A year has gone by since I first stepped into the airport at Sydenham, Sydney. The past year has been one of recuperation from the "perils" of work. Reviewing my life at this juncture, there's this maelstrom of thoughts churning in my mind. Penning it out will be a good way to equilibrate myself.
Singapore is a "paper society" that places much emphasis on academic meritocracy . A person's worth is judged by his/her qualifications, a hallmark of the Confucian management style. If you hail from an elite school, it makes you special & valuable. Frankly I think this is a load of bull. I study because I like to understand my discipline better and because I like to analyse things and tinker with high tech instruments that cost over a million bucks. Basically I'm just a hoarder of knowledge. Does that make me better than the hawker who makes his living cooking noodles? I think not.Study requires a good memory, some understanding and the ability to regurgitate; eventually to apply principles. To kickstart a business requires acumen, determination and the ability to anticipate customer preferences; eventually to produce a product. Isn't the ability to create superior to the ability to comprehend.
A good insight into the value of creativity versus stellar academic achievements is the case of Mr Sim Wong Hoo, a polytechnic graduate who is way richer than most of the Singaporean Oxbridge grduates. Mr Sim is always dreaming up new gadgets when we the so called "highly educated intellectuals" are finding ways of fine tuning things, chasing the next storage barrier and trouble shooting problems. Smart people can do a bad job as well. As in the case of the design of the Creative MP3 players. Apple is so successful with Ipods because its products are broad spectrum design. Anyone from 7 to 70 is able to use Apple with ease. Creative MP3 players although fantastic in function are terribly narrow spectrum design products. As a consumer using a gadget daily , do I need a 50000 songs storage space or do I need a 5000 song storage but a quick and user friendly way of getting to a song I want? As a gadget owner I wanna show off my cool gadget. I may want to give it as a gift to my Dad/Mum, but they are gadget dummies who have no idea how tech works so which do I choose? Creative Zen or Ipod? Which person doesn't want to be seen as being cool? In its tech race Creative lost its creativity when it focused solely on scoring high marks in tech barriers.
I feel that the more we study the more limitations we impose on our thinking. Its funny because when one reaches PHD level, the scope of study is so extremely narrow and specialised. A macro view changes to a micro view as one climbs the academic ladder. Makes one wonder if all highly educated people eventually become afflicted with tunnel vision. Brilliance requires a free & inquisitive mind. One with no shackles. The benzene molecule was dreamt up as an ouroboros by Kekule when he opened his eyes to bright sunlight. Teflon was discovered because some chemist was curious enough to saw open a gas cylinder. An act which would be deemed crazy by most singaporeans.
Like homegrown Creative, Singaporeans have such a shackled mindset. In our race to the Mortar and gown, the directorship of a company etc we tend to forget the fun creative things like beer helmets and sportsmanship. We become afraid of failure as that consigns us to the bottom of the heap in a meritocratic society. Thats not true, a winner is one who fights against all odds and thrives. At the very least you will learn to respect yourself. There is no worse enemy than ourselves. Fear is not an external entity. It is within. Fear shackles us. Then again like the Gopher game in the arcade, we get hit by a huge hammer whenever we try to stand up and that doesn't help at all.
