Men and ideas

Well here we are on the subject of men and ideas . Every body understands what the term man or it's plural version men means . I would say there is convergence here. But as to the word idea there is lot of divergence there. And when I say divergence I mean the several different takes on the subject. Kant has his own. Idea cellular have their own and of course our columnist in the Times of India entitled 'Men & Ideas' sure has his own.

Specifically One would have thought that an Idea is something that is useful and new in the context of the column. A factory (albeit mental) production using a template would hardly be worth calling an idea. If a clerk applies a procedure for filing an application he would (and no one else would) hardly lay a claim to having generated an idea. If the template says look for similar solutions and try to use them. I would say that's part of the drill.

The second template look for and tear apart the socialist agenda- here's a sample and I am afraid a recurring theme in Mr Gurcharan Das's column-
"it must ditch the old socialist idiocy of ‘one bus one owner’ - a product of the 'small is beautiful' thinking of the Eighties.

Can't we grow up and ditch the templates. Aren't we well into adulthood as far as reforms and the rest are concerned. Why hark back to legends of yore.

Come on and start looking at things the way they are rather than how they appear through red goggles , green spectacles , blue binoculars..

you might say (or the columnist might say) I am talking about other's ideas not mine. By men and I mean other men and their ideas. Well 'Blueline solution in Indore' might look like Mr Vivek Aggarwal's Idea. But Is that so? If the report is correct it is true indeed that Mr Agarwal has done a commendable job. But then there are several others who do so day in day, day out on several different things. You need to distinguish between competence and novelty. A job well done is just competent( I might add however great the benefits from the job well done).

Criterion I would use to classify an Idea

• novelty
• generality-applies in many different sittuations
• ease of application of the idea
• simplicity

So what kind of ideas are we really talking about? -Well the wheel has turned full circle and I shall take a break.