In the last barcamp (first of its kind in Nepal), I gave my talk on
“participation, innovation and transformation”. Few days back then, when
we were siting for a meeting about the national convention we had
passed it as 5th NCSQC's theme which was all in my head. When I came
across the idea of barcamp, I liked it. As usual the best way to
learn I take is to involve myself into the area of my interest. I
registered to speak where the title would be the same as one in our
convention theme. I had already registered but then I started thinking,
it was a theme of a quality convention and what it had to do with
hackers' meeting. So, I had to hack the psychology of SQC(Students'
Quality Circle) and see if they have some common grounds.
Ground Zero:
If we don't buy the misconception about hackers, they are the people
who want to master anything that matters them and know it to the level
so they can use them to their need and people around. More than that
they are happy to share the knowledge and resources for greater benefits
of the society. Barcamp is where people interested in learning and
sharing the culture of learning meet. They take an out-of-box idea to do
an unconference to share knowledge that turns out to be a barcamp.
A. PARTICIPATION
Meanwhile, I was thinking, what is that which binds me to talk about
quality with hackers. I was exploring some sources on hacking. I came
across wonderful documentation that led the common beliefs among
hackers. They were much similar to what we had been teaching to our
students those who were in SQC.
SQC is a team work, where
students learn to participate and respect others views. Learning is
accelerated with the participation is one good thing that we can learn
from creative people all around the world. Today free software (I
prefer the term 'Swatantra Software' though), movement has taken its
best to give people powered technologies to serve the world which runs
two third of the Internet. It is the greatest example of sharing
knowledge in the human history. Creative people of all ages, great
scientists, philosophers and writers have them in common. Today, I shall
explain such common axioms/ beliefs/attitudes that motivates them
working so passionately.
Axiom 1: The world is full of
fascinating problems waiting to be solved. Successful athletes get their
motivation from a kind of physical delight in making their bodies
perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical limits.
Similarly, to be a hacker you have to get a basic thrill from solving
problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence.
Being a hacker is lots of fun, but it's a kind of fun that takes lots of
effort. The effort takes motivation. You also have to develop a kind of
faith in your own learning capacity. When students are at SQC, they
have three basic things to do, a) Identify their problems b) Analyze the root causes and c) Solve their problems like much of what the hackers do on regular basis.
They take problems not as a burden but an opportunity to learn about
anything that interests them. One should put every effort to master the
knowledge. Problems are windows to the knowledge. It is an opportunity
to meet the purpose of our life that we want to pursue. It should be the
attitude of students of SQC and all quality seekers all around.
B. INNOVATION
SQC helps to develop analytical skill and problem solving attitude
where students learn to think out-of-box, to be creative and regularly
innovate new ideas. Inventions doesn't happen overnight nor it can be
taught. It is such an extraordinary capacity of human brain, which takes
lots of preparation yet cannot be predicted. It is a unique solution to
existing problem with available resources.
Axiom 2: No
problem should ever has to be solved twice. Creative brains are valuable
and limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on re-inventing the
wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there.
To behave like a hacker, you have to believe that the thinking time of
other hackers is precious — so much so that it's almost a moral duty for
you to share information, solve problems and then give the solutions
away just so other hackers can solve new problems instead of having to
perpetually re-address old ones. At SQC, we teach just identifying
and solving problem is not enough but we should find the way to solve
them permanently. Creative people like scientists come with their
inventions and share in the community. Students at SQC also standardize
their case study and present it in their school, national and
international conventions so they should not ever have to be solved
twice. It is next good example of sharing knowledge.
Axiom 3:
Boredom and drudgery are evils. Hackers (and creative people in
general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive
work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only
they can do — solve new problems. This wastefulness hurts everybody.
Therefore boredom and drudgery are not just unpleasant but actually
evil. More than anything that corrupts any individual is boredom. It is
such a malicious that it seizes life from living individuals. Active
living is the secret of productive genius throughout the history of
mankind. Beethoven once said, “I worked for 37 years when the rest of
the world was sleeping and today people call me genius”.
Axiom 4:
Freedom is good. Hackers are naturally anti-authoritarian. Anyone who
can give you orders can stop you from solving whatever problem you're
being fascinated by — and, given the way authoritarian minds work, will
generally find some appallingly stupid reason to do so. So the
authoritarian attitude has to be fought wherever you find it. (This
isn't the same as fighting all authority. Children need to be guided and
criminals restrained.) World alliance on quality had a slogan for 2008,
“Quality has no borders” and so does the learning and creativity. If we
always walk on the same path we can not come up with new road anyway.
Just a linear learning to pass exams doesn't much foster the creativity
among students. It is always important for students to think out of box
and be creative. Its the creative genius that makes great people be
remembered they are immortal with their creativity. In SQC, we let
students think and work in a free environment so they will take their
own problem (set their own curriculum), analyze the problem (set their
own text) and solve their problems (give their own test). Creative
learning is possible in such an environment where there is no boundaries
but freedom with responsibilities.
C. TRANSFORMATION SQC enhance self confidence, communication skills, emotional stability and thus transform students into a complete person.
Axiom 5:
Attitude is no substitute for competence. To be a hacker, you have to
develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude alone won't
make you a hacker, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a
rock star. Becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice,
dedication, and hard work. Like it is said above, it is not all enough
to have such an attitude alone but we should be able to workout them. It
is one thing to like any idea but it's different to practice them in
the actual life. Students who practice SQC should always understand
that just novel thought won't solve their problems nor transform them.
Competence among students is developed in due course of time with actual
practice. It should come from the students to take the responsibility
of the problem and solve it themselves, hence, a transformation is
possible. Sources: 1. How To Become A Hacker, http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
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