Tukka

Remember someone from good old school days whose marks in any exam that had multiple choice used to surprise the whole class. There was one in my class who surprised all by making it to the XAT merit list. I walked down to his room and asked ‘How did you do it? Never knew you were preparing so religiously for MBA.’ His cool reply was, “One on one, no bragging. Even I am surprised. It’s all Tukka.”

Well if you sit down to think methodically, what are the chances of getting it correct just by fluke. More importantly how often can you get it correct just by fluke? A simple sum of probability, which you can easily solve, and see that the odds are high. To dissuade you from trying this out, negative marking is added. But people do it and some are really good at it.

Now what exactly is happening? I was just thinking if there is a possibility that these people fall in the category “They Know but they Know not that they Know”

I am assuming that they don’t necessarily fill out a bubble blindly, or all c’s in a row but go for the answer that they feel is most plausible.

Can it be a case of a “Jet engine fitted into the chassis of an Ambassador” and hence behaves and is treated as one. Demands petrol instead of aviation fuel, happy to rev up to 70/80 kmph and is often driven exactly at a speed less than equal to that.

Well I think it is quite possible to pick up bits and pieces of information in our daily lives. Now what happens after that in our brains is not clearly known to anyone. Some people consciously process that information within the framework of their known limits. Now there are others who apparently can’t process the information systematically and just come out with a response which they cannot back up with any logical reasoning. They just “Feel it”. Probably what has happened is that, their brain has processed the inputs but in a different plane which the person himself can’t peep into. May be because he can’t or does not know how to.

I do believe there is a possibility that this is true. Just consider what authors like Paulo Coelho say in their works. If you have come across "The Alchemist" you know what I am speaking about. When he says look out for “Signs”, he is saying "Listen to these outputs of auto processed information from your mind". He therefore recognizes that the mind is a super processor which does a much better work than your attempts at imitating it.

May be some of you would be tempted to put it as metaphysical/philosophical crap. Ok, for you let me cite another gentleman. He is Kenichi Ohmae, the well known author of “The Mind of the Strategist”, a management guru and respected figure in the industry. Here is an excerpt,

“In Strategic thinking, one first seeks a clear understanding of the particular character of each element of a situation and then makes the fullest possible use of human brainpower to restructure the elements in the most advantageous way. Phenomena and events in the real world do not always fit a linear model. Hence the most reliable means of dissecting a situation into its constituent parts and reassembling them in the desired pattern is not a step-by-step methodology such as systems analysis. Rather, it is that ultimate nonlinear thinking tool, the human brain.”

I believe this view really holds good. We should rely on this ultimate non-linear thinking tool more and more. But before that two things, know that it is a jet engine and hence it capabilities are much more than what you think right now is, and secondly it deserves aviation fuel and proper maintenance. What I mean is, get your fundamentals right on all subjects, consider that as the raw input you are giving it. Consciously put in the right stuff that would form the processing framework. Leave the rest to it. When time comes, it would give you great results.

So those of you for whom “Tukka” has always worked, feel good but understand the possibilities and do something about it. For others, work extra hard to get the right stuff into it and learn to shift into the “Auto Process” mode.