Mitochondrial Eve and the metamorphosis of human being

When I heard about the Corona virus first time few months ago, I tried to understand what is a virus in the first place and how it differs from a bacteria? I soon realized I did not have foundational knowledge needed to understand this in detail, so began my attempt to make up for the knowledge deficit of microbiology. To understand the biochemical reactions and the building elements of a cell, I had to learn chemistry also in detail. I had to log on to Khan Academy for basic courses in Science and order new books to learn the concepts and fundamentals and also bring out the books already available in my book shelf to the reading table. This has kept me busy for the past few months. And I thought of sharing a new thing I learnt about - the concept of "Mitochondrial Eve". You can google the term and get better answers but I still would like to describe in my own terms.

We, human beings inherit the chromosomes from both of our parents, one pair each from father and mother. Though the genetic information comes from both of them, other cellular structural components (like the membrane structures, cytoplasm, mitochondria, lysosome etc.) comes only from mother. What is interesting is, one of the components - mitochondria has its own genetic structure and it only comes from mother. That makes it easier to track maternal ancestry. As you go backwards in the timescale, the number of mothers reduce and around 200,00 years ago, it stops at a single mother - biologists named her Mitochondrial Eve or the mother of humankind. That gives us a reference to study many other things. Like how much of  biological features began transforming us from cave dwellers into present day human beings. Those things let us discuss in the future posts.

Motivational world of Podcasts

Let me tell how all this started. I have been walking as a regular exercise consistently at least for an hour everyday for the past one year. Initially I had fellow walkers walking along with with me. But they had no consistent routine or my time did not match theirs. And then came the rainy season. That did not let me go far away from home and I have to make rounds nearby. And during those walks, I would use my free hands to make phone calls I had to make but they won't last long for an hour and there won't be any need to make calls everyday. 

So I was looking for listening to something as I walked. I was used to watching on youtube - 'Talks at Google', I observed that the same is available as podcast. Similarly 'Farnam Street' blogger has his own podcast. That was nice and interesting. As I started exploring further, I hit the goldmine - Naval. I was so absorbed listening to him and re-listening to him on his podcasts. That accompanied my walks for couple of weeks. In fact, listening to him was so wonderful, my walks became longer. Than I got hooked up to other podcasts - one by Robert Greene, one of my favorite authors, then "Knowledge Project" by Shane Parrish, and now going through "Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman".  They reduced my reading time but I was able to absorb the information, knowledge, insights offered in these podcasts with almost same intensity of reading. There is one Kannada story channel "ಕೇಳಿರೊಂದು ಕಥೆಯ" too, which I play for my 4 year old son for bedtime stories.

As I share with you always the things that inspire me and keep my mind occupied, I thought I can't keep away from sharing this too.

Here are the links to podcasts:

Naval: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9uYXZhbC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizzvWKksvsAhXy8zgGHTKJDacQ9sEGegQIARAK

 

Robert Greene Mentoring You: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3ByZWFrZXIuY29tL3Nob3cvNDUyMDEzOS9lcGlzb2Rlcy9mZWVk?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizzvWKksvsAhXy8zgGHTKJDacQ9sEGegQIARAI

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVrbm93bGVkZ2Vwcm9qZWN0LmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizzvWKksvsAhXy8zgGHTKJDacQ9sEGegQIARAJ

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL21hc3RlcnMtb2Ytc2NhbGU?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizzvWKksvsAhXy8zgGHTKJDacQ9sEGegQIARAC

ಕೇಳಿರೊಂದು ಕಥೆಯ: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL2tlbGlyb25kdWthdGhleWEub3JnL3Jzcw?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizzvWKksvsAhXy8zgGHTKJDacQ9sEGegQIARAL

A step towards humanity

Take a look at the above news article on today's ET. The looting of the painting happened during second world war. Almost 80+ years ago. The person who took the painting is not alive and the one who had lost it would not be either. A generation has passed. But now the decision to return to its rightful owner surprised me and also made me realize that progress towards humanity is ongoing. 

A century ago, it was alright occupy and loot someone else's property. Physical strength and ability to fight and win a war was all that mattered. But now, no more. Not longing for what is not ours and taking steps to correct the mistakes happened a generation ago, shows the changed mindset of current generation and the goodwill towards a larger society, humankind. Hope and wish this wisdom spreads.

The pending Disruption of Education System

 The British were good at building systems and networks. Take for example, postal network, railway network, judicial system, administration system. They became efficient at it and it helped them build an empire spread across continents. With the industrial revolution, they mastered producing goods in bulk through manufacturing systems in factories. To run these factories, they needed lots of blue collar workers who thought and behaved alike (that is to take instructions and do repetitive work mostly). That was enabled by their education system where in the masses were educated with a common curriculum across the country. In other words, schools were run like factories with standard operating procedures of teaching the already defined curriculum. As you inspect the goods coming out of the factories, in a similar fashion, tests, exams, grading system were developed in schools. Individual attention, boosting curiosity or creativity or flowering what was natural talent in the students took a back seat as the objective was mass education of the society to become employable. All of it was fine until the society and the education system progressed at a comparable pace. That is changing now.

Technology changes the way we live and work. What was slow and gradual and is happening at a more rapid pace now. The internet completely dismantled the postal network which worked fine for centuries. Similarly robots are fast replacing the workers in the factories. Artificial intelligence enabled systems decide the credit worthiness of a borrower in the banks these days. Industries are transformed at a rapid pace. But the education system is failing to catch up. Don’t you remember many entrepreneurs complaining about the quality of education and the skill gaps of those passing out making them unemployed for a long time? As the technological transformation gathers further pace, the earlier education system of mass teaching will find no takers. As industry have to retrain the newer workforce, usefulness of the formal education will be questioned more frequently and it will have to go through a disruptive change to become relevant. What do you think?

Slow death of Grand and Brand

First let me talk about of branding in the education sector. IIT, IIM's would come to mind initially and then other institutions who have earned name and fame, mostly for right reasons and through sheer hard work. Why it mattered getting into a branded educational institution is, quality of teaching, supporting infrastructure and most importantly separating the top student talent through entrance test and grouping them so they come out well. This ensured the success of those passing out. But internet is changing it all, slowly and surely. Now education is going digital and taking roots deeply. Staring from private tution from primary school children (my son takes math private tution classes online through Cuemath). After the covid, all schools, colleges adopted digital platform because it was ready for such use. You don't have the right tutor your college? Ditch them, learn from the best teachers this world has to offer. Take online classes from the likes of MIT on YouTube and get certified through Coursera. All the good things are free. Thanks to internet for providing access. Now for an eager student, it does not matter where he physically is located or which college he is studying at. He can acquire knowledge and get ready to compete with those only the branded colleges produced in the past. Though it would be not an easy competition, but not entirely difficult either. Branding in education (through physical campus) is in a strangle and will die a slow death.

Let me come to the next phase of life. Here the change is not driven by technology but through social maturity. I am talking about marriages now, the grand one's. Not those grand marriages hosted by rich families, which they could afford. But those middle classes who went out of the way, who destroyed their savings or took debt for a grand marriage. Why they did so in the first place would be a discussion topic but I think it is mostly for social pressure or thinking that life after marriage is not worrisome at all, so let us spend what we can at marriage. This assumption is wrong, at least for the middle-class family backgrounds. There would be need for housing for the new family and other demands would crop up. Those who are wise would plan for it and reduce the marriage budget to accommodate for such needs. There are few cases, due to incompatibility, marriage ends in a divorce. And those who hosted a grand marriage which failed learn the futility of their efforts. I know of a recent incident of two divorcees getting married at a temple with simple arrangements and doing well now. It is clear that it does not matter how much you spend for a marriage but what matters is how you live afterwards. This learning is coming through a painful process and spreading in a very slow but gradual way. Once the broader society gets the message, grand marriages would slow down and become rare for those who cannot afford it. It will be a good development for the society too.

In the investment world, I have not seen the grandest IPO other than Reliance Power. There were page long advertisements on the news papers, very frequent ads on TV shows. Many learnt about stock markets and opened their demat accounts to bid for this IPO. And a decade later, this company is facing insolvency. And those who had dreams of becoming wealthy with this stock realized that it is not an easy process as they watched in disbelief how their investment is evaporated. Charlie Munger had said "It is not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid." Well, knowledge comes at a price and we have our own saying that "A fool and his wealth are parted soon ". After this IPO, there have been many IPOs, lots of successful one's which really did well and made investors rich but the kind of euphoria we had seen earlier is absent now. General public have become cautious. They question before they commit money. They have understood that taking the route of Mutual Funds through SIP's works well for them. What a transformation the society made in this decade.

Grand and Brand does not ensure success or quality. But knowing the underlying value will. It is a matter of time this becomes of the opinion of the majority.