Information technology in India
Its a popular joke that when you walk on any Indian street every other person you meet would be an IT professional. With globalization and open market economy introduced into India in 1992 by a visionary finance minister who is the current prime minister of India, the country has in a short period of 15 years established for itself a complete monopoly in the industry of IT.
Its interesting and perhaps quite alarming the way every Indian youth today aspires to be an IT professional. Its as though all of a sudden all the Indian youth seems to be good at is just one thing, writing software code! I wonder if the very people who take up the profession realize they are doing this mostly out of peer pressure than real interest. Evidence for this is on the rise as more IT professionals in India confess to be victims of stress and mental turbulence, even a whole new trend of suicides and attempted suicides!
So what led to this dangerous state of affairs? If you are someone who is not familiar with the economy and social setup in India I should start by saying that about 95% of people living in most Indian cities belong to the middle class, a majority of whom struggled all their way to the life they have today. For these individuals, all their memories till date are filled with events in life where they struggled to make ends meet with their meager 4 digit salaries they earned even after years of service. Money, or rather shortage of money has been a pivotal point around which their life has revolved, and they knowingly or not passed on most of the same stigma to their kids. So it shouldn't be surprising when the same kids when faced with the prospect of earning 5 and 6 digit salaries find themselves carried away from any aspirations or dreams they carried.(If at all they bothered to find out where their heart lay at all. )
So is this a good thing or a bad thing? Probably I just did a major disservice to the industry that has earned me whatever I possess today, even though that is an extremely modest much. But we should not try to ignore that fact that we might be losing out a lot of talent in our young and booming country to a profession that, to remain honest to my word, I should profess doesn't need much of brains to be a part of. Probably our present day Ramanujans and CV Ramans and wasting away writing java and .net code for Walmart and JC Penny!
When I write this article I look upon myself and call me the greatest hypocrite to be born on earth. I ask myself what stopped me in choosing something of my liking, something where my heart lies. Well I can tell you the answer is simple. I didn't know where my heart lied, still cant name one thing that I feel I should have chased to the end of my passion. And having asked this question to almost every friend of mine who is a part of IT I know each and every one of them feels just the same.
So do I feel miserable being here? Definitely not. I feel like this was where I was always destined to be. I feel I couldn't have done better anywhere else than here. So to be frank I really have no regrets of being here at all. But would I advise my sister or my kids(some day when I have them) to aspire to enter the IT industry? HELL NO!!! I cant let this happen to another one of my kin!
Making of a genius
They say there is a genius in all of us. All humans are supposed to be born with similar abilities. Its the environment and experiences that his life goes through that defines where he/she reaches in life. At least so goes philosophy.
I had the fortune of doing my bachelors in the most sought after department in the most sort after Engineering college in my state. So for my part I have seen quite a few geniuses in the making. One thing I could pride myself with is my sense of observation of people around me and their habits, and I have come to the conclusion that there is a lot in common among these individuals.
That being said, going by the converse theory if all geniuses had similar habits, would developing the very same habits make one a genius? Probably not, but it would definitely give you the same edge these genius have besides the blessed brainpower they possess.
So what are these traits that I am talking about?
Confidence
Each one of them knew themselves that they were exceptionally good at what they did. This gave them an enormous sense of confidence. If I took one example from the many individuals I am talking about that would be a friend by the name Srinath. He was a mathematic freak to say the least. When a problem of the most challenging nature was thrown at the whole class many of us approached it with the stigma of an unattainable goal. But not only was he blessed with one of the best mathematical acumen, he never ever had any second thoughts about weather he would be able to solve the puzzle. I believe that freed up his mind from all qualms and made a huge impact in the results he produced.
Passion
All genius that I have come to know have had a passion for the subject they excelled in. They might stay up night after night obsessed with a project once they get started with one. I remember this friend of mine who is a computer nerd. I remember the first years in college when none of us had a PC at home and only access to computers was the labs we had at college. There was one point at which they had expanded the facilities but for some reason new chairs hadn't been added yet. This was the state of affairs for some time. So we had a few precious PCs that could not be used because there were no chairs! This friend of mine, RG, used to work on these PCs, even the entire day at times standing, or on his knees. It seemed even more awkward because he was 6'2” and he had to stoop like an arc to do this, but he never seemed to mind. He had so much passion in what he did that he was always far ahead of even perhaps most of the lecturers in the department in his knowledge of computers. He got selected from campus to Lucent Techologies, but then went to work for Texas Instruments and now moved on to Microsoft.
If there is one trait each and every one of the genius-in-the-works I have come across, it was passion for what they did. A passion that could make them stay up nights, forget pains or strains, give up all other pleasures for the one passion they believed in.
Know where your heart lies
One unique quality about any genius I saw was how early in life they knew what they were good at.
When I look at the facts through a dissection microscope I see these men and women started what they did at a very early age in their life. So in effect they focused all their efforts and honed their skills over a long period of time in this particular field of theirs. Well, considering the amount of time they consciously and unconsciously put in towards improving their skills in one particular subject it might not be as surprising after all what they have become at the end.
The right connections
It is said the birds of the same feather flock together. I see this very much true with the people we are talking about. Each one of them tend to get along with only those people with acute interest in the field of their liking. As a result they end up talking about their subject all the time. This I see goes in a big way in building their skills. This is a classic example of what synergy and group work can do to people.
Hard work/ Long hours
This is probably a repetition of what I said in the previous paragraphs. Each one of these individuals spent long hours, well basically most of their waking hours (if not all) learning, practicing and improving their skills, thus getting even better at them. The best part is they enjoy ever second of it to its fullest. A classic example of the saying “Find a job you love and you wouldn't have to work a single minute in your life!”
Well there has been other traits I have seen in these people such as ambition, huge personal ego that drove them ahead, lesser sociability skills which freed up more time to let them pursue their interests, an inquisitive mind that makes sure they completely comprehend what they observe and study. But then I believe these aren't as consistent or pervasive as the above said traits I described.
As the human race comes to conclusion a millionth time that the power of the human mind is beyond comprehensions, these observations helps explain to me in a big way what makes some people geniuses .
