Traditional Shaving Using Safety Razor

Recently, colleague of mine who knows that i shave using safety razor asked me for some tips. I was not surprised. Nowadays, lot of men are getting interested with safety razor once used by our older generation. I thought, why not write a blog on it based on my experience which he and others can use. 

I ) Firstly, Here's the few advantages:

1) You get better quality shave. Issues such razor burn and bumps, irritations, in-grown hairs from cartridges are solved since you are not shaving below the skin surface by pulling the hair before cutting it with 3-5 blades. Another reason for it is, you will be using brush and cream instead of chemical aerosol.

2) It is more economical since a razor double edge(DE) blade costs you less than a quarter.

3) It is Eco-friendly due to reduced non-biodegradable waste.

4) Shaving is no more mundane task instead a enjoyable ritual. Skill needed is one reason for it.

Having mentioned the advantages of safety razor, let me warn you few honest cons of it.

1) It takes 20 mins versus 10 mins needed to shave using multi-blade cartridges.

2) Initial cost of having to buy a safety razor and brush even though the variable running cost is very less.

3) There is a learning curve.

II) Things you will need: 

1)  Safety Razor: You will have plethora of choices. Single piece razors (e.g, Parker 99R), Two piece razors(e.g., Merkur HD34c/178), Three piece razors( e.g., Edwin Jagger DE89/L) and some fancy ones likes adjustable razors, slant bar razors, open comb razors which are more suited for experienced veterans due to its aggressiveness. 

Here's my Parker 99R, (made in India) which i use. It has butterfly doors to change blade conveniently. It has good weight which is very important when it comes to safety razors.

 2) DE blades: When you buy any safety razor, usually it comes with a pack of sample blades. Once you run out (one blade lasts for 4-6 shaves) , some good brands to buy are Astra, Debry , 7'O clock, Feathers, etc. Avoid Feathers (made in Japan) brand until you are experienced since it is sharpest blade in the market. I use Astra for its price and quality.

 

3) Pre-Shave Oil:  This is an optional one. It forms a layer between blade and skin for less irritation, helps to glide the blades and more importantly, makes skin supple and helps to retain moisture. Massage few drops on a wet skin until it is absorbed and splash with hot water before applying the cream. Just ask your girl friend or wife (or mom !!) to get you Johoba oil or any other non-comedogenic natural oil/s from the whole food chain they frequently visit. Don't bother to spend $ 25 on Art of Shaving pre-shave oil. It is nothing but 2/3 castor oil + 1/3 olive oil + few drops of essential oil for fragrance. 'DIY' is the best option here.
* Alternative prep: Just use shaving cream to message 2-3 min with few drops of hot water and clean the beard area. It breaks the outer layer of hair and make it very easy to cut it. If pre-shave oil works on skin this prep works on hair. Lately, i totally stopped using pre-shave oil since my technique is improved a lot and irritation is not really a concern now.

4) Cream: Even if you are not convinced and decided to continue with multi-blade cartridge, please switch to using cream and brush instead of foam from the can. I will guarantee you much better quality shave. Some good brands are Kiss my face, Taylor of Old Bond Street, Poraso etc. I use Taylor of Old Bond Street for its french perfume like fragrance.

5) Brush: Preferably, a badger hair brush. It comes in 4 grades. Pure, Best, Super and Silver tip (the costliest). Pure or Best grade badger brush is more than adequate. Any brand who also makes safety razors will do. Dip it in hot water for a minute, shake off excess water and make the foam using almond size cream in a soup bowl or coffee mug from the kitchen. Note that, new brush will take 4 to 6 usages to break in and strange animal hair smell to go away.

Here's my Parker Best grade badger brush.

 6) After Shave : No suggestion needed here. Apply any decent moisturizer after washing face with cold water. Just don't use burning alcohol based after-shave like a kid in Home Alone movie.

III) Now, lastly How to shave using safety razor:

There are tons of you-tube videos on shaving with all kind of safety razors. Just type in your safety razor brand name in the search bar.  But i would like to stress three very important points here.

1) DON'T PRESS: and blame me for blood in your sink. Remember the 1st commandment of shaving with safety razor. The weight of the razor head should cut your hair not your hand. Use your hand just to support the weight and let it glide over the face. If you put pressure or press ....#^%$#&^$#&^

2) Progressive Beard Reduction: It means, Don't try to remove all the whiskers in one go. If you try to, you will be simply scrubbing your face multiple time irritating hell out of it. It takes 2 or 3 passes for baby butt smooth shave. In the1st pass after applying cream , take small strokes in the direction of the grain, north to south without shaving over and over the same place multiple times. Move on even if few hairs are visible. Reapply cream for the 2nd pass. This time, take little longer stokes and shave across the grain, east to west or vice versa from ear towards nose diagonally.  This 2nd pass would remove most of your whiskers. If needed, reapply cream for the 3rd pass, shave against  the grain with even longer strokes from south to north or again across the grain but this time from nose towards ear diagonally opposite of 2nd pass. In the beginning while learning, i would say, avoid shaving against the grain. 

3) Blade angle: Suggested angle of the blade is tentatively 30 degrees. Hold the razor against your chin with handle parallel to the ground, in another words, with head of the razor perpendicular to the ground touching your chin and come down until you feel blade cutting the hair. This is 30 degree angle. After couple of shaves, you will get used to the angle and it will come very naturally.  

The above three points are the learning curve i was mentioning about. It is a skill which will take little time to learn. It is not very easy though. If it was, ladies would start shaving with safety razor. But they don't for a good reason. At least we are lucky, we only have to shave our face.

I hope this helps. I tried to summarize my years of shaving experience using safety razor here in one blog article. If you have any specific questions, please leave the comments.

Comedy Series - Bored to Death - Watch it

              It's been four months, I posted a blog. Let’s just say, I was busy with different kind of writing. This long labor day weekend is perfect for a new blog. I am always in look out for some good comedy TV series, stand ups, films etc as it is my favorite kind of genre for entertainment. Here's one by the name 'Bored by Death', a HBO series which i highly recommend all to watch. Just after three seasons, it was cancelled, reason for which i never understood nor announced by HBO. I read that, petitions on several websites including ‘Facebook’ was circulating requesting for fourth season and now, HBO is making a movie based on this comedy series.

It is a hidden gem which i taught; i should share with others who have not yet seen it. It has just 8 episodes in each season with run time of around 30 mins per episode. I liked it so much that, i finished seeing all 3 seasons in one weekend.

The show is about a struggling novel writer's comic adventures as part-time private detective along with his two close friends. One of whom is 'Zach Galifianakis' from movie 'Hangover' fame. He has some of the best lines in the show and really stands out.

You can 'Google' it and check more details about it. I don't want to be redundant here. Instead, i will just list few lines/scenes randomly here for couple of reason. One, just thinking about those make me laugh and two, i may convince you to watch it.

Jonathan: Pot is healthy, they give it to cancer patient.
His girl friend: But you don't have cancer
Jonathan: Not yet.

Ray(Zach): I lost my virginity in 5th grade
His friend: What was his name ?
Ray: Father Francis.

Kidnapper: It is a cliche, because it works.

At a bar, Ray: What is your name ?
Girl : Trouble
Ray: That is my mother's name. what is your middle name ?
Girl: Carol
Ray: That is my father's name.

Cigars 101

             Recently i ordered myself a nice gift of one full box of cigar along with accessories for my birthday and to celebrate the fact that i have quit smoking cigarette for about 6 months now. I was addicted to nicotine and was smoking a pack of cigarettes every day. I tried patches, gums, dips, pipe, hookah, electronic cigarettes,. etc as lesser of two evils to save my lungs and still fulfill my cravings. But for me , none of them was a good substitute to quit cigarette smoking since i genuinely like the taste and smell of tobacco smoke. My father, grandfathers, great grandfathers were all tobacco smokers in their individual forms and I am genetically predisposed to like the tobacco smoke !!! 

Today, after 6 to 9 months of my experimentation with cigar as a substitute, i can claim that it works for me.  One cigar in the weekend or on end of long day at office, has helped a lot in my journey to quit cigarette smoking completely and as a bonus, given me a new past time activity and better sensual experience. Note that, cigar was not the only tool which helped me to quit smoking cigarette and there were other reasons also like new point of view, exercise, etc. which played a key role. Bottom line is, whatever works for you, it works and we have just keep trying. 

Anyways, enough of the intro, lets get into the main topic of this blog which is to share my own practical learning on cigars. I will divide the post into three parts, i) Things you will need, ii) How to smoke a cigar and iii) How to select a cigar. In future blogs, i plan to review few individual cigars which i highly recommend but i will stick to fundamentals in this post. And i will also, put link to couple of good informational videos which explains the concept very well, instead of me repeating the same here. 

I) Things you will need : For beginners, who is not sure whether cigar is for them or not , they just need $6-8 to spare. Just walk to a cigar shop near you, buy a cigar, cut it at the store itself and get a complimentary cigar match box.When you are sure that you like cigars, in long term you will need the below things.

1) Humidor: Buy something with good seal and Spanish cedar wood interior. Size of humidor depends on how much cigars who want to store and age at a time. A desktop humidor with 25 to 50 cigars capacity , is a good starting point. Make sure you season it well before using it, as shown in this below video.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drh1uBC5AGI

2)  Distilled water : A gallon costs less than 1 buck in grocery store.
3)  Double blade guillotine cigar cutter : Avoid plastic one and go for heavier/sturdier steel ones.
4)  Humidifier device with beads(heartfelt or cigar mechanic is good one) : To maintain 70% humidity required for storing cigars. Spray it with distilled water once every 2 or 3 weeks.
5)  Calibrated digital cigar hydrometer(western caliber iv is good one) :  To make sure, your humidor is indeed at around 70% humidity and temperature is around 70 degree F .
6)  Cigars : Duh!, explained in third part of this post, how to select it. Make sure to remove cellophane cover(if any) on cigar before storing it in humidor.

7)  Cigars Matches or Butane Lighters : When you order cigars online, they usually ship it with few complimentary matches. If you run out, you can always buy it in tobacco shop near you. Avoid using gas lighters which infuses gas flavor to the cigar.

Lot of the above things are one time investment which will save you money in the long run because you can buy cigars online in bulk for cheap and store it in your house. $6 cigar can be $3 to $4 online if you shop around !!

II) How to smoke a cigar: Here's the best YouTube video which explains all the finer points.Note that, you should not tap the ash every often like cigarette, but let it fall on its own. 1 to 2 inches of ash is a sign of good cigar and it keeps the smoke cool. Smoke about half of the cigar before removing the band so that heat helps to remove it easily without the risk of tearing the wrapper.
Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws950AsSMLE

III) How to select a cigar: The number of choices available when you walk into a store humidor or visit online shop can really make you confused and overwhelmed  Here, i will give readers few pointers which i learnt from my practical experience on selecting good cigars. 

a) First and foremost, you need to learn how to read a cigar label: Most cigar labels usually follows a common format. Let's take a label(my current favorite) with an car analogy for example, Oliva Serie G Maduro Robusto 4 1/2*50 . Here Oliva is brand name(like HONDA), Serie G is a model name(like Accord), Maduro is a outer wrapper type(like RED color), Robusto is one of the many cigar shape types (like 2 or 4 Door) and finally 4 1/2*50 is the size of the cigar(like engine size 1.8) 4 1/2 is length and 50 is ring size of cigar. 64 ring size is equal to 1 inch diameter. 

b) Know the time you are willing to spent to smoke a cigar: If you have only 45 mins, go for shorter length and/or thinner ring size. I follow one crude unscientific method, which kind of gives me tentative idea. I simply multiple length and ring size, in our example 4.5 * 50 = 225, and i know that 250 is around 1 hr or 60 mins of smoke time. so i know toughly , this cigar will last for 50 -55 mins. Off-course, it depends on wind, humidity, your puff frequency, leaf type etc. But this method gives a tentative idea.

c) Decide a budget: Note that, you cannot simply assume pricey cigar is the best. Believe me , there are many $5 gems out there which will suppress $15 cigars. Finding such treasure is part of the fun. Knowing how much you are willing to spend for a cigar, narrows down the options and make it easier to select a cigar.

d) Know characteristics of different cigar leaf and its origin country:  This is basically , checking under the hood before buying the car. A cigar is made of three component: Outer wrapper, middle layer binder  and inner fillers. The wrapper plays predominate role in the flavor of the cigar like a icing on a cake. Give it a first preference in the selection. A lighter color thin "shade grown" wrappers (usually called naturals)  like Ecuador Connecticut, USA Connecticut Shade, African Cameroon usually will have lighter favor. Darker color thick "sun grown" wrappers (usually called maduro) wrappers like Connecticut Broadleaf, Habano ( including variations like Corojo/Habano 2000/Criollo which are also basically hybrids of Cuban Habano seeds), Mexican San Andres, Brazilian Arapiraca & Mata Fina will have bold favors.  Note two things here. One, It only says lighter or bold favors. Bold can be both bad or good favor depending upon individuals. Some People likes light roasted coffee and some like dark roasted coffee. It is very subjective. Two, Wrapper is just one outer leaf, cigar's biggest component by mass is filler. Check the origin country of the filler. Though, it is a crude generalization(because seed of one country can be grown in another country), it does give you a tentative idea about the favors you can expect. 

• Jamaican filler tends to be sweet and lighter in body.
• Dominican filler is generally medium bodied with sweet undertones.
• Honduran filler tends to provide a rich smoke with coffee tones.
• Nicaraguan filler tends to be rich with spicy and earthly tones.
• Mexican filler is strong, sweet and spicy; this leaf is often blended in with Jamaican and Dominican tobacco.
• Cuban Filler is smooth,spicy and sweet.

e) Pinch test: Assuming you are now down to a box , and have to pick one among them, gently press a few with tip of your thumb and forefinger from top to bottom of the cigar. Select the one which feels little springy throughout. It shows, it is well humidified and does not have any construction flaws. 

f) Experiment: After a while and few failed ones, you will get an idea about brands, sizes, shapes, wrappers, binder and fillers that you prefer over other. Even with in those, there are simply too many permutations and combination. But with in few cigars among them, you will find something which you may generally really like. The best cigar is the one which you smoked enjoying it till the nub. When you find such cigar, order more of them but continue the experimentation. Believe me, you don't want to keep smoking the same cigar no matter how good it is.  

Finally if every thing else fails even after trying a few cigars , it's just means, it is not in your genes to like natural tobacco!!! No shame in that. Try some other taste and smell related sensory experience. 

Note that, i am not a cigar aficionado or connoisseur but someone who simply likes cigars. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave the comments. 

Book Review : Talent is Overrated

                It's been a few weeks now, since the last time I wrote a post here. There are good reasons for it. One, I was very busy with my 9-6 job, work spilling over to weekends, and two, I was reading a book in my limited free time. The book I read is titled 'Talent is Overrated" and the subtitle is "What really separates world-class performers from everybody else". It is written by Geoff Colvin, Senior Editor at large, Fortune magazine. I will present here the main ideas of the book and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be good at what they do.

Being good at whatever we want to do is the deepest source of fulfillment we will ever know. was it talent ? was it brains? is it a god(if exists) given gift? was it mountains of hard work? The author explains why it is none of the above contradicting reasons. He wonders, why even after all those hours & all those years, most people are just okay at what they do. Just enough to not get fired from a job or Just enough to have fun from a hobby without any traces of great performance.

He reasons great performance is due to 'deliberate practice' by citing numerous researches and examples of hundreds of real-life great performers proving his point. For e.g, Tiger woods, Jack Welch, Mozart, etc. These great performers in their respective fields had one thing in common and it is 'deliberate practice' of thousands of hours. Beyond physical constraints( e.g., height for a basketball player), inborn abilities do not matter. IQ or memory matters for few beginning years in a job and later it plays no big role in a great performance. If anything else matters, it is sheer luck. For e.g., Tigerwood or Mozart had a father who was a teacher.

Noble prize winner Herbert Simon & William Chase proposed a "Ten-year rule" which states that the difference between expert performers & normal adults reflects a life-long period of a deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain. In one study of the top 3 groups of violin players in a famous school, it was noted that the difference among them is an average number of total practice hours. It was 7410 hrs, 5301 hrs, and 3420 hrs respectively. This is very similar to the concept of 10,000 hrs which Malcolm Gladwell mentions in this book 'Outliers'.

The authors clarify what are the characteristics of deliberate practice. It is as follows:

• It is specifically designed to improve a particular performance. It follows a particular program.
• It is about doing just beyond what we currently do. In other words, it is about being in the 'learning' zone instead of in the 'comfort' or 'panic' zone. It is not inherently enjoyable. It involves high repetition and it is mentally demanding. It involves conscious and controlled effort, unlike normal everyday driving which is very automatic in nature.
• It is guided by a teacher or mentor who knows the body of knowledge. The teacher provides a better perspective and feedback if it is not available to the learner him/herself.

Deliberate practice helps us to perceive more, know more, and remember more. The authors offer some good suggestions on applying the principles to individuals, such as: working over & over on specific aspects that need improvement, setting up a practice program and its order of steps, getting feedback from video/mentor, studying case studies, conditioning the fundamentals, etc. Some suggestions to organizations are, to make sure each person is not just doing his/her job but stretched, investing time, money & effort in developing people, identifying promising performers, etc.

The author argues that deliberate practice is also applicable to creative innovations. Innovation does not just spring out of nothing but it is in fact grown out of long past preparations. Any story to the contrary is a myth. Starting at an early age certainly helps since at this moment of history, every field is so advanced. As a parent, it is also important to provide a supportive environment to children.

The best chapter in this book is the last chapter titled "Where does the passion comes from ? ". Author questions, why anyone would go through such pain for an uncertain reward that is many years away.  He gives an example of 2006 winter Olympics figure skating gold medal winner Shizuka Asakawa who must have literally fallen around twenty thousand times on her butt practicing. Is it intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivation? Irrespective of either, most of the deliberate practice activities are not inherently enjoyable since it involves doing what you have not done before. The author thinks the theory of the multiplier effect comes close to explaining the root cause of this passion. A small early advantage leads to series of greater advantages. The small advantage motivates them to perform better which in turn improves the skills. This improved skills again in turn improves motivation. The theory fits the evidence reported by others. In virtually every field, beginners can't manage more than an hour of practice per day, and sometimes much less. But by the time they become top performers, they've built themselves up to handling four to five hours a day. The process is circular in nature and it does not matter how the advantage originates in the first place. It can be due to sheer luck of genes(e.g, better eye-hand coordination), supporting environment or parent praising/pushing the child even if initial performance is not so great.  My biggest takeaway from this book is, this cycle of motivation and skill needs to be kept in constant motion.

Again, I highly recommend this book to everyone. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section.

4 things men stopped carrying

In this post, I am going to mention four things, men of my generation stopped carrying and going to suggest, why we should carry it and maintain the tradition.

1. Handkerchief

Papers towels and tissues is killing the tradition of men carrying a handkerchief. What men need to understand is, unlike ladies we do not carry purse/bag everywhere we go, to keep the stock of paper napkins. Think of all situations when you have to run to the restroom or cafeteria to get some paper. Instead of scrounging around for a tissue, I would suggest keeping a hankie in your pants pocket. It does not have to be fancy, just a plain white one will do. But a man should take a clean handkerchief each day, and launder them weekly. And for god's(if exists) sake, please stop using those ladies' perfumed tissue packs. And still, if you are waiting for some convincing practical reasons for carrying handkerchiefs, here's some.

- Men need to wipe their sweat and dirt off his face. More so, in hot climates and polluted cities. He does not have/need the luxury of 15 mins at the restroom for makeup and chat sessions like ladies.

- You've got snot running out of your nose.

- Use and throw paper tissues is not environmentally friendly.

- When a gal starts tearing up. You should probably tell her that, your's is clean when you hand it over, as to allay any fears she might have about what’s lurking in its folds. And a gentleman never asks for his handkerchief back.

Nowadays, everyone is germ-phobic. Haven't you noticed, people, wiping shopping carts in a supermarket!! Really, are they, so sensitive to germs? They should probably have their blood tested in a clinic.

2. Wrist Watch:

The cell phone is killing the tradition of men wearing wristwatches. And if someone is using today's smartphone to check the time, I am sure they might have realized how much of a distraction, they are. 

Here I am going to present some convincing reasons and pointers to wear a wristwatch.

- It is inconvenient and distracting to always consult a phone to check the time. In business meetings, formal social settings, classrooms, etc., It's considered inappropriate to pull out a phone. It's much easier to subtly check a wristwatch. 

- They are fashion accessory for men. It is much better than wearing those stupid rubber/plastic bands.

- Nostalgia is also a factor. Wristwatches now have a retro, vintage appeal, evoking memories of childhood or older relatives. 

Learn the difference between Mechanical Manual Wind, Automatic, and Quartz types of wristwatches. Know what does a perpetual calendar means. Note that, it does not always have to be an expensive one. What matters is good quality and design which suits the occasion. A $50 reliable Timex dress watch will do too. If you are OK to spare more, Check out the $500 Tissot visodate(Image below). The backside of this watch looks as good as the front side. These are gorgeous. 

3. Pocket Knife

My Grandfather had a pocket knife, a jackknife to be precise, which would scar any light-hearted ones by just looking at it. The beautiful cover enclosing the blade used to open up in the middle and become handle with the lock at the end, exposing the dangerously looking blade. I loved it. How many times have you been in a situation where you've said to yourself, “Damn, a knife would be really handy now!”.

TSA security(ass holes lacking common sense) at the airport does not allow pocket knife but allow the hostess to give butter knife inside the flight !! Yet these minor obstacles are not sufficient reason to give up carrying a knife completely. The carrying of a pocket knife is a men's tradition that should be continued. If not the jackknife, at least a multi-purpose knife.

Here's my Victorinox Swiss Army Climber II Pocket Knife(Image below), which I always carry in my laptop bag. In addition to the knife blade, it has few tools that come in handy. But don't buy which has too many extra features compromising main blade quality, those are too bulky/annoying.

Here are some reasons to carry a pocket knife.

- Opening a package you received against online order.
- Cutting rope, tags, and strings.
- Cutting the fruits for a late afternoon snack.
- Camping/Picnics.
- Weapon. Not the most effective, but it’s better than nothing.

The best reason to carry a knife, however, is the one you don't see coming. Having a knife makes you prepared, and while you can't always tell what you'll end up using your knife for, it's a sure bet you will end up using it for something. You never know when you’re going to have to MacGyver your way out of a crisis.

4. Pen (or Fountain Pen)

Honestly, I don't know what made men stopped carrying pens in their pockets. Maybe it's 20 cents BIC ballpoint pens lying around everywhere or smart phones where you can store notes. But nothing like sketching creative ideas on paper when it comes at odd moments. How many times we have seen men looking desperately for a pen when he should be carrying it in his pocket, in the first place. 

I would suggest every man carry a fountain pen in his shirt pocket. You may ask, why particularly fountain pen? why not ballpoint? The ballpoint pen is good compared to not carrying a pen at all. But the fountain pen offers many technical advantages over a ballpoint pen. The convenience of the ballpoint pen is an overrated, compromising lot of good things about a pen. Here are some valid reasons to carry a fountain pen.

-  The fountain pen comes in sizes that are a perfect fit for shirt pocket size. Nowadays, I am carrying a TWSBI mini which offers great value for money. Sailor Sapporo, Pelikan M200, or M400(Image above) are some of my recommendations for their quality and pocket carrying size.

- Writing in a fountain pen is effortless. Unlike ballpoint pens which require more pressure, with fountain pens you can write for long without cramping.

- Fountain pen offers line (width) variations and subtle shading of ink which is cool. 

- Fountain pen can last for a lifetime. It is more Eco-friendly than your usual disposable ballpoint pens.

- There is also more variety when it comes to fountain pens. 

  You will get various cool filling systems, various materials besides cheap plastic, various nib sizes to suit your handwriting style, and hundreds of ink colors to choose from.

- The novelty of using a fountain pen is a great conversation since unfortunately many have never seen it or used it.

Just a couple of cautions with using fountain pens.

- While carrying fountain pens on airplanes keep it in an upright position, and do not use it while taking off- landing since air pressure change will cause the ink to leak. If you are carrying more pens, empty the ink and carry a small bottle of ink instead.

- With fountain pens, your paper quality should be good. If you use cheap laser printer copy paper, you can only use one side of it, since they are too thin for fountain pen inks.

These are small inconveniences compared to the pleasure of writing in a fountain pen. Try it once at least as an experiment. You may fall in love with it! More importantly, please carry a pen. Don't ask someone for it or walk around looking for it.

Please leave your comments and let me know your opinion.

Free Will is a necessary illusion

Whether 'free will' exists or it is just an illusion is a debate which is going on for centuries now. 

Despite the pieces of evidence that show it is just an illusion, people have trouble accepting it to be. They feel that accepting the non-existence of free will takes something away from them. That, it undermines us as human beings who are inherently special. They think it means that they cannot claim or take credit for successes nor hold someone responsible for their bad deeds.

This blog post will be divided into two parts.  In part 1, I am going to present few cases based on scientific experiments and philosophical literature to make a point that, free will is an illusion. In part 2, I am going to present the third school of thought to which I subscribe to. I will argue that, though it is an illusion, why it is a necessary illusion.

Part 1: 

First, we need to define what is free will. Wikipedia defines it as,  "Free will is the ability of agents to make choices unconstrained by social, physical, mental or metaphysical factors". In laymen's terms it means, we are free to consciously choose A when we could have chosen B. 

Libet's experiment and its different variations, clearly show that, before a subject becomes conscious of his/her decision to move versus staying still or decision to lift left versus right hand, a machine hooked up to them can predict the decision, the subject is going to make. It means, before you are conscious of the decision, your unconscious mind of which you are not aware of, has already decided what to choose. You become conscious of it, is just an afterthought. What you think as present is technically already a memory. Where is free will here?

Another experiment that questions free will is priming. Priming is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences a response to a later stimulus. For example, if a person reads a list of words including the word table, and is later asked to complete a word starting with 'tab', the probability that he or she will answerable is greater than if they are not primed. There is a countless number of experiments conducted on this concept of priming. At the end of the experiment, when subjects were asked, why they did what they did, they will always come up with some strange explanation and can never accept/know that they were primed. 

Sam Harris, author of the book 'free will' explains with a very good example. It is kind of a philosophical thought experiment. Here's how it goes. Think of one city name in the world. (It can be a movie name, it does not matter). First, you cannot think of a city name that you don't know, even if someone holds a gun to your head. Then, a lot of cities which you know exist, simply do not come to mind. Then, few city names simply raises to your mind. Finally, you choose one city name say 'Paris' among those city names that come to your mind. You think you have chosen it with your free will. If I ask you, why 'Paris'? why not 'New York'? You will surely come up with an explanation which you did not clearly think about before saying 'Paris'. You will make up an explanation just because I am asking you. There is no free will in any of the above 4 stages of filtering the city name in your mind. Next time, when you are at a food court in a mall, think again, why you choose cheeseburger, when you could have chosen salads, tacos, chicken biryani, or pizza.

Thoughts simply raise one after the another, what else it can do. You don't know what is your next thought will be nor you can control it. Where is the free will here? You are just witnessing your beliefs, thoughts, and actions. You are not the true author of it. Reality is the result of series of prior causes and effects of which we are not aware of. Contents of consciousness are raised out of unconscious mental processes, of which we are not aware of. At its core, the brain is a physical matter which still needs to follow the laws of physics.

Genes and the environment are the significant causes which no one can escape. Think again, if you were born in a remote village in Africa, you would not be reading this internet article or if you have ADHD, you would not have reached this sentence in spite of coming up to this page. 

Part 2:

In this part, I will present three cases and argue that even though free will is an illusion why it is a necessary illusion.

Believing in free will is necessary for our own self-improvement and pretending it exists is in our best interest. After reading part 1, you may say, if free will is all an illusion, what is the point of doing anything. why can't we just sit back and see what happens? Best of luck, try to do it. After few minutes, you will realize that just sitting for a while without absolutely doing anything is harder than doing some meaningless things like, keep swiping the mobile screen or watching TV passively. Thoughts start to arise out of nowhere and you will follow your impulses. So, even if technically free will is an illusion, you have to try to do something worthwhile believing it is doable. In the book 'Talent is overrated', Geoff Colvin explains the concept of the 'Multiplier effect', based on research on motivation done by folks at Cornell University. It is similar to the concept of a positive feedback loop. If a teacher or parent praises children about the work they did even if it not so great, kids feel good about themselves. That pride and confidence, motivate them to do better next time which improves their skills. This improved skill motivates them to do even better and gets them more praise. So this cycle of motivation and skills improves us even though in the 1st instance of starting the cycle, it was really an illusion. Basically, it means, "Act as if until you make it". Success breeds success. Somehow, we need to start the cycle. Note that, still we cannot escape the cycle of causality and affect. It is still in play no matter what. But by trying, you are improving your odds. An apple seed can never grow oranges, but you can always try to improve the yield of apples. Note my use of the word 'TRY'. I intentionally used it because there is no guarantee of sustainable success here. Have you not noticed that a pep talk works for you one day and it is absolutely no use another day !! If we truly knew why we do, what we do, don't we have all done only those things which are in our best interest all the time? Didn't all those hundreds of self-improvement books worked all the time?

Believing in free will is necessary for the criminal justice system to work. Our whole morality and legal system stand on the assumption that 'free will' exists. Even the core religious concept of sin and hell loses its meaning without free will. Let's take the example of a serial killer. If a judge giving a life sentence to a serial killer had exactly the same past and genes as a serial killer or vice versa, the role would have totally reversed. Records show many examples of serial killers whose brain structure itself is different from that of normal people was the cause for their increased impulses for violence and reduced feeling of guilt. Yet, the serial killers had no control over his brain structure hence did not have free will. Still, we need to lock serial killers so that normal people can be safe. The system needs to assume free will exists, to set the example, and deter people from wrongdoings.

Believing free will as an illusion is necessary and it makes us more modest and compassionate. Next time when we win an award for some good work or get a promotion, let's keep our foot on the ground and head on the neck. If we are successful or failed, there is series of past events which we cannot truly own. We had an advantage or disadvantage which needs to be acknowledged. We need to acknowledge the genetics lottery we won or lost and be honest about it. We cannot claim all the glory or feel guilty. Next time, when you are cursing someone for what he/she did for you, think again. He/she did not have true free will. The understanding of causality helps us to forgive others and more importantly forgive ourselves. It makes it easier to drop the heavy bag of guilt bricks, we are carrying. Please note that the message to take away here is not to do whatever you feel like doing, but accept the realities and give a try to improve yourselves without the pressure of over expectations.

I would end the article with a quote from Daniel Dennett, a US philosopher.

"Future is inevitable, whether deterministic is true or not true, but you will still have all the freedom(in a free country) worth wanting, in-spite of a deterministic world".

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

Recipe - Chicken Mughlai

Cooked by chefs in Mughal dynasty king's kitchen in central Asia / Indian subcontinent. A dish fit enough for a king !!! I have served this to many of my friends who visited my house for a happy hour party. Everyone liked it. Though I personally prefer vegetarian dishes, I make exceptions for few non-vegetarian dishes and this is one of them. I have made few minor changes to the recipe to fit the fast pace of modern life without compromising on the taste. Note that, though the preparation starts 24 hrs before actually serving it, the actual time required for preparation and cooking is around 45 - 60 mins.

Ingredients:

1. 1.5 Lb chicken thigh fillets cut into medium size, or breasts or a mix of both. I prefer thighs as far as the chicken is concerned. 
2. 1 Lb yogurt. Non-fat, if you are diet conscious
3. 1/2 or 1 full medium size onion chopped.
4. 2 spoon ginger & garlic paste
5. 9-10 thin slices of bell pepper/capsicum
6. 1/2 tbsp red chili/paprika, 1 tbsp if you can tolerate!!
7. 2 spoon - chicken masala (powder or paste mixture of cumin, black pepper, cardamom, fennel, bay leaves, fenugreek leaves, coriander, cloves, turmeric). Instead, You can also buy ready-made chicken masala powder available in Indian grocery stores.
8. Olive or vegetable oil
9. Kosher salt. yes, it has to be kosher, trust me.
10. 1 large tomato, finely chopped
11. Lemon juice(optional)
12. Sugar(optional)

Step 1 - Marinate: 

Before going to bed, mix all the ingredients from 1 to 7 in a glass bowl very well. You should not see even one drop of yogurt white. 
Here's the photo of how it looks when I make it. Put the bowl in the refrigerator, the whole night. 

Step 2 - Cooking: 

In the morning, take a deep pan, deep enough to leave 1.5-inch empty space on the top. Put enough oil to wet the surface. Once the oil is heated, started putting chicken one at a time to the pan. Put all the yogurt mixture. Add chopped tomato. Close the vessel and boil in a medium to high flame for 30 mins. Add one cup of water, if it looks very thick and starts to stick to the pan. Occasionally stir the mixture. Add one tablespoon of kosher salt at the end. Boil for another 5 mins. 
Taste it, if it is too spicy for you, add 1 or 2 spoons of lemon juice and/or sugar. If it is winter, do yourself a favor, and skip doing it !!!

Step 3 - Rest it and serve: 

Once the pan cools down, put it in the refrigerator, the whole day. This is very important for spices to infuse into the cooked chicken for the best taste. The above ingredients easily serve 4 - 5 people. Serve it with Indian roti or naan (Indian flatbread) in the dinner. You can buy ready-made Indian flatbreads also if required.

Try it out, and let me know how it came or your suggested changes in the comments.

Whisky review - Glenmorangie Original 10Y

The sticker price of $36 for single malt whisky and some online reviews commenting that it is one of the top sellers in Scotland made me buy this in my local store. I am not disappointed and it is worthy of review. Here's my NO BS review of this whisky.

Basics: The distillery established in 1842 is in the northern highland region of Scotland. The distillery claims that the formula remained the same ever since and hence the bottle name 'The Original'. The brand name 'Glenmorangie' in the local language translates to 'Valley of tranquility' and has nothing to do with oranges as it may sound. 'The Original' is matured in bourbon oak casks for 10 years.

Presentation: I always appreciate the good packaging and bottle shapes of whisky. It adds to the overall experience as long as it is not exaggerated as if they are substituting it for bad quality whisky. Hence my reviews will always have special mentioning of presentations.

I liked the golden color stamp size emblem with cool patterns at the center of the box. The yellowish to bright orange color box with nice fonts is very eye-catching. It mentions that it is bottled at 43% which is a good thing. There is no mentioning of, whether E150 coloring agent(caramel) is added or not but the rich golden color makes me believe, it is added if not too much of it. There is no mentioning of whether it is chill-filtered or not which more likely means it is.

The bottle is shaped more like a bottle of wine rather than a whisky bottle with a very long neck and no broad shoulders. I read that, it is to signify that the distillery uses one of the tallest stills in Scotland.

Nose: This is one of those whiskies which smells a lot better than its taste. Don't get me wrong. It does not taste bad. It is just that, it smells so good. Add a spoon of water to the drink of 1 standard size(1.5 oz/45 ml). Anything less or more water will not get you that optimal smell. It smells like honey when you add it to boiling water while making tea. It smells sweet and floral.

Taste: Undeniably vanilla and citrus taste. But I did not taste almonds as mentioned in the box. But, if I look for it for too long, the raw alcohol taste comes in from nowhere and surprises me. It has a good mouthfeel with quite a long after taste. It has hints of highland park 12Y taste but it lacks that thicker liquid feels you get in highland park. Do not bother about any heavy smokey/peaty tastes, it has none and that's OK.

Bottom line: Try it if you have not yet. You cannot complain about anything here as such for $36. This is more than good enough whisky but just not great. BTW, There are not many great ones at this price range.

Let me know what you think by commenting. More so if you tried it, and tasted or smelled something that I missed.

How to Improve Your Handwriting

Bad handwriting has easily cost at least 10-20% of my marks in academic life. Not to mention, complaints from my colleagues in the office when I write notes to explain stuff. I always wanted to improve my handwriting but never put required hours in deliberate practice. For the last 2-3 months, I have consciously put effort to improve my handwriting, and proud of myself to say that, it has immensely improved.

It involved not only good old practice but also few specific pointers which I followed. I am sharing those here which may be helpful for my blog readers.

Trick # 1: Have a proper grip: For this, I used a Lamy Safari fountain pen which was very useful. One, it is a fountain pen that slightly slows down your speed of writing which helps during practice, and second, it has a triangle-shaped grip section which helps you to learn proper pen grip. The grip where the thumb and index finger comes in inverted V shape and the pen rest flat on the middle finger. Believe me, once you use a fountain pen, you will think twice before going back to a ballpoint pen. The feeling of writing with a fountain pen is pleasantly different from a ballpoint pen and you get more options with nib sizes, ink colors, cool filling systems, etc. The line variations and ink shading you get cannot be found with a ballpoint pen. By the way, if you tend to write characters very small, use extra-fine or fine nib size so that writing does not get mangled.

Trick # 2: Learn cursive letters: Take a print out of lower case cursive letters practice sheets from online and practice each characters multiple times, a,a,a,a,a, b,b,b,b,b, and so on. I am stressing on lower case letters because of the fact that you only use the initial character in the sentence as upper case and you do not have to join in with the rest of the characters.

Trick # 3: Practice cursive patterns: Cursive handwriting requires the joining of each character (except for this rule is explained in the next trick). So practice writing inininininininini(forgot about the dot in I as of now) pattern at forty-five degree. Keep the pattern going making sure it is always joined, there is an equal length between each character, all are of the same height, width touching baseline and it is legible. Then practice 3 character words, then few 4 character words, etc.

Trick # 4: Know the few basic rules of cursive handwriting:

a) Only the initial letter in the sentence is uppercase and it does not have to join with the rest of the characters in the first word of the sentence.

b) Do not join consecutive m's, n's, mn's, uv's, For example, words like running, cunning, etc

c) Do not lift your pen to put a dot to i's and dash to t's. you can do it after completing the word. it distributes the flow.

Trick # 5: Forty-five-degree angle: I could have mentioned this as part of trick # 3 or # 4. But it needs a special mention because of its importance. The forty-five-degree angle makes it so easier to write cursive handwriting and when you turn the face of the nib slightly towards you, the pen flows very smoothly. One technique is to practice using a fountain pen with a 1.1 stub or italic nib along with a normally rounded nib.

Please leave comments and let me know, the techniques that worked for you.