21 February 2008

Education - Did I get the worth? - Part II

Most of my current knowledge is something that came not from school, but by way of conversations with people or reading books and news articles or on the net.

School education provided me with such good foundation,that building more knowledge on it came naturally. In that way I couldn't have done so well without school. I bet the whole 10 years on it was worth everyday.

Graduation was a revelation of society। While school provided a safe and static environment, college was more of a vibrant and casual place to be. I learned more from outside my classes than inside them. Though attending classes didn't teach much, what it taught was to be independent. In this sense college education was very important, for individual development. I should have put in less number of years and more number of hours in effort.

But, this is a postmortem view of the situation. If I knew what I had to learn in advance, I could have spent less time and effort to gain that knowledge. The point that what interested me and what I had to know was not known to me, is what necessitated the 20-year span. This required me to learn a lot more than required and lot more than what I could actually retain. In this sense the 20 years spent on my education was a necessity and rather insufficient.

20 February 2008

Education - Did I get the worth?


My previous blog on '... 3 books', has brought up an interesting topic. About education ... Was it worth the trouble?
No..I didn't mean that education was not worth. On the contrary I meant, did I actually get my time's worth? I will spill out my side of the story and hope to strike similar chords in yours.

I spent 12 years in school before I passed 10th standard and in a decently good private school. Then I spent another couple of years in Intermediate (Pre-University /XII / Plus 2), and spent a bunch of money of tuitions. I did my graduation in Physics for about 3 years in a private college (aided by Government) and another 3 years for my post-graduation in Computer Applications in a government college. Thats a good (12+2+3+3) 20 years of education which comes to about 7300 days of effort and couple of lakhs in investment by my dad and others [Government aid means some-body's hard earned money forcibly looted in the form of tax and paid to me].

Did I do good enuf? I guess not. In fact, I am quite sure I didn't do well.
I put in 7300 days of effort to learn English, Telugu, Hindi, Sanskrit, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Civics, Geography, Economics, History and Computers. What do I know at the end of it.


























































SubjectWhat I Know
Englishknow enough to write this blog and read the daily newspaper.
Telugustopped writing long ago. Can read the daily newspaper.
Hindistoped reading and writing long ago. Can read the movie names on posters.
SansrkitNever understood this language. Dont think ever will. [2 years wasted completely].
MathsKnow to count, multiply, add and divide, and some basic trigonometry, probability, algebra and geometry enough to solve GMAT aptitude tests.
PhysicsNewtons 3 laws and some basic principles. Cannot recall the value of any constant apart from g=9.8 ms^2.
ChemistryPeriodic table. Acid+Base is Water+Salt. Amino acids are building blocks are proteins and cells. Vaguely remember Krebs Cycle and ATP. Thats it. Nothing more than that.
BiologyPlant cells are different from Animal Cells and that biologist have a very complicated name for everything. A little about evolution.
CivicsWe have a constitution, a President and Prime-minister and some rules of the game.
GeographyIdentify World and India Maps and name all the states and some important places.
HistoryMughals invaded India, ruled for 200 years, British ruled for another 200, Free from 1947 onwards. A little about world history, i.e the names of various revolutions and world wars [cant remember a single date/year].
EconomicsBook Keeping, reading a Balance Sheet and a little about GDP, inflation, and stock indices.
ComputersSome programming languages and s/w engineering concepts.


Phew! that sums up all my 7300 days of effort.

Couldn't I have done that faster, cheaper, smarter, easier? I bet I could have..

Or, is it everything appears easier after-the-fact?

[Will continue later..]

19 February 2008

Everything about Cosmos, Evolution and Genes - 3 good books

I cant figure out exactly why, probably aging or marriage, off late I am unable to hold on to reading fiction. I used to enjoy reading simple fiction from the likes of Sidney Sheldon, Jeffery Archer, Robin Cook etc. The complicated ones (Booker/Pulitzer's winners or classics from Dickens or Austin) have always tested my patience [and I always failed]. I have been trying to read 'Crisis - Robin Cook', from past 3 months. Couldn't move beyond the 2nd chapter. The only notable exceptions were Harry Potter series and 'Eragon & Eldest' , which are more of fantasy than fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

'Science-for-Dummies' is what interests me now-a-days. My last 3 reads fall into this category.

The first one 'The Fabric of Cosmos', by Brian Greene is a brilliant book on physics. In this books, he tries to explain space, time and the theories behind their origin. I never understood relativity much - even during my graduation in physics -, but this books explains it in such a simple language, you will be forgiven if after reading, you believe you understood it. String theory was new to me. The examples he takes to explain various String theories are fascinating. My imagination failed me a lot of times in trying to visualize what is said. But, such are quantum and string theories.
'If you think you understand quantum theory, you do not understand quantum theory- Richard Feyman'.

The second one 'The Ancestor's Tale', by Richard Dawkins is a very interesting book on the origin of our species. This was the first time I read anything on biology [after my 10th std]. And, the book was captivating from the word go. He starts with our species and goes back in time tracing common ancestors with Chimps, Gorillas, Baboons and other species till the origin of life. Each chapter traces back a few million years to tell about an ancestor of us and in doing so, he throws in some interesting tales on various topics. In one topic, he explains logarithmic tables. Believe me, I didn't understand what logarithms were in all my school and college days. If only I knew this part during those times, I would have done so well in some of my maths. Sometimes it feels that my education was very inefficient in terms of money, effort and time. Probably, I would have done better had I tried to know things rather than learn them.
Dont miss his other book 'The God Delusion'.

The third one 'Genome', by Matt Ridley is a wonderful book. Wonderful, in its true sense, that each chapter fills you wonder. This is about the 23 chromosomes in a human body. Since the chromosome is too huge for a book and too complicated for a lay man, he gives a brief of 1 or 2 genes on each of the 23 chromosomes, and in doing so he explains so much about our life, health, diseases, intelligence, sex and what not. I am currently reading penultimate chapter, and am worried that the book is getting over too soon. Wish we had more chromosomes, so that he had more to write.

The common feature of all these 3 books, is the enthusiasm that these generate. After the first one, I thought I should have been an physicist, after the second, a Evolutionist and after the third, a Geneticist. I know,I cant be any of the above, but I thank each of the above authors for so graciously sharing such wonderful knowledge.