People have always had this nasty habit of
giving examples to prove points.
“Oh, you think I am kidding? Here’s an example
of me giving an example to prove that people give examples.”
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| Photo credit - Chinmay Maheshwari |
Now the problem with examples is that they are
tricky things. Most of the time people would listen to an example, smile
smugly, and say, “Pfft! So you think an oasis proves that a desert is a lush
green forest?” On the other hand, some people in Scotland
will tell you that all monsters are real because, of course, the Loch Ness Monster EXISTS!
It is pretty hard to deem an example good or
bad, but there are some that are just plain wrong and even Kapil Sibal should
have given them a thought
before he decided to ban free speech itself.
#4 “It’s alright! Even <insert super-rich
entrepreneur> dropped out of college”
You must all be familiar with this scene. It’s a
college seminar hall. The speaker is an arrogant guy who takes the
‘favoring-girls-and-ridiculing-boys-makes-your-seminar-more-interesting’ system
too seriously. The seminar is on the death-like boring topic of
entrepreneurship. No, wait, death is way more interesting. The only people
interested are the social activists in the first row nodding their heads like a
drinking bird mechanism.
But suddenly, in the middle of this
uninteresting and somewhat insulting presentation, there comes a slide which
makes even the last row ogle. The slide always shows Bill Gates/Steve
Jobs/Richard Branson/Larry Ellison, always giving their trademark smiles, and
always reads something to the tune of – ‘The Billionaire who dropped out of
college’.
These slides are insanely popular. In fact they
have transcended the traditional power-point presentations and have descended
on social media encouraging all the budding failures at engineering colleges
into believing that Bill Gates loves and understands them all.
But, this example in particular, needs to be
stopped because I have hardly seen it being taken in the positive sense at all.
People need to get in their heads that Bill Gates dropped out of HARVARD, with
an IDEA that put all the other geniuses around him to shame and with an INSANE
WORK ETHIC. So, if you are dropping out of Bumfuck Institute of Technology
because you couldn’t generate ideas enough to pass, and your work-ethic
includes boozing, you are approximately as close to Bill Gates as Alpha
Centauri is to Earth.
#3 “I read a lot of books.” -> “Oh, which
ones?” -> “Um… Harry Potter…”
Disclaimer: This one is NOT for douchebags.
Not to be too hard on the Potter fans, all those
morons who argue that they are total bibliophiles because they read ‘one’ of
the following – Twilight, Percy Jackson, Bartimaeus, Artemis Fowl, etc.
– fall into the same category.
Why, you ask? Well, because having read the
Harry Potter series is not proof that you read books at all. That’s like saying
you can cook because you know how to boil water. The series was everywhere,
translated into more languages than you know and read by virtually every age
group on Earth. It was less of a book and more of a phenomenon. Saying that you
read Harry Potter doesn’t serve as proof for anything at all, except maybe,
that in the entire period between 1997 and 2007, you were alive, not living
under a rock, and not caught in an African civil war.
Still don’t believe me? Well, that’s why you
should read the disclaimer.
#2 “I am a great engineer. Now let me prove Troll
Scientist Wrong.”
Disclaimer: This one is FOR
douchebags
I personally don’t feel like elaborating on this
one. Virtually everyone knows and hates the person I am talking about. But in the benefit of all those who feel
their scientific awesomeness is being persecuted and can’t understand why,
here’s the reason:
Troll Scientist is just that. TROLL.
When he shows someone levitating over a floor full of magnets by wearing a suit
made of repelling magnets, you are NOT expected to comment on the non-aerodynamic
nature of the human body and explain how the drag and gravity forces overcome
the magnetic forces. You are also not expected to lecture everybody about
escape velocities when Troll Scientist suggests the construction of a
huge slide to launch oneself into space.
There are certain subtle differences between
Facebook and a conference of particle physicists in Richard Feynman’s backyard.
Facebook is also used by average Joes, Commerce and Arts students, and housewives
who still watch daily soaps for entertainment. When they see your glorified
scientific disapproval of their daily dose of humor, they are bound to hate
you.
P.S. – It DOES NOT make you look any smarter
than you already are (which isn’t a lot, trust me).
#1 “Hey, <insert random epic fail of
pop-culture> is AWESOME! Look at all those fans!”
And now, ladies and gentlemen, we shall raze all
arguments that people who secretly support Justin Beiber make to prove that
there has got be SOME talent in the guy (Still not too sure about the ‘guy’
part, though). These people argue, that if the number of hits on YouTube videos
and the record sales for Baby have anything to say, there must be a LOT
of people totally into Justin Beiber’s music, and since there are a lot of
people diggin’ that shit, da shit’s
gotta be rad!
But the truth, friends and neighbors, is that ‘the
popularity argument’, as the above paragraph is popularly known is worth
exactly diddlysquat when it comes to measuring talent. Here’s why: Quick, how
many of you wanted to watch The Hangover 2? How about the golden-globe
winning, Academy Award nominated Hugo? Or maybe The Descendants?
I can assure you the difference between those two answers cannot be calculated
on your fingers.
The fact of the matter is, that we, the masses,
hardly know what it takes to make a REALLY, REALLY good movie. Most of the time
we satisfy ourselves with Optimus Prime ripping Megatron’s mouth open, Bradley
Cooper’s incisors and Robert Pattinson’s paleness. And while there’s nothing
wrong in that by itself, it is totally wrong if you use the same logic to
compare the skills of Christian Bale and Daniel Radcliffe. Popularity simply
doesn’t measure talent.
The same thing applies to all other categories.
Music, for example. What comes to mind when I say the 70s? Led Zeppelin? Pink
Floyd? Deep Purple? Well, these are the bands whose talents got recognized over
decades. In the 70s, the most popular song was Sugar, Sugar by The
Archies. Now try listening to that without upsetting your digestive system.
About Dhvanil Raval
Bibliophile + Cinephile + Music Lover + Opinionated Sarcasm = Yours truly. I am also telepathic/telekinetic/pyrokinetic on occasion.
