Eureka Moments

Children are far more creative than older ones.  In my observations, games that they play, play an important role. I recently read in tidbits that playing Sudoku, Crossword or brain games will prevent Alzheimers. My point here is not about preventing the disease, but to promote the number of Highs we get in each of such Winning events. I term these as Eureka Moments.

As quoted in an article about ‘fighting ageing’, <quote> “There’s a growing body of evidence that suggests playing video games actually can improve older adults’ reflexes, processing speed, memory, attention skills and spatial abilities,” said Jason Allaire, an associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University and co-director of its Gains Through Gaming Lab. </quote>.  Problem solving is a very essential skill we all need to work on.  Besides keeping our brains active, keeps us open to face challenges.

On my part, in my endeavor to make a better-tomorrow, I keep looking for tools that can simplify processes through available computing resources. There are a number of tools and apps, now available in abundance. I do agree that finding an exact match is a difficult task. However, vast majority of them are very helpful and, there are quite many which can be customized. Even when we don’t strike the right tool or app, we gain insights to device our own.

Solving math puzzles – thanks to Shakuntala Devi –  used to be my favourite pass-time in my younger days. Playing Sudoku is a very elated moment for me.  Sudoku, makes me crazy; I have written code to solve every Sudoku puzzle using Visual Basic elements in MS Access. Though I can’t claim to be a Developer in the true sense, Coding has been a passion, a hobby, a favorite for decades now. Been reading through hard-codes of Lotus-123, doing my own dBase III plus programs, graduated to Visual Basic, Oracle and now learning to create utility apps with front-end PHP. Databases with MySQL have now become part of my cerebral area, that I am finding it so very difficult to unlearn and move to NoSQL concepts. How are these relevant to this point of discussion ? I shall explain..

Every time I get a problem to solve, I put on the hat of a Tech person and start thinking of optimizing the available inputs in digitized form.  Tweaking on, is there a solution available from within the realms of existing applications. Fortunately, most of the times, Yes. I land up with such a solution in mind. I have been successful in solving many process issues through simple solutions. I move out of the problem, and move in. Thus, get to see it more clearly.  I firmly believe in the Quote, “Every problem comes with more than one solution”. This helps me in playing with logic and puzzles. Probably I think more like a computer – do they call this boxed thinking – than most regulars of the homo-sapiens.

Only when I begin writing down the solution I start facing the road-blocks. Constipating, though may not be the right word to express the anguish or difficulty I face, when getting stuck with one move, that distances me from the desired solution. After deliberating a number of times, over all possible moves, obsessed with the process, redoing the Aye to Zee of all the steps, talking unto myself as to what would have gone wrong, going in long loops with no end in sight. Then, at a time when the horizon widens and it dawns, sometimes the mistakes have been as silly as ‘an-extra-dot’, there comes my Eureka Moment, with a gush of adrenaline. After all, if things were that easy, there is no HIGH in achieving success.

My two cents, please keep the child in you alive, play Games, solve Problems and Puzzles, increase the Eureka Moments in Life.