Monthly Archives: October 2020

The Countdown to Success: 55 words of inspiration: As an academic of almost 55 years, I have often been told that we are inclined to take almost an hour to make a point, and our background building itself takes more … Continue reading →

What are vanity metrics? What are metrics? About 250 years ago  Lord Kelvin said:  “I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure … Continue reading →

The Yaksha Prasna:  The episode of Yaksha Prashna in the Mahabharat is well known. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on the topic : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaksha_Prashna My own initiation to the Yaksha Prashna was when I first heard of “ क़िम आश्चर्य? … Continue reading →

What is a Fermi problem/ estimate?  During the recent decades of Big Data, machine learning and deep learning together with powerful computing hardware, it is becoming a common practice to deal with voluminous data to seek solutions. As the 1991 … Continue reading →

What is a fallacy?  A fallacy is an argument based on unsound reasoning. Logical fallacies, those logical gaps that invalidate arguments aren’t always easy to spot. While some come in the form of loud, glaring inconsistencies, others can easily fly … Continue reading →

What is abiogenesis?  How do things begin?  Being in the field of education for about 60 years, I have seen closely the beginnings of several new educational Institutions, such as the IITs, the IGNOU and several Universities. Establishments of new … Continue reading →

What is Occam’s Razor? In recent times whenever the topic of conversation turns to education, the phrase ‘critical thinking’ is often used. The Prime Minister has emphasised that we need to teach “ how to think” rather than “ what … Continue reading →

What is the Midas touch?  Most of you will recall the story of the King Midas.  Here is an animated video (~12 minutes)on the story of King Midas : https://youtu.be/7IoF9IrZnXU The desire to instantly transform stuff of low value to one … Continue reading →