January 2025
- Pavan Soni
- Apr 29
- 3 min read
Wish you and your loved ones a delighted New Year 2025.
May this year be a game changer for you, on achieving your purpose of life and giving it a full throttle.
Since life is long and the world is small, we will meet soon.
Here're the top five stories from last year that I found insightful.
ChatGPT, the conversational, generative AI from OpenAI is quickly replacing Google search as the preferred destination for questions and even homeworks. The puzzle remains: Does it enhance creativity? A series of five experiments conducted on various subjects shows that ChatGPT is far better at assisting one's creativity than what Google could do. What's of interest is GPT's ability to generate incrementally creative ideas, those that improve or build on what already exists. To a query, it offers relevant results knitted in a coherent whole, which saves user's efforts and offers nudge in further querying. Though, the responses may not always be accurate or novel. (Source: Fast Company)
Based on a study of 1000 readers, it is shown that the structure of two regions in the left hemisphere, which are crucial for language, become anatomically different over time. One is the anterior part of the temporal lobe, which helps associate and categorize different types of meaningful information. The other was Heschl’s gyrus, a fold on the upper temporal lobe which hosts the auditory cortex. Such well developed, thick structures are very essential to not only make sense of what we are reading, but also of the world around us. The same effects are not seen when one watches or listens to the same content. (Source: Wired)
When at work, our brains are stuck in the beta state — a state of constant busyness where creativity is blocked. In contrast, when we’re in an alpha state, perhaps resting after completing a task, or taking a break to meditate, we are more receptive to creative ideas. Similarly, in a theta state, while daydreaming, taking a long drive, or jogging, we are making more free connections. By introducing playfulness at work, we can create more of such conditions and allow ideas to take hold. One approach is to introduce energizers —short, playful activities, such as drawing, exercises, or role-playing games — multiple times a day. You can also create physical space to encourage play. But, at any rate, it's critical to make the workplace less work-only. (Source: HBR)
We somehow associate technology to only be evolving in one direction — cheaper, faster and better. But not always. There are some technologies which could simply disappear, or get replaced by its predecessors. 2024 was one such year where a lot of technologies fractured. Take for instance the Woke AI which produced Black Vikings and female popes. The Boeing Starliner was another blooper, unable to fetch Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, stranded on the International Space Station. The CrowdStrike outage on July 19 showed how vulnerable we are even to regular software updates, when they go wrong. Vertical farming, personalized medicine, carbon markets, have all seen their promises not getting delivered. Better that we be conservative about tech promises. (Source: MIT Tech Review)
Not only do Japanese children do well academically; they also show remarkable independence at a young age. The Japanese education ministry's slogan is chi-toku-tai: a blend of chi (academic ability), toku (moral integrity), and tai (physical health). This means lots of sports and arts. Teachers praise efforts rather than achievements, and design the curriculum and the day in a manner that fosters resilience. It also goes to show the level of social trust and safety taken care of in public systems of the country, which help develop more self-confident citizens. Can such practices be cultivated in India? What could be the first steps? (Source: The Economist)
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