I was in classroom training for three full days this week. Reminded me of old college days. But this was more meaningful and I wanted to listen and understand, maybe because I can make direct use of the knowledge. In college, during some boring lectures, I used to shut myself out and completely get lost in something else. Now I can attend sessions only if I want to and only if it is useful for me. There is a difference in trying to mug up something for getting good grade and studying something to make use of it. I still maintain that we have a rusty education system.

Some random thoughts related to this:-
I attended a long seminar where technical details were getting explained with general statements like “it is good”, “it will make your life easy”, “it is the in-thing now”, “it is accepted by industry and pioneered by major players”, “great people are talking about it”, “statistics shows that it is better”. I wanted to say “cut the crap and get to the point”, but as usual I didn’t even show that I am not interested. At the end, I am not clear what “it is” and how exactly is it great. All this statements doesn’t make it great, accepted or respected. It is like painting a very foggy picture, no outline visible, you can’t make out any shape out of it, but it is made as if it has some meaning. You won’t be able to say for sure that are bluffing or you won’t be able counter argue because they haven’t said anything clearly. They specialize in making general open-ended statements which can interpreted either way. I get a feeling that there is nothing tangible, nothing intelligent, no use listening to this babble.

It is almost like you can spot phonies by just listening to them for some time. Elusive, shadow-fighting are some words coming to my mind. Sometimes I think the one problem with corporate culture is, these non-absolutes grow much faster than anybody else. It is somewhat difficult to deal with such guys. Maybe it is one of those skills needed to survive in this world. But only problem is, you keep painting an unclear picture every time, you may end up disoriented yourself.

One piece of quotable quote (I don’t remember exact words): Don’t accept anybody else’s reality as your own just because they say so. Subject it to your own reason and accept it as your reality only if it is reasonable to you. Don’t fake reality.