Today, a colleague and I were discussing whether we know enough. I complete seven years of work this year, and he has completed a little more than me. We were wondering where we want to be a few years down the line and whether we know enough today. thinking back to the time we had just joined the industry, we tried to recall how we felt around someone who had seven years of experience, and evaluated whether we really measured up to the awe that we felt then for such technical pundits.
I’ll leave that conversation there … for a while later, as I was fetching a cup of coffee, and still going over the conversation in my mind, I was trying to evaluate what changes with time.
Things are never really uniform and nothing that we can arrive at will really hold good for everyone. One of the biggest factors that I think changes over time is our confidence in converting abstract specifications into real entities. It may be argued that some people come in with this ability from day one and some never acquire it despite all the experience. The realist or the cynical might say that for two people that are equally brilliant and committed and all that balderdash, the newer person may be more willing to take risks while the senior may be risk averse given that he has a “rep to protect”.
The thing that struck me at this point is the truth of the fact about confidence. Engineers as a rule are optimists I think. Given a problem, I can’t remember a time when anyone around me ever asked whether it can actually be solved. Questions that are relevant and pertinent such are discussed. We do discuss whether it can be done within the allocated budget, with the number of people we have and within the time specified. But can it be done? Hell – NO.
Think of it and you will realize that this is how most engineers tackle problems. If you start with a belief that something cannot be done, it obviously will not be done.
Question: “So … can you send a man to the moon?”
Geeks Answer: “Well, let us see … what we need? We need a man, a vessel that can have air, water and food in it, and we need to be able to make it reach a speed that will cause it to break free of Earths gravitation. We need to aim it right, and if it is too fast then it will overcome Moons gravitation – we don’t want that! We’ll need to make some calculations … yup sure. We’ll do it!”
Question: “And warp drives? You think we can make space ships that will travel faster than light?”
Geeks Answer: “Hmmm. Tricky answer. Well … we have the theory of relativity and the special theory of relativity… we have proved that black holes exist which are like … ummm … singularities in the space time continuum … can we do it? Well, the current state of the art won’t allow it. Will my grandson fly to Saint Bernard’s Star over a weekend? Maybe not. Will his grandson make it? Provided we don’t blow ourselves up before that I am sure he will!”
More than half the things that we see around us would probably not exist had some one stopped to ask – “can this be done?” It may sound like I am exaggerating but everything from the mundane – like bulbs and cell phones – to the exotic – like stem cell research and space travel – it has happened because people have not really ever believed that something cannot be done.
If we can think it, we can do it as well. It may take a while … but it will get done.
It is a little disturbing that our thoughts could easily get constrained by our language. However, that has so far not been a problem. And though, we hit that barrier everyday, so far we have always extended language to encompass all that we have ever imagined (check out all the jargon in each field of you need proof). We have also formalized a way to create new thought structures – though it tends to be slow and tedious – so that a particular thought path does not get lost and need not be re-invented every time.
Nice thought isn’t it J sure makes me happy … hats off to the engineer in each of us … and maybe there is hope yet.
P.S. This is for my girl who will assume that I am being my conceited self (which isn’t always a wrong assumption to make) and just praising engineers because I am one. The word “engineer” as it is used here, is meant as one who creates or builds – which is not the how this word is defined in the dictionary (surprisingly). But then, to repeat myself, we humans have always extended the language to encompass our ideas … and this I guess is my contribution to the process.
Extremely well written.
ReplyDeleteBTW nice to see long posts back.
So a small question, in your 7 year experience, did u feel the awe you seem to have had at the beginning for techies not so true, at the same time meet an youngster and see the awe on his face for you?
"...hats off to the engineer in each of us... and maybe there is hope yet."
ReplyDeleteBah! Remember ur gurl knows the truth :P
Language.. is all but an ever growing collection of our communication. The language we speak today is because we have been adding to its repository all through our ages..
ReplyDeleteUmmm ... naah rambler :) can't remember anything that embarassing happening or maybe I avoid recognizing that look because it would be pretty embarassing!
ReplyDeleteSo anonymous ... is that a threat :)
Yes Vijay language always grows ... not sure how to explain the point I am trying to make. There are 2 things I guess:
1. It is possible that unless you realize that we have words only to describe the things that we already know, your thoughts could get limited by your vocabulary.
That however does not happen very often and language always grows like you said. That brings us to the second point ...
2. Language at any point always lags behind our ideas. It is only after the ideas/thoughts become common that language grows to encompass them.
Maybe this is something like a new blog altogether. But, I think that eastern thought does not think this to be very important - the creation of a vocabulary to support a new thought process. This is perhaps because we do not attach a lot of importance to words (something very apparent in Zen but present in other religions as well). Western thought however, pays a lot of attention to structuring thought as well as creating a vocabulary to express new thoughts....
This is important because when we look at something like say the number of patents generated by a country like India, I think that this underlying difference is sometimes not accounted for.