Science is based on laws and these laws are universal. It works everywhere, anywhere, everytime and anytime. But for civil services, I am only concerned about humanities subjects right now and there are hardly any rules and it is almost impossible to predict how things will turn out to be. Consider policy making and marketing - one can gather all the data, analyse it and build models and make predictions but it will all depend on how people react. No two people are the same and they will react in widely different ways and that is because no two persons grew up in the same way, had the same experiences which influenced their thinking and hence they don't think alike. Finally, even if we can group individuals according to similarities- age groups, income, gender, profession, education, region, religion- expecting them to act in their own interest or according to obvious common sense and logic (a) too will only make us realise that we can only approximate and make estimates. Sometimes we act in short term interest, sometimes we act considering the long term future- even we do not know how we will react until the situation comes.
How do people react to a stock market crash? It is silly to sell right now because the prices are falling, but if people have the common sense to wait it out and hold on to these stocks which will eventually have to return to their normal prices, they will not lose everything. But then there are the really smart individuals who try to short sell stocks or buy up when prices are dirt cheap. Make hay while the sun shines or just follow the croud and take a jump from the cliff? If we say that the smart ones will make hay, then I guess Lehmann Brothers were not that intelligent at all. We know that we shouldn't be polluting our environment and burning more fossil fuels, we know that wars are a waste and yet the defence industry is world's biggest employer. We are still not sure whether it is more important to feed millions of our hungry brothers and sisters or to splurge on fighter planes, we are not remotely guilty on spending on pleasures and complain about our own misfortunes and not value the things we have in life ,while millions suffer from worse fates.
It is not just human beings, but results of our actions, weather phenomenon and geography too that defies our comprehension and prediction. A tsunami may or may not happen and an earthquake can happen anytime. We cannot predict how exactly climate change will affect us (we do not even agree on climate change), we are not sure how the monsoon will be and how GM crops will affect us and how to handle antibiotic resistant bacteria. We cannot comprehend or measure how one action will have a lot of complex domino effect on sometimes unrelated issues, we cannot quantify everything all the time- the benefits of literacy can hardly be measured, nor can we say with certainty the benefits of job guarantee schemes- they go far beyond the income generated as they prevent distress migration that leaves people vulnerable to exploitation by mediators and employers, it does not break their children's education, immunisation and health and protects them from child labour and the elderly are not left behind to fend for themselves in their homes and many more positive outcomes that we cannot predict and generalise.
Thus, there are thus two issues with all humanity subjects- our inability to comprehend and understand our own nature and exact workings of the physical world we live in. The most confounding is when unpredictability of nature meets our own strange nature. Rain, drought and floods- we do not know what may happen and how it will specifically affect and we do not know how we will react to them. Sometimes we might have the science in place, but our nature and unpredictability means that we cannot do the right thing- we are not implementing renewable energy to the extent we need, we do not deal with issues like malnutrition and child deaths properly. We can only approximate, make rules as we go along and constantly adapt without sticking only to scientific facts since there is a lot that is not amenable to laws and facts.
The scientific answer to these problems are very simple, that is how we frame policy too. But then, in implementation we fail. There are too many dynamics at work- selfishness, greed, lazyness, ignorance, short-termism, religious beliefs and superstitions and complacency. Most of the development schemes in India fail due to corruption or poor design based on poor input into the decision making, as individuals making these decisions have the wrong priorities or incomplete ideas about the real problems- both point to our inability to understand ourselves and how things work in this world. There are no scientific explanations to these, each individual and situation is unique in the real world and perhaps that is why the civil service examinations are more about humanities subjects and there is a real bias against science and engineering subjects. There is no direct relationship between input and output- one cannot measure the success of a literacy campaign comparing the cost and income generated to government or even using the number of people benefited- the benefits could multiply since they will decide to teach their children and parents and siblings, read newspapers to become aware and responsible citizens, learn more about healthy practices or unfortunately some of the could drop out due to financial or health pressures.
In order to improve sanitation facilities, simply constructing a toilet will not do. The scientific solution will include adequate water, lighting and waste disposal facilities. Thrown in economics and you get low cost of building and maintaining it, ergonomics gives us adequate lighting leading to the toilet for common toilets and common sense will make us design it to be theft-free. But then no one could have seen this coming b nor would science explain the reasons for vandalism. As I said before, I have realised that science has a limit, it does not have answers to all our problems but it can point us to a solution, but getting there is a challenge in itself. Using the comparison from the movie Lincoln, Science can show us true north to reach our solution, but humanities is required to tackle all the swamps and forests and rivers that come in our path.
The job of a civil servant is to give the right input and to implement policies and this requires a clear and as complete as possible understanding of ground realities and then implementing them in spite of the obstacles and constantly changing and beyond apprehension circumstances. A scientific approach can only say one has to adapt to survive, it is by learning subjects that do not have specific laws and constants that a civil servant can realise that only thing one can do is give it our best, use our hardwork, patience, intelligence and all the skills we can muster and face the situation. The emphasis on humanities subjects for the exam is perhaps the apt training and selection method.
As for me, I learnt Chemistry and Electronics and I miss those days. It was simple and solvable, an equation will give us all the information we need, a circuit or a code can simply do the job and at the right conditions and catalyst, we can prepare the compound we need. A bit of lateral thinking and deep subject knowledge is enough and I miss those days.
How do people react to a stock market crash? It is silly to sell right now because the prices are falling, but if people have the common sense to wait it out and hold on to these stocks which will eventually have to return to their normal prices, they will not lose everything. But then there are the really smart individuals who try to short sell stocks or buy up when prices are dirt cheap. Make hay while the sun shines or just follow the croud and take a jump from the cliff? If we say that the smart ones will make hay, then I guess Lehmann Brothers were not that intelligent at all. We know that we shouldn't be polluting our environment and burning more fossil fuels, we know that wars are a waste and yet the defence industry is world's biggest employer. We are still not sure whether it is more important to feed millions of our hungry brothers and sisters or to splurge on fighter planes, we are not remotely guilty on spending on pleasures and complain about our own misfortunes and not value the things we have in life ,while millions suffer from worse fates.
It is not just human beings, but results of our actions, weather phenomenon and geography too that defies our comprehension and prediction. A tsunami may or may not happen and an earthquake can happen anytime. We cannot predict how exactly climate change will affect us (we do not even agree on climate change), we are not sure how the monsoon will be and how GM crops will affect us and how to handle antibiotic resistant bacteria. We cannot comprehend or measure how one action will have a lot of complex domino effect on sometimes unrelated issues, we cannot quantify everything all the time- the benefits of literacy can hardly be measured, nor can we say with certainty the benefits of job guarantee schemes- they go far beyond the income generated as they prevent distress migration that leaves people vulnerable to exploitation by mediators and employers, it does not break their children's education, immunisation and health and protects them from child labour and the elderly are not left behind to fend for themselves in their homes and many more positive outcomes that we cannot predict and generalise.
Thus, there are thus two issues with all humanity subjects- our inability to comprehend and understand our own nature and exact workings of the physical world we live in. The most confounding is when unpredictability of nature meets our own strange nature. Rain, drought and floods- we do not know what may happen and how it will specifically affect and we do not know how we will react to them. Sometimes we might have the science in place, but our nature and unpredictability means that we cannot do the right thing- we are not implementing renewable energy to the extent we need, we do not deal with issues like malnutrition and child deaths properly. We can only approximate, make rules as we go along and constantly adapt without sticking only to scientific facts since there is a lot that is not amenable to laws and facts.
The scientific answer to these problems are very simple, that is how we frame policy too. But then, in implementation we fail. There are too many dynamics at work- selfishness, greed, lazyness, ignorance, short-termism, religious beliefs and superstitions and complacency. Most of the development schemes in India fail due to corruption or poor design based on poor input into the decision making, as individuals making these decisions have the wrong priorities or incomplete ideas about the real problems- both point to our inability to understand ourselves and how things work in this world. There are no scientific explanations to these, each individual and situation is unique in the real world and perhaps that is why the civil service examinations are more about humanities subjects and there is a real bias against science and engineering subjects. There is no direct relationship between input and output- one cannot measure the success of a literacy campaign comparing the cost and income generated to government or even using the number of people benefited- the benefits could multiply since they will decide to teach their children and parents and siblings, read newspapers to become aware and responsible citizens, learn more about healthy practices or unfortunately some of the could drop out due to financial or health pressures.
In order to improve sanitation facilities, simply constructing a toilet will not do. The scientific solution will include adequate water, lighting and waste disposal facilities. Thrown in economics and you get low cost of building and maintaining it, ergonomics gives us adequate lighting leading to the toilet for common toilets and common sense will make us design it to be theft-free. But then no one could have seen this coming b nor would science explain the reasons for vandalism. As I said before, I have realised that science has a limit, it does not have answers to all our problems but it can point us to a solution, but getting there is a challenge in itself. Using the comparison from the movie Lincoln, Science can show us true north to reach our solution, but humanities is required to tackle all the swamps and forests and rivers that come in our path.
The job of a civil servant is to give the right input and to implement policies and this requires a clear and as complete as possible understanding of ground realities and then implementing them in spite of the obstacles and constantly changing and beyond apprehension circumstances. A scientific approach can only say one has to adapt to survive, it is by learning subjects that do not have specific laws and constants that a civil servant can realise that only thing one can do is give it our best, use our hardwork, patience, intelligence and all the skills we can muster and face the situation. The emphasis on humanities subjects for the exam is perhaps the apt training and selection method.
As for me, I learnt Chemistry and Electronics and I miss those days. It was simple and solvable, an equation will give us all the information we need, a circuit or a code can simply do the job and at the right conditions and catalyst, we can prepare the compound we need. A bit of lateral thinking and deep subject knowledge is enough and I miss those days.
1 comment:
:) Looks like you're slowly trying to come to terms with the science and art of life! I just realised we all live complicated, complex, inexplicable lives. I am not terribly fond of science - at least anything that is not biology, but when you look at life through the prism of science v. art, I wish it were a science. Things would have been much much simpler!
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