Tis the day.

No, I used to hate christmas, or rather was not a fan, I actually have been looking forward to it now. Now I realise how mean that was but I had my reasons. The way I saw it was that people were just disproportionately happy, unconditionally giving, striving to do the same routines they have always done , sing the same carols with the same people year in, year out. Well, now I know better and its the reason why I'm celebrating it(which is why I'll make this article as short as possible).

Here is what Christmas truly is, (at least accoding to Chrsitians), It is the day that marks the birth of Jesus Christ. There has been a debate about whether he was born on the 25th December, but who cares, he was born at some point and if we choose this date to celebrate his birthday today, there is nothing wrong with that. This basically marks the birth of hope and faith in humanity.(No wonder everyone is being so nice). Again, its weird that on his birthday we get presents (humaniy++). Now others will tell of a different story that involves gods or Santa Claus or elves but the theme is always the same; celebration, merry making.

Oh, and if we use the Julian calendar Isaac Newton was born on the Christmas of 1642 (explains his genius).

People may appear disproportionately happy but isn't that what we ultimately want. Unless you are a masochist, of course, but everything you do at work, at home , at school , in your community is to make it better whether for yourself or for others. So Christmas is that ideal world we strive to attain but we too soon forget it to face the 'real' world.
Chrsitmas is a time to reflect, you know a week to put things in perspective and make thoughtful new year's resolutions. strategically, a week before the  new year (speaking of perfect timing).
If that's not enough reason to celebrate then I don't know what is, so, have a merry christmas and all the very best with your new year's resoulutions.

How Newton really discovered gravity.

Legend has it that Newton discovered gravity when he was sitting under a tree. He saw a falling apple while he was thinking of the forces of nature. I also know of a slightly more interesting version of this story. An apple fell on his head which got him thinking of gravity. In other words, Newton's law of universal gravitation is revenge to the universe for the excruciating pain he felt as the apple landed on his head. It sounds crazy but its probably true. Contrary to what we think, it is pain not imagination that is the root of innovation. Okay maybe imagination is  important but we can't underestimate the power of pain.

We need the time, imagination and resources to move forward but the real push to innovate is deeply rooted in pain, failure and all those things we never want to talk about. On and on again we see it happening, Stephen Hawking was motivated to dive into the 'hard' questions after being diagnosed with the motor neurone disease. Michael Faraday discovered electricity not despite of poverty but because of poverty, William Kamkwamba harnessed the wind because of the hardships he experienced from lack of electricity, Eden Full made the sunsaluter after seeing how Kenyan people suffer from lack of pure water and electricity. Taylor Swift writes beautiful songs as a result of, as you  might guess, heartbreaks.

The list goes on and on. Show me a history maker and I'll give you their  motivation. We all experience pain, only some of us are courageous enough to face it. Almost always we try our best to avoid it, and when it does befall us we ignore it. Why not embrace it? Let it motivate you not to make the same mistakes or even better to create solutions. All inventions can be traced back to one source: discomfort/ agony/pain.

Life is amazing, but its not easy. Actually it is hard not a walk in the park ( yes I said that). We are faced with struggles everyday, and in most cases we think they are hindrances to moving forward. Well, sometimes they are the opposite, perhaps the next big thing lies in those struggles. Have an amazing week ahead.

What are your factors?

Some things are crystal clear, like the fact that 4 is an even number and 59 is odd number, 2+3i is a complex one and pi is irrational. We do know the exact factors of these numbers , they are transparent. But what of 29347? Is it prime? Divisible by 3? perhaps 7? It takes a while to know that, even the program I've written to work that out takes a while. A fact, which brings to one conclusion, we are numbers, or at least just like numbers.

Life is so much easier when you think mathematically(literally). Think of humans as really huge numbers and our mission is to identify their prime factors. Some, like 1,000,000 are easily factorised with 2 and 5, others like 5934760 have obvious factors of 2 and 5 plus some other factors which require some effort to pull, others like 2934749 require a lot more effort to get to their root factors (which in this case is just 1 and 2934749 ). Some are just plain right complex and others require a little effort to realise they are irrational. Just like numbers, we humans are infinitely many and different too.

Some call them talents, I call them factors , I believe our life mission is to find those factors and use them for the benefit of humanity. Some tasks require 7's , some require 2's, some require 53's. Some people like have more factors than others, some have less. Leonardo da Vinci was a  polymath, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer,inventor,anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He managed to realise his prime factors and used them, its safe to say he lived a life of purpose. 

So, what are your prime factors? Still don't know them yet? Don't despair, keep moving, one day they will be crystal clear and you will recite them like the alphabet. In the mean time, live an amazing life because , well, what's the alternative?

You might be wondering how exactly do we realise these factors, well, its simple, by living, that's it. Pursue your passion, try out bizarre things you have never thought of doing, help others, make friends, make mistakes, travel. In no time, you will figure out  those talents without even trying.