Quick Thinking

Let me paint a regular scenario. We go to a restaurant, a new one. As we settle down the menu is presented. I make a quick survey and decide what to eat. The waiter catches my eye and whips out his pen. The rest of the group glares at me. They are not even through with the first page. How come this guy is ordering now?

Till recently I never noticed this thing about me. I would often take very quick decisions. On a shoot. Or an edit of a film. When I go out to buy something. Clothes. Gadgets. Even while shopping as a tourist. The only exception is a bookstore. :)

Yesterday when we finished buying a pair of jeans (Levis button fly !) in ten minutes, A asked me how could I decide so quickly.

This was the wrong subject to test my quick thinking. Men clothes leave us with little choice. Also I had been holding off on buying a new pair simply because I wanted a buttoned one. Now that new stock was in the stores, I just had to try out the the right fit. Of course it helps if you do not lie about your waist size ! You do not have to try two three sizes and pretend why THIS size is NOT fitting you - It did five years ago....

I often wonder how I would act if I was forced to use the Six Thinking Hats system made famous by Edward D Bono. The idea was to go through a six step process before arriving at a decision. I am sure we do this is some bastardized way, but de Bono codified it as a management process. I probably would fall asleep in such meetings.

In Blink Malcolm Gladwell describes a different mental process - that works rapidly and automatically from relatively little information. Through examples the book argues that spontaneous decisions are often as good as—or even better than carefully planned and considered ones.

I do not know how my system evolved. How I decide what to eat is based on the least complicated thing on the menu although I am open to suggestions from someone who has been to the restaurant earlier. So its not really safe decisions but the idea is to order something as soon as possible so that we can get to the real thing- talk.

Part of the process of arriving at a decision quickly is to eliminate things that do not interest you or you do not think are important. However this can be have other consequences - you tend to ignore experiences that could interest you. On the positive side if you made a wrong decision you can quickly change track, make another one and hopefully cover your losses.

Of course you need to be prepared for the consequences. The King of Quick Thinking, Roald Amundsen was all set to reach the North Pole when he got the news that Peary had reached there first. Immediately Amundsen decided to turn his attention to the South Pole. But he kept this a secret. When news finally reached England that Amundsen was going to compete with British expedition under Scott, they accused him of cheating. But the fact of the matter was that the British expedition reached the Pole later, even though it had a head start. Scott was slow to make decisions and often confused as to how to move the expedition forward.

Of course quick decisions may not work all the time. This post took me two hours spread over three days with a lot of heavy editing and pondering. The button fly jeans is till at the shop - left behind for alterations. Am still wearing my old pair.

Not male enough !

Last week in a conversation with a friend I was told (in jest) that I was not “male” enough. Of course this friend was a woman. A person of the darker sex would have used the word “man” instead of “male”.

Of course several adjectives and phrases have been attached to me over the years – “the bullshit detector”, “not having artistic angst”, “boring” and “boyish” (not in looks but behaviour). Each one describes some aspect of a personality that someone zeroed in. I would go through the usual cycle with each – surprise, horror, anger and then ignoring it.

In the last two decades there has been much criticism about the "male" attitude and this rightfully had resulted in some men turning the mirror inwards. That time in most of our discourses in college canteens and personal relationships when it was pointed out that you are behaving like a “typical man” it meant “caveman” behaviour.

And most of us believed that and tried to change. Believe me. It was tough to erase the collective memories of being on top of the pile. It was like being part of a sci fi novel where they erase your memory so that you can start afresh. But it never happens. There are some remnants of your earlier life that come back. In a fight, for example. ☺

This conversation comes at an interesting point where I thought I had resolved my maleness and found my comfort zone with a help of dozens magazine articles and surveys on the New Male, metrosexual, technosexual – or other words that are used to make us feel comfortable as we try to reinvent ourselves.

So what does it mean to be not “male” enough in today’s world? I had been pretty secure in the thought that this was a thing of the past. But apparently there are some aspects of “maleness” that are OK women.

What are they? Can anyone help me here?

Cartoon by Lucien

Mancession!

With the recession still continuing in Amrika, a new statistics has come to light - the accelerating trend of worse job losses among men.

According to this report over 80% of job losses in the last two years in the US were among men. As a result the percentage of women in the workforce has increased.

Of course in India men do not have this problem. You see, to lose a job you have to have one first.

Media scare

That's what this H1N1 crisis is about.

Yesterday sitting at a cafe I looked up to see the correspondent on a news channel giving a PTC wearing a mask. Having just made an instructional film for the WHO, I immediately recognized that he was wearing the wrong mask. This is what he needed to have worn if wanted to protect himself from this virus.

So not only was he creating an unnecessary scare but he was also giving the wrong information.

It is now obvious that worldwide less than a fraction of 1% of infected people have succumbed to the virus. Many countries are reporting that there are no new infections. Most people who have died in India had other health complications which aggravated the situation. And yet the news channels kept up the shrill reporting asking silly questions - SHOULD YOUR CITY BE SHUT DOWN? - raising the bogey of the swine flu.

This inspite of an advisory from the I & B ministry.

Do they realize that even today the chances of dying of TB or respiratory diseases is still higher than H1N1. Guys get some perspective !

Or I will send you here.