Knowledge Industry
There is one thing among all the IT workers which intrigues me --the extreme narrowness of their job profile.
The 4 years of BTech in India are spent by most of the engineering students in a real dilute academic scenario. When they join job, some sort of programming language training is imparted in the first few months and then they are put mostly in maintenance / enhancement project where they just keep on doing the same job for years at a stretch. Some buggy code is churned out which are pointed out by people ( another set of BTech graduates ) in the quality team with the help of a few automated test tools and a few of the bugs are partially fixed.
Mass communication / literature graduates working in the field of print & electronic media lacking insight about the complexity of different technologies term these people as “knowledge workers”.
Years pass by, these coders make career progress, become project leaders , lose the touch with the bare minimum technologies that they used to know ( coding skills), spend the day in communicating with different groups , & working in word processors & spreadsheets & email clients( Microsoft word, Microsoft Excel, Outlook).
IT companies are recruiting en masse. The same thing used to be done by the PSU s in India 2-3 decades back. Today the economy forced the PSU s to close down. Most obedient employees were forced to resign & social soothing was given with the help of words like Voluntary retirement service, Golden Handshake etc.
Technologies change, rules of economy do not. Is there any guarantee that tomorrow the outsourced jobs will not migrate to some cheaper destinations? What will happen to these millions of people ( technologists) who do not even have the slightest of idea about the progress in technology happening elsewhere or the change in the ways in which business values are being enforced on the technologies , who do not care to bother about the emerging digital business paradigms in the new era or the changes that are sweeping the manufacturing industry ?
What will happen to the IT parks in various states? Will they also turn out to be multi storied housing complexes (Jute mills in eastern India & Textile mills in West are examples).
If that happens who / what is to be blamed?
The traditional “system” of exploitation?
The immaturity / lack of career ambitions of the laborers (“knowledge workers”)?
Academia may put the blame squarely on the laziness & the lack of insight on part of the IT professionals only but that does not lead us anywhere.
Is the academia no way related to the dilute academic standard prevalent in the engineering colleges in India? Are they no way responsible when a Computer Science graduate gets frightened at the elementary concept of mathematics in spite of the fact that the computer was invented to shed light on a philosophical crisis in the foundations of pure mathematics .
Is there any way out of this situation??
MTech???
The MTech guys in the software industry do not prove to be so...
I do not know....
posted by Abhishek @ 2:21 PM
8 Comments:
Your insight into the IT world is so complete and the transformation of the knowledge from your neurons to the computer is soooo absolute that einstein might rethink his relativity theories. With such articulatistic ability and the integrity of a just-born atom, which clearly shows up in thought and hence in words, there is no stopping you in becoming the beacon of the youth to revolt against this system of tyrants. Hail Ceasar, er, Bagchi!!
By the way, I am yet to getta job. So please keep quiet atleast until I get one.
Ok, sorry for the bullshit, but I just couldn't resist it ;) here's my two cents - as I see it, maths is a tool. and the computer itself(as you say) realizes mathematics. it so happened that the computer has overran its original purpose(to help mathematicians) and are being applied to help humans directly. whats wrong in it?
Krishna,
Nothing wrong in computer being applied to daily chores of human lives....but what I wanted to tell was that we may not need to employ the brightest minds of the nation in writing some business logic and learning some programming syntax only...there are ample technical complexities , I think, where they can play a great role....
Of course its a different question altogether that how much that type of work is outsourced to India....
Ok. But whose duty is it? I think the so-called 'best' minds should do it themselves. Like you are doing it rite now!
Krishna,
For heavens sake please stop praising me...I am doing nothing constructive....
don't u think dat d best and d brightest minds will never b stuck with a simple coding job?? they will always define their own space and branch out into the world coz d world is their playground and its pretty easy to criticize a system bt why don't u look at it like this...just like the jute concept this is a tool of mass employment which is currently stabilizing the Indian economy..as times change alternatives will naturally arise if need be
If that happens who / what is to be blamed?
The traditional “system” of exploitation?
The immaturity / lack of career ambitions of the laborers (“knowledge workers”)?
The LATTER ! If you are at the receiving end you'll be supremely frustrated and a post of this kind could result. But if you are at the "exploiting end" you'd be obliged to justify it! Prob through swanky buildings and delicious food?
IT has been a great help for youth of India. However other services which are somehow getting less importance, is the real issue as per as I think of. I have written on this issue in my recent post.
See although Industries are knowledge driven, but very few people acknowledge this fact. Consider Dr. Reddy who used to work in I.D.P.L. and Indian PSU. IDPL discovered tetracycline and many drugs, thanks to scientists involved in the work. However we all know only a fraction of workers would have been actively involved. What would happened if people like Dr. Reddy got stuck by PSU features. He went for creating new drugs, patents and see what type of company he made. Knowledge is a thirst, IT or any Industry provides only a narrow view, and it is you who have to decide your fate.
Yeah, quite true. What i think is, there are two extremes. One is blaming system for people's ignorance or of lack of whatever they have which prevents them to make better choices for their work. Other is blaming oneself or feeling responsible for all the choices one makes. However, these two propositions are entirely theoretical and reality lies somewhere between them .And centuries old war between them is there to continue.
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