Are all New Yorkers Part of a Symphony?
Saturday. I and Debbie were on our way to go to New Jersey to a newly married couple's (Abi & Dhwani) house warming party. We had a good time with them and other friends Baris and Chris. On our way we saw something which triggered my interest to post here. In NYC in order to get in to the Subway train you have to swipe your metrocard as shown in the bottom picture to get the turnstille rotate, see the GO sign with green light and sound and finally one person alone could go in. The metrocard swiping is an art in itself. How?, Why, Read this.
We noticed an Asian family with many children (non New Yorkers) were trying to swipe a singe card so each one could get in one after another. So when the father (elderly man) of the family tried swiping the card it didn't work. It took him many swipes and one in 3 to 4 swipes worked. I very well remembered it when I came to NYC first time in 2002 and tried swiping and it took me many swipes before I could get in. Now just like any other New Yorker I swipe in a single stroke and it does work out all the time. So what had happened there. Well you might say practice but how did that happen. This drifted my mind to the book which I read more than a year back written by a neuropsychiatrist (Richard Restak M.D.) named "Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot: Unleashing Your Brain's Potential".
I loved this book for many wonderful insights in to the workings of the brain,how we could also practically improve our mental potential, simple practices to work our brain to increase its potential and reduce the chances of Alzheimer's Disease, how varied reading will improve your mental power and keep your brain fit.....I also learned that how your brain with more than 100 billion neurons have a complex function in which when you learn to ride a bicycle then certain neurons are activated and then the dendrites are interconnected to form patterns. If you do the learning everyday then the patterns are reinforced whereas when riding the bicycle is stopped for a longer duration then at least some of the dendrites get disconnected and the pattern becomes nonfirm. Some muscians when they are out of touch with an instrument they call it "oh it is little rusty and I got to warm up".
So coming back to swiping of the card we New Yorkers get our dendrites wired in our daily usage and record the
-Adequate speed to slide the card through the slot,
- Adequate pressure to use on the card towards the slot,
- Way to hold the card so it doesn't bend when slided (See the picture),
- Which direction the magnetic strip should face.
All this in combination becomes an ART. For non New Yorkers watching New Yorkers in rush hour swiping the card and millions moving in synchronous motion is like watching "New York Philharmonic" in action but without a conductor.
We noticed an Asian family with many children (non New Yorkers) were trying to swipe a singe card so each one could get in one after another. So when the father (elderly man) of the family tried swiping the card it didn't work. It took him many swipes and one in 3 to 4 swipes worked. I very well remembered it when I came to NYC first time in 2002 and tried swiping and it took me many swipes before I could get in. Now just like any other New Yorker I swipe in a single stroke and it does work out all the time. So what had happened there. Well you might say practice but how did that happen. This drifted my mind to the book which I read more than a year back written by a neuropsychiatrist (Richard Restak M.D.) named "Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot: Unleashing Your Brain's Potential".
I loved this book for many wonderful insights in to the workings of the brain,how we could also practically improve our mental potential, simple practices to work our brain to increase its potential and reduce the chances of Alzheimer's Disease, how varied reading will improve your mental power and keep your brain fit.....I also learned that how your brain with more than 100 billion neurons have a complex function in which when you learn to ride a bicycle then certain neurons are activated and then the dendrites are interconnected to form patterns. If you do the learning everyday then the patterns are reinforced whereas when riding the bicycle is stopped for a longer duration then at least some of the dendrites get disconnected and the pattern becomes nonfirm. Some muscians when they are out of touch with an instrument they call it "oh it is little rusty and I got to warm up".
So coming back to swiping of the card we New Yorkers get our dendrites wired in our daily usage and record the
-Adequate speed to slide the card through the slot,
- Adequate pressure to use on the card towards the slot,
- Way to hold the card so it doesn't bend when slided (See the picture),
- Which direction the magnetic strip should face.
All this in combination becomes an ART. For non New Yorkers watching New Yorkers in rush hour swiping the card and millions moving in synchronous motion is like watching "New York Philharmonic" in action but without a conductor.