Our most forgotten question : Why ?

Curiosity is a trait that we see diminishing when people grow up and we talk about them getting "wiser" ?

Whenever I talk to a child, I'm struck by the number of times I'm asked "why ?"
I'm also struck at the number of times I'm NOT asked "why ?" by an adult !

How I wish we could all magically retain our ability to ask "why ?". To me, this is the most important question that needs to be asked and it needs to be asked first. Inatech is a company that does business consulting and it takes us a LOT of time to convince our own employees to ask this question. Unfortunately, either the Indian education system or the society has converted all the "whys ?" to "whats ?"

It is hard work to get an individual to ask the customer "Why do you need this process ?" instead of "What do you need done in this process ?" - thereby, missing the whole point of "NEED" ?

Maybe it is due to our education system that encourages learning by "rote". I do remember one of my own science teacher who said - "You do not need to know that to pass your exam" as a response to my question. (incidentally, ever since, She's lost all respect from the child in me)

Or, is it due to the societal pressure of accepting what is said by "elders" and not to "question elders ?". I can almost visualize the conversation - a child asking a parent "why is the sky blue" and the parent replying "Because, it is so" and adding almost casually "don't waste time asking obvious questions".

How many of the "elders" have the maturity to accept that he / she does not know and takes the effort to go and look up "Rayleigh scattering" or just "Why is the sky blue" in google / or an encyclopedia ?

Or, maybe we can also blame this on our famous Indian "fate" and quote like Lord Tennyson : "Ours is not to reason why, ours but to do and die" :-(

Handing work over to others : Whom would you choose

Following on my adage bit... I've always held the belief that when you want work done, do not pass it onto someone who has nothing to do, instead, pass is to the busiest chap with a hint that he/she can use the other resources as they deem fit.

The reason is simple. A person who has no work is in such a position for either one of the following reasons
a) The person has no initiative and needs to be told what to do
b) Everyone else thinks that it is a waste of time to get things done out of this individual (and in most cases, they'd rather do it themselves)

Both of these are fundamental issues with either attitude or approach and are not to do with expertise. Expertise is the easiest of the problems to solve, while people use that as an excuse. Ie. you will hear often that someone does not have either the skill or the expertise to do a particular job. While this is true for specific skill based execution, it has no relevance in "getting the job done"

Maybe I'm rambling ?

Net net, you will still me making a beeline to the person who is fully loaded ...

My Beach Economy Theory - views expressed in private until now

I have been traveling the last few weeks and hence no recent posts : Well, in reality, that is an excuse.

During the trip, one of the bits that was discussed was my series of "one line adages" - I was then asked as to why I've not posted these onto my own blog - so, here goes .... the first one is an opinion that I've held for over 15 years....

The theory is what I call the "Beach Economy". In this, I theorize that NO economy (other than hospitality industry based) can flourish near good sandy beach towns.

I could state a few examples. In India, I would list : Goa, Trivandrum the good beaches of Orissa etc. The reason is something that I've learnt first hand in Goa.

In Goa, I learnt that an individuals' life ambition / goal is to own a beach front shack that is a combination of beach bar / restaurant. I always felt that while this was an interesting goal - it did not seem to be very ambitious ?

Over the years, whenever I've visited a famous beach, I tend to notice that the complete economy has high migrant population, very few industries and almost the complete economy is based on hotels / tourism and in general hospitality. No major educational institutions, no industries (even high tech) etc.

Would like to know if this is just a statistical occurance or something that is much deeper ? Especially from people who can list proof :-)

Akshaya Tadige : Why is it such a big deal ?

I'm sure there is NOT a single person in Bangalore (beyond the age of 6 years atleast) who has not figured out that yesterday was Akshaya Tritiya. I mean, how can people miss this grand event of the year ? TOI carried a very "glossy" addendum that listed the superlative products and excellent "offers" and reasons as to why EVERY SINGLE person in the world had to rush off and buy GOLD!!

What a marketing driven feeding frenzy !

I'm sure if we had someone with a Rip Van Winkle syndrome wake up today, they'd be distraught that they've missed the greatest opportunity and good fortune this year.

Seriously, as an youngster, I did know of Akshaya Tadige (in Kannada, it is Tadige not Tritya - but that is just semantics). Did I pay any attention ? Not at all !!.
Not only did I NOT pay any attention, I do not remember ANYONE paying attention.

Nobody offered special discounts on Gold coins (Infact, there no coins sold and no ads put up)
Nobody listed out the reasons that made buying gold on this day
No shop put up a pandal (makeshift tent) in front to seat the enthusiastic shopper and then fed them glasses of fruit juice, snacks etc.
Nobody put up hoardings that said "We are extending shopping hours for the convienience of our esteemed shopper" (like I care !)
No special editions on paper
No "exhibitions" of the latest design
No......

Is this the consumerism that I had been warned about when discussing the American Consumption ?

Bangalore - Not yet ready for buildings higher / taller than 50 feet ?

My apartment complex is in the process of getting a new coat of paint. Given, that I live in the top floor of an eight floored building, I find it extremely stressful watching the process / progress. The prime reason is that I see individuals dangling on un-anchored / manually anchored ropes without a safety harness ?

Why is it that we allow for infrastructure to be created without necessary maintainence features built into the system. This is not just buildings - it is also the corresponding infrastructure with the support services / emergency services like the fire department.

We, in Inatech were unfortunate to witness a fire accident and the main reason why we could NOT contain the fire was the level of smoke in the floor that had fire (airconditioned and hence in some ways sealed !).

There were several fire extinguishers spread around the office - but, there were not reachable to be of any use ?

Now, you'd expect that the fire department has the necessary equipment ? My own experience has been a sorry state.
- The "standard" fire engine does not have retractable ladder that can extend beyond 3rd floor
- The "standard" engine crew carry ONE smoke mask. More importantly, this does NOT come with a flashlight fixed on top of the helmet which means that the fireman is expected to carry a flashlight / torch in one hand and the hose in the other
- The "standard" fire mask (lone one) is not oxygen supported, but is of the active filter kind.

I'm sure I can write a lot more of the deficiencies, but, that is not the point.

None of the infrastructure that is coming up seems designed to handle this.
How do we as individuals / citizens ensure that there is enough protection ?

Electric Cars : Are they **REALLY** environmentally friendly in India ?

I thought I'd write about what I believe is a urban myth.
I'm told time and again how Electric Cars in India are environmentally friendly as against the regular petrol / diesel and CNG cars. However, I think this is a myth - especially in a country like India where power generation is so very inefficient ?

It stands to simple reasoning that Electric cars run on "stored" energy (batteries) that has undergone 2 transformations and in that sense is already subjected to atleast 2 levels of efficiency (or should I say in-effieciency as it is less than 1) conversion ?

The first conversion is when Coal and other fossil fuels (notwithstanding hydro - but that is altogether a separate blog entry) is converted with LOW efficiency. Then there is approximately 40% transmission losses, it then goes to charge a battery with low energy transformation efficiency (heat loss etc). Finally, when one gets motion out of the motor, I'd hazard that we'd probably not even recover a tenth of input -> output energy efficiencies ?

In short, are electric cars really environmentally friendly ?
IMHO - Absolutely not.

I'm sure someone is going to argue that if coal were to be replaced by Hydro, Solar, Wind (and even Nuclear), then, automatically electric cars could be classified as environmentally friendly - but, even then, I'd retort (very easily proved) that given the energy shortage that India faces, having more motors to drive is clearly not going to be efficient ?

IMHO we should be using only ONE major criteria for environmental friendliness and that is "Energy efficiency".

Think before you act - Why is it so difficult to enforce this maxim ?

I think we Indians have been "directed" for so long, told what to do and instructed on action being the best policy for so long (primary education to choice of career are all dictated in most cases) that we seem to have lost the ability to think for ourselves. What does it take for us to get to a mode where an individual thinks - one as himself (detached from the problem) and two, as a customer (as a recipient) ?

In my opinion, this will change India to be the leader and not be led.

I was THRILLED when I was told that in my child's class - 6th Std, they introduced a rule that the student is not allowed to start answering immediately after the question paper is distributed.
This is the best thing that I can think of for instigating the thought process ??
How I wish people in my school were forced to do this. In those days (and I'm sure in pretty much the whole of the country today), there is a mad rush to start answering the questions before even glancing through the question paper.

There have been numerous occasions when I was told by individuals in my class that they have answered ALL the questions (including the choices !!!)

This trait of acting without thinking is spilling over to the work arena with disastrous effect. We are fulfilling the prophecy made by a few newspapers / analyst about a decade ago that India was a nation of "Tech Coolies".

It is time we stopped and thought ...
Ideas as to how ?