Circle of concern!

I first read about "Circle of concern and circle of influence" in seven habits, Theoretically speaking its a very obvious concept, Covey says effective people don't spend their time worrying about things they can't control, but they concentrate their time and energy on the things the can influence. Mumbai has been hit by fierce summers this time. My flat on the 14th floor sizzles even in the night. I have been trying to install a AC in my bedroom since monday so that I can sleep peacefully after having worked 10 hours in office and traveled for 2 hours in mumbai local train. But because of one or the other reason not in my control AC installation has been delayed, yesterday night finally when the AC was installed and plugged in the plug turned out to be defective. Thinking about covey and effectiveness I moistened a bed sheet and covered my self with it and went to sleep. Its friday today I am worried whether the thing would work out today or not. And I am all the more perturbed by the fact that I m not effective :(



In practice it is almost impossible to not to worry about a concern just because one can't do anything about it. Concern is a child of expectation, expectation on the other hand is manifestation of ones aspiration, identity, etc. etc. If one has to go deeper and ask a question why do people aspire, evolution seems to be the answer. Evolution to me seems to be the purpose of life. Life through-out the time and space has led to evolution. Without any further philosophical inquiry, I would get to the point I am trying to make here :



Only thing I want to do here is to negate a theoretical obvious argument by another, If I were to stop worrying about things I can't control, I would have to control my expectation, there by programming my aspiration, identity accordingly, which is essentially controlling evolution "the purpose of life".



It is true that nothing happens by worrying about a concern, But worry is caused by something beyond a living creatures control. One can control his worries and try to focus his energy on things he can achieve. Seven habits of highly effective people is a hit, but appreciating a theory without the understanding of its limitation could be futile!

Modeling

Modeling is one of the most versatile words in terms of its usage. Perhaps everyone starts modeling the moment they are born and they see a new world. I was explicitly introduced to modeling in my first job at lehman brothers. We called evaluating a real estate's price as modeling, in which we populated a big excel file with data and ran some inbuilt programs. Sure it was modeling but a process level modeling which today softwares do. A model is a map of reality, its a purposive description of human experience. Because a model is supposed to help others understand and predict, it always has a scope. Studying a road map of las vegas would not have the same human experience as actually taking a walk on the streets of las vegas. And on the top of it human experience of walking through the same street will vary from one person to another. It is this uniqueness of every human being which has made universal modeling impossible. Newton laws of motion is also a model to understand motion, for centuries it was believed to be a universal model. But when scientist delved into sub-atomic levels new experiences emerged, Einstein and others then modeled same reality but with a larger scope.




Models can be assimilated through studies or can be built through experience. Models can also be explicitly perceived in term of language, mathematics or models can recite tacitly in ones mind. The models we know of consciously are a fraction of all the models that actually effect our action, judgments, value association, happiness, mood, feeling......etc etc. If you ask a successful salesman about secrets to his success, he will only give you a fraction of models which help him do his job better. This is the fraction of which he is consciously aware.




The difference between explicit and tacit models is evident. But complexity of modeling a human experience is actually a function of its scope. Larger the scope greater is the difficulty. One of the greatest modeler is Siddhartha Gautam (budha), he sought to model a solution which would liberate human beings of their sufferings. He modeled buddhism, a religion, a practice which would eliminate models of thinking that lead to suffering. Thus scope of his model was entire human life. In science one of the greatest modeler(who keeps appearing in my blogs now and then) is Einstein who modeled the understanding of phenomenons which are impossible for a human being to experience using their sensory perceptions. Scope of his model extends from a sub atomic particle to speed of light.



"Toh kya karun????" is wat would strike your mind right now. Infact that is what I am also thinking at this point of time... :P This blog is an attempt to understand modeling and models. To understand a model without understanding its scope is pointless. And to model without assimilating its purpose is waste of time.........:)