Beyond coding

Until I entered this profession, I was under the impression that intelligence was the bastion of math and science geeks.

For an ignorant 20-year-old (yours truly), the benchmark of intelligence was 1) If you could read and understand Richard Feynman's pieces in one go 2) If you make sense of what "limit tending to infinity" in calculus meant 3) If you could see the Fourier Series come alive and apply it to solve problems 4) Or if you could understand network theory well enough to predict electron flow in the circuit. And most of my family and friends' circle continue to hold on to this belief.  

Fast forward to my days as a software engineer, and the benchmark for intelligence changed slightly to: How fast could you design the logic? How quickly could you adapt with the latest tool?

You get the drift. In the process, I, as well as my peers, went through many a sleepless nights questioning our innate abilities.

We are a nation that lustily keeps track of academic scores of exams like CAT and JEE, all the while subconsciously correlating that to intelligence, better pay and lifestyle.

A friend, who chose to study commerce soon after tenth standard had her cousins ask her:

"I can't believe that you got such high marks in tenth. Why would you want to study commerce?" This was a decade ago. She went on to scale heights at India's top conglomerate, becoming a much respected executive. Guess who's having the last laugh now? 

Maybe it is an Indian mentality, or maybe it's entirely in my head, but the sheer lack of respect for everything but math and science is something that we need to get rid of.

Why?

Because living in the tech capital can be overwhelming for those who have little to do with building technology for a living.

I know, because I see and live it everyday. In a world that cannot stop celebrating and rewarding its ninja coders, the acutely sharp testers or the brilliant back end engineers, it is important to not lose the significance of what other professions offers and the intellect that it requires.

It took intelligence for Shakespeare to carve out the characters in Macbeth. It takes intelligence to weave and embed the intricate, robust designs in Kanchipuram sarees. It took mad levels of intellect for Arthur Conan Doyle to craft a case, work backwards to solve it with Sherlock Holmes' mindset, all the while keeping Watson on the leash.

Which brings me back to the original point: do not simply pass off a great piece of work from a non-mainstream profession as "talent". That compliment merely lasts a second, and fetches the person little credit.

Recognize that it took intelligence to get there, so the society pays attention, the paymasters take note and these professionals emerge from the fringes.
Because times are changing. Technologists will need help to augment their capabilities. The foundation for everything will continue to be demolished and replaced by technology for a few years to come. But what after that? Once the foundation is laid, how do you think the building will look like?

That's when the non-coders start coming in, as is already being evidenced by the many UI and UX designers that are thronging technology companies.

And it is just the beginning. Because technology is simply a means to an end. Chamath Palihapitiya, the person credited with taking Facebook's user base to 1 billion, recently spoke candidly about Facebook's single largest threat: content creation. Not technology, not lack of talent, not a better virtuality headset, but words, pictures, and videos. That's why it bought Instagram, and subsequently Whatsapp.

And this is just one company. Think of all the fast growing tech companies and the industries that they're disrupting.

Dear dancers, biochemists, philosophers, metallurgists, archeologists, tailors, weavers, tea-tasters: don't lose heart. With or without appreciation from peers, paymasters and parents alike, you should know, what you are seeing is just phase one.

Your time will come.  We haven't even come close to the intermission.

Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost.