Anecdotes, Facts, Examples for GS and Essay
This thread is meant to be a repository of interesting anecdotes/news articles/facts/examples/case studies which we can use in our essay and GS papers. In my experience, listing these things down somewhere is not enough to ensure that we are able to use them in the exam. Therefore let us discuss and debate so that we can internalize them.
More insights on what makes a good essay?
Hi, I think scores may have been different if someone else valued it; so, some of the following , if not all, might be useless. I scored very poorly in all my essay mocks last time, but got decent feedback on forum.
My learnings are as follows:
1. Adopting an argumentative method of writing the essay, as opposed to a method where you simply elaborate on the given topic may pay rich dividends. For instance, if I got a topic “There can be no social justice without economic prosperity but economic prosperity without social justice is meaningless”, I would broadly engage with the following ideas: a) Can there be social justice without economic prosperity; b) Is economic prosperity a precondition for social justice; c) Is economic prosperity without social justice meaningless or can economic prosperity be a gateway to greater social justice? Rather than adopting an approach where I would simply elaborate on the given topic by touching upon different topics, I adopted a style where I wasn’t afraid of going against the topic if I had cogent reasons to do so. Then of course, where it was apt, I did add in quotes, but only if I could connect it directly with the point I was making. For example, in the above topic, I remember using “The opposite of poverty is not wealth. The opposite of poverty is justice.”
2. Presenting ideas and arguments, and having a logical flow to them rather than jumping around different dimensions of the same topic helps.
3. Staying authentic. I felt presenting ideas that are internalised adds more value than giving a great number of facts or examples or quotes.
4. A run of the mill essay can be boring. An essay which is a bit off beat can be high risk, but highly rewarding. Striking a conversation with the examiner helps, because majority of aspirants fail to do this.
5. Pick a topic which you can connect with. Popular advice is to avoid philosophical essays as much as you can. I felt comfortable with them because they are open to interpretation. I wrote on the essay “Mindful manifesto is the catalyst to a tranquil self.” That topic, at least to my interpretation, struck I chord with where I was at that point in my life. So, I felt I could present my ideas well.
6. Spending way too much time brainstorming can be counterproductive. Having a broad idea of the arguments you would engage with, and a reasonable idea about the specific points that you can quote on the way might be enough. If I spend too much time brainstorming, I overcomplicate. I think writing an essay gives you ideas along the way. Do use them because they might be your best ones. However, be careful not to deviate from the topic.
7. What gets valued is your thought process, not your knowledge.
Sharing some pointers that I had made while reading Homo Deus..@Purplesunbird
These are very random notes and may not even make sense to you.. But if you type these phrases on google and write homo deus in front of it, maybe it will help you..
Cyber warfare
Knowledge based war.
Coca cola vs terrorism.
Terrorism. China shop. Fly story. .
Saddam hussain. USA. Analogy. .
Homo sapiens into homo deus.
Glass cieling of happiness. Psychological(expectations)
Biological
Cyborg
70s might become the new 40s. Researches on increasing human life.
No money for pensions.
No line between healing and upgradation in medicine.
Paradox of knowledge.
The more we can know, the less we can predict.
Mother infant bond is universal among all species.
Turing test compt vs human mind
Economic growth has now become a religion.
Considered to solve all issues. .
Greatest discovery is the discovery of ignorance.
Energy ,raw material ,and knowledge are the main sources.
Save economy from freezing and ecology from. Boiling.
Assumption that future scientists will be better at handling crisis. It is a flawed approach.
Poor more worried about economy than ecology because they have no other option.
Rat race- individual stress.
Despite all achievements, we have more pressure to do better.
In a free market customers are always right. . If customers reject a car, it is a bad car.
Implant electrodes in brain to remove PTSD or depression. Ethical reasons.
Transcranial direct current stimulus-helmets.
Watson AI machine.
Ibm deep blue chess.
Humans are specializing in comparison to hunter gatherers. Thus AI is feasible.
Techno-humanism.= create homodeus from homo sapiens.
Intelligence is decoupling.
I think the same can be said about every generation. People living in the era of the 2 world wars saw the likes of Lenin and Gandhi and Nehru and Stalin and Roosevelt and Churchill and Hitler. The generation before had Marx and Garibaldi and Mazzini.If you think about it we are one of the luckiest people in history for being alive at the same time when some of the worlds greatest leaders are also alive -Xi Xinping , Narendra Modi, Erdogan, Putin. These leaders will be remembered in history for giving a new life and new prominence to their respective countries, duniya me Danka baj rha being their greatest contribution.
what's more fascinating is that All of them are trying to surpass the legacies of their countries' biggest leaders - Nehru , Mao, Stalin, Ataturk- and at the same time also forging New India , New Turkey , New Russia , New China.
At the same time, a generalization to the effect of being luckiest in the history is an overstatement. I am sure people in the war torn Yemen and Ethiopia and Afghanistan don't feel the same.
The “ Superman of Earth “ Jon Kent, son of Clark Kent( Original Superman), will be coming out as bisexual, reflecting DC’s support for LGBTQ’s representation in the comic world. Other DC comic characters from LGBTQ+ community are BatWoman, Harley Quinn and Robin.
Note- this can be used as example in topics like gender equality, LGBTQ+ issues and likewise.(keeping in mind the Transgender Persons(protection of rights) Act in news)
I will start. As per SIPRI, world spent $2 trillion on military in 2020. Jeffery Sachs estimates that we need around $3.5 trillion spread over 20 years to eliminate global poverty. So if we are able to cut down our military expenditures for few years we will have enough money to deal with problems such as poverty and climate change. A lesson for ethics in international relations?
The thing you wrote about writing & posting the stuff is not enough is so so true. We shall try to discuss when we get off time. I had made some good compilation on various book about poverty including Jeffery Sachs ka books. I'll try pen the crux of it down when I get some time.
Extended Mind Hypothesis by Chalmers & Clark
Can be Used in essay related to technology
We have traditionally thought of our mind as being limited to our brain. While the brain is a tangible organ of our body, the human mind is much more than that. It is an invisible entity that transcends our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and imagination. The act of cognition isn’t restricted to the grey matter in our skull. David Chalmers and Andy Clark call this belief a kind of “skull chauvinism”. In ‘The extended mind thesis’, a seminal work in the philosophy of mind, these cognitive philosophers suggest that the objects within our environment function as parts of our mind. It is arbitrary to say that the mind is contained inside the skull. Our external environment plays a significant role in aiding the cognitive process. The brain and the environment work together in a coupled system to create effective cognition. When we use pen and paper to solve long divisions, a part of our cognition takes place on the paper. Once the Historian Charles Wiener told the famous physicist Richard Feynman that his notebooks were a wonderful “record of his day-to-day work”. Feynman replied that the notebooks weren’t the record of his thinking process. They were his thinking process. Complex acts of cognition become almost impossible without external aid and Feynman clearly understood the extended mind. We have moved on from using just pen and paper as our extended mind. Our smartphones are always with us, ready to connect us to the world on a click. Clark & Chalmers used the example of a notebook that an amnesic person can carry. The notebook does the job what his mind can’t- Remember. Smartphones are way better than our extended minds.
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