Everyone seeks knowledge, that is the facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education. Knowledge is what empowers us, but after deeper inspection it may also seize something from us. Something neglected, innocent but more importantly unrecoverable, and that is the joy of not knowing.

Experiences gives us most of our knowledge in life. We experience, learn and ultimately improve. It’s how humans operate, but what we loose in the process is our initial innocence. We will never experience anything for the first time twice. The first time you saw your best friend, the first time you read your favorite book or the first time you traveled alone. What knowledge seeks from us, is ignorance, our blissful ignorance. Gaining an understanding about anything takes that initial unknowingness which may have been the hurdle in the moment, but which will undoubtedly change into a memory miles down.

Education aims to fill in the gaps left by experience. Though more specific and tailored to each individual, it too robs us of the joy of not knowing. Love movies? Learn film making and you’ll not see movies the same again. Love music? Learning it will inform you of every tone change instead of focusing on the melodies. Knowledge peels back the curtain which can never be shut again. This may not be the biggest heist, but it is still a theft nonetheless.

Getting down from my high horse, knowledge may take the innocence from things, but we know it provides something more meaningful in return, that is the pure pleasure of understanding something to the core. Forming a life-long bond with someone, understanding the intent behind every frame of your favorite movie or developing the confidence to be fully independent, are ways in which knowledge provides back. Or simply put, I like to believe for the width knowledge takes, it provides in depth.

This post The Curse Of Knowledge first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

Artificial Intelligence or AI is everywhere. You hear and see the word AI almost every single day. From mundane tasks to the creative, the list of things the power of AI can do goes on and on, and is too big for even me to comprehend. It’s quite fascinating actually, human made software mimicking human behavior. It invokes an image of a dystopian future, but what it brings in actuality is yet to be seen.

The evolution of AI far exceeds a single sector, industry of even medium. The idea of intelligent machines started way back in the 1950’s and it is believed to have not yet fully blossomed. But over the past couple of years AI has quickly picked up steam and has seen mainstream acceptance. AI has shown its competence in mundane tasks such as AI traffic cameras, support bots, recommendation, monitoring system, but more interestingly shown extraordinary abilities in creative ones like animation, art, voice acting and more. Un-surprisingly it has also been an area of concern among different professions, especially the creative one that outright opposes AI generated media, questioning the legal and humane aspect of it as a whole.

I believe AI will change many things, but it will not replace everyone out right. Just like when the Internet went mainstream and many lost their jobs in sectors like, post offices, physical paper printing, and many other middle men. It also gave rise to many such jobs alike on the internet. Likewise, I believe the change AI is about to unleash will certainly shake certain sectors, maybe even destroy a few, but it will also give rise to many other undiscovered opportunities. Is this good or bad? Legal or illegal? Humane or inhumane? Is something to debate over.

AI is inevitable. Speaking against the evolution of AI is futile, just as it was like speaking against the widespread adoption of the internet back in the day. But what can be done is the proper legislation against its use. Creating false identities, misusing photos of people, unauthorized use of art, voice samples and more to create models (datasets), are some areas that need proper attention as this phase of its evolution, so that those involved are properly compensated. I also like to believe, just as we still paint when we could just take a picture, I’m certain we will still do these creative actions when there is an alternative, but to what extend is still to be seen. Nonetheless, I’m certain its ripples will be far greater than the Internet.

This post AI Is The Next Internet first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

I was watching Freaks and Geeks for the first time recently while I was also reading the book “How to overcome your childhood” by The School of Life. I wasn’t thinking of correlating the two in any way, but when I stumbled upon the chapter “The Golden Child Syndrome“, I couldn’t but correlate the two because it made perfect sense. It was a happy coincidence which I will use to explain one of the most revolutionary things personally, I’ve read in my entire life.

The show as a whole is great with thoughtful characters, funny moments and an all rounded fantastic cast. But I’m not here to explain the show, I’m more interested in the motives of the main character. Lindsay Weir is a straight A student who decides she is too good for her own good and decides to take her life into her own hands and be everything she once thought never to be. This is proven throughout the show through her various actions, but I’m interested more on the motive than the outcome.

The Golden Child Syndrome is a syndrome where a child is expected to be extraordinary at everything, not make mistakes, and essentially be “perfect”. But from the child’s perspective, the child is unable to sense any resources or talent within itself to honor the hopes of those it loves and depends on, the child grows up with a latent sense of fraudulence – and a consistent fear that it will be unmasked. This leads the child in a constant loop of reaching for bigger goals never really being satisfied with any achievements, yet striving for more. Even when the people who saw the child as perfect is satisfied or long gone, the child keeps trying to impress, without knowing for who.

Personally, me and Lindsay Weir are on the same boat. We both are the Golden child in our parent’s eye, we both feel un-satisfied with our achievements and we both are on the verge of a breakdown. She has hers at the start of the show and the entire show revolves around that. I had mine this year, which led to a lot of questioning regarding my personal identity. I didn’t know who I was apart from the achievements I’d gathered. I was a painting painted by other artists, and wanted to figure out who I really was. It made me want to do everything I wasn’t. Everything I once looked over started seeming like the possible me. This can be tragic in one’s eye, but it was eye opening for me. The understanding that I am not bound by the expectations set by my parents is a constant one, but one I’m glad I got to know of.

This post Freaks and Geeks & The Golden Child Syndrome first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

You are not just who you think you are. Your present habits, ideology and personality traits take the spotlight because they are the only things that are immediately visible. “Who we are” is the combination of “who we were”. Our past beliefs, habits, decisions and experiences never really disappear and live inside each of us, slumbering. Good or bad, desperate to be forgotten or yearning to be re-lived, seemingly washed away by the currents of time, still living in the shadows within.

You’ll change, your best friend will change, even your parents whom you’ve known your entire life is bound to some change. Sometimes it’s neither good or bad, it just is. But that doesn’t mean they’ve turned into someone completely different. They are still the same goofy, kind and thoughtful person you once knew and loved, they’ve just added a few layers on top of who they once were. This ability to change and adapt to our environment is what made us the dominant species on this earth throughout evolution, and what will continue to.

Never be embarrassed of the person you once were, because like it or not, you’re still that same person, just with a new layer on top. We will always live in the shadows of our former self, haunted by our past mistakes and envious of our past memories. So be proud of your past. Learn to appreciate your stupid mistakes, and be thankful for those happy moments. They will always be within you and that’s what makes each of us unique. There’s also the fundamental core layer that every human shares. The need for attention, care and love, feeling anger, jealousy and fear, being alien to the outside world trying to make sense of everything and one-self. These are primordial feelings that are out of our conscious control.

There are times when you can actually feel the change taking over you. It may be because this change comes from conscious effort, or it may surprise you completely because it was a result of your surroundings and other factors. If the change is for the better embrace it, if it is for the worse nip in the bud, if it is just change let it be. There’s also the people around you who love and care for you, who has to see and accept this change. It will be hard, but they have to make space for the new you inside the bubble that they’ve defined you in. It’s their internal conflict, not yours. If someone really cares for you, they’ll accept you for you because they know, the layer they love is still within.

This post Imagine Yourself In Layers first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

“You remember when we used to go out in the evenings and talk for hours?”

“Yea, those were the good old days”

There’s no such thing as “good old days”, it’s a myth we made, to make us feel as though things were better before. Before things got out of our control, before we got so busy, before we went our separate ways, before we had constraints and before.. now.

The present day will be a “good day”, a year from now. But we still think the present day is a “bad day”, compared to the old days. It’s a paradox. Does that mean life gets worse with time? or that life is neither good or bad, instead we say this to feel at ease when times are hard, and we need something to reminisce about and know life falls in either of these binary shades.

Humans remember only what needs to be remembered. We remember the long talks, those special nights and the shared memories, but fail to recall the stress, negative influence and bad moments from the same day. The thing is, everyday will be a “good day” in hindsight. Mundane moments start seeming like once in a lifetime, and problems we once thought were the end of the world, start to seem as a speck in a forgotten memory. Always remember,

This post Good Old Days Is A Myth first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

Gone are the days of cave paintings, papyrus scrolls and wax tablets. Reading has never been more accessible than right now. From Kindles with thousands of books at your fingertips, to audiobooks on your phone, where you don’t even have to read. The options are varied, and I’m here to give my opinions on each.

No matter where you read, one thing we all can agree on is physical books are the best medium for reading. Not the most practical, Eco-friendly or even financially sound. But reading a physical book has been around for so long that I’m tempted to think it is a part of what makes us human. Holding a book in your hand, seeing the girth of the book, experiencing each page turn and organizing your collection on a shelf, are things that undoubtedly no medium could copy and a core reason why physical books still remain relevant in our age of pdf’s and epubs.

I view ebooks as a perfect companion to physical books. It’s not here to replace physical books, but act as a good practical alternative in a lot of circumstances. Being easily portable, more accessible and cheaper are some of the reasons why ebooks are dominating right now. And if you add an eReader such as Kindle to the mix, it ensures your eyes aren’t destroyed in the process. Overall ebooks are a main reason I got into reading, as it was cheaper and convenient. It also made me buy a Kindle which I cherish, so I owe a lot to ebooks and what it has done for reading in general.

I was late to get on the audiobooks hype train as I was pretty comfortable with my kindle. But after using it, I get why it is popular, but also see a major drawback to it. First the good, it is highly enjoyable, hearing voice actors act out the story with dramatic voice lines brings a whole new life into the characters, or even better, hearing the authors like Stephen Fry act out his writing is truly something special. Furthermore, it is highly convenient, accessible and great in noisy environment, like while traveling. Unfortunately though, I have a few grips. Even though audiobooks are great for fiction, non-fiction isn’t as effective. I feel like hearing and not reading, makes me understand less. Also, If I need to go back a few lines to understand a concept, I can’t do it without taking out my phone, which I find in-convenient. I also noticed, I tend to forget the contents of audiobooks way more often than reading.

All 3 of these have their strengths and weakness and are meant to be used in conjunction, not solely. For me, physical books are reserved for special books which I want to see in my shelf forever. Kindle is my daily driver, which I take to college and read mainly on. Audiobooks are for fiction books, on bus rides and other noisy environment where I can’t concentrate on reading. Each has its strengths and weakness, and it’s up to you, to choose which is right for which book.

This post Books, eBooks and Audiobooks first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

Loving someone isn’t just about the big flashy moments that one remembers when thinking of love. Love isn’t the hot steamy feeling you get in their presence, love isn’t what popular media portraits as love, love isn’t believing your partner is perfect, love isn’t about being obsessed with the other person blind to reality, love isn’t about being the perfect couple in front of others and love definitely isn’t something that happens at first sight. The more you look at people in-love for the long run, the more you understand what love actually is.

Love is mundanity

Love is those quite moments of ordinary nothingness. Love is waking up in the morning trying not to wake the other person up, love is those silence in conversations where you enjoy each others company, love is making leeway for their wishes while hiding your sacrifices, love is giving them a hug even when they don’t need it, love is appreciating their work yet being an honest critique, love is understanding your differences and learning to live with them, love is being their support system ready to catch them when they fall, love is getting along with their family and friends just to see them smile, love is having good communication and talking things out and love is being honest even when a lie is easier.

Love… well, in a way, love is everything, yet nothing.

This post Love Is Mundanity first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

Three simple words that could solve so much, yet many freeze, at the thought of saying it. Maybe it’s because you don’t want to imply something unintentionally, maybe you were once hurt by those same three words, or maybe you just don’t want to make things awkward. Whatever your reason might be, I assure you, it’s not worth the silence.

Saying I love you, means only what you want it to mean. You could say it to your best friend to let them know how much you appreciate them, you could say it to your mom to let her know what a great mom she is, you could say it to that special someone to let them know you care for them, or you could even say it to yourself, for just being you. Everyone deserves to know they are being loved, and we could be the messenger they’re waiting for.

Saying it while you can, is infinitely better than regretting it later when you can’t, because you never know when it’s the last. So hey! I love you. Yes you, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whenever you are reading this. I love you for reading this blog, and giving it your time. I love you for being you, and I hope I encouraged you to say these same three words to at least one other person.

This post I. Love. You. first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

Managing time as a student can be hard. I know that because, I am a student. You have classes 6 – 7 hours daily, which alone can make you feel like your entire day is over. On top of that, you may have assignments, projects and not to mention exams. So with all this going on, it may seem daunting, to fit in time for things you love, self reflection and other hobbies. But as the philosopher Seneca once said, “It’s not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it.”

Alright, you are a student looking to make time for stuff other than your academics. First thing is to lay out how a normal day goes for you. Be sure to include everything, I mean everything from the time you wake up, to when you go to sleep. We do this because from a bird’s eye view, the entire day might seem stacked, but as we move closer we can see the small gaps in between. To give you a better idea, here’s what it might look like :

This is a personal example, so yours will definitely vary. But one thing I want to point out is how time is utilized in college. The thing is, personally, I’m pretty stern in the things I do. I don’t really care if I’m seen as the weird dude who sits and reads on his phone at every chance he gets, nor I mind, people thinking I’m a show off, when I start studying things ahead of the class to make time for when I’m home or for the weekends. I don’t really wonder in college to kill time or waste it in chit chatter, for the most part. I’m not saying I’m right, I’m saying, It’s just how I operate. I say all this, because in your day, you have to decide where you want to utilize your time, and were to waste them.

Other than at college, the main goal is not to make time, but to make good use of the time we have. Therefore sacrifices have to be made, as you can see, you might have small packets of time spread across the day, that you once might have spend scrolling on Instagram, YouTube or simply wasted it. For me, the ride to, and from my college is some good alone time, so I use it for things I need to think about. The free time in college is hectic where I can’t really focus on anything, therefore I do unimportant yet necessary things then. I also maximize my time at home. I do these to make my weekends more free. I usually take Saturday as productivity day and Sunday like today, as hobby time where I can relax and write blogs for example. Here is what the new schedule might looks like :

Also FYI, I don’t go through my day carefully watching this schedule. I made this timetable for this blog, in-order to make it easier to visualize things, but in my day to day, I have reached a point where I know where my pockets of free time are, and what I can do in them. You don’t have to write a timetable and watch it strictly, this just helps you figure where your time is wasted. Also mind you, this isn’t a static timetable like the one you are force fed in college. You can move things around, make different ones for different days, not follow it as you please and update it as things change. Don’t be uptight about it, get creative and find time.

This post How To Manage Time As A Student first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU