Its high time I write sense in this blog, apart from going through rounds and rounds about meself.. Anyways, this post is on something I've started hating the most, ( next only to bittergourd)..
HERD MENTALITY
Nothing could possibly surpass this ubiquitous behaviour which people so easily develop as they grow up. After being a witness to this, rather, being in the thick of it, I would say this is possibly as irritating as it could get. What's worse, the system at IIT whole heartedly supports it.
Some 5 guys take statistics..70 others follow.. ( I fell a prey to this too..)
Some guy goes does a project..10 others follow.
Some guy takes a book from the lib..15 others xerox it. (Though the book has crap..)
Some guy has started preparing for CAT.. 20 others follow.
Some guy listens to Marlyn Manson..5 others (Who can't say ' Hi. How are you?' ) download all his songs, start listening to it, headbanging like a pack of jerks..
Some guy joins an IT company..100000 others follow.
I mean, what the fuck..? I, for one, find this despicable, atrocious, repugnant..what not..
This just exposes one of the greatest weak points in oneself- Lack of self confidence, Lack of Independent thinking. When God has been kind enough to allocate 150 pounds of grey and white matter, why can't you make use of it, atleast to find out what YOU want, and what YOU like...?
No, I don't want you to use your head for quantum physics, or string theory, for heaven's sake..! Atleast for figuring out what you like...and not following any tom, dick and harry for everything they do..After all, if a person cannot find for himself what he wants, how can he climb the ladder of success, let alone reaching the zenith..Oops, I just made a logical error. This person does not even have a ladder of success to climb, all he has is a ladder which others climb. Independent thinking is a quality which I feel archly lacks in students(at least here..). The whole of philosophy(I've done a 3 credit course on it last sem..!) aims at identifying yourself, who you are, what you can do.. And the last thing it can possibly aim at is to copy others. I, till very recently too, had this habit of taking what others say, for granted, presupposing its validity. I was one amongst the thousands..
But now I am not. Unless I am totally convinced, I strongly disagree to it, be it a statement from HOD of a dept, or my branch topper..Coming back, I was reading a book called ' 50 companies that changed the world'. Was very much an ordinary book, but the stark points to note were the lives of the founders. NOT ONE person did the same thing as his peers. Not a single guy got AIR 100 in JEE, not a single guy presented a paper in UG, not a single guy got a C.G of 10, nor did anyone pass out from a B school and join an Investment Bank to get money..
THEY DID WHAT THEY LIKED..WITH PASSSION..LOVE..
Reminds me of an article I had read long back in Business India,(IMF chief or someone had written, I don't remember..)
' Having taught students of the likes of Harward, MIT, and IIMs, I can say that the level of Indian students is nowhere lesser than the others. BUT, there is one crucial difference.
'Indian students have never failed an exam,
Indian students have never lost a job.'
Of course he said it figuratively, but this just goes to show where we are. We need for ourselves such Principal protection, that we fail to go out of the way, and just follow the safe path as others always do..The total output might be way higher if each one of us do what we like, pursue our interests..But I know.. All this is being heard, read by a stoned world, which carries along the way its always been..for eternity..huh..
14 comments:
nice blog tat u maintain out here...as pertaining to herd menatlity..ur most recent blog, not everybody knows wat they want from life...its better to follow somebody else than not to move at all...such people don't make it big in life but live it satifactorily though...everybody can't be a leader, there ought to b followers too...
Shilpi..You're psyching me out if you say one cannot identify for himself(herself?) what he likes...!
Of course, you're right in saying that one cannot always follow what he likes, in which case he has to follow the crowd..This concept pf doing something that you don't like pisses me off like crazy..dunno why..
Okay priya, those 3 statements were made little out of context..agreed..But your statement, saying 'success doesn't amount to NOT following the herd' is most advertently incorrect.
Do this as a test..
Take 15 people who YOU think are successful(straight from your heart of course, not HERD MEN..!).Count how many you know have followed the herd.
Next, take 15 people who YOU think are failures, rather NOT successful. Count how many followed the herd. You'll get my point. Think it over..
(And obviously examples you take must be the people you know, u can't take someone like Tom Hanks..where you don't even know if he followed the herd or not..!)
it pisses u of bcoz u r very clear on wat u want to do n want u dont want to...not everybody is tat sure...its takes years to know somebody else but to know urself even a lifetime isn't enough..moreover its not abt knowing wat n who u r bcoz u r not static..u keep changing...if u dont change u dont grow as a person..
My my, you're putting Buddhism fundaes which I managed to mug the day before..anyways, I am not saying one should know what he'll like, or want to do 10 years from now..All I am sayin is, people are not able to figure out what they like PRESENTLY. Isn't it outrageous if YOU need SOMEONE ELSE to tell you what you like and what YOU should do...?? To a certain extent fine, but not the extent of going working with a prof, even though you HATE IT..Absolutely DETEST it, still do it coz others are doing..
Basically, that was the reason the post came up..was damn pissed off with junta working jus for the sake of it.
(Well, don't ask me : How do you know they don't like it..I jus know)
Huh..
ya...probably tat's rite...tat happened even wid us...me n tuhina that is wen everybody started thinking of doing a project after they came to know tat we were already doing one..its irritating but tat's how leaders inspire the others, by making them follow...jus kiddin..
What pisses me even more is when people think there is only one way of doing things and start ridiculing you when you dont trod on the beaten path... Man, who is going to tell them that being different pays?
Hey, well written there...But, what I feel is..Its not about the herd mentality or going outrightly against the world to do what you like...Its about FOLLOWING YOUR OWN SELF. In following your own self, you MAY OR MAY NOT FOLLOW THE HERD...that doesnt matter...There are ppl who get into the software industry and make it big because thats what they wanted to do...and yeah trust me, once you start working you are gonna have more realizations in life and will be hell of a lot clear in your head as to what you like...and then if you can pull up your socks and follow your inner voice and do what you love...you will also be there in that book ( top 50...) Cheers!!!
Anon(Most possibly Viji)..
thanx a lot..
Yes..its about following your mind, irrespective of the herd..Though in most of the cases, with sanguinity I say, it sadly gets muddled up with the herd...
@karthik: well as u said we do share ideas.great post..
@shilpi: agreed not everybody knows...but pt is to keep searching.follow ur heart..dats the essence.
see my post for link..u mite get hold of it.
@priya: r u afraid of failure dat u talk of safest path?
all i can say is that its too good to be true that a million people all have the same thoughts and similar ambitions of joining an IT firm, or doing medicine etc...
maybe its just time that we did different things
Nice blog. It's something I have felt strongly about. Nothing takes one as far in life as originality
20/80 theory
80% of the world follows wht the 20% does
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