Thinking out of the box
If thoughts are things, then we need to revisit the three most counterproductive thoughts that are causing imbalance, inequality, and injustice throughout the world.
1. Wars as positive checks
We have never challenged this. It's amazing how horrendously a negative phenomenon is ingrained in human minds. We don't need wars to control population. Nothing positive can be attached with wars. Sorry Malthus.
2. Survival of the fittest
This has gone into the subconscious of the world through generations. Even though we talk of win-win today, but we invariably fall prey to the win-lose model because of this thought. It is not only wrong, but it's irrelevant as well. Now, it is survival of the wisest. Sorry Darwin.
3. The 80-20 rule
How has the modern world accepted this phenomenon I wonder. If 80% of the world's population are below the poverty line and 20% are rich, then can we say we have delivered? In business, if 80% of our products or services were to be of a mediocre quality, would such businesses survive? Then how can we underestimate people and processes like this? This notion is the basis of all our evaluation process. Sad.
We cannot say we have delivered until we reach 100%. All leaders of the world, business houses, reformers, philanthropists, have their concurrence on this wrong pattern of thinking that's not only leading us into mediocrity, but is also causing havoc in the world. Sorry Richard Koch.
I sincerely believe that if we want to change the world, we need to change the way we think. It's time we put 'thinking out of the box' in practice.
1. English demographer Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834)"theory of population growth" has not much link with war.He opines food production increases in arithmetic progression but population growth occurs in geometric progression.Hence population growth soon overtake food production, results in famine and poverty.
ReplyDelete2.In 1859, Chrales Darwin and Alfred Wallace published a theory that shows all the living animals and plants evolved out of billions of years of slow process called "natural selection".Survival of fittest is part of this natural process,it's not the whole,as some people think.In modern day nobody supports "social darwinism".
3. Richard Koch is basically a management consultant.They are like astrologer to Business houses.Sometime it works some other time it fails.We should not put too much importance to so-called "80-20 principle". Some other business consultent may come some day and would discard "80-20" by "70-30".
Dear Apurba Mandal,
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading and commenting. Yes, you are right with your observations. Malthus did mention war as positive checks to population. This small article has come out of a research where questions on why we still have war was asked. Many Brits and Americans said that wars are necessary to control population, as postulated by Malthus.
The same thing happens with Darwin's thought that's creating havoc in the minds of civilised people. It is this survival of the fittest on which is based an invariable win-lose model. Thoughts are things Mr Mandal, and I sincerely feel we need to change the thoughts if we have to change our condition of life.
I know he's a consultant and we shouldn't take him seriously. But the truth is we attach too much of importance to the 80-20 principle before we make any effort. It is high time we question thoughts that grossly underestimate our potential.
Thank you once again.