July 27, 2006

'Idle Argument' & IT Industry - A philosophical study


(1) Either I will be laid off from the company or I will not.

(2) If I will be laid off, I will be laid off whatever precautions I take.

(2*) If I will be laid off whatever precautions I take, then all precautions will be ineffective.

(2') So, if I will be laid off, all precautions will be ineffective (from 2).

(3) If I will not be laid off, I will not be laid off whatever precautions I neglect.

(3*) If I will not be laid off whatever precautions I neglect, then all precautions will be superfluous.

(3') So, if I will not be laid off, all precautions will be superfluous (from 3).

(4*) A precaution that is ineffective or superfluous is pointless.

(4) Therefore, all precautions are pointless (from 1, 2' and 3').


The conclusion creates confusion as it seems logical at the same time sophistical. It comes in as a direct blow to the people who cashes in on judicial deliberations.


The argument implies 'whatever happens in the future is already unavoidable'
No matter you take precautions or not, if event X is destined to happen, it would happen.
It asserts that any event bound to happen would happen independent of your actions, deeds, thoughts and efforts.
Agreed…..but does it mean that our precautions we take or the planning we form or the estimations we come up for a Project… all are pointless ??
Pointless just because irrespective of all these, if the Project is destined to be a failure in the future? Project you work on may get shelved because of sudden lack of funding or business breakdown or economy slowdown or change in business strategy – reasons galore.

Let us stop here and go back again to the argument of Fatalism and take Buller’s analysis to start with.
Let us analyze in greater detail…

(2) is ambiguous between

(2a) If I will be laid off, then I will be laid off and the precautions, if any, that I will take will not help me from being laid off
and
(2b) If I will be laid off, then I will be laid off and there are no precautions I can take which are such that I would not be laid off if I were to take them.

I will be laid off and the precautions, if any, that I will take will not prevent my being laid off
But its not true that....
If I will be laid off, then it is pointless to take precautions

Though I am going to be laid off, if I were to release the product in time or perform better (which I will in fact not do as its destiny), I should not be laid off....
Of course the company itself must not be in a loss to lay me off
Consider this way - I am going to be laid off,
And there is a precaution I can take which would prevent my layoff. It is not pointless for me to take precautions, since by taking precautions I can sustain in my company.

So....
If there are no precautions I can take which are such that I would not be laid off if I were to take them, then it is pointless to take precautions.

Fatalism requires that, if I actually will be laid off, I will be laid off no matter what my circumstances are.

But fatalism does not assert the view that there are some situations in life in which the outcome is beyond our control, rather, it is the view that all situations in life are those in which "the future will be of a certain nature regardless of what we do"
Sometimes, in spite of our efforts, we cannot do things that we want to do.
Although it seems reasonable that we can do these things. .. It was fated that.
fatalism2

The design was perfect, the coding was equally good. The test plan covered every possible scenario to test the product. All corner cases were looked into and all possible bugs were found by the QA and fixed by the developers. FCS is all set in and release dates fixed.
Suddenly an FCS blocker pops up from nowhere ! The release dates get pushed…..whole team back in action burning the midnight oil to release at the earliest….
The FCS happens smoothly…..
Still…..when it goes in the production network, the customer finds a P1 bug !

We call it ill-luck or fate and go for the postmortem analysis. Team does an RCA (Root Cause Analysis) and finds how the imperfection came in and closes the issue.

On the other hand, there are cases where we very easily do things we can not dream about. In such circumstances naturally emerges the idea of fate.

There is no chance he can get through the interview as he performed badly – still he is IN !
There is no chance that he could have got promotion as he faired poorly but still he fetched it !

I have tried all the ways to avoid encounter with traffic police, but still I get caught somehow. Why so ?

It seems very easy to achieve x. I do whatever is usually needed to achieve x, even more than that, but I fail. Or, it seems practically impossible to achieve y. I do something to achieve it, usually regarded as definitely not sufficient to achieve it, and I succeed. How come?

Perhaps it is psychologically easier to give a name "FATE" and blame - for our failures than ourselves. Since this form of argument applies to anything that happens, if sound, this argument shows that we can not make any influence whatsoever on the course of events. If this really is so, then a rational mind would dare to make a try since
there is no way we could prevent events we do not want to happen, nor way we could bring about events we want to happen.
fatalism1

Now let me come out of the philosophy and get back to PRESENT and start working !
The release date is nearing….. It may happen on time or dates may get pushed too far as well. I cannot take a laid back approach clinging onto the ‘Idle Argument’ and say to my Manager “Whatever happens in future is already unavoidable , so let us keep cool for the FCS”
He may reply: “Sanbalas, your lay off also is already unavoidable”

The above was a peep thru and my blatant analysis to the concept of Fatalism and as I read somewhere this is just a logical culmination of “an overflow of emotions collected in tranquility”. Let us take a sanguine perspective and learn from all our mistakes and failures and aim for improvisation in every aspect – be it in our sharpening of the skills or shaping up of the human values. Our LIFE is too short to LEARN LIFE in its entirety. Every moment counts….

Sasneham
Sanbalas

July 27th....It has been 5 years since .....

July 27th... Today it has been 5 years since I .......

Called up my parents and the PERSON to whom I am so much
obliged....
I am grateful to her....for all the help & affection.....

Looking back.....
Where I was and Where am I now......
Some things are there which cannot be forgotten..... wherever the LIFE's vicissitudes take you through.....whatever be the vagaries of fate..... certain experience in LIFE never get buried under the sands of TIME.......
Yes.... I can NOT forget HER ever in my LIFE.....

Let me express my heartfelt sincere thanks to her and if at all I am in a better POSITION now, 80% credit goes to HER support and motivation though she may deny.

Sasneham
Sanbalas

July 04, 2006

HARSHAEDAMMA

Mid-eighties...
My IInd standard quarterly exam results are out. This time also luckily I didn’t flunk in the drawing exam paper - a just PASS. Convent school sister again called up my parents to comment on my progress report. Have scored centum or near centum in almost all the papers but drawing – as usual a narrow escape! No improvement in the last 3 years - right from UKG to IInd standard, class rank has never crossed up 5 despite good marks - fluctuating between 7 & 10, thanks for including drawing marks to the aggregate for calculating the class rank.
Kalikkoottukaari cum ayalathe paenkutti - Harsha. She was my classmate cum friend cum neighbour. She generally fetches less marks than me in all the papers but scores near centum in drawing. When the exam results are out - be it the unit tests or the major exams, harshaedamma (harsha's mother) as I used to call would come beside the fenced wall which separates our houses and cry out asking to my Amma (mother) : Santhoshinu Ethrayaa drawing nu (How much Santhosh has for drawing)
Amma would hesitantly reply: Pass aayi
Standing in the verandah, this 7 year old would wonder: Why harshaedamma is not asking about my marks in other papers? Harshaedamma knows well that I would have scored better than Harsha in all the other papers and hence cleverly avoids asking further questions. My amma as well know this and so she used to keep quiet.This continued after every unit tests/exams. Rarely when my mom poses the same question to Harsha, she would smile back innocently. Harshaedamma would then intervene and comes up with her tactful response: I didn’t ask her all the marks but she told that she has got 24/25 in drawing.
Harshaedamma doesn’t remember anything except her drawing paper exam mark! She used to give mom a lecture on the importance of drawing in nurturing the child’s creativity, handwriting etc etc. Her theory was that the kids who develop good drawing skills later develop good handwriting as well. Everytime when she meets amma she would ask “Any progress in his drawing” ? Amma’s doleful look would answer Harshedamma’s query and she would seem pacified with it.
Mango

But it was rather a grim fact that I was never good at drawing. Harshedamma’s theory went right – I did not pick up good handwriting as well. It was a herculean task for me to draw the figure of a mango or lotus or candle. I would sincerely struggle to sketch it but in vain. Mango would look like cashew nut and cashew would shape up as a grape with my pencil. The answer sheet would have lot of dark patches with nearly torn off paper and my eraser would have reduced in size by 1/2. Tried changing pencils blaming it as the culprit. HB, 2B, B all were sincerely co-operating with their 'holder' but they too relinquished the idea of reforming this guy.
pencils
As myself and Harsha were good play friends, we never quarrelled or had any discussion about exam scores amongst us but I always felt estranged towards harshaedamma.But she was indeed good at drawing which even I cannot deny. I came to know that I would not be having drawing subject from 5th standard onwards and hence I was longing to get past 4th standard to start scoring better rank than Harsha. But father was in govt service and hence got transferred to thrissur after my 3rd standard and the hopeful winds of revenge died down.

Years went by but my drawing skills never improved. I found the ruler/scale to be helpful in drawing straight lines but keeping the ruler in a straight horizontal position never worked out for me. Somehow to my surprise I could always score centum in Math when it was needed and that too for the crucial exams. I possessed such an amazing dexterity that even with a compass, drawing a circle would turn out to be an inward/outward spiral !! My sister was good at sketch and that helped me in finishing my home work assignments neatly and scoring high. Being the son of a doctor, everyone except my parents wanted me to choose his path. My parents were very clear about my artistic sense and so never ever they interfered in this matter. To pursue medicine, I have to opt for biology and my pre-conceived notion that it mandates good drawing skills forced me to opt out claiming it as the "strategic retreat". During my childhood days mom wanted me to become an architect but over the years she had enough sense to visualize his son struggling to draw the plan of a building and hence never expressed her wish later. No chance for Biology - I decided to go for Engineering. Drawing is not going to work out and felt it as more of a taboo for me - so better to keep myself off !!! The art of drawing – that talent must be inherent and I don’t have it - I convinced myself.
This dreadful ‘drawing monster’ re-appeared ever stronger in the form of Graphics paper during my B.Tech 1st year and I still remember my tough struggles to get thru the exam. After passing that paper, I was much happy to dispose off my ‘waste weapon’ – the MINI DRAFTER to my ECE junior.
minidrafter

Fortunately my profession neither demands good drawing skills nor handwriting skills – so far so good. Now also when sister's daugther Gayathri approaches me with her drawing book to 'colour the fruit' or 'draw the animal' task, I would tactfully avoid her or change the topic to escape from this ‘mission impossible’ art. Gayathri has good respect for her uncle till now and myself doesn't want to lose that.
Missing is the whereabouts of Harsha and Harshaedamma. In the early 90's we heard that the grocery shop they were running went in loss and eventually they had to move out of that place. But my crazy hope never ends here. By next 10 years, I expect to have my child and make him/her good at drawing and score more than Harsha's child and give my mother the chance to shoot back the same old question to Harshaedamma if at all we ever meet them. Sure the world is small and it would happen. Let me see how that grandmother replies then. Lingering hopes to take a sweet revenge thru my child something which I could not accomplish all thru my life. It would then be a moment to cherish.... a moment to treasure.... a moment of peaceful exuberance - tranquility personified.
Sasneham
Sanbalas