Certainties & Serendipities

Usually I’m not an egotist. So please bear with me as you read the next para. There is a reason for it.

My math score was consistently above 95% through school. I even scored 100% in Engineering Mathematics in undergraduate Engineering. In the final year of Engineering college, I wrote computer programs, both in C & Basic, for seven projects, including mine. When I started my career, I knew most of the API commands of Visual Basic by heart that I could program without referring to a manual. When I moved to Windows Programming, I had to refer to manuals but the instances were minimal. Even as late as 2003, I could program without referring to manuals.

Then Google came in¹.

There were, of course, search engines before Google. But search results weren’t precise. Add to it, the Internet wasn’t ubiquitous. But by 2003, Internet was available everywhere, all the time, even in India. And Google was God’s gift! It gave you the exact answer for the question in your mind. Amidst zillions of web-pages, the possibility that you could locate the page that had your answer, was nothing less than a miracle. That miracle was the beginning of rotting of my career.

I was advised by my friends that remembering all the commands is a waste of memory. The prevailing idea, then, was that you knew it or you knew who knew it. That ‘who-knew-it’ was Google. She² knew everything. In the beginning, I searched even those commands and algorithms I knew well, just to test Google’s capabilities. As confidence in Google’s results grew, I chose to forget inessentials.

Seven year later, I’m shocked by the consequence of that choice. I can’t commit to memory even the simple programming concepts like list comprehension in Python. It is as if my memory is rejecting it saying, ‘I’ll not store it; go google it.”

The effect got aggravated by ever increasing computing power in handheld devices. As a kid, I used to go along with my father for grocery shopping. I was not as good as my father in doing fractions but I could do it. Even as adult I was good at math(I already boasted about that, didn’t I?). As more and more computing power was cramped into mobile devices, I used them in the beginning for calculations that involved multiple steps, remembering intermediate results. Slowly, similar to how my brain got complacent towards programming skills, it showed the same signs towards math. It continually said, ‘go use your mobile, leave me alone.” The metamorphosis was gradual, but after seven years the impact is telling.

Recently, I have become an independent consultant. One of the tasks expected of me is to evaluate proposals and other estimates. The IT parts are piece of cake, but I just simply can’t bring my mind to evaluate estimations and quotes. I am not able to do even simple math (like fractions and sum of large numbers). Since I can’t evaluate the important part of the proposal – financials, I become mute spectator at the crucial part of the business strategies.

On one side, my programming productivity is down because I have to look-up most of the commands, for which I have to be connected to Internet. Combining that with the fact that I’m loosing my ability to do math, the future is scary.

So my advice to the next generation is, don’t sacrifice your memory at the alter of computing devices and internet. I’m trying to take back from the altar-fire whatever I could.

Napoleon was my hero in school. I read with passion his meteoric rise from obscurity to French Emperor. I could list historic details of all his battles. In my childish mind, I hated the British for killing ‘my hero’. (I read about Napoleon before I learnt of British rule of India and when I learnt that, I hated them even more).

I was also fascinated with Hindu mythology. I read both Mahabharata and Ramayana much before I read a chapter in Bible. I could recite even ancillary stories in these epics. I believe that the lessons taught through these stories are important in life.

And I liked talking. Though I was (and still) an introvert, I loved standing in front of people and talk. Whatever the topic was, I won a prize.

All of these until I was 15. I was told, as like many of my classmates, that I should concentrate on Math and Science, because only these are important (I didn’t understand what that importance was and I still don’t understand how they are more important than the ones I liked). I did excel in Math & Science, but my heart was not in it.

Continuing on the same principle, in college too, I ignored Accountancy and Economics (though it was only one paper). I concentrated only on engineering subjects.

Now that I have been in the competitive business market for 16 years including the past two years as an independent consultant, my perspectives on education have changed.

I have realized that existing education model is good for mass production of laborers. But when business world prefers to automate most of the routine tasks, does it still need laborers?

If the current education system is sufficient enough, why should new recruits undergo corporate training programs? Why can’t they transition as fully trained professionals from college to organizations?

Based on my experience, here are some of the gaps in the existing educational system:

1. Business is built on relationships; relationships are built on conversations; and conversations are fueled by language. Thus command of language is essential to build and survive in business. Without proper language skills, engineers fail to articulate their side of arguments in conversations. But is literature given required importance in schools? It doesn’t even appear in professional curriculum.
2. Do you walk into a car show-room and ask for a well engineered car, even though you are an engineer? People don’t prefer products with just good-engineering but they choose those with appealing design. Engineering is given. But labs in engineering schools concentrate on circuits working on boards, not on building attractive products (same is true for software too).
3. School curriculum promotes a culture of consumption. Students read text books, listen to lectures and attend workshops – all designed towards consumption based learning. Even the exam system is designed to test the ability of students to consume rather than their ability to produce. But the business world thrives on production. Students should be encouraged to synthesize their learning and create something new. It shouldn’t be a co-curricular or out-of-campus activity. Rather evaluation itself should be based on what they create.
4. Students are taught ‘how-to’ but not ‘why-to’. This is again a reflection of ‘mass-production-of-laborers’ attitude. Now-a-days, every student passing out of an software engineering course know how to program in Java. But do they know the reason why companies recruit Java programmers? Do they know it is to provide the best experience to their customers so that they will become repeat customers. In fact CEOs don’t care if you program in Java or C++ or even in VB as long as the business expand.
5. School ranking system is out of sync with real life. School ranking system is individualistic. But professional life awards the ability to co-operate with others to produce results. This is seldom taught to students. That is why the top ranked students have difficulty in organizational settings and they go back to academics and research.

Indian market place has become highly competitive and will be more so in the coming years. If our students have to succeed in such an environment, our educational system should be changed, and it should be changed now.

Image by : Syder Ross

I got to know Shankar Ganesh via Twitter. Through subsequent twitter interactions I came to know he had established a successful online business utilizing his knowledge of Windows OS. He has written for other popular technology sites too.

With all of this background, I assumed that he should be at least a college grad. But he surprised me when he sent me a LinkedIn invite. He was just 17 years old. I couldn’t have been more surprised, impressed and proud (he hails from the same town as mine). Since then I’ve been following him with a curious interest. He continues to amaze me. He has served as a marketing intern at Zoho; he is pursuing his public speaking practice and so on. All this while still at college. It is encouraging to know Indian youths possess such entrepreneurial spirits and are already creating waves. Its a pleasure to interview Shankar Ganesh for this blog.

1) Give us a background of how you came about launching your online business?

Honestly, my blog is far from an online business. At least, till I deliver an actual product. It’s an outlet for my creative passion – wrting and for teaching others about what I’ve learnt.

My first blog was launched on Blogger.com after I found the blogging buzzword in online forums. Initially, I wrote reviews of web applications but later I found myself writing how to guides, and tech tips based on my own experience. Throughout, it’s been a learning process – my writing has constantly improved. The money that comes out of it is good – enough to pay my college fee and manage my expenses by myself. I’m thinking of building new sites and communities based around my interests in the future.

2) You are not from one of the popular metros. What challenges you had to face in establishing your business?

Internet connectivity was a challenge, till BSNL (the national telecom network) came out with extensive broadband coverage. It was not that cheap then. Prior to that, I had only dialup as an option which was patheic nonetheless.

I wanted to blog on my own domain, and getting one was another challenge I faced. I didn’t know where the money would come from. Somehow my AdSense pennies added up and finally I invested some of that into getting my own domain and hosting. This may not seem like a location issue, but I think if I had been in a city, I’d had people to meet in person and consult.

3) What are some of the memorable milestones?

There have been many happy moments. Getting featured on the Digg front page, being recognized by some big A list bloggers and many more. But there’s nothing that matches the happiness that I get when someone genuinely thanks me for what I’ve written. Sometimes, it’s students. They’ve found my tips on improving English helpful. Sometimes, it’s others who’ve found a solution to a tech related issue on my site.

4) How Technology has empowered today’s youths of India?

If anyone’s got a doubt, they’ve got Wikipedia to refer today. My Dad didn’t have something like that. If I want to connect with my friends, I’ve got Facebook. My Dad is not in touch with many of his school friends.

Computers are cheaper. Five years ago, let’s say, one kid in a class of 40 had a computer. Now, it’s at least ten. Technology has become affordable. Five years from now, I’m sure that internet connectivity on mobiles will become even more ubiquitous – leading to a lot of opportunities that could be leveraged.

These are probably universal – but I think the mobile explosion in India really happened very quickly.

5) Let’s talk about your stay at Zoho. How did you get into Zoho? What motivated you to spend time as an intern?

I had gone somewhat bored of blogging (I’m waiting for some good ideas to strike) so I was thinking of a good way to spend my summer vacation. Over the last couple of years, I’ve learnt a lot about online marketing, writing and search engine optimization and I thought Zoho would be the right place to do something with those skills.

Zoho is one of the very few IT based “product companies” from India that I admire and respect. I’ve heard about their pretty cool work culture.  I couldn’t think of another IT company in India where I’d fit in.

I approached guys from Zoho on Twitter, showed them my website for some credibility. They liked what I’ve been doing, and approved me. I went there to see in person how things actually work in a web product company, how they execute things, and to meet and talk to new people.

I can safely say that this wouldn’t have happened if not for my web presence.

6) What are the lessons learnt while at Zoho?

Quite a number of things:

Things take a while in companies. It’s not a blog, it’s not a small business, so it takes a while to get things approved. But that’s okay and it’s for good.

You’ve got people with a wide array of skill sets – if you want a comic strip on your new landing page, there’ll be a talented guy out there to help you out. There are people to meet and always learn from. There are people from whom you can seek feedback on what you’re working on very quickly. One’s skill complements another’s.

It’s easy to get excited and say “Hey, I want to make a million dollar business!” but the amount of effort and chaos that goes into getting sales is enormous and it requires a lot of effort to create a sustainable business.

7) Now about your college life. Are you the tech geek or a guru in the campus?

People do ask me suggestions and questions on tech related stuff once in a while, but it’s a University – and there are plenty of others who are equally geeky. I can and I am trying to learn a lot from other tech geeks in campus as well.

8) Do any of your class mates have an online business?

As far as I know, none of my friends has an online business but a few seniors in my college do freelance coding or work on their own pet projects. There’s this guy called Shrihari whose pet project is Kontactr.com. There’s another guy by the name Sanjeev Gopinath who’s made BunkBazaar, a cool mobile app. They’re cool people, and I’m happy they’re working on stuff they love.

9) Do they know about your online ventures and how do they respond?

Yes, some of my friends do know about my blog and they’re happy for it. They do ask me about blogging and how to go about starting a blog. I try my best to help them. I tell them not to blog for money, but to write about what they really love and what their passions are. The money will follow.

10) Given your background, what would you change in our educational system?

It pains me that kids aren’t respected for their talents. We keep saying every kid is unique, but the curriculum treats them as if they’re all the same. I think that should change.

The school system currently seems like it’s preparing children for jobs. It should instead teach them how to find a living based on their passions. If not help them find a living, at least help them find where they’re good at.

A kid who’s good in math should be encouraged to excel in it. At the same time, a kid who’s good at making funny cartoons should also be encouraged to excel in it. That is also a talent.

Today’s schools tell kids to set goals when they don’t even know what their passion is. Only when they find a calling, they can set a confident goal. I wrote about this recently in my blog.

And most importantly: failing is important. Come out to the real world and you’re bound to fail, once or twice or even an umpteen number of times. Schools are teaching that failing is a taboo. Schools should instead tell kids to embrace failure and learn from them, not scare them away.

If I had a magic wand, I’d try to make learning organic, customized to individual kids, where emphasis is put on creativity and not earning potential.

My school’s former principal told us: “Today, children walk to school and run home; They should instead run to school excitedly and walk home”. Schools should be fun.

It could be tough bringing up this change, because it could be logistically challenging, but people are doing it already: SchoolofOne and that’s inspiring.

11) Do you plan to drop out for a garage startup? If an opportunity comes up would you do it?

I might drop out if I think I’m on an idea of a lifetime. Getting my family’s support is going to be toughest part. Also, keeping naysayers away.

12) What do you want to do after college? Would you join infosys or a startup or start one yourself?

That’s three years from now so I can’t be sure. Everyday is a new day and every day I learn something new. It’s better to follow my purpose and collide with destiny later, as Bertice Berry says.

I want to be an entrepreneur or work online full time. I might take up a job with a company – but whatever I do, I want to wake up in the morning excited about what I’ll be doing on that day.

We wish Shankar Ganesh all the very best to wake up excited every morning. Only such kids can take India to the very top.