Decoding the 'X'

Rewind a decade back…a group of about forty odd students wearing uniforms, different shades of the same colour, trying to understand the complex mathematics (the dreaded subject) and trying to solve the equations to find ‘x’. Hundreds of problem questions, thousands of equations, multiple ways of finding the answer, everything to solve for the mysterious X. This has been central dogma of most of man’s ways to solving problems; and in many cases, creating.

A situation demands an immediate need for finding the X first, giving a name, avoiding the blame. It becomes so much easier once the name has been assigned, the culprit identified. For now, everyone can work in peace knowing that they are not the ones going to be in the soup. Suppose a bridge fails at a central area possibly leading to a catastrophic disaster, the first statement by the cement providers is an assurance of non-defective resource used by them. This is not a statement aimed at finding the error by way of elimination, rather a self-defense of clearing out one’s own name. They were forced to take the action because the higher management wants a name, a source whose mistake caused the mishap. A terrorist attack immediately leads to naming a group/gang that was supposedly responsible. Because people can’t work in the unknown dark, there is no stability, no clarity.

This dogma however has some flaws. The way should not be to approach the answer, but to break down the problem. The stress should not be to converge to a solution but to diverge from the problem. People crave for finishing up a job, the false satisfaction of arriving at a solution, any solution. Results matter most, irrespective of the methods and it is an ends to the means. But stress of the problem will give way to more understanding, innovation and better preparedness for the future. Right now, it is about ‘reactions’ to situations. The first question asked after a situation is ‘what action has been taken?’ But it should be ‘responses’ to situations. The reaction to two boys fighting over a chocolate is to punish them and distributing it to them; and matter solved. A response however would be to understand the source of the fight; insufficient chocolate, incompatible behavior of the two, etc. Why is there so much fear of the problems, so much that everyone runs away from it? End results have always been glorified; the FINAL exams, XII boards, Graduation, Promotion, Retirement. Answers are the refugee’s destination from the terror of crisis.

Alas, humans are arguably the most adaptive species to grace the planet. The demand of today is to find solutions and so people do. The need of the last minute of eleventh hour is to find a scapegoat; so be it. The order from above is to decode the X; and so be it. So until the change is initiated in the system itself, people will still be following the road and a few brave men who don’t will be glorified or crucified based on their results.