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Nov 12, 2012

What is Maturity ? Maturity = Function of Resources

One of the most common opinion and judgement people tend to make is about one's maturity. "Oh, he is so matured" or "oh, he is so immature,  he needs to grow up". I have witnessed small kids who are over-matured than their age and I have seen oldies...who are highly immature.

So the question boils down is what teaches us maturity ? How do we travel on the road of being a responsible person and how do we get enlightened by the learnings of maturity (just being melodramatic !!!)

I have always been taught that maturity accompanies responsibility. They always say : "oh, shove some responsibilities on his head and he'll automatically be matured" but i think its not foolproof. Over the years and after lot of reasoning, I believe it all zeros down to one thing : RESOURCES.

Mathematically expressing : Maturity = Function (Resources)

In second year college, we had economics as a subject and the first chapter explained the human behavior. It    explained : Human needs /wants are unlimited, but the resources to satisfy them are limited. When I say resources, I dont restrict myself to wealth alone, it may include anything and everything that would satisfy the human want, it can even include time !

Let me dwell further, hypothetically speaking say a human has 100 needs, but the available limited resources (money, time etc.) are able to satisfy only 40 needs. Now, there is a scarcity of resources. Now this Problem of Scarcity gives rise to Problem of Choice. This is when people have to make "choices" as to which need to select.

In this selection process, a human brain undergoes a number of missions, it starts prioritizing the needs and  allocates the available resources so that it can Maximize the Satisfaction level. While doing so the brain is forced to think, forced to reason, forced to balance between logic and emotions, forced to weigh the pros and cons of each need and finally forced to take a Decision. This entire decision making process over a period of time leads to Maturity !

Similarly, say a human has 100 needs and the available resources are unlimited, so there are no problem of choices because all his needs are met. If all his needs are met, he doesn't have to think or deliberate or rationalize to satisfy his needs. And since he doesn't need to think, he will never grow up and never mature !

Example : Money is one of the most important resource. I believe most will agree with me that on an average a poor man is more conscious and matured than a rich guy (of course there are hundreds of exception to this belief). The reason - scarcity of resource (money). A rich man has unlimited resource to spend on his need, whereas a poor man has limited resources to spend on his need and hence he has to rationalize amongst the available resources.

Ofcourse, whatever I have expressed above, there may be many exceptions to it and that this theory can be arguable. But the fact remains that higher the availability of resources, the lower is the maturity level and scarcity of resources leads to higher level of maturity. In order words,

Maturity =  ( Resources)

P.S. : Just few days back, my mom said that I am the most immature person. I cant believe I have written this article !

9 comments:

  1. Beautifully written article. Would like if you could also consider factors other than resources also that would determine man's maturity:-)

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  2. thanks, u can consider...but i feel even they will be ultimately connected to resources

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  3. Pratik...well written man...never ever thought abt maturity in dis way...

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  4. A very different n unthinkable relation established brilliantly..keep it up!!

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  5. and i fall in love with u all over again!!!!

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  6. Nidhi Sanghani KamdarFebruary 26, 2013 at 8:49 PM

    Well thought article!!! looking forward to more....

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  7. very interesting ! Would like to read more about such "life concepts" being evaluated in mathematical terms :-)

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