I believe I can fly

Yes, I truly do. Even if the only way to do so is trust machinery weighing a few tons :-) I also like to think. Which is not the same as saying I do think. Thinking is an area of human activity where I have a lot of catching up to do.

Posts Tagged human beings

What’s with the social networking craze?

Jul 18

Posted by The Practical Idealist in Musings | 4 Comments

Okay, all right! This rant is a couple of years too late to even pretend to be a surprised reaction to Facebook, Twitter, etc., but though I get these tools, I don’t quite get why people would want to Share their every activity. Or Tweet them to the whole wide world, for that matter. Like, “I went to the market today”, or “I ate a 24″ pizza :D :D ”; for eloquence, you can’t beat a simple “WTF” [pardon the language (if you understand what the acronym stands for)]. Gone was the time when children used to be worried sick about being caught using swear-words or invectives. These words have now entered the popular teen- and pre-teen-culture, and seem to have become accepted as well, their meaning be damned.

For some time, I got caught up in this let-the-world-know-what-I’m-upto craze, and then the whole thing started sounding more and more crazy to me. Why would I want everyone to know what I was up to, every hour of my day? Why would any one, for that matter? Is this some (partly) grown-up version of “I’m better” or “I have a better toy” game that kids play regularly? “Is your social network better than mine?” What is it about humans that makes them want to, at the risk of losing whatever little privacy they have in these days of the omnipresent Google street-mapping cameras, reach out to everyone in their circle, however faintly they’re connected?

I don’t have any answer that fits all these questions, but I do have some guesses:

  1. Emotional deprivation: it’s a reflection of people’s innate need to be accepted as part of some group, some circle. A need to be accepted. Period.
  2. Utility: services like Google Places, Foursquare and Yelp are conceivably helpful to people in discovering new restaurants, places of retreat, places to party, etc.
  3. Ego: some people simply want to brag about being rich enough to be in a certain location; their geekiness; themselves.

Obviously, these questions and answers / guesses merely scratch the surface of a deep, but clearly real, need for people to share their thoughts, actions, whereabouts with others, sometimes even inadvertently. The big question, Why, is something that professional sociologists are better equipped to answer than I.

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Of fresh snow, and other things

Nov 22

Posted by The Practical Idealist in General | No Comments

The first snowfall of this winter in Ipswich landed as expected today. As I stepped out office today (yes, we were working though it is a Saturday), I noticed with pleasure the signs of snow – a whitened bed of lawn, glistening with the recently melted drops of water. The orange glow of the street lights added to the beauty of the scene, while the barren trees, laden with a thin layer of ice, completed my mental picture of the onset of winter in these latitudes. Yes, I suppose the English will probably have a White Christmas, though it’s still early days.

Well, the “other things” that I’d like to talk about in this post are concerning, not surprisingly, human nature; more specifically, the sort of human nature that sees slovenliness as something that’s less than disagreeable. What sort of person likes to leave used cups and dishes lying all around the house? Which category of IT professional sees nothing wrong in producing programs that are not only not in keeping with widely accepted good principles, but are also riddled with errors? Why do people settle for quick and dirty solutions when a few more minutes of reflection would readily lead them on to products that are closer to perfection? I suppose answers to these questions are difficult to arrive at, but I shall at least make an attempt.

The person who thinks nothing of keeping a sloppy house is probably of the opinion that it’s quite all right to do so, even if he is sharing the house with a few others. Such a person is less likely to be considerate of others’ wishes in this regard. He thinks – and maybe hopes – that those others would clean up after him. and if the others are sticklers for cleanliness, he would probably be right too. Convenient!

The IT professional who thinks it’s beneath him to spend a few more minutes perfecting a program that he’s been charged with writing, is usually the same one who does many things with a lack of thoroughness. He’s more concerned about finishing his work than about finishing it right. More often than not, you wouldn’t dare to dream of trusting him to turn out well-written code, and would probably insist on getting it reviewed it a couple of times, assuming you don’t belong in the same category yourself! And I daresay you’ll find a few major bugs waiting to creep up on you too.

What is it that people lack which fails to impel them towards doing something in a less than perfect manner? Shouldn’t they at least make an attempt to improve their work? What failing in their nature is responsible for sabotaging the general human endeavour towards betterment? Is that attribute of human nature that has helped mankind make massive strides towards its material improvement no longer prized? Is it no longer important to take pride in your work, and consider your job as something that merely pays the bills? I don’t know…

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What’s in a name – II

Sep 23

Posted by The Practical Idealist in General | No Comments

What’s in a name? Plenty, it turns out. Now, that’s something I’d never even suspected. I mean, while I knew that a name like Jestin Azhagusundaram would not really sweeten the tongue that utters it, I never realised that it would make him die a few years sooner! Poor chap, his fate was decided right after he was born and he had no way to stop it.

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Cricket match and the human psyche

Sep 19

Posted by The Practical Idealist in General | 1 Comment

There I was, sitting quietly in front of my laptop, and involved in my daily post-office routine of reading news, checking mails, talking to people, etc., when loud noises from downstairs disturbed me. Within a moment, I realised that it was human noise (yeah, I’m way too quick) and that it was most likely in response to some cricket update on the idiot box (India is playing a match against England now). Even as I was thinking why people must shout to let their happiness (or frustration, as the case may be) be known, I was assaulted by similar, animal-like bellowing from below, presumably from the same house. Twice, mind you!

Undeterred by the feeble attempts to distract me, I let my mind come back to the new line of thought that it was trying to pursue. So, why exactly do people who are merely watching a sport on TV shout out loud when something happens on-screen? Would they do the same if they were alone at home? Or maybe alone in a marooned island (ignoring for the moment where they would have gotten a TV in such a place)?

My powerful brain did its thing, and gave me an answer within a few seconds (I told you I was quick): No. They wouldn’t do that if they didn’t have company. Not satisfied by my own intelligence, I probed further, this time into my own mind: would I have shouted out loud while watching a match on TV alone? I thought back to such instances, and remembered that though I haven’t screamed, I have definitely let out happy / frustrated comments. So, to be fair, I reasoned (for I’m a reasonable man too), it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that what commenting is to me, shouting could be to others. Hmmm, interesting!

However, my brain was still not satisfied with this simplistic explanation. I longed to bring my knowledge of Transactional Analysis in the picture. People shout, I told myself, mainly because they want to be stroked. Now suddenly, that made more sense. It also fit in with why people tend to shout / scream more when in the presence of others, no matter who the others are. The so-called “mob psychology” is essentially the craving of a stroke-deprived people to be recognised for something, anything, that would elevate them from the mundaneness of anonymity. Pretty smart, huh? (I told you I was smart!)

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