Thoughts
The Luck Factor
The world is filled with people who have worked hard but not got anywhere. That too is the nature of the world. They feel there is something wrong with them because those who succeeded keep extolling their “hard work” but hide the elements of luck. Every escape story has one thing that makes almost all the difference, and it is usually never revealed, as it is almost never hard work.
-Manu Joseph (Article)
Recommendations
You’ve likely noticed that since the rise of machine learning and big data, nearly all your online activities are tracked and compiled into extensive datasets. This has paved the way for countless recommendation apps tailored to your consumption habits.
Now, you receive suggestions for new movies based on your viewing history, books aligned with your past reads, clothing that matches your purchasing style, food choices reflecting your yearly orders, and travel destinations echoed in your recent trips. Ads are similarly targeted, reflecting your previous interests.
What’s intriguing is that these recommendations heavily rely on your past behaviors, ensuring that the suggestions are consistent with what you’re already comfortable with. If you have a preference for a particular genre or style, the algorithm will likely reinforce that familiarity with its suggestions.
However, one must question: How will my imagination flourish if I’m not exposed to diverse experiences? How can my perspective widen if I’m shielded from challenges to my confirmation bias?
Perfection or Permanent
Practice doesn’t make one perfect. It makes the habit permanent. We become of our habits.
Reading & Writing
Reading and writing helps to expand our experiences & perspectives.
Expanding Experiences
Have you ever wondered how to broaden your own experiences?
Our creativity is often tethered to our imagination which in turn depends on our past experiences.
By venturing into unfamiliar territories, interacting with people from different cultures who speak unfamiliar languages, delightfully shocking our taste buds by tasting the local cuisine, discovering new genres of music and their cultural contexts, walking through an unfamiliar city, observing different lifestyles and traditions, delving into novels and movies from diverse genres and geographies and much more of such activities which disrupt our usual patterns of thinking and interpreting situations, ultimately expands our perspective and hence bursting the bubble of our imagination.
Imagination
Stumbled upon this interesting comment on Reddit.
Can we truly envision things we’ve never personally encountered? Is our imagination simply a creative reorganization of our past experiences and memories?
