Inventing our Future
The Professor
Back in my undergraduate college as a student
of Manufacturing Science & Engineering, it was charting an unknown territory.
In 1996, except one IIT, no other engineering college or, university had any
such stream of studies that aimed to elevate and specialise components of traditional
Mechanical Engineering.
The courses were heavy on design, mathematics, manufacturing
science from prehistoric metallurgy to robotics, computer aided design and
manufacturing.
It was a tough experiment for the professor who
founded it as there weren’t many professors, teaching staff or fully developed
laboratories that could reliably deliver the course or, the vision.
I belonged to the first batch of students post
the launch of this branch of engineering studies.
The several moving parts that fuelled uncertainty
about the future were calmly sedated by the founding professor. He was in his
mid-40s, wearing multiple hats from course design, administration to developing
the branch and lab infrastructure.
He never appeared fragile, pretentious or,
assuring; only exuded overwhelming purpose.
The Network Scientist
Few days back I came across this Ted Talk “The
real relationship between your age and your chance of success” by Albert-László
Barabási, a Network Scientist dedicated to uncover hidden order in
complex systems.
It provided a compelling distinction between
performance and success; most interestingly, it goes on to provide a data
packed critique to Albert Einstein’s remark “A person who has not made his
great contribution to science before the age of thirty will never do so.”
The extent of his research spans Nobel Prize winning
scientists, artists to Silicon Valley Tech entrepreneurs, who provided
successful exits.
Beating general belief that most successful
people tend to be in their 20s, 30s and max early 40s, it provides a refreshing
connection between how persistently one should keep trying irrespective of age, and
success follows.
Hence, productivity has no age, and success is
randomized; only makes sense to keep trying.
Looking back, my professor in college was
extending his productivity as an academician and researcher well into his 50s,
while his peers were slowing down with retirement in mind. Extending the
network scientist’s inferences, the chances of my professor achieving success
into his 50s was higher.
Intuitively, he was buying more lottery tickets
into his 50s and improving his chances of winning.
Democratizing success
There is increasing evidence how applying the
principles of more productivity to a larger demographic base does create more
success.
Social media companies from Youtube, Facebook,
Instagram, Tik Tok, Sharechat et al, have been instrumental in offering platforms
accessible to over 4bn of world population and creating the largest base of
solopreneurs, celebrities or, influencers as they are called.
Ride hailing companies Uber, Ola increasingly
publish the cab driver’s number of rides, brief profile and their rating. It is not uncommon for a driver post a drop, to request you to rate him/her well. The
rating economy applied at large scale is driving productivity towards an
improved success rate.
Artists, content creators on social media to
education platforms, ecommerce extendable to food, groceries, medicines et al,
have given a monumental jump to human productivity, and potentially improving
the chances of individual success at unprecedented scale.
What started as a simple and mundane movement
from Point A to Point B, is now a sophisticated science combining man and
machine, and creating a large scale impact towards the future of work and
employment.
As transactions generate more data, the
transaction journey gets more nuanced and computing tools and technology develop,
there is significant scope to democratize success.
Defining Purpose
The implication for governments and
organizations is to develop that thinking of more access, skills and providing
more tools to citizens, employees at all levels to support a large scale
productivity.
To give an example, the Smart Cities project
that aims at a multi-lateral intervention for urban development across
infrastructure, education, health, security aimed at 100 cities with smart
solutions, can be a transformative journey to a large population and private
enterprise.
At organizations, entry to mid-level employees
that form the majority of employees can be invested in realizing goals that are beyond their transactional KRAs.
The progressive thinking needs to
institutionalize their voice, define their roles and push the democratizing technologies
to engineer the future over long-term, 5, 10, 15 or may be 20 years; that would tap into their exponential creative potential.
Inventing
Back to my college days, the peers in other
mature and developed engineering streams looked at this new stream with sympathy
and some healthy satire about an unknown future.
It got disrupted the day, the founding
professor got the Advanced Manufacturing Lab live kicking off with a Laser beam
machining instrument and basic sensors for Robotics.
It spawned purpose, resilience and passion for
the future.
A Smart City can be that moment; trying out
several bold ideas and to keep trying can be that moment.
Your write-up is very correct. There is nothing wrong trying something where you know the outcome it may be delayed.
ReplyDeleteThanks, worth reading.
Quite liked the line of your thinking.
ReplyDeleteBeing your peer from the same college, I can say - "look at the bright side" is much easier said than done (in the context of our college 😀)
ReplyDeleteYour writing reflects optimism that we so desperately need. People don't appreciate purpose anymore thanks to the short attention spans and the philosophy that rewards outcome only. Your article is a reminder that purpose, bold ideas are as important as the traditional outcomes. Excellent read.