FACE BOOK LIKES
My two year experience with Face Book reminded me of an essay in a newspaper I read decades ago. It is entitled “Cyclotron or Cycle Shed?”. There was a governing body meeting of a research lab and they were discussing about budget requirements for the next plan period. Physics department proposed to buy equipment called a Cyclotron, a particle accelerator, with, say, a budget of 10 crores in foreign exchange and a recurring expenditure of Rupees ten lakhs a year. The justification they provided is that they needed it for doing State of the Art Research using Cutting Edge Technology. One of the members said our lab should have such equipment and we can invite the PM for inauguration and all clapped, and the budget provision for the item was approved immediately. Then there was an item about lower level employees, who requested that a cycle shed for keeping the bicycles of staff safely as more than five hundred people use bicycle for coming to the lab with a one-time budget provision of rupees ten thousand. About an hour of discussion took place whether such a request can be granted. Anyway, the unions come with requests of many things periodically. Such a thing can be given as a favour at a future time as one fulfilled demand in their many demands and we should not spend money intended for science on such unproductive activities. Obviously the request for a cycle shed was turned down as every member of the governing body had an opinion on the cycle shed. The connection to FB must be obvious by now. If you express a serious point of view, it gets no notice and a pedestrian comment will get hundreds of likes, dislikes, and scholarly reviews and criticisms. So, the advice is to follow the KISS paradigm. (Keep It Simple and Stupid.)
My two year experience with Face Book reminded me of an essay in a newspaper I read decades ago. It is entitled “Cyclotron or Cycle Shed?”. There was a governing body meeting of a research lab and they were discussing about budget requirements for the next plan period. Physics department proposed to buy equipment called a Cyclotron, a particle accelerator, with, say, a budget of 10 crores in foreign exchange and a recurring expenditure of Rupees ten lakhs a year. The justification they provided is that they needed it for doing State of the Art Research using Cutting Edge Technology. One of the members said our lab should have such equipment and we can invite the PM for inauguration and all clapped, and the budget provision for the item was approved immediately. Then there was an item about lower level employees, who requested that a cycle shed for keeping the bicycles of staff safely as more than five hundred people use bicycle for coming to the lab with a one-time budget provision of rupees ten thousand. About an hour of discussion took place whether such a request can be granted. Anyway, the unions come with requests of many things periodically. Such a thing can be given as a favour at a future time as one fulfilled demand in their many demands and we should not spend money intended for science on such unproductive activities. Obviously the request for a cycle shed was turned down as every member of the governing body had an opinion on the cycle shed. The connection to FB must be obvious by now. If you express a serious point of view, it gets no notice and a pedestrian comment will get hundreds of likes, dislikes, and scholarly reviews and criticisms. So, the advice is to follow the KISS paradigm. (Keep It Simple and Stupid.)
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