It is better to be disappointed than humbled

Here is one pattern that I keep observing very often. Many people that I interact with are those who would have left India right after finishing their education and are now returning back looking for opportunities. They have little or no exposure to businesses in India. Most of them have this singular "horrific" view of how life and business in India is. Basically something like the slumdog stereotypes.

It is not that corruption and inefficiency don't exist at all. But then a large, diverse and vibrant democracy making up a sixth of the world's population, could not have magically sustained itself this far, if it were just full of these singularly, stereotypically evil, corrupt and inefficient characters.

Due to this overbearing exotification of life in India, many of them start their business transactions with a touch of contempt or some kind of a superior moral posturing. As though they are the only ones who value professionalism and quality.

Many times such a mindset is right and the party they are dealing with are indeed inefficient or not mature enough. In which case these guys are vindicated about their prejudices. But many other times, the other party would in fact be far more serious about their work and far more professional. In such cases, the other party gets completely put off with such posturing and these guys get snubbed.

On a related note, I routinely interact with students who are fresh from college taking their first steps in the professional world. Most of these students have some uncles or cousins abroad. And as it happens they are invariably fed with this "slumdog" picture of work life in India and for some reason, most of them believe that as the overbearing truth.

When students fresh from college approach business transactions with the same kind of contemptuous prejudice, the consequences are far worse. Not only do they get snubbed for their nasty attitudes, they would have also made career limiting moves having longer term repercussions.

There is a simple game theoretic strategy here. When starting a business transaction, you may either go with a positive outlook about the other party or with a negative stereotype. In the former case, you look up to the other party and ensure that you do your part of the homework well enough. In the latter case, you go with an attitude that you are doing the other party a favour and they had better be thankful to be working with you.

No matter which outlook you take, you could be either right or wrong.

With the positive outlook, if you are right, then it is a perfect match. Both parties respect one another and work hard to make this deal successful. On the other hand if you are wrong, (i.e. if the other party turns out not worthy of the initial respect you had for them), then you end up disappointed.

With the negative outlook, if you are right, then you are cynically vindicated. The other party was not worth your respect anyway, so you didn't lose anything in starting with a contemptuous note. On the other hand, if you are wrong, then you are the one who is going to be humbled. Not only will the deal be less than successful, you would have negatively molded the other party's opinion about you and would have lost their respect.

It is quite clear from this that a positive outlook and initial respect for others is always the better strategy. The worst that can happen is that you end up disappointed. This is any day better than to end up being humbled.

The two facets of human intelligence

There are two facets to human intelligence: the ability to create and the ability to nurture life. The former entails observation, understanding of underlying principles, hypothesis formation, technology, craft and skill. The latter form of human intelligence -- namely that of nurturing (not sustaining) life, entails development of a faculty of thought that is responsible for traits like empathy, understanding emotions, a sense of fairness etc. -- basically all that comes under the general umbrella of humanity.

Indian society clearly lags behind several others when it comes to the first. Somehow we have not encouraged the rigorous development of the ability to create. As a teacher it is frustrating to see from the students lopsided perspectives, lack of rigour and a subjugation of an understanding of underlying principles to social metrics like labels, prestige, etc. I too was like that when I was a student several years ago, and even now my ability to create (technological creation, not artistic ones) leaves much wanting.

However, when it comes to the second form of human intelligence -- that of nurturing life, from what I have seen, Indian society fares far far better than, I would contend, the rest of the world. Nurturing life is not about solving problems in a dispassionate manner. It is about supporting life in a compassionate fashion. Here, emotions are not seen as an impediment to our understanding of truth. Instead, emotions are seen as an essential element of what forms life.

Nurturing life is different from sustaining life. The latter is more about problem solving as in where to find food and how to prevent disease, etc. Sustaining life requires dispassionate science, while nurturing life requires compassionate relationships.

Is it any wonder that the notion of Ahimsa (non-violence) caught on so rapidly as a cornerstone of the country's freedom struggle? A large population will not simply follow an idea, unless the idea existed in the population in the first place. One can argue endlessly whether it was the non-violent struggle that brought the country independence or whether it was world war II. But such an argument is meaningless in this context. What is important is that the enormous support for a non-violent struggle shows how endemic the idea of Ahimsa was in the society.

Today I was in a concert where at the end of the concert the artists played the popular bhajan Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram.. The bhajan was so mesmerising and sublime that I could see a lot in the audience almost like in a trance. Just entertaining an idea that says: Ishwar Allah tero naam; sabko sanmati de bhagwan.. (Ishwar, Allah -- or Abraham for that matter -- is your name; bless us all oh Lord), puts our mind so much in peace.

Nurturing life is all about these -- mental peace, harmonious living, bonhomie, reflection, and so on. Nurturing life extends not just to other humans, but to all living beings. A deep understanding of these principles of nurturing life is as much a hallmark of intelligence as is a deep understanding of physics or mathematics or technology.

This is not to say that we do not need the former kind of intelligence. Indeed, because we are weak at dispassionate creation skills, it is all the more reason that we focus on developing them. It is just that in our zest to develop one form of intelligence, we should not lose sight of the other. Making the world a happier place is as much of a challenge as making the world disease-free or hunger-free. Eradication of disease and hunger are necessary, but not sufficient to ensure harmony, happiness and bonhomie.

Me, a skeptic? Yeah. Right.

Read somewhere that "every self-respecting scientist is a skeptic at heart." All I can say in response is, "Yeah. Right."