High IQ or Strong Work Ethic. Wouldn't high IQ people have to work less and have more fun just because they have that gift?

 

Why do you think that this is an either-or proposition? If you have a high IQ, why can’t you also develop a strong work ethic?

Wouldn't high IQ people have to work less and have more fun just because they have that gift?

Sure, foolish short-term thinkers may do that, but they’ll soon realize that the world doesn’t reward doing easy things as much. Besides, you’ll get bored with your life if you always do easy things. Learning a hard skill does three things for you: (1) provides you with material comfort, self-respect and pride in one’s work, and intellectual engagement, (2) builds a strong work ethic, and (3) helps develop humility.

Education is a great way to achieve all three. It builds grit and mental discipline because the degree shows that you can stick with a challenging multi-year commitment without quitting when the going gets tough, and it gives you valuable skills if you pick the right course of study for you.

Uneducated high IQ people are usually useless for solving highly challenging intellectual problems because they give up too soon since they were never forced out of their comfort zone because everything was easy for them in high school. They never struggled to solve novel and challenging problems, and hence never develop the mental stamina. A challenging university program is great training for developing and honing intellectual skills.

It will also build humility, like when you see other smart and brilliant people (colleagues and professors) around you, when you see your test scores, and when you fail at something. You will fail at some point if you’re doing something that’s worth doing, and this will teach a lot of lessons.

In short, if you have a very high IQ, learn to solve harder problems rather than coasting through life. It’ll bring you more long-term satisfaction and will help you develop into a better human being.

Karan Mehta, PhD in EE

Let me share a very practical approach to life that I try to follow. An approach that has helped me immensely in all aspects of my life.

I value my mental space a lot. And by lot, I mean a lot.

Everyone knows that time is money, but I believe that mental space is money as well. While our mind is capable of handling unbelievable amount of data, the more garbage you put in your mind, the slower and more inefficient the mind becomes.

There are only so many things I can spend my bandwidth on, and I would rather spend my mental bandwidth on thinking about things that are productive. I actively avoid thinking even remotely about anything that is unproductive.

I don’t spend time on overthinking, because that is a complete waste of time. I would rather spend that time on acting on the next steps instead. Overthinking is not going to yield any result, and in most the cases, the issues we worry about the most are completely irrelevant issues.

I don’t think about emotional issues or stress either, because the amount of time I spend thinking about these issues could be very well spent on something better.

Similarly, I don’t give a hoot to what the society thinks about me. While I appreciate constructive feedback, I really do not care about anything else that society or anyone else might say. For me, the most important use of my time is to do what seems right to me, instead of getting emotionally involved with the opinions of society.

In my mind, I have a list of things I have to accomplish every single day. That list is always ambitious enough to keep me going, and I would rather spend my full mental space and time on those activities. Those activities include not just work, but also my hobbies - reading books, playing Badminton, dancing Salsa, travelling, scuba diving or any other activity I wish to take up.

Believe me, the more you value your mental space, the more you will be able to get things done.

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If you wish to reach out to me, feel free to connect with me on Instagram: @jainrohanrj

It's not about being good or bad in studying

 It's not about being good or bad in studying. It's about how focused you're in studying. For example, you're reading a thriller. You're so focused and interested in reading that book that you forget everything else. Studying for any competitive exam, including the IAS, demands the same sort of focus and concentration.

If you have studied subjects like history, geography and political science, either in school or college, it definitely helps. Now you may not all be interested in studying some subjects for the IAS. You may consider them dull and insipid. For example, the majority of students in my class were least interested in Biology and would barely pass. Those who were interested would invariably score excellent marks.

I started studying for a tough professional exam six years after graduation while in a full-time job. I was doing self study and did not find the subjects very interesting. I had studied most of the subjects in college but the six year gap after graduation and a full-time job were not conducive to studies. The only option to not studying was to remain in a clerical position all my life. This was not acceptable and I put heart and soul into studies. Since I refused to embrace mediocrity, I did well. Today after retirement, I lead a comfortable life thanks to those four years of hardship.

The only motivating factor in life is not only a comfortable future, but to lead a life where you do not have to scrounge for pennies and you have respect for yourself. If you do not have respect for yourself, you cannot expect respect from others.

Self-motivation is an important ingredient for success. You must have faith in yourself that you are capable of achieving your goals, whatever those might be.

Good luck 🍀

-V Balasubramanian

If you are very bad in studying, how is it possible to become an IAS officer?

If you have analysed why you are bad at studies and chalked out a remedial program then you can prepare for any competitive examination like that of IAS.

But if you are not willing to improve in studies ,you should try some non competitive venture.

Certain parameters to check.

Are you honest in working to fulfill promises you make to yourself . Are you sincere in studies or just while away your time . Do you keep to schedule for daily studies or you have excuses ready. After studies do you invariably make notes in a register in question answer form or just leave it like reading a novel. Do you test yourself at least once a week about what you could grasp in last week and how much you reproduce correctly .

Try above. You should improve .

-Sharda Prasad

 In his monumental work, Lectures on Physics, Richard Feynman made this comment regarding J. C. Maxwell’s work—which surprised many because Einstein was then considered a very big deal:

• “From a long view of the history of mankind—seen from, say, ten thousand years from now—there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade.”

Now don’t be scared: These famous T-shirt equations define the properties of Electromagnetism. They read like a foreign language, but learning about them is not all that difficult once you know what the symbols mean. However, they are clearly meant for people who fill blackboards full of this stuff.

There are many ways of writing these equations and regardless of how they are written they say something absolutely remarkable. For example, the second equation (Gauss’ Law of Magnetism) says there can’t be magnetic monopoles, even though the equation above it defines the characteristics of electric monopoles. Maxwell's third equation is Faraday's Law. It says that an electric field (E) is produced by a varying magnetic field (B).

But remarkably, the fourth equation can be solved for the speed of electromagnetic phenomena in a vacuum, “c” which works out to be 2.99792458 x 10^8 meters per second (present day, agreed-upon number).

Now Maxwell’s calculation of “c” was actually a simple wave equation that was a function of only two physical constants, the Permittivity (ε) and Permeability (μ) of a vacuum; values that were not hard to measure. So Maxwell’s “c” depends on the accuracy of two constants, which describe only the nature of the medium…nothing else! To believe anything can go faster than light is to believe that there is a medium with a Permittivity and Permeability less than vacuum. So in a very fundamental way, you can’t get a more accurate measurement for “c” for any electromagnetic phenomenon in a vacuum. Remember, Maxwell was only talking about the characteristic of the electromagnetic field in a vacuum. All the relativity stuff came much later with Einstein.

James Clerk Maxwell published his equations in 1861-1862. Experimenters were excited! It immediately became apparent that light had to be an electromagnetic phenomenon, because many careful experimenters, who were at the time independently trying to measure the speed of light by strictly opto-mechanical methods, were coming up with velocities not one part in a thousand different!

It is hard to overestimate the importance of Maxwell’s accomplishment. He put together the basic ideas of Faraday, Gauss, Ampere and other 19th century scientists who were then experimenting with the newly discovered principles of electricity and magnetism. The telegraph had just been invented. The American Civil War would soon begin. It was the era of wood-fired steam engines and horses and muskets. People used whale oil lamps and tallow candles to drive away the darkness. But the ideas of Maxwell in the early 1860s were almost miraculous. Interest in his theories among scientists was phenomenal.

“I’m Rich! I’m Making Tons of Money!”

 

“You may feel rich, but you will never be wealthy!” I interrupted Lex who was expressing his joy after getting a new job.

“What does that mean?” he asked with eyes wide open.

I returned his question with a question. “What are you working for, Lex?”

“Uhh, Sam! Obviously I’m working for money! I want money! Show me the money! I want to have lots and lots of money!”

“Well, Lex, if you’re working for MONEY, if your goal is accumulating MONEY, you will NEVER be wealthy!” I said.

“WHAT? You are wrong, Sam! I’m accumulating MONEY! I work, for money, that’s why I work really really hard!”

“Lex, you are confusing money with wealth,” I answered in a calm voice to get his emotions under control. “Let me ask you something. How much do you make per hour?”

“I got a raise from $120 dlls/hour to $200 dlls/hour! I’m making huge money. Last week I celebrated by buying a Mercedes for my wife. She was so happy. I’m so happy that I can afford all her dreams.”

“You can’t afford it, Lex!”

“What do you mean I can’t afford it? I just did! I have the car at home now!”

“How much did you pay for the new car?” I asked.

“Ohh, you need to see it to believe it! It’s that SUV, with all the gadgets you could ever imagine. It’s a $90,000 beast!” Lex said proudly. He couldn't contain his emotions. It meant success for him!

“How much cash did you pay?” I asked.

“That's the best part! The financing was unbelievable! With my new payroll, I qualified in a heartbeat! I charged my credit card with a small 10% down payment, just $9,000!”

“You couldn't afford it, Lex! That was a bad decision!”

“I deserve this! I worked hard for this! I make $300,000 a year! I’m rich, Sam! I can buy all my gadgets. I love my boat, my motorcycle, my cars … and when you visit my media room at home, and listen to that audio, your pants will drop!”

“No, Lex, your pants will drop the moment you realize that you are working for money. You are working to accumulate stuff and you will never accumulate wealth! The moment you lose your job, you will be living in hell!”

“Shut up, Sam! Don’t even mention it!” he quickly replied.

“Lex, wealth is only found in assets, not a job. People who own assets are wealthy. Assets increase their value over time or better yet, the best assets make money for you. That is what real wealth means.”

I continued.

“I invite you to see money through a different lens. Money is a tool, a medium of exchange. Money is simply a unit of measurement used in the act of giving and receiving. Money is just a source of energy.”

“I don’t get it, Sam!”

“Lex, you make $200 per hour. That’s amazing! But have you noticed you owe hundreds of hours of work to pay for your lifestyle? How much do you owe today?”

“About $500,000, including the mortgage on my house. I am not worrying about it because today I am able to make much more!”

“Do the math, Lex. Convert your debt into labor hours! You make $200/hour. Good, but take away taxes, around 30%, take away cash invested into your IRA, 401K, etc. Effectively, you have available around $130/hour.”

“Correct …” Lex said attentively, trying to find something to prove me wrong.

“Let’s divide $500,000 / $130. That’s 3,846 hours of work you owe. You don’t owe money, you owe time! You are hooked! You don’t have the assets to cover your debt. You are the only source of income. Your work, your labor, your time.”

“That can’t be right!”

“You can’t afford all those things! You must start accumulating assets!”

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• Think of money this way: Spending more money than you earn, is consuming more value than you produce. It isn’t money owed; it’s a deficit of your TIME.

• If you don't own any assets, your TIME is the only source of VALUE you have!

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• DEBT = PRODUCED VALUE - CONSUMED VALUE

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• Lex has a debt of $500,000. This means he has consumed $500,000 more value than he has produced. The debt that Lex has with the Mercedes is a promise of future production of value!

 If you own one of these, you eliminated a maid’s job and replaced it with a robot.

Also, do you own one of these?

If so, you’re responsible for the job loss of all of these people.

I’m sure you love your electronic toll pass, but did you even bother to think about how it would affect this guy?

Technology eliminating jobs is nothing new. Heck, some 80% of jobs that existed in the 1800’s are either completely gone or so diminished that one person can do what used to take hundreds of people. Yet, despite this, there are still many times more people employed today than there were back then.

It was once thought that the desktop computer would be a job killer, but in reality there are more jobs in I.T. related professions alone than there were that were displaced by the PC.

 The type and nature of Jobs will move.

If you want not to be replaced you have to be creative and think and apply brain in your job 

But what if your job does not allow that ? 

Prepare for multiple sources of income So that you don't  go broke if you loose your job

 

How to do that ? Again the solution is you have to use your brain and think and learn 

Today's World is bad than our ancestors' ?

In today’s world, people are probably far better than our ancestors.

In the last century, people fought incredible wars killing millions of people and did untold horrors on others. Descendants of those warring countries — Germany, Japan, Russia, UK — are far nicer than their grandpas.

In the centuries before that people would burn widows and old women (termed witches) for no reason. They would try to measure innocence of an accused by burning their skin and waiting for God to make an intervention. They would kill anyone who had a different opinion on their god by crucifying them with nails hit like a psychopath.

Invading armies would burn up an entire town with all the people if they chose to not surrender. Police were few & biased and court systems didn’t evolve the rigorous processes we have today. You were left at the mercy of a mercurial monarch who could be stupid and vengeful. Untold horrors would be committed with cruel punishments.

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We are far better than them. We are mostly law-abiding and get very little chance to break the big laws. We are good by default as most of us have very little energy to commit crimes. Crimes in major countries are substantially low compared to even 2–3 decades ago.

The reason you might see a lot more negativity is because of the abundance of social media trying to get your eyeballs. Crime gets your attention and not goodness. You try to vilify people for mistakes that you yourself might not have hesitated to commit.

If you block most of these negative media and yellow journalism and stick to statistics you can see we are becoming better than our fathers and grandfathers and their ancestors.

  

-Balaji Viswanathan

Average Student ?

Death

Reasons for Fear of Death.

It is painful to die.

I would miss this beautiful world

-

Despite movie scenes of oozing blood, foaming emotions and tear-jerking punch-lines; death need not necessarily be painful.

First let us detach pain from death; and view death without pain.

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Death Sans pain

Well, ‘death without pain’ happens to all of us, roughly every 12 hours or so, when you hit the bed. As you go to sleep, your senses cut out from the rest of the world; you don’t talk to people; neither do you respond.

From your internal perspective it is exactly like dying.

But, the reason why your family is not alarmed is because they know that depending on where you are, the harsh alarm of your phone, the aroma of coffee or the high pitched explicit from your partner will wake you up.

Supposing you don’t wake up; initial shock, some pandemonium and mandatory rituals later, you would be featured on the ‘obituary’ page, with nice things written about you, chunk of which are mostly untrue.

For you, sleep and death are same; since you won’t experience the difference; but your kin and friends would.

So, the bottom-line is; death won’t make you feel bad; it is exactly like sleep. You won’t be there to feel anything.

As long as it is painless.

-

As a cardiologist, I have talked to a dozen of SCD (Sudden cardiac Death) survivors. For none of them, the ‘natural’ process was painful. Most said, they went on to a dreamy state; like drifting on to ‘sleep’.

They did feel the pain, once they woke up and survived; but that pain was entirely ‘medically’ inflicted. The broken ribs resulting from cardiac massage, the burn from the defibrillator, the sore throat of endotracheal intubation; and those scores of needles and tubes plunging inside them.

But once they survived; that memory of pain fade away; giving way to the joy of survival.

-

200 year ago, Freidrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner discovered ‘Morphine’ the most potent painkiller, and named it after the goddess of sleep ‘Morphia’ making sure that we can alleviate even the most severe pain. This is to reiterate the fact that one should detach the fear of pain that we automatically associate with death.

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End-Note.

Why should you be afraid of death?

It is painless.

It is like Sleep.

You won’t miss anyone (People might miss you but it won’t matter to you anymore).

Guaranteed photograph in a local newspaper.

Most people would talk good about you.

The world will not stop.

-

This makes death the second-best option.

The first one of course is life.

-Tiny Nair, MD,MBBS

I am really depressed whether to continue my MSc or start preparing for a government job as my family starts pressuring me for marriage and a job. What should I do?

Don't let your parents push you around because you are a girl. If you do that, next it will be your husband pushing you around. Tell them you want to finish your studies and then get a job of your choice. Marriage should be ruled out till you are financially independent. And you choose your own life partner - don't accept any parental bullying and don't let them force you to marry someone of their choice.

Learn to assert yourself if you want to come out of your perceived depression.

-D D Rishi Ex-IRS, PhD-Law

Do you want them badly enough?

The following had been done by me over last 3–4 years while preparing for (Indian) Civil Services Exam and clearing some exams along the way: Choices minimization!

I removed unnecessary choices from my life actively. For example, in my entire preparation in 2016–17, I slept at 3:30 the entire year and woke up around 10:00 AM. This was the time when foundation of my civil services preparation was laid and spent entire day on study-table/around studies. My mind worked on auto-pilot to the extent that I knew how much “true study time” I could get by 3 PM, 5 PM, 8 PM and so on. And it was largely constant. I didn't give myself any choices, I didn't have to decide between going out or not, studying or not. My books/sources were largely fixed and I didn't allow noise. I had to study, that's all.

Only other sources of investing my time was on internet/watching football or talking to friends sometimes/family. I had no external commitments outside my hostel, I did not travel that often.

Other examples in later life (2019 attempt) were: choosing to study and sleep in the same room so that I could wake up and immediately start studying months before exam. I didn't have to juggle between study room (or library) and bed room and what not. I had a rule to not study on bed, you can't study there, you can't feel sleepy. No choice again!

Just before exam, I would lock up my phone in a cupboard and only open it 10 hours later after studying intensely. (When exam was far away, this time might become 2 hours). Want to use Reddit or check football Twitter? Good, guess what? You can't. No choice. (My only companion for entertainment was the yellow stress buster ball which I could throw around and catch in the room; below).

I didn't use any social media platform during study life as it didn't serve any purpose for me back then. I didn't have to decide between using social media or studying, it spared me the trouble.

I have a whatsapp group of close friends which I regularly used to leave before important phases of exam as I wanted to be by myself (with full focus) and save time. I didn't give myself a chance to waste time even if I picked it up because I had no messages on Whatsapp. Thank my friends for the understanding and letting me back in when the task was done.

(Of course it goes without saying that quality of studies is important but I will trust your judgement. Besides first step is to take back control of your life and start working hard for as much duration as you want).

I'm not saying I never wasted time (I had to battle gaming addiction many times) but if I intend to be with myself for say 12 hours and removed my phone for 6 hours, you'd still get a lot of time. It was my method, others can do differently. But there's no other way around discipline, it's not easy, you might hate it and hate studying. But a lot depends on how much you want those results.

Do you want them badly enough?

-Shubham Bansal, IAS, EX-RBI