Tuesday, April 26, 2005

specialist vs. generalist

A discussion in office made me realize that I (and maybe some others too) think of myself as a generalist. Maybe I even take pride in it.
I want to know about many subsystems in my project. I want to be able to play many instruments. I want to be with many girls. I want to be a writer, musician, singer, entrepreneur, actor and spiderman.
Yet I am d>none of the above.

So what am I doing wrong:

Laozi tells the secret of success is to be a specialist (It's a cartoon - will take seconds to look/read)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0385472595/ref=sib_rdr_prev2_ex3/104-6804031-7899169?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00B&j=1&ns=1#reader-page

This blog has started social networks and an anonymous group!
Mama - Don't let your baby become a generalist:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001978.php

Erwin Scroedinger and Jose Ortega Y Gasset's comments on why a specialist can easily become a demon (from Knowledge Management Research Group):
http://kmr.nada.kth.se/cm/generalist-specialist.html

Hope we all be what we were meant to be.
Hope we all can accept what we are.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Our Hearts Should Do This More

I sit in the streets with the homeless

My clothes stained with the wine
From the vineyards the saints tend.

Light has painted all acts
The same color

So I sit around and laugh all day
With my friends.

At night if I feel a divine loneliness
I tear the doors off Love's mansion

And wrestle God onto the floor.
He becomes so pleased with Hafiz
And says, "Our hearts should do this more."

'The Gift - Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master'
Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

Thursday, April 07, 2005

what results from this?

S. came by and asked for help on a problem that he had to fix 'by today'. He didn't want me to help him analyze the problem. He wanted me to show him how to fix it. Seems that his boss has told him that he expected a fix in 24 hours. So S. is totally not thinking about the problem, but about the result.

Manager dropped by soon after and asked whether I was working on the showstopper problem. When I started to tell him what I was doing about it, he cut me off and told me that we need to solve all the problems by 22 Apr. That is 2 f@#$^%$ weeks off!
I think that most managers are an afraidy-goose lot - because they don't know what happens day-to-day (It's so clear from the way their eyes get glassy and aloof when you tell them what you are trying). Since they cannot understand what the employee is saying, they switch off and talk about their requirement, which is oviously the result, i.e. fix of the problem.

Was reminded of the words of HCL's new President (he started yesterday). and mentioned that Results was one of his top 3 priorities. Action and Passion being other 2. A. and P. are useless without Results, he said. Is that because action and passion are not easily measured?

There seems to be enough pressure against following the Bhagvad Gita tenet - Put your efforts, do not worry about the results. At last some inspiration to follow it!! :)