Category: Flawsophy

  • The Non non conformists

    There was a time conformity was common. When the non conformists became the majority, they changed the rules. Belonging suddenly became cool, and new herds were formed. But if you really look at it, not much has really changed. We’ve only traded conformism for a sense of belonging. The options are many, the choices few.

    until next time, heard the post begin here 🙂

  • One degree of separation

    “…like two shores separated by an ocean,
    and the ocean is our ego….”
    until next time, love beaches 😀

  • To be Shore..

    And “Alan Shore fans” makes it to my orkut communities because of this…
    Alan Shore: Well you need to hear it! ……… to abuse a talented, selfless employee only because his social skills lack the polish! To allow him to work tirelessly under the delusion that he could make partner! A delusion you carefully nurtured so as to make piles of money off of him in the short term. That’s a betrayal, Shirley. Not just of Jerry, but of you! And your character! Which up till now I have considered undeniably decent.

    Shirley Schmidt: Are you finished?

    Alan Shore: No. Jerry Espenson, no doubt, will go off quietly into the night as the meek often do. But somebody around here has to get angry about it. Otherwise you’ll just go off and blithely do it again.

    Shirley Schmidt: We have not yet made a decision concerning Jerry Espenson, when we do I will call you first to tell you, “It is none of your concern!”

    Alan Shore: There’s a saying Shirley, perhaps you’ve heard it. ‘All it takes for evil to succeed is for good people to say, “It’s a business.”

    While that might have been boring to the non-followers, what interested me was that it addresses an issue that i have found constantly encountered in professional life – social skills, or the lack of it. I’ve been ambivalent about this myself, but it irks me when people with lesser skills tend to be able to push their case only because they are aggressive, especially in situations where the hard skills are more important than the soft ones..

    And sometimes i see this aggression being used in a social context when the people who prefer to exist in the background are subject to the sort of bullying that usually is associated with school life… And each time i see it happen, i thank god for a reasonably sharp humour sense and a dichotomy of personality 🙂


    until next time, the meek shall inherit the earth…

  • Social Currency

    Was chatting with a friend last week on the complexity of human relationships. Of course, she is of the view that it is not so complex after all, and i tend to complicate it with my penchant for over analysis 😀 I admit to the anlaysis bit, but in this case, am not convinced about it being undue. Double the negative, double the fun.
    Coincidentally, also saw a movie last weekend, which brought out my stance almost perfectly, almost, because the character of the protagonist does a U-turn midway. Anyways, the crux of the matter is that i believe that every relationship, even, rather especially the close ones are tinged with a selfish motive, actually, not tinged, more a strong undercurrent. There are precious few exceptions.
    It depends on the individual’s choice whether this gets acknowledged or not, but i strongly feel that there is always currency involved, and it is not always unconditional love or any such seemingly pure emotion… the acknowledgement does not happen perhaps because we mould ourselves to fit into a society and its forms of expression…The undercurrent may be that of emotional security, convenience or anything else – based on the situation, but its most definitely there. And for every help/favor/token of affection etc there isa meter ticking, some of us keep it in mind, and some of us keep it deep in the recesses of our mind

    until next time, mind it 🙂

  • The right turn

    On my way to office, there is a junction, and like many junctions there are rights and lefts varying from 1 degree to 179 degrees, and many times, i end up giving directions thus, “not that right, the other right’…
    A few days back, i ended up playing whistle blower on an online plagiarism case.. no second guess required whether it was the right thing to do, but the implications did make me wonder whether i could have maybe not have done it at all.. But i also got a forward around the same time.. it went thus – there are two sets of railway tracks. One used, the other unused.There is a warning board on the used one that warns kids not to play on it. The scenario is that a train is approaching on the used track, there are five kids playing on it. A single kid is playing on the unused track. You are in charge of the tracks. With a single button, you can divert the train onto the unused track,saving five kids and sacrificing one. You obviously can’t do the movie hero stunt of running faster than the train and rescuing all kids concerned, and you have only moments to decide. Before you make the decision, remember that the single kid was following instructions and doing the right thing.
    There is no ‘correct’ answer, it is a choice, but it helped me stick to the decision i made. Maybe, it is a step towards a ‘no compromise’ policy towards doing the right thing… Meanwhile, the turn to my office is the exact right, all of 90 degrees 🙂
    until next time, i write, you read 🙂