Second Hand

A long time ago, a certain Ayn Rand wrote an in-your-face, blatantly honest, thought provoking novel by the name of 'The Fountainhead'. In it, the protagonist, a self-proclaimed egotist, lives his life and works his profession in the only way he knew how, in his own terms. He is not open to borrowing ideas, not keen on accepting changes to his plans, and in general not in favour of most of the compromises people make to 'gel' with society. He says that every person has a brain of his own, to use on his own. A group can come up with a joint solution, but each person comes up with their own idea, using their own thought process, from which a decision is made. He says further that everyone who has ever made a great discovery or invention has not done it for others, but to get an end result to his own creative thought. From collegiate life to professional life, he is generally hated for his lack of social ethos. Infact, people are afraid of him. People are afraid of him succeeding. They are perhaps afraid that their otherwise slovenly world would suddenly have meaning, make sense. This fear can be attributed to man's general intolerance towards change. 'Let things be as they are...' is much easier to say and to do than 'Let me try something new today...' or asking the simple question 'Why?'. 'Why does it happen this way? Is this the only possible solution? Can't I come up with something better?'. When was the last time you asked those questions?
Though Ayn Rand wrote this book almost three quarters of a century ago, it is more than relevant today. If somebody at office tells you,"There is no need to think about the way you do your programs, just follow the way it's been done in the existing ones. There is a shortage of time and we can't afford experiments. There is no need for you to put new inputs into this." And to top it off, this was supposed to be my 'learning' for that day! Whatever Miss Rand wrote all those years ago, I could hear them resonating in my head that day. There is a serious shortage of independent thinking. The worse part is I'm starting to fear that I'd lose that ability myself trying to be professional. There are very few corporate organisations who give independent thinking a fair chance. Everyone else is just running the rat-race. Onward Ho!!