The Plastic side of Human

I could have started this blog with “a wise man once said …”. However, I shall not, for two obvious reasons; one, I never use ‘wise’ and ‘man’ in one sentence (to avoid gender bias). Second, I do not claim to be a wise person, because what I am going to say next, is said by me.

“Humans are like plastic bags”.

This is the pause for your awkward silence waiting for me to explain after I finish the sip of drink I (purposely) took after saying this. While some of my friends slap their forehead in dismay, some of them are eagerly waiting for their cheap entertainment for the evening.

Plastic bags, are most often manufactured for a purpose in mind. The original purpose could be as broad as carry stuff, to as narrow as to freeze stuff in a refrigerator.  Some of these get used for the original purpose that was meant to be, while other are put into improvisational uses.  Most of them get used once for the original purpose, and then are immediately re-purposed for something else.

The unfortunate part is that you never know how you are going to be re-purposed, you could end up carrying some lunch or you could end up lining a trash-can.

However, the ones that do not find a purpose, end up being toxic waste.

This is another pause for you to reanalyze my first sentence and the last two sentences. (If you were paying attention to my rant).

Humans, often find themselves in situations of being re-purposed. Some find themselves in trash-can liner situations, while others may be wrapping glorious branded items. But what is the final purpose of all human life? – end up being toxic waste? This is a mystery indeed. However, I like to believe, maybe, the purpose of human life is to continuously find new ways to recycle and re-purpose.  The day when we stop finding new ways to do so, all our lives will be toxic waste waiting for the apocalypse.

Now, that I have refreshed, and re-purposed myself for a short time. I shall sign-off and get back to my original purpose, which I am getting paid for.

Until next time, keep recycling… 

The master plan!

This is what comes to my mind on may occasions, when I talk to fresh engineering graduates from Indian universities about their career plans- 

Especially when they share their plans of pursuing an MBA instead of industry after getting an Engineering graduate degree.
No need to get offended; of course, I don't mean all of you. I am sure you are an exception! :)

Yes, The worker ant is back with a rant! After so many life changing years, there is certain change in my tone and style. ( or at least I hope so...)

So to get back to the rant topic- The outdated syllabus, the apathy of teachers towards industry requirements and industry trends observed in some universities in India has lead to a fact that getting an engineering degree is like the collecting underpants as in the above video. (Oh! did you not click on the video above? Go watch it and then read ahead! Don't worry its just a YouTube link.)

So a huge population of students, like gnomes, plan to become 'bachelors of engineering or technology'. A very few of them really plan to be 'engineers'.

To be continued.....

God Syndrome -The 'almighty' kid and the puny mortal Ant.

This is a subject on which one can debate infinitely and yet not reach a conclusion; and yet we have some weird attraction towards knowing what is 'out there' - God, the almighty, and some superpower!
This reminds me of some great quotes from the movie - "Bruce Almighty".
Bruce, the central character is really fed up, because he does not get what (he thinks), he deserves.
Sometime or the other every worker ant finds itself in this situation -
"God is a mean kid over an anthill with a magnifying glass, and I'm the ant."

As the movie proceeds, it does put hope in the weak minds by showing an existent 'God';But at the same time, there is also a message, that God (if exists) can only be a facilitator.You have to be the one who initiates and creates change - Work hard and work smart for what you deserve.
God (as portrayed in the movie) says -
“Parting a soup is not a miracle, Bruce. It’s a magic trick. A single mom who’s working two jobs and still finds time to take her son to practice, that’s a miracle. A teenager who says 'no' to drugs and 'yes' to an education, that’s a miracle. People want me to do everything for them. What they don’t realize is they have the power. Want see a miracle, son? Be a miracle."

The worker ant works hard, roams around everyday, to find its grain of sugar, but in vain.It does bring a grain of 'something', but not the sugar it wanted. The "God syndrome" kicks in, the ant keeps on roaming around in the same place over and over again , hoping someday, God will place a grain of sugar, in its path.Little does it know, the miracle it has been waiting for, is in its own hands. So its not just 'hard work' that pays after all; neither just 'smart work'. It has to be 'smart hard work'.

Being from the technology field, I find this syndrome kick in most of the developers while fixing really really crappy bugs. When they don't like it, they blame it on some uncertainty. "God knows; It worked this morning, now it doesn't...."- how the hell will God know about the bugs in your system when he doesn't even have your design documents :).
Another common statement is "I wrote the code 'correctly', it still doesn't work" - This is an implicit way of saying, someone (God or Devil) is making my code go wrong. But it simply means your definition of 'correct' is wrong or what you 'think' you have done, is not what you did. God or Devil (if exists) will have better things to do than to fool around with human made systems, and human written code. This implicit God syndrome keeps the developer from seeing his/her own mistake and is more dangerous than an explicit God syndrome.

Certainly first you put in the bugs, and then you solve it. It is all 'you' all along. So wake up, go out of your anthill, and face the most unsolvable problems in your life and work today. Stop pushing them away in space and further in time. Face them with an open mind, it is 'you' who put them there and only 'you' can solve them. God has already done his job by creating 'you' to solve the problem!

"Godspeed puny mortal ant- Go find your grain of sugar!"

The everyday worker ant - and the grain of sugar!

Well...this is the opening article to my new blog, so I will try to set up definition to our central character –

“The Worker Ant”
    The worker ant is an everyday person seen almost everywhere- in you, me, the person sitting in the next cubicle, the person in your manager's cabin, and the security guard at the entrance gate too. Every worker ant dedicates its life into bringing that one grain of sugar home every day! Well, the definition of "grain-of-sugar" will change from person to person. Interestingly, most of the times, the ant's definition of grain-of-sugar is much different than what it brings home everyday - The 'unhappy' worker ant. And yet due to some kind of ROM boot (geek alert!!) program written in the brain, the ant carries that heavy grain of 'whatever' home. Some 'think' of it as sugar, some 'know' that it 'is' sugar, some don’t know why they are carrying it in the first place!
    We all have a grain of sugar in share for ourselves, just need to find it and know that it is the grain-of-sugar you were looking for all the while!
    The Ant who did not taste sugar for a long time, starts forgetting the taste! Exhausted and tired it picks up a grain of salt, and thinks, "this is the grain of sugar I was looking for - all this time". It takes some imagination to know what is sweet and what is not! What if you were always taught that the taste of salt was sweet, right from your childhood, right from when you started understanding the fact that taste can be described by words?
    Do not be astonished, but many of us have gone through that- being told what is sweet and what is not- and we learnt it that way! All said and done- take everything that I say with a grain of salt! ;)
    Well, my Ant rant can go forever! So I sign off here and take off to finding my own grain-of-sugar. The upcoming posts will certainly tell about things I learn while I set out to find my own grain-of-sugar...

---The worker Ant signs-off - only to sign-in tomorrow again....