander miles to reach office. In California, this has become less frequent owing to winter & lesser amount of hustle & crowds which make walking so interesting, and keep you distracted ;-)
- Biking, Hiking and national parks: I am still getting a feel of this. My roommate Shankar, is an avid nature lover, and these things just 'click' with him. Birdwatching, observing plants & animals, loving this and really 'learning' from them is a very deep transformation. I hope to reach that stage someday. Till then, I am content being a 'lister' :-) Have visited Yosemite, Grand canyon, Anza Borrego, Torrey Pines, Shenendova, Death Valley, Tadoba.
- Game theory & Control theory: This is my area of research, and it enables me to see connections within realms of reality from physical to biological to mental to social. My subfield being Optimal Control, which asks How can we do the optimal/most right thing, having defined criterion for rightness. This is essentially the same questions haunting philosphers, moralists and also any homo economus, as man is an ardent optimizer. More on this later.
- Robotics & Mechatronics:
- Tabla:
- Social work:
- Friends:
- Marathi:
- Pune: