The Scientist in Me

I don’t reject advice because it’s wrong—I reject it until I’ve proven it to myself. As a child, I imagined myself becoming a scientist. Life took me elsewhere, but the habit of questioning—of needing proof before belief—never really left me. See how it unfolded in my life, be it coffee, spirituality, or my diet. 

Many learned people say God exists, but I keep questioning that too—trying to understand whether He does exist, and if so, in what form, and how that fits across different religions and philosophies.

This tendency of mine doesn’t stay confined to abstract questions. It seeps into everything.

Even something as ordinary as making coffee turns into an experiment. Today again, I found myself proving—once more—that excess exposure of water to coffee grounds makes the coffee bitter. A very slow extraction from a fine grind does exactly what it is warned to do. It is universally recommended to finish a pour-over within three to three and a half minutes. Anything beyond four minutes is believed to result in bitterness.

So I made coffee twice today, almost back to back.

In the first attempt, there was no bloom. I poured most of the water in one go. The extraction finished in about two minutes. The coffee turned out mild, as expected—partly also because the water was slightly below boiling, thanks to a small mess I had to clean up before pouring.

In the second attempt, I poured the water very slowly, again without bloom. The pour was steady but extremely slow. So slow that the extraction took more than six minutes. And the result was unmistakable—the coffee was bitter, especially the bottom portion of the cup, even though I had stirred it well.

I had just confirmed something that had already been examined and documented years ago. But that’s the point. You see, some things are not choices; they are traits. You may try to apply them selectively, but if something is truly part of your nature, it shows up everywhere.

By a turn of events, I ended up becoming a finance specialist. But as a child, I imagined myself growing up to be a scientist. Looking back, I don’t think that ever really changed. This questioning, this need to test and verify—it wasn’t something I chose. It’s simply how I am wired.

Which is why, when doctors told me that I would have to take medicines all my life to control diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and triglycerides, I couldn’t accept that advice at face value. Not because I thought they were wrong, but because I needed to see for myself—despite it being a well-established and widely accepted medical practice.

So I experimented. I tried a raw food diet and observed that it not only brought those conditions under control but kept them away for as long as I stayed committed to it. I even stopped needing reading glasses after nearly two decades of use. Needless to say I stopped taking medicines for 8+ years now since I had been recommend an angiogram too then. 

And now, another realization has crept in.

Lately, I have been making too many exceptions—on food, and snacking frequently whether raw or not. I don’t feel as physically fit as I once did, and I have put on some weight even if only couple of kilograms. So I have moved on to my next experiment: one meal a day. Even if it is cooked food, it has to be nutritionally balanced.

It has been nearly four weeks now. While I am feeling okay, I know myself well enough to know that this isn’t enough. I need stronger data. Longer timelines.

The scientist in me never really dies.