SBenegaL

Category: Uncertainty

  • Am I an atheist?

    A conversation with my sister triggered this thought of writing a blog. She asked me am I an atheist! And that triggered my thoughtful reflection and what it meant to me.I have had an interest in the notion of GOD for a long time… (read this post) I have also oscillated between the beliefs about God and its nature over a long time. Do these oscillating beliefs make me a liar, or just a constantly curious person who is trying to make sense of the notion, and refining the definition in a constant endeavor.

    Let’s begin with definitions of an atheist fist. “The Cambridge Dictionary” definition of atheist available at https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/atheist – which said its “someone who does not believe in God/gods.” So there is a definitional shift from atheist to “GOD,” and I do the same search again and find the definition as “a spirit or being believed to control some part of the universe or life and often worshipped for doing so, or something that represents this spirit or being.”

    When I look at the definition here, I see three components – the form, the role and the rituals/processes of engaging. The term atheist itself could be confusing if one looks at the three aspects different.

    1. What would form mean for me when I consider myself to be an atheist or not?

    If the form is important, it is often the case that we are in the quest of having a form mostly through the perspectives we hold. Is it male, female or others? Is it nature or is it fiction?
    My early notions of being an atheist were pushed by this aspect – I don’t like the form. I don’t see god in a form.
    But do I not believe in what I don’t cognitively explain? I do.
    I began the quest since I found myself believing in the unexplained. My experience has been a useful guide in this. I realize there are moments when my mind is peaceful, happy and undisturbed. A state of bliss, where I seek nothing more. Where I am grateful to be where I am.
    This I believe is the experiences of divinity that each one of us can have. It doesn’t happen at only specific places like temples. I find myself distancing from temple visits where I don’t find peace, where I cannot connect with myself. There are some moments when it’s so easy to connect and be at a place, just soaking in the moment completely – this for me has been the scenario when I get to treks and just sit watching the waterfall and create magic!
    I then began asking if it’s all about nature itself? Is nature God? And as I began observing my daily life – I realize there are more instances when I can choose to experience divinity. Its the feeling that I had begun soaking in, not the divine itself.
    I now know – the existence of the divine in a form isn’t really necessary for us to feel the divinity that is so easy to experience so its not the form.
    So yes, I am an atheist in the requirement of having a form. I don’t believe in a form.

    2. Role

    The notion of God has emerged for multiple reasons – may be for experiencing the divinity that I talked about earlier, or for the reduction of the uncertainty like I mentioned in the earlier blog, or as Harari says for the unifying role and control that myths around these Gods provide to people.
    I see that the role played by the notion of God gives me peace. Whatever the other aspects of the role of ‘God’ maybe I know it simply gives me a simplistic view of life and allows me to move ahead when I am stuck.
    So no, I am not an atheist in this requirement for the role that is played by God. It helps me!

    3. The process of engaging.

    Rituals and processes are effective to enable to execute their tasks with little cognitive overload. They also allow us to take benefits of the clarity that emerges with the connecting with the feeling of divinity and the reduction in uncertainty. So practices help connect with God and so should make me someone who believes in God ain’t it?
    Here I look at the implications of the rituals to me and my push on others to follow the rituals. I find myself only interested in finding the peace, the flow I experience through following the rituals, but I don’t want others to simply follow what I do. I am pretty sure they have their ways of finding the divine feeling – be it through music, dance or simply our work. We call these as “Aradhana” too, just as we call “praying” in front of God – the worship itself is flexible and just a means.
    So I see as following rituals are never going to be indicative of the belief in god itself. It’s only indicative of being in the moment, doing it for its own sake. The state of flow!
    With this, I guess I realize now that god is a very personal notion. The rituals are simply so customizable to suit our state of mind — that which makes us feel the bliss, the peace, the happiness, the flow.

    So am I an atheist? I don’t know. I do believe I am one in some ways and not one in many ways. Maybe I am agnostic, but simply do what I do.
    My views here are personal. May not be strictly adhering to the notions of anyone else, but you have to find your answers.

  • Prioritize Stakeholder Acquisition

    I wrote this blog to highlight a best practice
    approach in starting off and tried rationalizing it. It also answers the question as
    to why dealing with the customer as stakeholders of business before any
    other stakeholder would be a good idea.



  • Prioritizing Stakeholders for your start-up to reduce uncertainty

    Murphy’s Law seems to follow entrepreneurs more than anyone else – Yes! anything you believe wouldn’t happen, will most possibly happen. So the challenge is really of being able to live through all these experiences and eventually be able to get the business they intend to create see the light of the day. 

    The notion of such unpredictability in what one does is generally called – uncertainty. There is really nothing certain about the entity that entrepreneurs are trying to create. They have a thought about the need for something they believe would be required by someone… Yes! It is only a thought when it starts like many other thoughts! The entrepreneur chases the thought and attempts to create value – economic, social etc out of the thought by manifesting the thought into the realm or reality.

    In the process there are numerous challenges that come in – beginning with the thought – the entrepreneur would need to really see if the intended product/service is something that would be found valuable and useful for people. The second question is really to see if someone could pay for the same! I have mentioned multiple times about the need for early customer engagement in earlier blogs [read here and here]

    The maximum uncertainty would definitely be on the customer‘s end of the chain. The thought that the entrepreneur would have initiated invariably would have come from his/her prior experience/ability/capacity – essentially – the response to the questions: who am I? What do I know? Whom do I know? She/he would also have attempted evaluating what would it take to create something of value and how someone could and then figure out a way to reach out to the person who could not just use but also pay for the same. 

    This mean the maximum uncertainty for a business is not on the customer‘s side of activities and would progressively reduce in the following order – investors, suppliers and employees. The following diagram indicates the same:
     
    High Uncertainty                                                     Least Uncertainty
    Customer    >    Investor      >    Supplier       >        Employee
    The uncertainty in the above context could be understood as containing two components – the predictability of the behavior of each of the stakeholder and second, the effective control on that the entrepreneur could have on the behavior of each of these. We could visualize the spectrum of predictability and controllability to be as below.

    Least Predictability                                              Most Predictability
    Customer    >    Investor      >    Supplier      >        Employee 
    Least Controllability                                             Most Controllability
    Customer    <    Investor      <    Supplier      <        Employee

    An effective approach for an entrepreneur to be able to leverage and grow his/her business would be to reduce the zone of maximum uncertainty and steadily build the other stakeholders commitments to effectively handle the reduced uncertainty. 
    (click on the stakeholder link to be directed to some best practises in finding a better stakeholder)

  • GOD and the notion of Uncertainty…

    The nothing of GOD is extremely intriguing. All of us have different notions of the Generator, Observer and Destroyers (GOD) based on our own experiences. Yes I said Experiences – read on to see why I make this claim. 
    One of the comments on my last blog on the trinity of Hindu Mythology and the possible purpose behind the design mentioned – 
    “Wonderful Article 🙂
    Reading this, I could not help myself but think
    these gods are man-made; they represent what our ancestors thought a
    wise idea worth sharing. However, the mystery is not solved yet. I just
    wanted to point out, I personally feel there is nothing divine and
    supernatural about gods as they have been portrayed for millenia!”     
    – Anonymous
    The comment got me thinking about why the notion of divinity and supernatural ability might have been attributed to GODs. I think I possibly got the answer! or may be not! However this is definitely an interesting thought – worth sharing. 

    Scientific Thinking which found its feet has been built on the concept of reasoning. The ability to question and associate a cause and affect relationship has definitely served the human society well. The near exponential growth in the number of invention, and its commercialization that has quickened the pace of economic growth and gotten more CERTAINTY into our lives. 
    Extending this, the possible origin of the notion of God, then has to be on the other extreme – when one feels or experiences UNCERTAINTY. These two observations sort of reinforce my interpretation.
    1. The first one is definitely from my own personal experience of facing uncertainty which is so much a part of the entreprenuerial journey.
    2. The existence of a high belief rate in God in the lower economic strata of society!
     Let me try explain this observation a bit elaborately:
    As an entrepreneur and you will realize the complexity of the issues that (s)he faces from various directions and the limited cognitive ability wouldn’t be completely enough to handle this. Even effectuation strategy, which through its principles provides a very very effective way to handle this entrepreneurial uncertainty, acknowledges the role of surprises (Lemonade Principle). In handling such a high uncertain situation where the distrution is unknown and hence a risk cannot be associated requires one to be positive and optimistic all through – and also believe in the strength of miracles. Miracles that just emerge when you least expect it – while some could attribute it to luck, it could also be attributed to the ability of God to influence things in one’s favor. An extension of the above claim where this relation of uncertainly in business and a religious bent of mind can be seen in most businessmen being devout to a specific deity.
    I also extend this uncertainty to the economically weaker sections of the society, where people have no idea where their next day’s meal would come from! The physical strength, minimum skill and the effort of these people is all that they would need to rely on in being able to sustain themselves on a day to day basis. This is possibly one of the reasons why this section of the society is highly susceptible to religious conversions – when there is a slightly better quality of life could be expected!
    PS: The above is just a thought that I put across and would appreciate your  feedback on the same.