Thursday, November 17, 2011

KBC quiz does not test your knowledge

I do watch KBC quite often on Sony TV. It is a TV show where people can become millionaires by answering 'tough questions' like "which is the longest rail bridge in India', 'which cricketer won the Arjuna award in 2011' and so on. It is an indeed a lovely show to test your 'data-retrieving ability' and earn 'money' from that ability.

But 'data' should not be confused with 'knowledge'. It should be remembered that the journey of talent building starts with 'data'; it does not end with data. In the journey of building your talent, 'data' classification is the first step. The next steps are data > information > knowledge > raw working model > Skill ( mature working model). And it is the combination of skills that help you develop the talent, be it in singing, mathematics or programming.

Data > Information > Knowledge

For instance, when you hear that software company like TCS has a turnover of 2.1 billion in a quarter, this input is Data. Not useful by itself. So you add context to the data to make it useful. This becomes information. For instance, if i tell you that the turnover of its competitor Infosys was 1.8 billion in the same quarter, this data becomes more useful for you. Data with appropriate context is Information. You can view data from different windows of context. For instance, if i tell you that the turnover of TCS in the previous quarter was 2.5 billion, the data assumes different significance. Information therefore is 'contextual'. Smart people use 'multiple' contexts to make the data useful to them.

On the other hand Knowledge is 'information with why'. Knowledge deepens your understanding of the subject. For instance, when you want to understand why TCS turnover is low/high this quarter, you  gain more knowledge of the subject. For that you will have to get more information, such as the amount of turnover of TCS this quarter from North America as compared to Europe? Or the turnover of TCS  from Banking domain as compared to say Telecom domain? The journey from Information to knowledge is driven by your desire to understand 'why'. You have to view the same data from different 'windows' and gain more understanding of what that turnover means.

Knowledge > Skill

The journey till knowledge can be covered by sitting in the arm chair. Next step in the journey - of converting knowledge into useful action - requires active working mode.

For instance, imagine you are a share broker or business analyst. What action would you recommend to your client-investor on the basis of 'turnover of 2.1 billion last quarter'? Should he buy more shares of TCS or sell them? This skill is based on how you 'process the knowledge' into action. For this processing, you design a 'working model' to understand and predict the share price; one of the element of which is turnover.

When you are inexperienced, your working model is 'raw'. It is based on few elements with thin interconnections between them. With deeper 'understanding', you add more elements to your working model and also connect them 'densely'. Your working model improves as it starts reflecting 'as-is reality' of share price in a better way. With further deeper understanding and reality-testing ( both are required), your working model matures. Now you are called a sharp 'share analyst'.

This is the skill stage of talent building. It may take years to reach this. Some fail to reach this 'skill' stage because of the inherent difficulties in 'reality-testing'. One can read research papers and model to incorporate 'more and more elements' in the model, but all that is useless until you can 'test them' in the reality appropriately. If the model is not reflecting reality, we say that the person's knowledge is 'theoretical'.

Imagine, that instead of a share analyst, you are a manager of Infosys of telecom domain. In that scenario, your working model has to be developed with very different elements. This working model therefore is highly individualised and has to be developed and reality-tested by every individual for his own 'action'.

It has also been seen that talented individuals do not possess more data; they possess more relevant knowledge, that is better working model. For instance, when the pieces on the chess board were placed randomly, it was seen that both amateur and professional chess players remembered position of about 14 pieces on the board. However, when an actual chess board of a live game ( in between) was shown to amateur and professional chess players, professional chess players remembered all the pieces on the board, while amateurs could remember half of the pieces on the board.*


Conclusion

As your child is still studying and developing his 'knowledge', you are more concerned in helping your child develop his journey from data > information> knowledge. A skillful teacher can help your child build this chain better.

And because we build knowledge from one level to another in a chain, not understanding arithmetic in the 5th class creates difficulty in understanding arithmetic in 6th class. At this time, your child needs individual customised 'guidance' to identify and rectify his chain; not a coaching class that teaches the entire class of students. Later, we shall see what skillful teachers do differently.

From the above discussion, you would also appreciate that a coaching class may help your child get better marks, not necessarily gain better knowledge, because the actions for gaining more knowledge are not similar to actions for getting more marks. And remember, both are necessary: marks for short-term, and knowledge for long-term purpose.

You would also appreciate now that Internet only presents 'data' to your child. To convert that data into knowledge or action requires a huge degree of effort. Please do not ask your child to surf internet to decide which discipline he should choose in his life, because internet just provides data on different disciplines, not even information.

* Talent is overrated: Geoff Colwin 

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Do you really care for your child?

Please see this example of how a doctor cared for her patient.

Saraswati was pregnant with her second child. She had pregnancy- induced diabetes causing her to go through a very tough regime. Last week she was admitted at Mallya Hospital in Bangalore because of her labour pain. She was admitted at 5 am in the morning.  

At 7 am, when the pain became too difficult to bear, she requested her doctor, Dr Shalini  to do Cesarean section. Dr Shalini acknowledged the request and continued with her efforts to help Saraswati. At 9 am, Saraswati's husband again approached Dr Shalini to relieve Saraswati's pain. Dr Shalini explained all the possibilities to her husband and told her why C-section is not necessary. When her husband, after seeing the continuing screams of Saraswati, again approached Dr Shalini later at 11 am, she firmly reminded her husband that she is a doctor, not her husband. 

As the afternoon progressed, Saraswai's pain increased. She hurled abuses to her nurses. She almost twisted the hand of her husband as she continued to fight the pain by holding the hands of her husband. She tried again and again to talk to Dr Shalini. Dr Shalini continued to firmly say no and remind her that she was in safe hands. By evening, Saraswati had stopped asking help from Dr, Shalini

At 10 pm, after 17 hours, Dr Shalini took Saraswati in the OT and delivered a baby child without doing C-section.


When i met Dr Shalini next day and asked her how could she withstood the continuing barrage of requests, solicitations and even veiled threats of her patient to relieve pain by using short term measures, she simply replied ' I really care for my patients'.

Being involved in helping parents and students for the last two years, it is rare to find a parent who truly cares for his/her child. Instead, I often see parents who are too eager to help ( helping child too quickly when the child is struggling to tie his shoe lace), who do not take the tough decisions helpful for the child ( such as not watching TV), or firmly saying no to the child's request of ice-cream in the evening ( because you feel guilty for going to work and leaving the child home!)

I have seen parents take seemingly difficult one-time decision, but do not have the self-discipline to practice appropriate behaviour with the child. For instance, two months back i met Sudha  who left her well settled job to ensure that her child is not put to day-care. But Sudha was unable to control her worry when her child did not eat food at 12 pm. She started force-feeding the child. Now her child of 3 years, who has never learnt to sense her own hunger, makes Sudha dance around for 1 hour to make her feed. Despite taking the tough decision to leave the job, Sudha finds it more difficult to maintain self-discipline in her daily actions with her child.

Why do you think Dr Shalini can practice this self-discipline, while Sudha could not maintain hers?  Even if Dr Shalini had acceded to the request of Saraswati and performed the operation, no one would have faulted Dr Shalini for her action. Infact she would have even got paid more for doing ceaserean. And,despite the honest intentions of Sudha, why is she unable to put them into practice?

One of the biggest difference between Sudha and Dr Shalini is the difference of subject knowledge.  Dr. Shalini has the 'right knowledge' to take a decision and stick with it, while Sudha is not sure of 'what to do and what not to'. Sudha's knowledge of child development is insufficient as compared to Dr Shalini's knowledge of 'child delivery'. How can Sudha gain the required confidence in her daily actions without acquiring the expertise of child development herself?

Sudha, as you would have guessed, should find an expert in child development and rely on her knowledge. Like Saraswati found Dr Shalini and then 'trusted' her to take care of 'child delivery', Sudha also should find an expert on child development and trust that expert to take the right decisions for developing her child. 

With the help of an expert on child development, Sudha will be able to avoid the mistake she did with her child and not get sucked in the ''downward spiral' of her child's behaviour. She will know for instance that TV and video games are the least useful gadgets that impede child's development. She will also know the 'exit paths'. For example, when the child gets stuck with a behaviour, she will be able to find a way to 'break the spiral' of the self-defeating behaviour of child.  Sudha will know that teaching 'language' to her child requires a different strategy than teaching child to develop qualities like concentration and patience.

In other words, despite her good intentions and one-time decision, if she really cares for her child, Sudha needs to find a consultant in child development who can guide her. Do you really care for your child?

Post script: When i asked Saraswati next day what she felt, she replied " In the first pregnancy which was done thru operation, i never experienced the birth of my child. Thanks to Dr. Shalini, this time, i could experience the feeling fully. It is very very different. I would have missed this if Dr had listened to me. And i would not have known what i missed. I wonder how many things we miss in life, but we never know. Life is really queer.".