Simplicity and Longevity: Life Lessons Sine Wave Taught Me

I am an Electronics and Communications engineer by qualification. What I have learnt technically by completing a degree in electronics is highly debatable. But the fact that I have learnt a lot in life from Electronics is not debatable :)

Today I would like to share what Sine wave taught me.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Vale_sinusoidale.gif

1. Keep it simple.

Sine wave is the simplest waveform that can be generated naturally.

It says keep simple things simple. Do not get into the habit of Making Simple things Complex, which I generally call MSc degree.

Whatever is natural is simple and long lasting.

2. Develop a long term view

When delta t is very small we can assume the wave to be smooth. If we take a look at short ranges it appears to be increasing monotonically (Eg 0 to PI/4 a) or monotonically decreasing in the other ranges. But when you consider the whole range it becomes clear that the wave has both positive and negative slopes.

It says when we consider in small patches it may either appear as a string of good times (or a string of bad times) but when you consider the whole life you will get to know that every trough is followed by a crest and every crest is followed by a trough.

So be humble when you are going upward and be optimistic when you are going down.

3. Keep going

Cosine wave is a variation of a sine wave. It is just a sine wave with phase shift. It starts with peak value at the beginning, whereas a sine wave starts with a zero value.

Some may start with a high and some may start with a low. But each one of us has got to go through highs and lows.

4. Break it down

http://www.peterstone.name/Maplepgs/images/Fourier_series.gif

Fourier wave says that any complex waveform can be broken down into n sine waves ( as n increases the approximation get better) of different frequencies and amplitudes which in turn gives rise to the complex waveform when they are superposed.

Every complex and difficult task can be broken into a number of simple and easy tasks. But in real life the actual value should not be very high, it must be optimal. This is true up to a certain extent in electronics also. As n increases the approximations become more accurate. But after a certain value the increase in accuracy is not worth the extra time and efforts.

5. Your altitude matters

The average output of a sine wave is zero. So just by increasing the amplitude or frequency you cant increase the total power output. The only way of increasing the average output power is by adding a positive offset.

Since you know you have to go through the highs and lows make your attitude independent of them. Your output {or success} is dependent upon the offset and that is nothing but the altitude. So increase your altitude in the positive direction.

Remember that your attitude determines your altitude. So, develop an attitude where in you can handle the crests as easily as you handle the troughs.