Re-viewing

It is the age of convenience. The human mind is almost incapable of dealing with the kind of onslaught that it is being subjected to. Too much noise, too much information to sort through, 10 lists of 'To-do's ',another 23 lists of 'What-not-to-do's ', maybe more. More time is likely to go in deciding and choosing between doings than actually doing anything. So what do we DO ??

Filter clutter.. Check how 'others' go about doing their thing....

Just for instance, everyone has this algorithm saved permanently- 

-Open the browser

-Type the movie's name(Probably the first two links are the Wikipedia page, then the IMDB rating link, then Rotten Tomatoes, in that order, )

-If--Rating on IMDB >7.5, Watch/download the movie

-Else,......Chuck it(Maybe doesn't even take that long to decide)

How easy. How straight forward! 

Now the underlying premise behind the whole thing is 'What is said by many, must be right.'

Normally, things go as per the premise. But there is an inherent flaw with the whole set-up.

a) Where does your judgement take you?

b)What if your way of thinking is extremely different from those, whose opinion may make you/keep you from watching/choosing something? here's something.... It is something that we have looked at, studied, rather, taken for granted. It is one of the most deceptive shapes in existence.

The bell curve. 

Too many trends, irrespective of their field of concern have been depicted by the above figure. There isn't a thing wrong with symmetry. As a matter of fact, things all around us are intrinsically symmetric. Probability and Statistics chapters extensively use this curve. But to quite examples straight out of mathematics doesn't sound too interesting now, does it?

Let's start with something we actually relate to. Brains. Look at human intelligence curve.

There's a more Literary example I'd like to quite a line from the movie Batman Begins...

"Every time  a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we(The League of Shadows) return to restore the balance."-Ra's Al Gul 

Yes, it is a fancy set of words put together in a single line, specially for the sake of 'theatricality'. But in this case, the graph of Decadence Of a Civilization v/s Time would probably look a lot like a recursive function printing the Bell curve. Phew! So much to keep the computer nerds happy!

Without digressing any further, the point intended to be conveyed probably drove itself home safely. In any trend, there will be two extremes/ fringes in case of the bell curve, and a central  peak-ish part. Now here's the deal. Things that we see, what we wear, what we do, almost every aspect of our life happens under this vague assumption of somehow fitting into that central space. There isn't anything wrong with it. But this part of the graph has been given unnecessary attention. Something like an over-hyped movie, or...maybe the iPhone.

Tried-and-tested prevail over the things that are actually new. Example again anyone? Mainstream and parallel cinema. We know what lies in the fringes. But how many step out of the 'mainstream'? When was the last time someone went to watch a movie when he/she felt like, without checking it's review in the papers or IMDB? Yes, there is the money factor. What if the movie turned out bull? 

Somehow, we rarely consider the "what if the movie turns out good?" part. In either case, one will have a story to tell. Once you check the reviews, where's your story? Rather, how is your own authentic view, without any prior bias, any different to the review? Besides, just in case it turns out good, how can you experience the elation of taking a risk and succeeding? Even in your own head, your voice will be part of the crowd. And in a crowd, you're not going to be heard.