Random chat conversation, a result of a status message. Good topic, slightly conflicting points of view. Interesting in parts, dull in the middle. Can't be arsed to format this further.
Jimmy: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2947772,prtpage-1.cms
Badrinath: interesting article
but he gets a bit defensive about his choice of career
free to chat?
True, he paints his choice of career as far more "pleasurable" universally
Badrinath: yeah, that is quite silly, my guess is defensiveness
anyhoo,
the world is quite full of mediocrity
this one guy laments that people spent so much time for JEE
Jimmy: but still, it's not that he has nothing to say.
Badrinath: what he fails to see is that people who score higher, generally tend to learn faster, hence on average are more talented
and places like the IITs are where such people congregate
you learn a lot, LOT more from competing with people like this than you ever would if you were content in a BA in what-ever-he-was-doing
he also seems slightly bitter, at times - " Some days, I think of those boys from another time. They are mostly bankers in
Jimmy: true, and yet, it shows that the IITs are the only place where "the best" would congregate. For so strongly have we ... hard coded into our minds the notion that science/engineering alone is the only outlet for "true intelligence"
Badrinath: most of those guys probably lived a "fuller" life than he did, just because money can buy you so much
"true intelligence" means you can do well at a lot of things
some people may have a specific talent in say, a musical instrument, or an art form
that doesn't make them "conventionally" intelligent
they are just talented in their sphere of activity
(which means if you have "real intelligence" you SHOULD be able to do well in science/maths)
Jimmy: Oh, but that is EXACTLY what I am trying to say: you think that doing well in music / sports does not require intelligence, but mere skill. However, to understand music / take quick decisions during sports / to create art requires a different kind of intelligences.
There are, as far as I rem, 7 kinds of intelligence(s)
Badrinath: hmm, i have no idea on the 7 types
Jimmy: and we have been thought to accept only one of them, the mathematical/problem solving kind as intelligence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences
Badrinath: one vital thing - before we begin to talk about "doing well" in a field, we need to realize that the world on average is quite mediocre. a fair amount of hard work and a rub of the green will, regardless of talent, get you quite far
as important as talent is, in world as chock full with mediocrity as this one, talent is still second to hard work
Jimmy: yes. But while hard work etc may take you far on the road, what is lamentable is that there are no choices of roads, and there is a hierarchy of roads .
Badrinath: that is inevitable
professions like engineering and medicine are the ONLY way moderately talented people can make money
the percentage of artists (out of all artists) doing well and the %percentage of engg-ppl doing well (out of all engg-ppl) is VERY different
TCS will pay a talent-less but moderately hard working guy 3-point-something lpa to do work
unless you are REALLY lucky, art will NEVER pay as much to a mediocre artist
why?
Jimmy: why, indeed?
Badrinath: because having a painting hung from your bedroom wall is considerably less important than, say, re-tooling the database of a company
Jimmy: To answer this question, we need to ask a far more philosophical question: Is the entire existence of software, or databases, or even telephones, "necessary"
Let us recurse backwards in time, and ask,
(btw I agree with you, but I am just arguing for the sake of it)
Badrinath: ah
at the end of the day, we all want money. full stop. some of us delude ourselves into thinking that we don't care about money. but we do. when we don't have enough, we feel the pinch
Jimmy: let us recurse to the time when there was no money :D
Ah money.,
Badrinath: paintings hung on walls look nice which is a lot less important than cold, hard cash for a company
ah, money indeed
Jimmy: no one contests that we need money
Badrinath: the root of all evils and the cornerstone of "a good life"
listen, we are all human. there is something eerily human about greed, avarice, what-have-you
just like there is something eerily human about xenophobia and violence
so, while we may need less money, we WANT more
Jimmy: see your comparison to a painting on a wall to a bridge-across-the-river is unfair: that painting can be seen as a rich indulgence, so its equivalent in technology is .. I don't know.. a super fancy cell phone.
Badrinath: analogy is slightly unfair, i'll give you that :P
but there is a lot more demand for the engg profession that there is for artists
(i count film people, animation people, etc ALSO as artists)
when demand is more, "good" companies try to pick out the talented ones
how do you lure them? money
so, average incomes are higher in the engg/medical streams
PLUS there is space for LOTS of people
in other streams highest incomes are good, but average incomes are terrible
so, the average person is drawn toward the former professions
still there?
so I'll reply later :D
