The scientific side of Quora

I've never been a big fan of Quora, or the hype surrounding Quora in spite of very close friends being huge fans of it. And I've never been able to pin point the reason for the success of Quora as well- especially in India, given that most questions asked on Quora would have answers provided on wikipedia or on some similar source which is more or less accurate, and in any case more reliable than posts on Quora. Let's try and pin point.

Explanations provided on Wikipedia and/other technical sources tend to be too technical, and catered towards the academic- while people googling things out tend to not be academics (I hope). Thus, the target audience here from Quora's point of view is the average person, who wants to either prepare for exams, enhance knowledge for work related requirements, or is curious is general about scientific concepts (happens a lot in Asian countries especially- higher penetration in India has to do partly with our comfort with English).

Sites like Investopedia tend to give simpler explanations, but still maintain a certain amount of professionalism while giving examples and would not cite cricketers or bollywood actors or other things which Indians relate to (or other similar things that we can easily relate to as a global citizen as well). We love pictures, examples and simple explanations which may not be 100% accurate but are easy to grasp and provide us maybe 80-90% of the picture. These explanations generally have more value to the public as a whole who may not 1)have the technical knowledge to understand complete definitions and 2)may not have the patience to understand the whole thing

Let us look at the people who might be capable of providing answers to a technical question. (I pause here to note that not all questions on Quora are technical questions, but the success of Quora I believe is because of scientific questions like say 'Why do we have day and night' answered in very simple terms but without sacrificing too much on completeness. )We have the academic who answered the same question in a journal which was in turn quoted on Wikipedia who would answer it in a complete fashion, with a technical explanation and maybe an obscure example. Suppose we take the function of financial markets as a question and the journal would have explanations about moving money across time and states of nature and will provide a few examples with notations that may be a bit alien to the average reader. Now, an ex-VP of an investment bank would give a much simpler explanation than the academic because he has grasped the essense of the question much better than the academic, has seen real world applications or examples, and also knows better - how to capture the imagination of the listener while answering a question.He would talk about a student who hit a lottery who wants to move his money ahead in time since he cant consume it all at once, or a poor farmer who wants to hedge and move money across states of nature (I'm not really trying to be too creative here- the VP would obviously have better definitions).

Now what exactly do we want simple answers?- this is particularly relevant to Indians, but applicable across the world as well. People are lazy (in spite of having enough time on their hands, are unwilling to invest it in learning terminoogy or concepts), have too little time to spend on understanding answers (might be a senior professional not well versed in technical terminology) and in general, value answers with a practical outlook (as humans, we often understand better with illustrations, examples etc). Also, time is a limited resource and lesser time spent on understanding a concept is a kind of value addition a well. Thus, the time that a person spends in answering a single question- putting his practical knowledge and spending his time into the answer, can save the time of millions of others and help them relate the answer to day to day things that they experience. The success of Quora is in getting the people who answer recognition within the website and thus give them an incentive to write great answers. Asking questions isn't easy either and such people (who ask crisp, practically relevant questions) are also appreciated by the community and Quora facilitates this.

Philosophical questions are also a big draw that Quora has to offer- perhaps I'll write about it some other time when I have a clearer idea about the success of that part.

God, hope and power

Done with the 5th season of Game of Thrones and so far the least impressive (as in, did not make an impression that will last long). Don't worry- there won't be spoilers if you haven't seen the season yet, except for a very minor one. You have been warned, nevertheless.

The idea of God is an interesting one. As I've probably written about him in the past, I firmly believe that he is a construct of human imagination which serves a very real purpose- one which has become less relevant over time but is still very important to a majority of human population. The fact that all Gods of all religions have such strong connections with humans as compared to other creatures is a basic indication that this is the case. But I will not go into the details of proving why God probably doesn't exist and rejoice at the fact that his existence doesn't really matter- since he is all loving and would not differentiate between his children on the basis of the love his children have for him. Thus I am sure that I will be loved by the God who does not exist- even more so than others who waste time trying to impress him.

While the idea of God and the cause of his creation are interesting things (kings and noblemen probably created him to authenticate their power, and to control citizens through fear of divine punishment in case they escaped punishment on earth)- what is even more interesting is how God has completely overdone his stay. A concept created thousands of years ago, it is amazing how God is well and truly alive to this day- where thousands of people die in his name every year.

One reason I've always thought of is the hope that God gives us- humans don't always get what they want, and can lose hope and thus the willingness to live. The fact that there is someone looking after us gives us the hope that better days might come. Thus, a sense of purpose is also created within people and thus they lead happier lives, and have a sense of purpose while doing things to survive. The hope that God will help you with getting a better job, or in getting a better girl, or in buying that new phone will keep you from giving up altogether.

Only recently did I think of a side-effect of this hope creation. Certain people who are highly intelligent, yet realise the true meaningless of life may not be able to live with their sense of powerlessness and hope. They might not survive long enough to reproduce and even if they do- may not do well enough in life with all their sadness. A highly philosophical person would find life much less fun to live than a high flying investment banker who fucks around in Beverly Hills. Thus, by a process of natural selection people who are highly skeptical- at least some of them become extinct and are replaced by people who are have hope and faith (and God certainly helps).

 A connected, and less important reason might be the difficulty people have in comprehending the choices in front of them and in knowing they have an eternal father figure to protect them even if their real world parents are not. God can also be a convenient construct who will help you reinforce your beliefs (which may include questionable ones like killing Jews or killing non Muslims, or indeed less questionable ones like cheating or stealing to help your own family survive).

The most recent reason I observed has to do a lot with the corporate world. While this reason is again connected to the other two, it is a fresh perspective and helps explain the often seen higher amount of faith that adults display in God, compared to their younger folks in the same society.  In GoT Season 5 *Minor Spoiler Ahead* Cersei is kept in the dungeon by the High Sparrow and his followers. This is probably the worst time Cersei has gone through till now, even though she's had pretty much half a dozen blood relatives murdered. She's deprived of food, water and company and placed in a dungeon. Once in a while she is teased by a lady- lets call her 'lady' for now. This lady confidently defies all the threats that Cersei (the queen mother) makes about how she will make the lady regret every bit of what she was doing. The lady goes on to tease Cersei with water and ensures her of being given water if she confesses to her sins (of incest). Cersei's stubbornness in refusing to beg or plead for mercy is understandable given her family's position. However, the same amount of stubbornness is shown by the lady (who ends up being the more stubborn of the two in the end). BUT HOW? The lady is an absolute nobody, yet she gets the power (along with the other followers of the 'High Sparrow') to keep Cersei in their prison in spite of being absolute nobodies in the real world. The answer of course is their faith. They believe in the power that a queen has- but more than that, they believe in God, who has higher power than those who have power over them on earth. From our horrible bosses, or the parents that we hate or the corrupt politicians- to this day it is a problem for humans that they are governed by people whom they despise. A higher power which no one can see, which supports their beliefs is so much more convenient than reality.


For the sake of completeness, I'd like to mention a bias believers have in perceiving events that often helps sustain their belief- they would notice successful prayers more than failed ones and this also contributes a lot to how adults have stronger faith over time. Another reason is the high amount of responsibility adults tend to have, resulting in lack of self belief in handling all the responsibility by themselves. The list is far from complete, but Ive highlighted the important reasons hopefully.

To conclude I should say I do love God- not because I am selfish and expect anything in return (I do not assume God is selfish enough to love only those who love him), but because I am in awe of the magnificent creation of man that gives billions of people a reason to live. I should also mention that a strong morality, and love of human beings is absolutely essential for sustained happiness of an atheist, in case you're a non believer.