From the last one year I was working on a large project and somewhat hidden from most of the nitty-gritties of an organization outside the problems of actual delivery of software. From the last one month, since I rolled out of that project, I am opening my eyes to some of these things. I have a few observations to make: This is probably true for any consulting firm.
- The delivery phase is actually just one part of a very large process.
- There is a lot of effort by a lot of people that goes in before an assignment actually comes through to the delivery stage.
I was hearing one of our senior executives talk about these matters (and a lot more things). Everything was so tangled up. Each and every decision which tries to untangle some of these things, brings with it a few more knots as well. As a whole, it is a chaotic environment. If you consider all the multitudes of things that humans are trying to do in this existence, I don't see any sort of order in this at all. It feels as though people are trying to make sense out of nonsense.
This fact leads to a more general question. Why are human beings in general creating and getting involved in all these complicated situations? What is driving humans to create problems for themselves and solve them and get stuck in this never ending chain?
Money - This is probably the answer for a vast majority but we see that beyond a certain level, it hardly matters. People sometimes take risks and are ready to lose money for something else.
Ego - This is probably one factor which overtakes money. People can go to any extent to maintain their self image. Probably this is also one of the factors driving the free software movement. But I feel this is again not the end. There is something else.
Something Else - I dont know what to call it. It involves the high level of passion exhibited by humans in whatever they are interested in. It is the infinite amount of creativity hiding inside every human, manifesting at various degrees. The push to do something new and special overflows from everyone given the conducive environment. When that push bursts out from within, neither money nor ego nor anything else can even come near it, let alone constrain it.
So, my conclusion is that we humans do what we are doing because we just can't help it. The knowledge/creativity/energy inside is trying to breakfree from all the limitations around. It is just the degree of manifestation that causes the differences between man and man.
3 comments:
I quite agree with your reasoning of creativity being the prime factor behind people's actions.But that, I feel is only after a certain stage.Initially it is the other "materialistic" factors that take precedence over creativity.Only once you have transcended parameters like fame,money do you do things out of inherent passion.Because by then,your ego would have been gratified to an extent.Of course,all these things would be happening at a sub-conscious level,which is why its even more harder to analyse them.
Hi srikanth, As you yourself have said, ego doesn't let you be happy with placing creativity above everything else. Here the ego is actually a barrier for the manifestation of your creativity.
When a person is egoless, thats when you can see the 'real' human. Till then it is just the apparent man that you are looking at. I agree It is a very subtle distinction to identify, but this is what I feel.
This is one of your best posts. very original. I would call your something else as "self- actualisation"(one of my favourite words).
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, this is the highest level of motivation.
Whatever you have written can be correlated to his theory of motivation.
reading this post makes me feel like opening my eyes to something else.Good one!
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