Benign Acuity

In the intricate tapestry of community dynamics, a fascinating phenomenon often emerges—the enigmatic 80-20 rule, famously known as the Pareto Principle. This intriguing concept suggests that a mere 20% of the causes give rise to a staggering 80% of the effects. But what implications does this rule hold for the problems that plague our communities? Surprisingly, the issues at hand might not be as pervasive as we assume, as they often stem from a minority rather than the majority. In this article, we embark on a journey to decipher the 80-20 rule problem, shedding light on the perils of overgeneralization and its potential impact on vulnerable minorities. Let's unravel the mysteries behind this rule and explore how we can forge a more compassionate and inclusive path forward for our communities—welcome to the realm of 'Benign Acuity.' The 80-20 rule, first observed by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, is a common phenomenon observed in various aspects of life. In community ...

Since the introduction of ‘jidoka’ (自動化), industries have automated many processes through automation. But, they still do require human intervention to some extent and are programmed machines. Autonomy is the next step for the industry, and an important step in reaching that goal is better utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics. Today, AI is usually considered a buzzword in many industries. It is reasonable to simply call is as a ‘buzzword’ to some extent, because at times it is applied in applications simply to boost the ‘marketability’ of things and it isn’t essential. But, tools like deep learning and machine learning when utilized fruitfully with appropriate data, have the power to drastically impact the performance, robustness, or even the general operation of any product in a positive manner. It is a challenging problem to explore, as full autonomy is hard to achieve, but there have been many advances in the past few years that are gradually building the rungs o...

The global chip shortage which has also been termed as the ‘ Chipageddon ’ (this should be the name of the next chipmunks movie :P) , has been so evident and ubiquitous, that if someone doesn’t know about it, they probably have been living under a rock .  The global chip shortage is an ongoing crisis that is due to an amalgamation of different events in the last few years, among which the COVID-19 pandemic has been the primary reason for the shortage. In a recent visit to a local automated door manufacturer, I became aware of the drastic operational changes the global chip shortage had on their operations. Even though I knew about how the global chip shortage has affected the tech industry and automobile industry, I never considered its effects on other industries. After all, they didn’t seem to be as related, or rather as dependent on integrated chips. In hindsight, this feels like a naïve presumption because a lack of supply of chips would affect a lot of things in today’s connec...

In general, any kind of assembly line involve various steps conducted in a specific sequence to produce a final assembled product. This allows for low-cost mass manufacturing as even the unskilled workers can be trained specifically for a step in the assembly line.  Ford assembly line in 1913 (Image Source: Google) Since Ford Motor adopted the assembly line, there have been various changes and advancements to the assembly line. Although it is considered as one of the most important innovations in the manufacturing industry, the same perspective wasn’t shared by the workers. The workers found the work monotonous, and many skilled craftsmen found it an insult. Even though it allowed for higher pay for the workers, it made the work hours long and made workers to laboriously do a single task. Even employing machines to make the work easier didn’t really help the mindless act of operating it repeatedly. This was similar to our team using templates to cut the duct tape. It’s quite likely...

The Social Dilemma  on Netflix can be called the reason behind this blog, but it would just be the pretext. I did initiate this blog piece after watching the  aforementioned documentary last year, but it's a culmination of various ideas from the documentary along with many ideas and questions that I have wanted to bring out through my blog but never came through with doing so. At what point will we start realizing that whatever radicalization is happening around us is not because of the government or whosoever else we tend to blame for that?   We need to realize the existence of these personality and mindset changing things around us, which we use every day. The things which affect us without us having a clue about that happening. Whatever information we learn in schools and our homes affects us in what we do and how we are. In the same way, the information we consume on the internet shapes us in the way we live, from our reactions to our thoughts. And in this information...

Climate change protests (Image Source: Google) Amidst one of the worst water shortages our nation has faced since independence, it is evident that there is a dire need for some serious effort for its management and conservation to fight the shortage. Apart from managing the water resources, we need to work towards sustainability in regards to every other aspect of our environment. Because the origin of every problem in the environment is climate change and increased carbon footprint because of human activities. With the emergence of institutes like NITI Aayog, Jal Shakti, etc., in India, there is optimism for some dedicated work from the government's end to curb these problems, but the people as well need to do the work on their end. Instead of just discussing these issues, raising their concerns, and moving on with their lives unaltered. Recently, there was a petition on change.org to 'Declare Climate Change as an emergency in India' . It was extensively circ...

Nowadays, there is a raft of video games to play on all the platforms, the conventional PC, gaming consoles and mobiles. Contrasting from the days when the games weren’t as immersive and detailed, to the incredibly realistic games now, there has also been a significant change in the way the games are perceived now. There was a time when people used to spend their time outdoors, involving themselves in sports and other activities, even just sitting outdoors embracing natural beauty. But, all this has been long lost, and most people now spend their time (not ‘work’ related) with their eyes gazing on the screens of their mobiles or their computers. But, change in the behaviour of people, with them spending more time alone with gadgets and the lacuna of spending time outdoors is an entirely different topic of discussion. And there have been numerous renditions in the form of movies, novels, etc, of what our lives may be in the future if this does not change. A still from the movie, ...