Specialists, Generalists and Generalising Specialists!

Specialisation is the name of the game today, with functional groupings being wholly dedicated to deep specialities. We pick one discipline, be it a programmer, a stock planner, a project manager or say a cardiologist, and go on to devote ourselves to the same.

Success has become all about an exclusive concentration focussed on gaining more knowledge in the same area of expertise. And very soon, we fall into a rut, as attaining proficiency in the same skill sets.

We may be highly skilled in what we do, but at what cost? Can we really afford to be ensconced in our ‘ivory towers’, languidly basking in the glory of our immense expertise?

Well, as we burrow deeper and deeper in a single field, too much specialization can also turn into a gargantuan bar5rier of its own.

The exceedingly narrow realm can become our own undoing.

Specialisation blinds us to other issues and we end up not knowing much about anything else. Floundering outside our so-called ‘area of expertise’, we become totally dependent on other ‘specialists’ for the smallest things. Psychologist, Konrad Lorenz hits the nail on the head with, “Every man gets a narrower and narrower field of knowledge in which he must be an expert in order to compete with other people.

The specialist knows more and more about less and less and finally knows everything about nothing.”

But what if our speciality becomes ineffective or worse, defunct?

Then again, while too much specialization induces the ‘frog-in-the-well’ syndrome, generalists possess a wide range of knowledge, but lack specific skills in anything. By spending all our time trying to learn bits of everything, we can land up as a ‘jack-of-all-trades, but master of none’.

The Middle Ground

To balance the extreme approaches and enjoy the benefits of both, consultant Scott Ambler propounds a new term of ‘generalising specialists’ that calls on people to maintain one or more technical specialities while actively seeing to gain new skills in both existing specialities as well as other areas. Though coined in terms of software development, the concept holds water in almost every sphere of work.

To evolve from being specialists/generalists to generalizing specialists, we need to equalize specialization with other skills. Moving away from restricting ourselves to extensive knowledge in a single subject area or trying to learn everything, we should develop a strong grasp in a chosen speciality along with learning new skills in different aspects of our relevant domain itself.

Only by spending less time on perfecting skills we are already proficient in and cultivating at least a working knowledge of other related areas, can we own all the skills necessary to be successful.

For this, you should first know yourself and become aware of your weaknesses. Once you become adept in your field, do not make the mistake of ignoring other matters.

Instead, try to expand your horizons beyond your core area and gain a good grasp of the whole picture.

Step outside your comfort zone and be willing and able to learn new skills. Stretch yourself and your knowledge by reading, on diverse subjects, browsing the Internet or just talking to people.

For more profound understanding, you can even take up courses, cross-train or gain hands-on experience at work itself.

The varied knowledge and spread of skills (even if its based on rudimentary information) helps in understanding the whole process, end-results and even potential solutions.

It facilitates variety in work and increases your survival quotient as you can pick the ball and run with it whenever needed.

By contributing to other areas, you will become more co-operative, agile and emerge as the natural choice for taking up the lead.

So, while every job does necessitate a degree of specialization, why not know more than that to turn into a multi-disciplinary worker, or in other words, a ‘generalising specialist’.

To wind up, author, Robert Heinlein sums it up best with, “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialisation is for insects!”

- Payal Chanania, faqs@cnkonline.com (Narrowing realm can be career limiting)

Courtesy: The Hindu, Feb.13, 2008

Grateful thanks to Payal Chanania and The Hindu.

Meditation is a mysterious ladder

There are certain basic questions which everyone muses over at some stage in his/her life. What is the purpose of my birth? Why do some people have an easier time than others? Where did I come from and what is my destination? People often struggle to find the answers and those who do so get contentment. For this, one should dive deep ‘within’.

Yielding to worldly distractions, people seldom try to notice what goes on ‘inside’. If they contemplate, they will see that the mind is being constantly bombarded by sense perceptions. Very often, it is not until a person reaches a point of great distress that he realizes it is time to take stock of his life. It is in this context that meditation comes in. It is a practice by which there is constant observation of the mind. It is a mysterious ladder which leads from earth to heaven, from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, from pain to bliss, from restlessness to abiding peace, from ignorance to knowledge, and from mortality to eternity (according to Swami Sivananda). It helps to discover that the infinite well of wisdom that lie inside men.

However, the mind is an elusive animal difficult to tame. Meditation creates positive channels in the mind and eradicates destructive influences. It is a scientific process but, the goal is spiritual. Through it the play of the mind can be seen. Good and evil, friend and enemy are all in the mind only. Every man can create a world of virtue or vice, pleasure or pain, out of his imagination. There is a power or an energy in each person and this can be tapped. Meditation unleashes this immense potential in each individual.

A virtuous life prepares the mind as a fit instrument for concentration and meditation. Without the aid of meditation, one cannot liberate oneself from the trammels of the mind and attain immortality. During this experiment (of meditation), worldly thoughts are shut out and the mind is filled with the divine presence. It is no doubt a trying discipline but intense training will bring success.

Swami Vimalananda, in a lecture, said that, in this spiritual exercise, thoughts should be fixed on God and the mind gradually withdrawn from worldly objects. One can get the meditative mood easily if the practice is systematic during the same hours daily. But no violent effort should be made to control the mind; it should be allowed a little freedom for a while; divine thoughts should flow gently. After some time, one who takes to this path will realize that it acts as a tonic, opening the avenues of intuitional knowledge and helps develop a strong will-power – while an inner voice will guide him.

Courtesy: The Hindu, August 9, 1995

A Thought for Today : February 23, 2008

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better - John Updike

E-Ink, E-Readers and E-Books!

Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison thinks it is a huge advance. It helps her carry several books on her travels, choose and download more books, read in the yard or on the beach, and increase text size for clarity. The object of her fascination, Amazon's Kindle, makes it possible wirelessly to download books, magazines, and newspapers over a high-speed telecom data network. Whenever, wherever, within the United States (at this stage). The first generation of e-readers - the Kindle, Sony's Reader Digital Book, iLead, StareBook, Jinke, and the soon-to-be launched Readius - promises to redefine reading and the way books, newspapers, and other content are delivered. Digital technologies tend to get more hyped than adopted initially but their uptake is bound to rise as prices fall. Interestingly, when Amazon launched its $399 Kindle e-reader for the U.S., it sold out in five hours. The credit for this extraordinary reader response should go equally to the display technology such devices use - a black and white e-ink-based electronic paper screen that comes closest to printed paper in readability - and fast access on the go ("buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute"). Then there is the bonus of being able to pack 200 books in a very portable 285-gram device; a facility to annotate text; music to heighten the reading experience; a built-in dictionary; SD card memory expandability; and good battery life.

The design goal for an e-reader is to enable the book lover to become absorbed in the story and the device to 'disappear'. Portable computers may facilitate e-book downloads but the e-reader is differentiated by e-ink. It has no backlighting and can therefore be read even under bright light; as a downside, however, the most popular devices do not yet offer colour and cannot handle video. But books and newspapers can do without either, and a strain-free reading experience adds to their appeal. That is not to say that these features will not appear in the future; some companies are working to add them and have demonstrated the capability. If the Kindle has persuaded publishers to launch over 100,000 book titles, 170 newspapers, and over 250 popular blogs on the new platform, it is due to its ability to reach a wider audience - and new readers - with a different experience. Some may be tempted to see in all this the impending end of print, but as author John Seely Brown cautioned, that would be erroneous 'endism' produced by blinkered euphoria. Printed books and newspapers will continue to exist, even as itinerant bibliophiles and people of the 'always-on' generation immerse themselves in e-ink content.

Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, Feb.21, 2008 (Editorial: 'Books Unlimited')

A Thought for Today : February 22, 2008

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins - Albert Schweitzer

Unending Scuffle

The Mahabharata is called the fifth Veda because it holds a microscopic lens over the infinite ways in which dharma and adharma are pitted against one another in a continuous battle. In chronicling the lives of the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the story unfolds this eternal conflict to highlight the right way of living. Sengalipuram Sri R.Damodara Dikshitar pointed out in a discourse (at Chennai) that association with the pious and holy can help in one’s effort to remove ignorance in matters of righteousness, while association with the evil can be harmful and destructive to one’s self, even though one might not be evil by nature. Association with the evil-minded is dangerous in the same way as green trees feel the onslaught of forest fire when dry wood catches fire.

In the Udyoga Parva of the epic, Vidura discloses many facets of dharma to Dhritarashtra who is confused and seeks peace of mind. Vidura makes it clear that one with a sinful heart will never find peace and the only way to peace is to be engaged in good deeds, good thoughts and good words. One has to get over ill feelings towards others. One should be honest and assess one’s inner feelings in this regard. Vidura points out to Dhritarashtra the many mistakes he had committed especially in his treatment of the Pandavas, as he was blinded by the love for his sons. He himself was not free from ill will against them, since he knew them to be superior to his sons. By condoning his son’s actions, when the unfairly humiliated Pandavas were subjected to harsher ridicule, it was clear that sooner or later he would reap the results of these sins. A man is deprived of his good sense and judgment when his fall is imminent.

Among the Purusharthas, Dharma (righteousness), Artha (wealth), Kama (desires) and Moksha (liberation), dharma alone leads to liberation. The other two are worldly pursuits and can confer only temporary benefits. The purpose of human life is to strive and remove the ignorance enveloping our consciousness so that one learns to conquer the senses and enjoy peace and happiness sanctioned by the Sastras. Ignorance is the cause of sorrow and hinders the proper perception of the value of dharma.

Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, Feb.26, 2008 (Religion)

A Thought for Today : February 21, 2008

Money is like an arm or leg: use it or lose it - Henry Ford

Secret of Successful Life

This is the secret of successful life according to Swami Vivekananda. He has stated in his rousing call to the … Nation that no work can be called work unless thought precedes it. He therefore asks men and women to fill their brain with high thoughts and highest ideals and place them before them, day in and day out, so that they can turn out good and great work.

Dwelling on the difference between one who has an ideal and another who has no ideal, the Swamiji says that if the former commits one thousand mistakes (this is only an assumption for the sake of argument), the latter makes fifty-thousand mistakes. Therefore, an ideal is most essential. And this ideal one should hear about continuously and as much as possible, till it fully occupies one’s heart, brains, veins – the entire body. “Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh” and out of the fullness of the heart, the hand works too.

Swami Vivekananda directs us to hear first, then understand, shedding all distractions, shut the mind to all external influences and devote ourselves to the development of truth within. He observes that those who only take a nibble here and a nibble there, will never attain anything.

He believes very firmly that one must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. One should be able to say: “I will drink up the ocean like Agasthya; at my will, mountains will be pulverized.” If only one has that sort of energy, that sort of will and works hard, one will undoubtedly reach the goal.

Courtesy: “Tips to Success” (LIFCO’s Great Little Books), Published by The Little Flower Co., Chennai-600017

Eyecatchers-61: ""Think differently, Think out of the box" by Priscilla Jebaraj

“A lot has been written in management textbooks about learning. We need to write more on forgetting,” says Vijay Govindarajan, Professor of International Business at the Tuck School and founding director of Tuck’s Centre for Global Leadership.

During a recent visit to India, the management guru offered his insights on the key elements needed in the training of India’s management personnel.

“You need to forget all the rules about how we make money today and think about what will be needed in 25 years… Current success can be the biggest obstacle to future greatness,” he warns.

He offers a slew of examples to support his theory. In 1970, there were 3000 companies in the Swiss watch industry producing mechanical watches. By 1980, only a hundred were left. It was not that the other 2900 companies did not have access to new digital technology; after all, they had pioneered quartz watches themselves. But they could not see it as a viable business model that would disrupt their then successful, existing model.

Moving to a positive example, Prof.Govindarajan points to U.S.conglomerate, General Electric, for whom he now works as professor in residence.

The top management realized that the biggest opportunities in the next 25 years lie in the fields of health, infrastructure, water, alternative fuels. So they made the decision to acquire in these areas…But they also made their insurance business and their plastics division, both of which are profitable now, but will have diminishing relevance in the future,” he says. Again, the emphasis on forgetting current success.

So what comes next? After forgetting the rules of current success, how are management students to address the future? Prof.Govindarajan replies with that buzzword of the corporate world: INNOVATION.

He is quick to dismiss the current myths about the concept: “Innovation is NOT creativity,” he emphasizes. “Creativity is that light-bulb moment, that flash of a brilliant idea,” he says, pointing out that creativity cannot be taught at a management school.

Innovation, however, is a different story. “Innovation is about commercializing creativity. It is that 99% perspiration involved in taking it from the idea to the business,” he says. That is what management training needs to be about.

The process of commercializing creativity needs to be inspired by out-of-the box thinking. Prof.Govindarajan has spent 25 years of research into that process,…..

In the days of the Licence Raj, the key to success lay in exclusivity. It was a system that bred inefficiency. In the post-liberalisation era, that had to change. “For the last 15 years, Indian industry has grown merely by sucking out inefficiency. To me, that game is now over… Looking to the future, our innovation gap is bigger than our efficiency gap,” he says.

He lists e-choupals and the global delivery models of the IT companies as among the few instances of innovation in Indian industry. His best example for the forgetting and innovating process, however, is the Tata Nano.

“Tata had to forget all about how it makes money today… To make a Nano, you can’t just start with another Tata car and downsize it,” he points out. A separate team had to be created for the Nano, which was able to leverage capabilities from the current business, but was also be empowered to discard current notions and innovate anew.

Courtesy: ‘Education Plus’, Supplement to The Hindu, Feb.25, 2008

A Thought for Today : February 20, 2008

Those who are blessed with the most talent don't necessarily outperform everyone else. It's the people with follow-through who excel - Mary Kay Ash

Science Watch-3: "Age from the Eyes"

A new way to find a person’s age by looking into the lens of the eye could, among other applications, help forensic scientists, Danish researchers say.

Courtesy: Newscape, The Hindu, Madurai, Feb.21, 2008

Science Watch-2: "Laser Breath Test for Cancer, Asthma"

Laser Breath Test for Cancer, Asthma
Molecules in a single exhalation used

Washington: A new laser analyzer might be able to help doctors detect cancer, asthma or other diseases by sampling a patient’s breath, US researchers reported.

The device uses mirrors to bounce laser light back and forth until it has touched every molecule a patient exhales in a single breath, the team said in Optics Express.

This can help detect minute traces of compounds that can point to various diseases, including cancer, asthma, diabetes and kidney malfunction, they said.

“This technique can give a broad picture of many different molecules in the breath all at once,” Jun Ye, who led the research at the University of Colorado, said.

Mr.Ye’s team at a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University developed a new technique, called cavity-enhanced direct optical frequency comb spectroscopy.

When animals and people breathe out, they exhale not only gases that are not needed, such as carbon dioxide, but also compounds that result from the metabolism of cells. “To date, researchers have identified over 1,000 different compounds contained in human breath,” Mr.Ye’s team wrote in the report.

Some point to abnormal function – such as methylamine, produced in higher amounts by liver and kidney disease, ammonia produced when the kidneys are failing or elevated acetone caused by diabetes.

People with asthma may produce too much nitric oxide, exhaled in the breath, while smokers produce high-levels of carbon monoxide.

Last February, a team at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio reported that they could use a mass spectrometer breath test to detect lung cancer in patients.

Courtesy: Reuters and The Hindu, Madurai, Feb.21, 2008

Science Watch-1: "Damaged Rubber Repairs Itself"

Power of Healing
Damaged rubber that repairs itself

Paris: French chemists on Feb.21, 2008 announced they had created a rubber that heals itself after being cut. This breakthrough could lead to clothes that self-mend if torn and toys that repair themselves if damaged by a tot.

The molecular concoction – described by other scientists as having “a touch of magic about it” – can self-heal at room temperature in around 15 minutes by simply pressing the damaged pieces together, they report in the science journal, NATURE.

Conventional rubber typically comprises long, cross-linked chains of polymers that can stretch and then recover to their original size and shape. The new formula made by a team at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a private firm, Arkema, achieves the same elasticity by using a mixture of two different kinds of smaller molecules.

Some are ditopic, which means they can hook up with two molecules; others are tritopic, meaning they can associate with three molecules.

The network is meshed together by weaker hydrogen bonds, which get broken when the rubber is cut but also provide an atomic “glue,” recombining into chains to bridge severed parts.

The ingredients comprise fatty acids made from vegetable oils, combined in a stepped process with diethyline triamine and urea, both common chemicals.

Courtesy: AFP and The Hindu, Madurai, Feb.21, 2008

Eyecatchers-60: "The Best of Booker Race"

London: India-born authors Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai will be among those vying for “The Best of the Booker", a one-off award to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the literary prize.

It will honour the finest novel to have won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction since it was first awarded on April 22, 1969, the organizers announced on Thursday.

In all, 41 novels will be eligible. They include Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss.
This is the second time that a celebratory award has been created by the Man Booker Prize organizers. In 1993, the 25th anniversary year, Rushdie won the ‘Booker of Bookers’ for Midnight’s Children.

The Best of the Booker will, for the first time, give the public an opportunity to help decide the deserving novel, choosing from a shortlist of six novels. The shortlist is to be made by a panel of judges.

Courtesy: PTI and The Hindu, Madurai, Feb.22, 2008

Eyecatchers-59: 'Roof Riders"

Indonesian commuters riding on the roofs of trains will be sprayed with colored liquid so that security officers can identify and arrest them, said a recent report. Electric trains link the Indonesian capital and its neighboring towns. These trains are so full during the rush hour that many of them end up sitting on the roof of the train. But this is also a ploy to travel without buying a ticket. The state-owned railway company, PT Kereta Api, has been trying to discourage commuters from traveling on the roof but to no avail. So now they have hit upon a strategy that is sure to discourage the roof riders by dousing them with colored liquid so that they can be identified and punished. At least 53 roof riders have been killed in the past two years, the Post said.

Courtesy: Young World, supplement to The Hindu, Feb.22, 2008

A Thought for Today : February 19, 2008

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better – John Updike

Eyecatchers-58: 'India: World Diabetes Capital"

Not only is diabetes a leading killer, the type 2 form of the disease is now a deadly epidemic in India. Diabetes affects an estimated 25 to 40 million Indians, according to different estimates and at this rate the number of patients could double by 2030. With more diabetics than any other country – every fourth patient today is an Indian – India is often called the diabetes capital of the world.

Some reasons for the epidemic: Experts say that many Indians are genetically predisposed to the disease. Others attribute it to a rising incidence of obesity, high-fat, high-calorie diets, sedentary lifestyles, lack of exercise and even stress.

Courtesy: Reader’s Digest, February 2008

'Keeping Diabetes at Bay' by Cynthia Dermody

1. Drink Milk

A Scandinavian study found that adding whey, a protein in milk, to high-carbohydrate meals increases insulin secretion and lowers blood sugar levels. Researchers have yet to figure out how whey does this, but they say it may be that whey protein is highly digestible and releases high levels of amino acids in the blood. The acids summon the insulin release that is necessary to control blood sugar. Another report from Harvard found that men who drank the most low-fat milk had a 23% lower risk of developing diabetes than men who drank only a little milk.

2. Snack on Walnuts

People with diabetes and those at risk for the condition are told to eat oily fish like tuna or salmon twice a week because it helps reduce the amount of saturated fats in their diet and because it supplies omega-3 polyunsaturated acids, which protect against heart disease, the No.1 killer of diabetics.

But many people don’t eat that much fish. Australian researchers found that having a daily walnut snack (about a handful) and eating slightly less fish boosted omega-3s and lowered saturated fat better than fish alone.

3. Get some sleep

Boston University researchers recently found that people who slept too little (six hours or less a night) were 66% more likely to have diabetes than those who slept seven to eight hours.

Study author Daniel J.Gottlieb, MD, a professor of medicine, speculates that insufficient sleep causes the release of adrenaline-like substances that induce insulin resistance, though more research in this area is needed.

Excerpt from Reader’s Digest, February 2008

My grateful thanks to Cynthia Dermody and Reader’s Digest.

A Thought for Today : February 18, 2008

Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much - Robert Greenleaf

A Thought for Today : February 17, 2008

Keep five metres from a carriage, ten metres from a horse, and a hundred metres from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured – Indian Proverb