Two Types of People

 Trying to classify people is not easy. But this is a practical classification, with no claims to scientific proof. Put simply, those who give you positive vibes, and those who don't. Like the P and N junctions in electronics, if you will. 

Among the positive, there may be further categories- like the Excited Electrons, super-enthusiastic types. They are bubbling with ideas, or enthusiasm, or both. They have banished the word Excuse from their dictionary. They will not say no to anything that comes their way, from God, or from his representative-the boss, I mean. 

Frequently, you find students who are in this category..not a lot of them, but some. A large number are found among the Doctoral students- there must be a correlation, I'm sure. (Ha, ha). But generally, these enthusiastic people carry the organisation forward. The naysayers may have their uses in keeping you from trying stunts that can take you off a cliff and prevent disasters, but they generally sap everyone's enthusiasm. 

I was reading a book recently about a theory of the universe, which said that desire drives everything, and that each element (even the smallest one) in it is autonomous, and makes choices or decisions, rather than one single, all-knowing entity. If you think about it, we do have choices, and we do pick pathways on how to go about each day. And the days turn into months and years, finally taking us where (hopefully) where we wanted to go. So it's up to us to avoid people of a certain type, and spend more time with the positives (excluding the Corona positives, for the time being).

Excuses

They are everywhere. Individuals have them, from students to teachers, from subordinates to bosses to peers,..and from politicians to bureaucrats-in other words, the governing classes and the opposition too.

They make the world go around, in other words. The world would be much duller without them, because everything would happen on schedule, as it was planned. What is the fun in that?

Man's innate creativity needs an outlet. And generating excuses provides an excellent one. Imagine the kinds of things you have to make up for coming late to work, class, or a date! Or the relatives you have to kill or get married to sneak away for a few days from the humdrum work life.

Students, of course, have a Constitution of their own which protects them from all consequences that excuses will bring them. There is always a way out.

As you can see, I am all for excuses. I have a few of my favourites too, but will keep them to myself, so I can use them when the time comes.

You Have Been Teaching Too Long When...

You know what excuse the student will come up with before he uses it..you get good at predictive analytics, in today's lingo.

You are no longer wondering what will keep the students engaged in class-you KNOW. At least, you know the reverse-what will NOT keep them engaged in class..

You stop telling them tales of how great your school, college days were..because (see above).

You start mentally grading a question that someone has asked, as soon as he has asked it.

You have five (or more) final exams potentially ready, and you just have to decide which one to use.

You know what used to be an easy question once may be a tough question today. :)

Olympic sized Competitions

We can certainly create some competitions where we will have the Gold for the asking. If nothing else, we can win the Creativity Olympics.

1. Speeches. If you go by speeches made, we leave American Presidential candidates far behind. We have been pretty much making/hearing the same speech for around 70 years, which could be in for a medal, you think?

2. Good intentions. Whatever we may do, our intentions are always good, and cannot be faulted. So, here's another, for good intentions.

3. Inseparability of officials from players. It's hard to say if the players are playing games, or the officials. There are so many of them. Maybe if the officials can compete among themselves, we might win a few gold medals.

4. Media hype. Perfected in cricket, we can create hype about almost anything, and do a few debates after that to continue that through the night. Gold Medal material?

5. Excuses. Not just realted to games, but in all walks of life, we are a Golden Benchmark for excuses. Smart ones, stupid ones, untenable ones, ill-thought and illogical ones. We have them all, and this is a unique attribute we have. We are on a road paved wit Gold; we shouldn't complain.

Why It Helps To Be Low Tech

In a world of high-tech, it helps to be low-tech. Here's why.

No one expects you to be available 24x7 for their moronic missions/updates/conversations.

You can claim innocence of any "ürgent" (never understood the meaning of this word) work that your boss wants you to do.

You can have undisturbed vacations.

You can ask for help (damsel-in-distress type) from the hi-tech folk. They are so thrilled with their superiority, that they will go out of their way.

You don't have to explain yourself, except for one explanation that fits all occasions- that you are a low-tech guy!

Wow, what a relief. You can't read this blog? That's because I am low-tech, man @@@..