Oh I beg to disagree that people who think rationally act rationally. There is almost always a dichotomy between thought and action. What I “think” may not necessarily be the way I act. Simply because “action” implies transgression into the physical boundaries of our existence and ergo conflicts with the boundaries of others. Unless one is hopelessly naive,ideal or both it is impossible to think and act the same way. ( No it is not hypocrisy in the traditional sense ).

I know quite a lot of people from your IIM batch. Former CAT aspirant,pagalguy.com forum etc .

and yes, i’ve read Selfish Gene, and thatz where i get this idea of the purpose of life being to procreate.

i agree that people don’t always behave rationally. actually people don’t always think rationally – i think if you think rationally you’ll act rationally.

btw how do you know me? who are you?

that divorce is not very socially acceptable here is a sign of oppression. i’ve heard stories of several relatives who are trapped in really bad marriages, but are “conservative” and hence don’t want to talaaq.

And again most of these analyses assume that people behave rationally. Some of us might “think” rationally but most of the time there is a dichotomy between thought and action.

From your linked in profile :
“I spend a lot of time trying to answer fundamental questions in life, and specially those connected to the workplace. Questions such as “why is something this way and not that way?” “why do people behave in a particular fashion in a particular situation?” etc.”

Not surprisingly these were the precise questions which I was/am obsessed about too ( Right after what I am going to eat next and when I am going to get laid next . Atleast I know the answer to one of these) . I am increasingly led to think that we are wired to think and act only in a certain way. I am guessing you are familiar with the MBTI types ? To me it’s been astonishing how uncannily accurate it was in “bucketing” people and their personality. Yes sure it only indicates a “bucket” and there are degrees within it which will vary. But over all to a large extent it is a very very good tool at understanding why some people behave the way they do. The point I am trying to make is our brains are “wired” and our cognitive capability is pre determined. From what I know of you from your posts and our mutual acquaintances , I am willing to go out on a limb and predict your personality type. It is pretty simple to narrow down your type to either of the four :
INTJ, INTP,ENTJ and ENTP.
Since I don’t know you well enough identifying the one from this is more trickier. But my guess is INTJ.
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Anyway MBTI is just a starting point. Atleast that’s an understandable explanation to,for want of a better phrase, ‘suffer fools gladly’ . On a serious note what’s been quite a disillusionment so far is the deterministic aspect of our personality itself. What you and Neha write makes absolute sense to me but there are many who would go “What the heck are they blathering about? ” and wax eloquence on “love” and the “feeling” bit. Good luck by talking about pheromones and mental wiring.

You’ve done a brilliant job of counting the costs, but you have forgotten about the benefits! I have to believe there are some, but I’m just not the best person to ask. Anyone any ideas?