Cognitive activism

If you have, in recent past, had an experience of waking up after about a couple of hours into sleep at night, you would have realized what varities of chemical reactions happen in the digestive system. This is subject to a condition that you had your dinner not earlier than a couple of hours before you attained horizontality.

Last night, i had dinner right as per Jainism diktats, before sun set. The sun however is setting pretty late here, these days.

So when I did wake up, digestive juices were almost pouring to break down molecules of food into chemicals which can be accepted by blood. I understand most of these juices have low to very low ph values. The reaction appeared exothermic and a bit noisy too. Some reactions also appeared to convert solid particles into gaseous form, equivalent of sublimation process as we would know.

And you can not blame me for having partaken something I should not have at my age. It was a bowl of burrito, and the recipe (https://damndelicious.net/2014/09/10/easy-burrito-bowls/) will bear me out. No dish can be more harmless than this. Now you can always blame me for quantity I consumed, which may not have been in tune with my age, that is because the dish is delicious, and I like it.

If you have noticed, the reactions do not take place at NTP and you may have to twist and turn your stomach to ensure residual products move towards lower end of elementary canal. This is a challenging job considering force of gravity is not helping, body being parallel to horizontal plane.

The purpose of this note is not to explain process of metabolism. It is to draw your attention to cognitive activitism which results during this state. And I am trying to recall what all went through in my mind.

It was 'communication' . That was the subject of cognitive activities. Motives, Messages and Media, all came under scrutiny. Let me delve at length separately. 

Overconfidence - "हम बन चूके"

I have taken up on myself responsibility of sharing information which I gather in my free time with a professional and a family group. I do not just forward articles without reading, though I am aware that it is normal to do so on some media platforms. I try to make sense and only if I find there is some value, I share. The motivator is selfless desire to be of some assistance in growth of near and dear ones, professionals and family members.

For some time, at regular intervals, I get  indirect suggestion that some of the information conveyed through articles which I share is of ordinary quality. What is tried to be conveyed is "We are better and know more than the author of the article you shared." 

It could be true and I am happy if "we are better" than many. I adore confidence verbalised by some.

I understand self-confidence is linked to almost every element involved in a happy and fulfilling life. Benefits of self-confidence are, reduced fear and anxiety, greater motivation and resilience and improved relationships. (Source: https:///ca/blog/shyness-is-nice/201809/why-self-confidence-is-more-important-you-think)

While it is good to be confident, it is equally essential that we guard against being overconfident. The line separating the two states might be very thin. 

And my issue is with that avoidable state, since I feel overconfidence does more harm than be of help to us. I feel the moment I enter that zone my learning and growth stops. Knowledge is a form of potential energy which, like all similar forms, flows from higher to lower levels. My overconfidence unwittingly takes me to that imaginary higher plain and stops the flow of knowledge, learning and wisdom.

We, siblings, all children of a joint family, were good, studious children, taking studies seriously and scoring good grades. In order to ensure we do not get across that thin line into the state of overconfidence, my father would tell us the story of creation of the camel. 

He would say "God made all living beings. Human being was the last species. He had formed many large and small animals in his free time and given them varying sizes and shapes. He would create a form out of mud and polish it up giving finishing touches. When he felt satisfied with his creation he would give life to the form. 

Once God had just put the lumps of mud and created a rough form with four long legs, long neck and short tail. He was yet to finish it up and in a hurry, Gods also can be in a hurry sometime, he accidently gave life to the form. Camel was created. That animal using his long legs started running. God urged him to stay saying he needs to give finishing touches and beautify him. But the animal did not stop saying "हम बन चुके". He had crossed that line and got into overconfidence zone. Animal suffers from that ugly, lumpy body."

My father had to just ask us "हम बन चुके"? and we would know what he wants us to do. We will get back to study mode.

When overconfidence engulfs a business organization, in my view, business suffers.

I was trying to understand when can I be reasonably sure to conclude if the individual or the group demonstrates overconfidence?  Dictionary meaning of a noun "Overconfidence" is 

"a cognitive bias characterized by
     • an overestimation of one's actual ability          to perform a task successfully,
     • a belief that one's performance is better          than that of others, or
     • excessive certainty in the accuracy of              one's beliefs."

While I do not suggest we should not develop confidence, my suggestion is only to be conscious of our march towards that fine line. We may not know when we crossed that line. And next we will find, we tend to be arrogant, since next stop in the journey after overconfidence is arrogance. And that is the prescription for journey down hill.

To be more aware and being on guard, I suggest studying this wiki page Overconfidence effect here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overconfidence_effect?wprov=sfla1.

Let us pray
आ नो भद्रा: क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वत: |
Let noble thoughts come to us from every side. - Rig Veda, I-89-i

If our intelligence does not accept some thoughts as "noble", reject the specific thoughts, but do not close doors on all noble thoughts.