Einstein explained special relativity to the masses using thought experiments called Gedankenexperiment in German, few examples are here. The kind of explanations given through that experiment was quite easy to understand and relate to. The key point in the experiment was the absurd and almost impossible situations imagined. He revealed that time is just a difference between observed sequence of events and space is the distance between two events that are observed to occur at the same time. Nothing is uniform or static, everything is relative to something.

The reason I brought up Gedankenexperiment is that it should be a key skill developed in every individual right from the childhood. The laboratory experiments are too expensive, needs caution and sometimes impossible to perform. This applies to every field of learning, that is the reason people teach object oriented programming with inanimate objects but give a behavior to it as if it was a living thing. These experiments help grasp the theory much faster and explore the entire lengths of possibilities which in turn helps to apply well when it comes to implementation.

I have observed that many of my trainers were content centric and relied on effective brain dumps. Few of the exceptional trainers really kindled the curiosity and made me explore the roots of a topic and then the thought experiments on the way to the college did the rest. Some of my key learnings were strongly supported by the thought experiments.

Below are some of the points I found useful while learning and teaching

• Create a picture in the listener’s mind. Visualizations are key to imagination, have a look at a very simple animation done by ‘The Inconvenient truth’ team. A kid can so easily get the idea about greenhouse gases.
• Kindle the curiosity by planting an unfinished thought experiment in the learner’s mind. I received a lesson in chemistry where there was clear depiction of  how covalent bonds occur between atoms (after explaining the shells and inert gases) such that they enter a steadier state and then the teacher pressed the class to find out another way for atoms to steadier state. We found it and all the teacher had to do was to mention what that kind of bond is called.
• Encourage silly questions, they trigger the best imaginations.
• Times change, visualization tools change, keep adapting. Prezi, GoAnimate, Visual Thesaurus  are some of the few which can help in the modern classroom.
• Time to think, this is as important as the time to teach. Crunching in more sessions and home work can eat away the time without providing enough value.

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On the eve of the new year of 2011, I created a wordpress account with a resolution that I would write 50 blogs in 2011 which means almost a blog a week. I thought it would be a cakewalk and I would easily put 50 blogs in few months. I was wrong, my first blog took me the entire weekend. The same topic which was so easy to have a chat with friends was so difficult to put into words. My mind wandered around, thoughts and words were never coherent. When I finished the first blog I realized that it is not going to be easy, hence started putting up my thoughts whenever they occur in a sticky or draft it in wordpress blog. The thought of writing something had been lingering in my mind from the school days, so it was fairly easy for me to find the first few topics.

Every week the time taken for me to finish my blogs reduced and I found it fairly easy to finish the blogs without much distractions. I had chosen to write only in two categories – Developer related and workplace improvement related. After around 15 blogs, I started running out of topics which hinted me that I had to catch up on reading and technical experiments. It pushed me in a position to optimize my workday such a way that I can make time for reading and work on stuff not related to projects. The optimizations in turn forced me to have healthy eating habits and set into a routine which became habitual.

Old habits die hard and new habits are hard to sustain, at least when they good habits and the returns are not immediate and visible. I had second thoughts to discontinue my writing as I grew tired of the new cycle I got into. At this point I thought the best way to keep me going was to advertise out to the world that I am writing and expect me to write once in a week and publicized my blogs through twitter, facebook, linkedin, thoughtworks etc. This part worked wonders by introducing me to many new people from all over the world and people started pointing out to more reading material, provided feedback and sometimes critical feedback. The amount of exposure received provided an enjoyable tension to keep on writing. My writing improved to point that I was able to write the first draft in 30 minutes and it occupied less and less of my time every week.

You can’t change just one part of the system without affecting others.

My lifestyle has changed in the last year such that I read more than I have ever been doing, I spend quality time at home and office, I also had good amount of time to pursue my hobbies and keep myself fit. All these without a hint of burn out. I am very surprised how a seemingly simple resolution like 50 blogs in a year and doing whatever it takes to accomplish that, had a huge positive impact on my lifestyle.

Go ahead and make a resolution and stick to it to see the magic it does.

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Carl Sagan’s book Cosmos explains a bit about how some people in the 15 & 1600s have spent a good deal of time trying to find out the truths about Earth’s position in the cosmos. Kepler is one of them who have contributed significantly to our current understanding with help of years of observation about the night sky and lots of mathematics. Kepler did not have enough resources to get hold of good telescopes so he had to rely on readings from people who had access to it. Tycho was one of the few who had access to good telescopes and made detailed observations. Kepler had a great interest in Tycho’s mars observation, Tycho was impressed by Kepler’s work still guarded all his data because of the work he put in. Kepler left Tycho after it was becoming increasingly difficult to get data from Tycho to test his theory and trouble to get into a formal agreement to work with each other.

Some time later Tycho’s unexpected demise landed Kepler the task of finishing what has been left by Tycho. Kepler began testing his theory of earth going through circular orbit around the Sun and backed that with the date of Tycho’s observation of Mars. At one point he observed that his theory fit perfectly fine except a couple of reading which were off by 8 minutes of arc in angular degree. 8 minutes of arc deviation in a 90 degree observation field is just 0.15% deviation.

Kepler not only had faith in Tycho’s observations but also had the courage to question his assumptions even though the deviation was only 0.15%. Kepler felt that his fascination with the circle was a delusion and he abandoned his circular orbit theory and went for other curvy shapes. Eventually when he came up with an elliptical orbit with Sun at one of its foci, all the data from the observation and theory matched perfectly fine. He could have easily patched up 0.15% deviation and closed his work, but the trust he had on his fellow researcher’s data and his perseverance to find the right brought in a reformation in astronomy. His laws of planetary motion still hold good.

Many at times in school I have succumbed to the temptations of approximating or convincing myself that others could be wrong and prematurely ended feeding my curious brain. This definitely has delayed many things which I could have understood better had I spent enough time on it. If Kepler could question 0.15% deviation and come up with a revolution, then we have ample opportunities to break paths every day.

Below is Kepler’s quote

Divine benevolence has bestowed the most diligent of observers, Tycho Brahe, from whose observations this eight-minute error of Ptolemy’s in regard to Mars is deduced, it is fitting that we accept with grateful minds this gift from God, and both acknowledge and build upon it. If I had believed that the we could ignore these eight minutes (0.15% deviation), I would have patched up my work accordingly. But, since it is not permissible to ignore, those eight minutes pointed the road to a complete reformation in astronomy.

More Kepler’s quotes here

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