1. Thoughts is starting piece which helps drive towards choosing the direction or dream or goals.
2. The thoughts are continuously coming to all of us at very high speed.
3. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t control the origin of particular thought.
4. The speed of thought varies during the days, week and various situations. Say it varies from 30 KM per hour to 100 KM per hour based on situation.
5. The more the speed of thought, more energy is required thus faster blood flow and more glucose consumption. Continuous fast speed of thought can put a strain on human organs from blood pumping wear and tears to sugar management lines.
6. The Meditation is the process TO WATCH SPEEDOMETER OF SPEED OF THOUGHTS. Once you start watching the speed, the speed starts slowing down.
7. When we walk slow then we can observe lot of things around us while driving in car very few items are observable. Slowness of thought speed thus makes us better listener, observer and thus brings better empathy. These are the prerequisites of good design thinking and better outcome.
India Handmade Collective (IHMC) has a fascinating story of ‘connecting’ people. During a 2-hour virtual Design Thinking workshop session conducted recently, we had the opportunity to listen to 50 like-minded people who were involved in organic and handmade fabric. We were awed by the fact that they provide employment opportunities to farmers, spinners and weavers in the villages, connecting them with the right contacts and guiding them to upskill their talents.
For this process, they created a WhatsApp group and arrived at a common name for the collective by a pure consensus building process over a time of two weeks. They together decided the logo, the guidelines for working together in the group and then chose the right products for sale and the design for the online sales store.
I saw the power of purpose, driving the power of collectives. It is just the beginning of the coming together of an institution. Let us wish them good luck!
Scientific toys from trash: an amazing free educational site from IIT Kanpur where an innovative professor has simplified science through gaming but hands-on gaming. Do it to your toys and it can be great fun to explain the scientific fundamentals.
There are more than 500 toy procedures around more than 15 scientific topics.
Please enjoy making the toys if you have school going children.
This year, the Nobel Prize for Physics and the Noble Prize for Chemistry are on two ends of the spectrum. The Physics Nobel Prize was given to the discovery of the Black Hole and for Chemistry it was given for the Genome Editing Technology CRISPR.
It’s the infinite power of the human mind to go and discover something which is 26,000 light years away from us. Each light year means 9 trillion km i.e. 26,000 X 9 X 1000,000,000,000 km away. Black hole means where the force of gravity is so strong that it pulls light as well.
It’s the power of the human mind that can also go into the minutest to minutest size of chromosomes and then sequence 3 billion base pairs. They measure this in a unit called nanometers which is 1 divided by 1000,000,000.
In Design Thinking, there are 2 competencies that are important which help in ‘Connecting the dot’ i.e. Perspective which is about seeing from a distance and the second is about Expertise, which is about going into micro details. Today, I am amazed to see the infinite capacity of the human mind to traverse from 26000 lights years to nanometers to solve the complex nature of the universe.
How many of you have read this book, ‘Meaning of Life’ by Victor Frankl. He is a survivor of the Concentration Camp and has founded the theory of Logo Therapy based on the Will of Purpose/Meaning vs. Will of Pleasure or Will of Power/Superiority.
Tomorrow is the beginning of Das Lakshan Parva, which means 10 Virtues for 10 days.
My understanding of this festival: 1. I used to visit the temple during these days with my father and sat down in a few lectures randomly. I used to feel good but was not able to connect to my daily life. A few years ago I was searching for a framework from Indian scriptures in relation to where deep knowledge has been made repeatable. I found the answer in Paryushan Parva, where Jains celebrate the 10 Principles of High-Performance Life for 10 days that are committed to learning.
Article: Published on August 23, 2020 My understanding of Das Lakshan Dharam – Design Thinking in action for celebrating a high-performance life
Tomorrow is the beginning of Das Lakshan Parva, which means 10 Virtues for 10 days.
My understanding of this festival: 1. I used to visit the temple during these days with my father and sat down in a few lectures randomly. I used to feel good but was not able to connect to my daily life. A few years ago I was searching for a framework from Indian scriptures in relation to where deep knowledge has been made repeatable. I found the answer in Paryushan Parva, where Jains celebrate the 10 Principles of High-Performance Life for 10 days that are committed to learning.
2. Process Design: There are 3 innovations in this process design a) Each day is dedicated to understand, reflect and learn about one virtue. b) Guru (Pandit) has to be from another temple or other cities to provide a different perspective of the virtue. c) The learning process has 3 sessions – Morning: lecture form, Afternoon: Dialogue form and Evening: Lecture and Clarifications.
3. I relate the 10 virtues to the similar 7 habits of effective leadership
Habit 1 – Uttam Kshma (Supreme Forgiveness) – Reverse of Anger – Powerful vs. Forgiveness. Container of disappointments poured out on the weakest person in the link.
Habit 2 – Uttam Mardava (Supreme Humility) – Reverse of Arrogance (Ego) – I know it all vs. I need to know.
Habit 3 – Uttam Aarjava (Straight Forwardness) – Reverse of Deceit (Maya) – what I think, what I say, what I do are aligned.
Habit 4 – Uttam Shauch (Purity or Contentment) – Reverse of Greed – I want more.
Habit 5 – Uttam Satya (Truth) – The search for real truth not just ‘speaking the truth’. Searching for the root cause.
Habit 6 – Uttam Sanyam (Self-restraint) – Having patience and not hurting any living beings.
Habit 7 – Uttam Tapa – The process of learning – Disciplining Senses and Disciplining Mind.
Habit 8 – Uttam Tyaag – Letting go vs. just giving donation – Letting go your attachments.
Habit 9 – Uttam Akinchanya (Non-attachment) – Detachment from all Emotional attachments and the past.
Habit 10 – Uttam Brahamcharya – It’s not about celibacy but about Total Surrender to the true knowledge of the Soul. Follow Brahma – The power of Nature.
The Process Design and extreme distilling of the knowledge of life in just 10 virtues which can drive ethics, collaboration and continuous learning in a community is the true example of Design Thinking in action for celebrating a High-Performance Life.
Today I enjoyed a slow walk on Boat Club Road. I observed the majestic trees which I did not pay attention to for the last 20 years of walking on the same street. Each tree expresses itself uniquely through its solid trunks, strong branches and their direction, exotic leaves and then beautifully designed flowers. Some of the trees act as large ‘hotels’ for insects and birds. Some trees provide their shoulders to other weaker plant that have weaker trunks. The sleek and weaker creepers are able to climb up to 40 feet and are able to get their food from sun.
I touched 14 trees and tried to feel them. Some trees are over 100 years or 200 years old. They have seen and experienced more history than most of us and kept secrets within themselves.
I experience the power of a slow walk with no pressure on counting steps. I just sat down looking up to see the beauty of each tree. They have grown over 50 feet high. Some are growing upwards and some are growing horizontally to provide shade to humans. They just stand there without any expectation, contributing to humanity year after year.
This morning, I started with a cloudy day and we were enjoying our morning tea with rusks. The weather turned better and it started raining.
I was amazed to observe the cycle of rains resulting in great crops in the field. I admired the cycle of nature – sun’s energy along with water and the natural force of plants, produces so much for humanity.
The thoughts further created a question – What is wealth and how did it get created? 1. All wealth is created by nature. 2. Nature creates wealth through agriculture and minerals. There is no other way to create primary wealth. 3. Trading of this primary wealth by multiple transactions creates secondary wealth. 4. Secondary wealth surplus gets invested into building safety and home conveniences. 5. Secondary wealth surplus invested in education, research and innovation have created multiple technologies resulting in various professions and industries. Each profession and industry then started driving Tertiary wealth.
This means all the wealth in the world gets created by farming and mineral extraction from Mother Nature. The irony is that today a farmer is the most poor of this chain while all wealth is residing in the hands of ‘Value adders’.
Today is a significant day as we celebrate the National Panchayati Raj Day to commemorate the historic Constitution Act (73rd Amendment) passed in 1992 which came into existence a year later on April 24, 1993. The launch of the e-GramSwaraj portal and app today makes this a doubly important day. The portal shows us the vastness of India’s local governance framework.
We have over 2.66 lakh Gram Panchayats across the length and breadth of our country. This is where ‘the rubber hits the road’ and this is where, as Gandhiji said, India lives. On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we at #MissionSamriddhi launched the India Panchayat Forum (IPF) at Gandhi Ashram, Sewagram in Wardha. I felt that the 73rd Amendment that provided a Constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institution is yet to realise its full potential.
On this significant day, let us work with them and help them achieve effective local governance, and become examples to the world.
#ruralindia #IndiaPanchayatForum
Article: Published on April 24, 2020 National Panchayati Raj Day
Today is a significant day as we celebrate the National Panchayati Raj Day to commemorate the historic Constitution Act (73rd Amendment) passed in 1992 which came into existence a year later on April 24, 1993. The launch of the e-GramSwaraj portal and app today makes this a doubly important day. The portal shows us the vastness of India’s local governance framework.
We have over 2.66 lakh Gram Panchayats across the length and breadth of our country. This is where ‘the rubber hits the road’ and this is where, as Gandhiji said, India lives. On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we at #MissionSamriddhi launched the India Panchayat Forum (IPF) at Gandhi Ashram, Sewagram in Wardha. I felt that the 73rd Amendment that provided a Constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institution is yet to realise its full potential. The need for the India Panchayat Forum stems from this gap and is envisioned to promote the Gandhian vision of Panchayat Raj. This upholds the constitutional values, social justice and the highest standards of governance with a special focus on Antyodaya.
In our federal structure, our Gram Panchayats are the unsung heroes. Devolution of power to local government continues to be a contentious issue, but the launch of this portal ensures transparency, and thereby a level playing field. Each Panchayat has different challenges, and most do come up with innovative solutions.
On this significant day, let us work with them and help them achieve effective local governance, and become examples to the world.
And people stayed home and read books and listened and rested and exercised and made art and played and learned new ways of being and stopped and listened deeper someone meditated someone prayed someone danced someone met their shadow and people began to think differently and people healed and in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways, dangerous, meaningless and heartless, even the earth began to heal and when the danger ended and people found each other grieved for the dead people and they made new choices and dreamed of new visions and created new ways of life and healed the earth completely just as they were healed themselves.
Kathleen O’Meara, pen name Grace Ramsay, was an Irish-French Catholic writer and biographer during the late Victorian era.
This poem appeared in her second novel ‘Iza’s Story’, which was about the struggle of Polish patriots against Russian, Austrian and German occupation. The book compares the Polish-Russian situation to the Irish-British situation and praises the revolt of a small nation against a great neighbour.
Hello, my name is Arun Jain. I am a design thinker living in Chennai, India. This is my blog, where I post my thoughts, technology trends and tips about the fintech world and many more.
