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Personal

This is a ‘personal – about’ page.

The whole website is a personal introduction of sorts, and so are all the books / courses / projects / articles / Podcasts / Videos (Our work is a continuous attempt to define ourselves, to ourselves, and to the world)… But maybe that’s too complex.

I thought that having some of these details here in one place will help give a passer-by get a quick idea… a shortcut of sorts… an approximation. It also helps introduce the relevant ‘Cultural Resource Sets‘ that influence many of my works.

Feel I’m annoying, but not sure why…? This page is a great way to tell you why you should go away as fast as possible, and with a clear reason…

Something I’ve written seems familiar or agreeable…? The below might help explain why (seems I’m not very agreeable in general*, so it’s probably you).

Fields of Interest

  • I am interested in the big questions in life… These start from the most abstract, like ‘What does it all mean?’ ‘Why are we here?’, ‘What do we know?’ and extend to the practical like ‘What should I do now?’.
  • Culture: Collective variables… Shared meanings. Their birth and evolution, and interactions with creativity, work, and novelty. How the one becomes many, and how the many become one. This interest is closely related to a pursuit of beauty.
  • I am interested in Technology, Innovation, and Consumption/Brands. This is because I see markets and networks as practical/social reflections of how the world works.**
  • I like writing algorithms and solving mathematical problems! Number theory and discrete math are amazing and stunningly pure forms of knowledge.
  • When I write, my motivation to express the above ideas on culture, creativity, and the nature of reality (mental, social, physical)… Sometimes the indirect expression (through imagery and beauty) is the most powerful.

Influences & Philosophy

These are people whose writings I’ve read repeatedly or with admiration and intensity that that had the greatest impact on my thinking and work the most (I think).

  • Carl Jung : Collective Variables , Archetypes , Integration
  • Ken Wilber : Integral Philosophy , and everything he’s written on spirituality
  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb : Uncertainty and Randomness, Surprisingly Procrustes and Skin in the Game are the ones I liked most;
  • Amit Goswami: Quantum Creativity and Spirituality
  • Sciences: I am generally interested in Cognitive Science, Quantum Mechanics, Evolutionary Biology, Psychology, and Different computational frameworks, like genetic algorithms, automata, neural networks, because I think they hold keys to understanding how culture, consciousness, and ‘the unexpected’ emerge.
  • Notable Works: Godel, Escher, Bach (Hofstadter), Guns, Germs, and Steel (Diamond), The 7 Mysteries of Life (Murchie), Joseph Campbell (The Hero, The Tao) , Life Divine (Aurobindo) , Wolfram (many)
  • *** Mystical traditions & the Esoteric…

Part of the rationale for sharing the above is that this is what I recommend reading (if you’re ready, because without foundations many of the above just don’t make sense or can’t integrate into a bigger picture)…

Literature

Literature and the arts cross boundaries and transcend the imposed compartmentalization of our world.

The most interesting books I’ve read (as literature) are books by the following authors [I consider them the most profound and touching… Subjective judgement].

  • Nikos Kazantzakis
  • Hermann Hesse
  • Franz Kafka
  • Jostein Gaarder
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • Ursula Le Guin
  • Amin Maalouf
  • Paolo Coelho
  • Milan Kundera
  • Borges
  • Irvin Yalom
  • Notable Works: Some works by Thomas Mann , Kurt Vonnegut , Aldous Huxley , Gore Vidal , and Albert Camus are just too good, but unlike the above list, I haven’t exhausted their writings / was partially enthusiastic at times.
  • Sci-Fi : Science fiction and fantasy are amazing because of their capacity for world-building and speculation… some works I love are the 3BP , The Ender Saga ,Ken Liu’s (his own collection and the translated collections of) short stories , Heinlein’s , Culture (Player of Games is top goes down from there, hated ‘Use of Weapons’) , Dune , …
  • Arabic Poetry / Literature / Culture: There are several influences here, but these would be less familiar / helpful to (most of) the current audience.
  • (I feel there should be a list of films somewhere here… but that’s for later).

Personality Profile

I am intuitive and rational/thinking-oriented (an -NT-) according to the MBTI profiling method. I am highly conscientious and open to new experiences. None of this carries any value judgements, but I think these reflect on the way someone writes, and on what reading styles / topics they find enjoyable…

The Big Idea

My aspirational project is to build a fundamental understanding of the world and our position in it: One that is accessible, integrative, and practical.

I am trying to work on that by connecting the abstract/theoretical aspects (knowledge) with the creative/material ones (creativity), into one level-crossing framework.

It is a living / growing project, and This is an attempt to draw the blueprint (Link).

* Personality Profiling says I’m more argumentative / demanding , than agreeable / empathetic, but I strongly disagree..

** I just noticed after writing that these reflect the Truth/Goodness/Beauty values of the Awareness-Intent-Creativeness (AIC) triple-helix. The Great Integration is everywhere!