Generalist vs. Specialist

"In our time, specialists of all kinds are highly overrated. We need more generalists people who can provide broad perspectives. " An analysis.

With the evolving nature of the work environment, the distinction of a specialist and generalist is getting blurred. Rather the degree of specialization and generalization is changing rapidly to adapt to the changing requirements. A specialist cannot be a good specialist unless he can put his speciality in the perspective of the overall scheme of things. Similarly the generalist needs some specialist knowledge of the domain he is in. No longer would someone be successful if they have strict notions on thier speciality or generality.

Thus speaking, I feel specialists are not overrated. With increased sophistication in technology, its very essential for people with highly specialized skills to be available. Yet, for them to be successful and productive to the company, they would need to be aware of how they and their work would fit into the big picture. It needs an understanding on their part their role vis-a-vis those of other specialists.

In my field of Computer Technology, we have lots of brilliant specialists. They produce wonderful software or hardware. Or rather I should say, most often, they produce wonderful pieces of a particular hardware or software. Given the depth of technology and the sophistication, very rarely does a single person produce the entire product. For their part to work great and seamlessly with other components, they need to understand the working of the other components. Personnel experience tells me that while it is so easy to produce according to a very definite specification, it so much more difficult to integrate it with the other components. If the specialists designing the individual parts are aware and understand the other modules, then it would go a long way in what we all aim for - a great selling product. A specialist would not be judged not just with her depth of knowledge but also with her ability to apply it in the right context.

All said and done, a generalist would still be needed to manage the show, to provide a vision, to provide a direction. A generalist can be considered soneone who does not have adequate knowledge to design and implement the individual pieces but has the knowledge to understand the working, the roles and contribution of the individual pieces. While they may not be able to claim ownership to any particular part of the product, I would attribute a lot of the success of a product to the generalist who actually identified what needs to be built, what feature needs to be there and what not and when and how does it need to be made. While they may be a generalist with respect to the components that goes into a product, they may be a specialist when it to comes to the various products within a company. They might be a specialist in that product as a whole.

That brings us to the granularity of specialization and generalizations. A specialist is a generalist at a certain level and vice versa. Its imperative for a specialist to know about other things for his speciality to be productive and useful. A generalist needs to have minimum level of speciality knowledge to qualify as a generalist that spans that field. I strongly believe a specialist is not over rated. They may be wrongly rated if they are rated only according to the depth of their knowledge in their field.

getting it back...

Minneapolis took one more step in its quest to make itself better. The Light Train Transit System was inaugurated this weekend. Yet to travel in it. But I am happy to have yet another option for going from one place to another in an efficient way - using public transportation.

Having grown up relying on public transportation for the most part, I came to hate it. It was my dream to drive around in my own vehicle. Go where ever I wanted whenever in the least possible time and most possible comfort. For the past one year I have been having my car and used it extensively - mostly to go to work. A good 30 miles each day. Now for the past month, after having joined the new company in downtown, I hardly use the car. I walk, jog or take the bus to work.

And more importantly I seem to have so much time for myself during commute. Commute has transformed from one that ate my time to one that is giving me time. I concur with the guy who wrote in Ode about how most of the ideas he came up with were during his walk or bike. Especially walking alone is such a nice feeling. You set your own pace. Though there are a million other people around you, you get the feeling you are alone. Free. Un bound by the constrains. I can see faces going 'what crap'. What exaggeration. But trust me. These are my feelings. May be I am alone in experiencing this.

May be its got to do with biology. I believe when we walk or bike, there is a small surge in the flow of blood to the brain. Yet not too hard to make you tire. Hence this great feeling. So much so, now given a chance, I would walk even if it means taking longer to reach. Don't feel like I am missing something or will be slow and hence inefficient. Just feel I am catching up on all the lost time in traffic, keeping an eye on the road and the moron in the next lane who might decide to into yours for no particular reason.

Apart from all the economical and ecological benefits, public transportation gives us such a wonderful opportunity to just observe people. We might think we get into a bus, sit at one place and get down when our stop comes. Yes. It can be just that. Or you could convert those 10-15 minutes into a very enriching session in the study of human behavior. Simple examples. Drivers say 'good day' when passengers get down. Its interesting to observe how many respond and how. What the reaction of the driver is after he is cold shouldered by passengers. Reaction of another bus driver when this one says hi on seeing him come from the opposite direction. Nothing very valuable you might say. It just makes my day interesting.

Anyway, wishing you all happy walking jogging and biking. And don't forget to say how sorry you are to all those who are behind the wheels.

Grounded

One moment changed my whole week. My trip to Valley Fair as part of my company outing is cancelled. A nice weekend trip to the lake is gone. Hopefully I will be able to the AID day long meeting. As a slight deviation from my usual postings, I will just say what happened.

I twisted my left ankle and that too pretty badly. Was reading a newspaper in the bus in the morning and suddenly realized the bus was standing in the stop I was supposed to get down. I ran out and boom. I land my left leg on the side, with the bottom of the foot facing sideways and the side in contact with the ground for a second. Experienced severe pain for a few seconds. All kinds of thoughts ran through my head - fracture, ligament tear, sprain, heck.
Sat there for a few minutes. Luckily I dint remove my shoe and good that I was wearing my sneakers and not my formal shoes. Limped to office - a couple of blocks. Well, I almost walked normal to office. Further proof that most of the pain is psychological. I removed my shoes and shock upon shock - I was wondering from where the hell did a small doughnut get under my skin in the ankle area. The guy next to me sees it and shakes his head. He runs and gets me some ice. I tell my boss and leave for home in a cab. There is a guy staying at my place for a week. Friends friend. He has my key to the house. So stayed at my neighbours place and caught two movies - Say nothing and Airport 1975. Don't worry I will not give you a summary of the movie and my review and then my opinion. :) Harsha who is a doc, came home in the afternoon and gave some expert advice. I slept till evening after eating a paracetamol :(.

Looked much better. The doughnut inside has been mostly eaten by my ankle. Still not fit enough to do my usual antics. I am having a tough time sitting in one place and resting my legs. My roommate has literally given up on me. Been getting a ride from a friend who takes a big detour to drop me and pick me up.

Art Show

Oh man how I love Minneapolis. Where else would I have an art exhibit with more than 100 artists sitting in flesh and depicting their work? The art exhibit was talking place 5 minutes from my place. Its another fact that my house is that same 5 minute away from the great Mississippi river and also from the spot of the only waterfall in the entire stretch of the Mississippi. I should not hide the fact that that falls falls less than 20 feet. Ekks. Read that again. In simple terms, it falls less than 20 feet. How I love putting simple things in such intricate web of words juxtaposed with the same word to add to the perplex. The exhibit was held on the banks of the river.

There was a plethora of activities going on amidst a wide variety of display and sale of work ranging from fine jewellery, colourful dresses, wood work, paintings, sketches, photography, music work, collage, etc etc. It was fun to watch. Art work from other countries were poorly represented though. Let me stop being a reporter and come to the point. People you would or rather I would assosiciate with Truckers or Bikers were artists. Beer bellied Walrus mustached men who would spend their Saturday afternoon barbecuing or watching the football game were out there as connoisseurs of art.

It is so easy to stereotype. Its so easy to assign someone to a group, fix a set of attributes and totally negate the thought that they can be anything outside that notion. Oh he is from Minnesota. He must be crazy. Why pick on generalization when thats the way of life? Unless and until we generalize, we can't draw conclusions. Draw inferences. Without that how do we go forward? Thats how scientists work and invent and discover. To me saying A belongs to group X is fine even if A does not fully qualify. But saying since A belongs to group X, A should be like this is kind of drawing a wrong inference. We need to understand that not everyone belonging to a group share the same attributes. Even if they share the same attributes, the way they react to a particular situation will not be the same. Their behaviour, likes, dislikes need not be the same. The individuals in a group are not miniature versions of the group. The group is a conglomeration of the individuals.

Individuals make a group, a society, a community. A group a society or a community cannot dictate the form the individual need to take and it would be foolish to assume the organization is the big mould into which the people fit magically and they cant and wont deviate from it.

Why this indignation now? Organizations like AID,DISHA,CRY etc are called NGOs. Non governmental Organizations. All these organizations have the same modus operandi. Raise money. Sponsor projects of other NGOs. Here is the problem. Due to perception, generalization or whatever, all of them are having a tough time getting new volunteers . These organizations are run by the volunteers. These volunteers are the organization. I would say generalisation of characteristics of volunteers as one reason of volunteer drought.

People who would like to volunteer are put off by the image they would get if they get involved. We as a society have all along associated people in NGOs with Kurta wearing, bespectacled losers talking about grandeur plans and occasionally doing some good. No. A volunteer for AID could be a very successful professional spending a small time every week to keep the accounts in tally. Or could be a student working towards her Ph.D and discussing the niti gritties of a project with a representative of an NGO once a week. That representative could again be a very successful house wife spending sometime every week on this. None of them are your typical M.A. no job frustrated in life desperately trying to do something kind of people. All of them are getting something no company can give - Managing a team of volunteers. As someone who was wholly involved in gathering volunteers for events almost every month, I know what kind of terrific experience in people management this is. Here we cant and dont operate with the tool called authority. We have to deal with people who feel they are doing the organization a favour. The volunteers are in the best Management school in the world. Finance Marketing Operations HR Technology you name it and there are self taught training for it here.

The notion I have that they are also part of the organization the moment they signed up, either for a specific event or long term is a different issue. Not just that. People who want to volunteer stereotype what happens inside. Lengthy discussions on topics that are of little value. Topics like how can politicans in India be made more responsible. No. Or rather may be. Everything depends on the volunteers. What they want to discuss and for how long. Dont like whats being done? Come in and change. Everyone's welcome.

Ok here is the deal. Don't stereotype people who are associated with organizations like AID. Not that its wrong. I cant say human nature is wrong. All I say is it does not give you the true picture. The loss is everyone's.

Talks lessons relevations #2

The second talk that I attended over the weekend was by Rajender Singh.He is a Magsaysay Award winner and more importantly the winner of the goodwill of people in 6000 villages. His work? To help the villagers find solutions to their water problems. Not with sophisticated technology. Not with expensive methodology. Simple schemes to harness nature in harmony with nature.
Here I would like to touch upon an unintended fall out of his efforts. The intended fall out was to help people get access to water. Remember this is in a village in Rajastan where people had to walk 18 miles everyday to fetch water. And invariably those people were women. Once people had access to water, they had time and thought for other things. Women started participating in the local political process since now they dint have to spend as much time worrying about water. Girl's enrollment shot up.
My hinch is no effort in trying to put those girls in school would have been so successful. The conditions needed to be right and the availability of water in close proximity was a major step in that direction. To me this is analogous to a strong foundation. Yes we need the building and that is what will be visible to the world. That is what will fetch the revenue. But the building cannot stand without the foundation. Education is the building of those lives. Better living conditions are the foundation on which the building can rest. The building may come up on a weak foundation and a politician may come to open it. But it will come crashing down the very next day. If a mother needs to decide between sending her daughter to fetch water or fetch education, she would send her to fetch water. Not that she wants to do it. She does not have an option. So its better to provide water to the mother than try to provide education to the daughter. Do the first and the second will follow automatically. Not what I conclude. Its what that has happened in a village in Rajastan.
Picking up from my previous posting, education is important. But it cannot be force fed. It cannot be imparted in a mind of thousand worries. Try preparing for an exam with the thought of having to find a source for your next meal and water at the back of your mind. You cant. Neither can they. Fix that and you dont have to tell them to get educated. They do want to get educated.

Talks lessons relevations #1

Two talks. One shramdhan. Walmart. Fixed the table. Stopped by the office to fix something on an urgent basis. That summarizes my weekend. Two talks? Ya I do talk a lot. But not sensible enough for people to mark their calendars and come for it. The first one was by Dr. Balaji, one of the founders of AID (www.aidindia.org). He is right now in India and working on different plans for the development of villages in Tamil Nadu.
I will not delve too much into what he spoke about or what he does. Rather, my perspective of what he spoke. One thing that still echoes within me is his statement about education. He said only the educated say education is useless and that will not help in finding a job. He gave a beautiful example. If you ask a man on the steets 'what will you do with 50 million dollars?', he will say buy lots of things. If you again ask what will he do with 500 million $, he will say a lot more of the same things. The reason? He is not in a position to differentiate between the two. Ask someone with 50 million $ what will he do if he has 500 millions dollars, he will explain what you cant do with 50 million but can do with 500 million. If you dint get the point, blame it on my choice of words. I felt it was very fundamental. And thinking about it, every exam seems difficult till its attempted. The moment it is completed, we are like ' ha why did I make such a big deal out of it?'. The significance of the effort and the outcome is lost on us. When someone askes for advice on it, we will be like, ha its easy, You will crack it with no effort. What am I driving at? Sitting here, with a master's degree and a nice job, its easy to discount education. When you are illiterate and see people who are educated leading a cushy job, you want your son and daughter to join the elite group by getting educated. It does not matter if education is the only criteria by which the son or daughter will can have a chance to join that elite group.
To him, it is a sure shot route.
While earlier I would have argued that getting education would not help much since with education alone he cannot go too far. Epecially considering the socio economic situation, it is very likely that before the child gets the minimum threshold of education to get a decent job, he or she will be pulled out and end up getting frustrated because he or she will not see fruit of his labour. He will be working side by side with an illiterate in a farm or a factory.
Now I see a different possibility. Why assume he will be frustrated. Why not assume he will be happy he made an attempt. Why not consider he will consider himself lucky to come home and be able to read the letter his relative sent him rather than go to someone who has to read it for him? May be he can help 10 kids be able to read and write and one of them may become a great person that the whole world looks upto.
Education may not be a panacea. It may not even be a vital part of the cure. But certainly a means to achieve what every individual longs for - happiness, a sense of achievement, a sense of being useful to others and above all being independent.
It also touched upon something I always strongly believed in. We have certain powers bestowed by which we try and help people back in India. That does not mean we care more for them than they do about themselves. Nor we know whats good for them. They know what would work and they do care about implementing it and making things better. Just that they dont have the adequate resources - financial and time. When it is a struggle everyday to arrange for next day's meal, we would neither worry about whether our streets are clean nor if the factory in the village will drain the resources of the local environment 10 years down the line nor if the river is being misused. All they would care for is if the factory can give them a job tomorrow so that they can fill their stomach. Its difficult to get a perspective of things when vision of tomorrow blocks all the view.
So to begin with, I believe in acknowledging their circumstances and the way they operate within that. In that sense, we have a lot to learn from them. To me, thats what the relation should be. Its not a question of we and them. Its a question of how a group of people with certain advantages benefit from people who are strong in something else. Each other can survive without the other. Its more about making each other's life better.

Since I dont believe in infinite patience in who ever reads this, I am going to reserve the rest of what I want to say to the subsequent pieces.

Bad day out

Minneapolis. Minnesota. A place synonymous with bad weather. Temperature goes up to 110 F in summer. Goes down to -40 F in winter. Probably this is what they call a swing - one extreme to an other. Kicked my roommate and my two neighbours out of bed to take them on a nice drive, but brought them back disappointed. Don't blame me. Weather played spoil sport. Intended to canoe. The river was rough and I was weak hearted. I would rather not risk going 'down the river'. I might as well have my chances of becoming 'a brave guy who saved a beutiful damsel from the clutches of a violent river and lived happily ever after' go down the drain. Warm in the morning. Nice drizzle by noon. Windy and pouring in the evening. Poor thing. The harder it tries, the more I fall in love with it. When I say I love the weather at Minneapolis, people ask if I am crazy in different ways : 'Are you serious?'. 'Do you really mean what you say?' 'Are you a thick skinned animal?'. To all, I have just one answer: Its all in the mind (and the jacket and the necessity to stay here and the state of health ). We all complain and crib a lot about lots of things. Its one way of getting things done. Kids do it on the way to the shop but keep their mouth shut on the way back. They know when it helps to cry and when it does not. As grown ups, we miss that point a lot of times. Complaining about the weather will not convince the weather to be better. Will it? Here I am complaining that people complain about weather fully aware people will not stop complaining about it. Why am I complaining about things that cannot be changed? To those who ask me 'Will you ever grow up?' - that's a hint.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog spot. No promises from me. No expectations from you. Pure plain postings. Read and Enjoy. Comment if you can. Certainly not a copy of my previous day's schedule. More likely a peep into my head.
Be my guest :)