Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Remember v/s Thinking

Disclaimer: The below comments given under and my personal comments and doesn’t point to some specific organization or individual. There are lots of companies or institutes who believe in right way to recruit person but my views are for bigger % of institutions who still don’t believe that the path they follow is not right.

Interviews play an important role in a software engineer level. Why a software engineer it plays an important role in every walk in life. But there is a BIG BIG myth about the interviews across the Software Industry in India. Most of the interviews don't even check if a person can think logically or can apply the basic knowledge of solving problems. It just checks the bookish knowledge.

If we just rewind the full movie then we will just reach our childhoods. The school as a whole believed in how well a student can "remember" stuff rather than how well a student can "think". The previous statement is very easy to say or will empathize with each individual but it has a deeper meaning.

I have been a topper in Mathematics, which most of kids used to be really afraid of, and the in retrospect I feel the only reason why I excelled in maths or even Logical thinking was for the single reason: no single answer for a problem satiated me. I was always in look for multiple answers, for an IDEAL answer. There was some devil inside me who was very hungry for more and more answers. I used to even see numbers in air or solutions while seeing the architecture of the school buildings. I used to see solutions of trigonometry while watching shadow of flag post in the ground. In fact I used to design a problem myself. A real time problem to see how fast a bird is flying assuming what speed her shadow is traveling.

This is what I really meant by thinking and not remembering the solutions. I always wished that I would have been more blessed with such a thirst in other subjects too , but it wasn’t just there. And I strongly believe that no single person in this world is born with the vision to think like that in each field. This is the place where a mentor comes into picture and the world is so void without it. The mentor doesn’t have to be some elder person, it can be a young kid inspiring you to learn piano by just giving a great performance. A mentor is a person who shows you what was always there in front of you but one couldn’t see it because one was busy in watching something else.

I just want to close this philosophical, not a usual me note, just a single line. I person can be made to remember stuff but can never be taught to THINK.