Why I read memoirs and why I encourage reading memoirs? - Epigenetics and beyond!
Memoirs are like the soothing stories that your parents or friends tell you about growing up. It’s simply fun to hear their stories, isn’t it? Most of the time you know the ending and you know it is going to be happy, an inspiring one, and the stories are real, something they lived through, their life happenstances that makes them who they are at this very moment. Memoirs helps me connect the dots, find the patterns in the other’s dots. Dots here means the moments, the decisions, the values, the circumstances person goes through etc to become who they are. What shapes people are those dots, who they really are in the core are those dots. Core is the character of the person, what truly matters is one’s character; not how smart they are or how many publications they have or how many degrees they have. To really know a person, try to understand their mindset, how they were raised and what circumstances they went through, because the problems they solved; the pain they endured will not deceive.
There is a science behind how these cliché looking details are shaping the character of a person and this is the moment I teach you Epigenetics. Epigenetics means beyond genetics or beyond the genes. Gene is simply the sequence of nucleotides in DNA. (Nucleotides = nitrogen base, a sugar and a phosphate group). These nucleotides in DNA are arranged in an artistic double helix by hydrogen bonds at the base pair level. The genes that one inherits from parents does not create an unalterable footprint, and this has been proven by scientific studies including studies about eye color, twin studies and how different environment leads to different attitude, health and wellbeing of a twins. A particular genotype does not always lead to same phenotype. One of the reason is because environment affects the expression of gene. So, epigenetics does not change the DNA structure, but it changes how gene expresses. One example of how that happens is by changing the methylation of the nitrogenous base pair. Epigenetics is a dynamic expression of genome based on environmental influence.
Childhood experiences affect the expression of gene. This is particularly studied well for early childhood development. There are clinical studies showing that adversity in early childhood can impact neuroplasticity, effecting stress responses in the adult life. The epigenetic programming in early life can cause positive or negative impact depending on childhood experiences. These epigenetic changes can happen in adulthood as well but the change in an early development causes long-lasting impact.
DNA transcription RNA translation Protein- This is the simple basis of expression of genetic information aka central dogma
Nitrogenous base pairs in DNA are cytosine (C ), Guanine (G), Adenine (A) and Thymine (T).
Cytosine methylation can silence or activate gene expression. This methylation is one of the mechanisms of how epigenetic changes happen. Other mechanisms of epigenetics are histone deacetylation and changes in non-coding RNA.
Childhood experiences affect the expression of gene.
When I read memoirs, I try to learn the childhood experiences and developmental process of these outliers in specific fields. It is interesting to learn what made them who they are today. Is it the parenteral care and nurture, or the adversities they dealt with.
Now, let’s deep dive in the book Source Code, a memoir by Bill Gates. Bill Gates had everything growing up. Reading his own stories, one might consider him Oddball but with extraordinary talent in Math and Science. How Bill Gates is an outlier and what exactly was the outlier is explained well by Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers”. What I am thinking is what might have altered the epigenetics in his childhood? The answer I think is- 1) the way he was raised, (2) the freedom he had, and (3) the safety net. He was different child, but his parents did not send him to special school instead they sent him to counseling. The dinner table conversations at Gates household and how his parents handled the school complains are exemplary. Gates I see had tremendous freedom growing up, freedom in his home to do what he like from reading to long hiking with friends when he would conceive the code for BASIC programming and the academic freedom in Harvard. Freedom is so important in human development and innovations. Safety net I figure is the safe household. The feeling of no matter what happens there are loved ones to support you is a great mental relief. He had his lawyer dad to fall back on, a loving mother who would support anything including dropping out of Harvard. How many children has that safety net? Not many! Source code is a book that proves that a genius is beyond a genetic code.
Bill Gates is a precocious and privileged child grown-up in a fortunate household with the opportunities only few can get. Yes, he did have opportunities, but I’ll ask how many children in America or in his school at that time had the same opportunities, same fortunate household and the access to computer, and no one had the genius and perseverance of Bill Gates. And that’s what makes him special. This book is an honest recall of Bill Gates childhood, in-fact stories from before he was born to establishment of Microsoft that everyone should gain insight from. Personally, I admire Bill Gates because of the philanthropy work he does. One of the philosophy of Bill’s mother was- with wealth there comes the great responsibility of giving it away. Someone who is raised like this and proving it with his actions is the utmost example of integrity and one cannot not admire such quality.
Source code is a book that proves that a genius is beyond a genetic code.
Source code is an honest recall of Bill Gates childhood, in-fact stories from before he was born to establishment of Microsoft that everyone should gain insight from.
