Being a blogger it seems isn't as easy as you think it will be, I am mean when I started out blogging I thought that I will be full ideas and things to write about because there is so much shit that goes around my mind all the time. In retrospect it was to channelise those very thoughts that I started blogging in the first place but DUDE! is it hard I mean its so difficult to think about things to write about as if suddenly my mind's portion that used to spew shitty thoughts after thoughts just stopped working. Anyway, that isn't the reason I am writing to you today for I am writing to you all to inform you about a page, then about the Backfire Effect and then about how growing up suddenly seems such an anticlimax but we'll get to that later first let's talk about this fascinating page I recently bumped into on Facebook.
Its called Brain Pickings, its existence was relatively unknown to me till like three days ago but since the time I have liked this page my news feed is full of amazing theories, biographies and reviews of books not known to me before. The page is basically meant for book reviews and commentary and also urges its viewers to donate for the cause of spreading education. It was on this page that I came to know about the Backfire Effect, a psychological term which deals with the fact that our brain has the tendency to defend our self-righteousness, that is, if our current beliefs are threatened or confronted by arguments which go against it our brain subconsciously backfires and strengthen those very same believes even more. Fascinating, huh? This probably explains why in a heated discussion no side ever gives up as they are immersed in there naked self-righteousness all the time especially when the discussion involves deciding who is better Messi or Ronaldo (Ronaldo of course who are we kidding, right?). All these gyan can be found in the book "You are less dumb now" authored by David McRaney.
Another interesting thoughts that this books puts forward relates to the peculiar habit that we all have of letting compliments slip by whereas holding on to criticism as hard as possible. The thing is that our brain is built to become a slope for all the compliments we receive and a well-crow for all the criticism no wonder being called "names" bugs me so much! Fascinating psychology is wish I could dwell deeper into it but right now I should be dwelling deeper into development economics because I have a paper to write in four hours. Apologies won't be able to enlighten you on how growing up is an anticlimax, I will leave it for the next time. BTW Good days are coming to India (Modi becoming PM) it seems, cannot wait for my free WiFi!
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