the lithiumhead

He: "Did you know that I am Kshatriya - I belong to warrior caste" Me: "To TCS mein kya kar raha hai?" He: "I fight and kill bugs. Software bugs" Me: "That explains the pot belly on your warrior body" Me: "Who are your friends?" He: "I have three friends. This guy is a Brahmin - he designs the architecture and writes code. That guy is Vaishya caste, he has telecon with the client. Me: "What does that fourth guy do?" He: "He is Shudra caste. He updates he documentation whenever I kill a bug. Also he is the mandatory D bander during appraisal season. We need to adhere to the bell curve you know" Me: "Ya the Ghanta curve"

Algebra is the new caste barrier. Arithmetic is easy every child gets it. Algebra is abstract and hard. Those kids who fail to surmount the mountain that is algebra will be left behind and end up doing what most of us now perceive as 'menial' jobs. (They are menial because they pay less and don't require higher order thinking skills) So, all the math teachers of students in 7th grade and above, push your kids to work hard and practise practise practise until they get algebra right - integer operations, distributive property, exponents, division and factorization. BECAUSE IF THESE KIDS ARE LEFT AT THE BASE OF MOUNT ALGEBRA, THEY WILL FLUNK IN 10TH AND END UP DOING MENIAL JOBS AND NEVER REALIZE THEIR POTENTIAL. TAKE IT PERSONALLY. RIGHT.NOW.

I think we are running after the wrong thing. In stead of striving for a life with fewer struggles, we need to strive for a life with more meaningful struggles, equip our selves to handle that struggle better - increase impact and efficiency of our efforts. We must focus on increasing the quality of the the fight instead of tying to decrease the quantity of the fight.