Understanding Human Psychology

Learning and Education It has been a year of tremendous ups and lows for the entire world. 2020 has shown us the good, bad and ugly of life. At this time of the year, just like every year, last year too, the world wished each other ‘A Happy New Year’ and celebrated the inception of the fresh year 2020. But the last year of the decade phased out to be full of challenges as it brought along the pandemic Covid 19 in Feb. By Mar the seriousness of the deadly virus caused the world to shut down social and business activities. Schools, colleges and all educational institutions shut their operations, sending millions of students home. The repercussions on the education sector was a change due to the non-availability of contact sessions for students. Just like at many workplaces, employers arranged to send laptops and desktops at home for their employees to continue uninterrupted, similarly, the education sector also saw institutions moving to online education methodology. Use of Technology ...

  Portfolio Update I was recently reading LinkedIn for skills that employees must acquire as working professionals and freshers, especially after the pandemic, when so many jobs have become redundant, new jobs have cropped up and some have seen modified working styles and requirements. The article focussed on the PM's statement, on ‘the importance of getting skilled, reskilled and upskilled as the need of the hour.’ Dr. Manish Kumar, MD of National Skill Development Corporation, in an interview, stated that, ‘the industry requires us to upgrade’. While, hard skills or technical skills, in-demand, vary from logistics, AI, analytics, machine learning, BFSI, data science; employers are also seeking soft skills for their workforce .  Some of these skills, like communication, are learnt as a result of being taught and with practice. But others, like empathy, adaptability, ability to manage change, growth mindset, are more of personality traits, according to me. Yes, we do teach t...

Each one of us has a good and evil within us. The world is made up of both and this 'good' or the virtue, and 'vice' or the evil is what ultimately runs the entire show. These voices within us make us what we are and fuel our actions. Killing the Ravana Within This voice within us, what we call as our conscious tells us what is ‘the right’ on every occasion. Still why is there so much wrong happening in the world? Let me get into the crux of what I am laying out in front of you. Here I will use various examples which I have experienced, read about and seen happening in the real world. I will refrain for naming or pointing out to any person or social strata. 26 th July, 2005, Mumbai was hit by an unimaginable gush of water from the heavens. The situation went out of control within few hours. Trains halted, buses stopped running, private transport seemed impossible. I personally saw the water level rise as I waited with 4 of my friends at the railway station, for the...

  In my last post on Contextual Learning , I discussed the learning which happens when a person is exposed to a different environment in his lifetime, and how that fills up his life canvas with different learnings. Today let me sneak-peek on learning as a process of evolution. As a species, humans have learnt various behaviours during the evolution process. For example, have you ever thought why a red cross is used to represent medical professional organisations, hospitals, clinics ? It is because red is a colour representing danger.  Reaction Time to Colour Red We are aware, that signs and symbols convey meaning, and that is how they are created and designed. Did human beings all of a sudden, one fine day, decide to have a red cross as a sign for the hospital? Well no. The story behind the symbol is very much a part of the evolution process. When the pre-historic man went hunting, he realised that there was blood during an injury or when prey was killed. Blood, being red was ...

We are a 'Blank Sheet' You are having a white sheet..a full scape blank with which you can do many things. You may choose to draw an apple, an earthen pot or a classic scenery with mountains, a river and a house, which every kid learns to draw at school. But what if you are given a pre-existing figure or drawing on the sheet, and asked to improvise it. Or if you are given an idea of what is required and you are asked to draw accordingly? Then, in that case, your mind will work within those constraints.  Life also unfolds similarly. As children, we have a white sheet in front of us, a full scape blank sheet. We are free and wild. We love to explore, by nature we are curious. A kid will run after the cockroach, the mother will shout and scream, that is when the kid will learn that behaviour too and react probably the same way the next time he sees a cockroach. As we grow up many such constraints are laid upon us by our family and society. Now that white sheet has been filled gr...