Where to invest your brain/goals of life.

Most difficult of philosophical questions.It seems many people have thought over this. In general I would say that goals are very much dependent on society you live in, and there can be no such globally(time/space) optimal goal.

Which means: the goals that human can go after are highly suited to their society. Society in turn changes with time. So, goals are ever changing entity which is dependent on a changing social variables.

The only fields that I think remain consistent over time are in general related to maths and science.Mostly maths. Addition cannot be replaced by something like it in near future and it will continue to remain as important as it was when it was invented for example. Same for 0.

In hindu texts, purushartha or the goals of masculine are given as dharma,artha,kama,moksha.

-dharma is dedicated to follow path of good, and build up good karma.

-Artha seems close to goals of modern society, and it relates to agglomerating wealth ,pursuit of meaning.

-Kama : sexual pleasure , this would probably be most important in ancient times.

-moksha: liberation from birth/death cycle... I am not sure about this one. as their are no means to know if it exsists.


One thing to notice here is , this arrangement is so broad that it can classify into one of 4 categories any of the goals of humans irrespective of time space. bravo for that.


This gives me an idea. Design a system that will given the amount of free time, and genericness or specialization of a particular goal, will provide the optimal goal. This can then be classified into global or local levels etc. I can think of 100k details of this now. Does anyone know if such system exsists ?

Foreign people pronouncing your name

Its often the case that people of a foreign land will probably pronounce your name in some other way. I think they try to relate it to their own speech/langauge. My name is Nikhil. During my univ stay , here at baltimore ,usa , I have found many different ways that I can pronounce my name.

One observation is , different groups in america will pronounce it differently, and all the people of that group will pronounce it in the same way. (Based on my observation, which is atleast 5 different people from same group).

I'll add new entries as I get to hear them. Also remember that they werent just given the name and told to speak. In each case I had pronounced my name loud-and-clear.


1. Arabs,irani,afgani,yemen,etc :
nikhil becomes ni-khai-el (to me this sounds kyrgiz or russian like mikhail)

2. mostly white of baltimore area(I dont know where they actually come from):
nikhil becomes nicole or ni-kh-ole (damn! I dont like this one bit...)

3. black of baltimore area(dont know where they come from,must admit this happend only 3times):
nikhil became nicolai? (I dont get the relation in this one).

4. chini people(dont know actual origin):
nikhil --> nikeel (no 'ha' sound at all)

so till now

pronounce={nikhil,nikeel,nicolai? ,nicole,nikhail}

[:D] I just think this is funny.


I think this is natural,but I would like to think that I would be able to pronounce foreign names more accurately in first try.


One indication is that this means usa is a diverse country , and if this continues , it will probably end up like India one day.