The Big Picture

Disclaimer

This post is the result of a train of thought that was triggered by an
interaction with a human being who is very close to me.

Prologue

So this person recently got into a really cool training program in a
cutting edge scientific field that is conducted by a very reputed
scientific organization. Now somehow the details about this training
program is not too common, most students have no idea that such a program even
exists.

So I ask this guy that who else applied along with him from his
college, to which he replied that he didn't know and he did not tell
his friends about the opportunity because that would increase the
competition and lower his chances of getting into the program.

Okay! So now what ?!

So I have a huge problem with the last statement and that train of
thought in general. I don't think that that type of thinking has any
place in the House of God (or the Temple of Science).

I believe that science is carried forward by people who recognize that
no-matter what; if you are not good enough, you simply are not good
enough. There is no second thought about it.

Let me clarify further.

What does an ideal scientist do when he/she realizes that her theory
is wrong ? Do they get defensive about it or do they try to come up
with a theory that is not wrong ?

My point is scientists recognize their short-comings and take
constructive steps to remedy that. Not the other way around where you
get ahead of others by eliminating the competition. In science
competition is healthy. Just look at the world and you will find
devastating examples of what happens when competition is not there.

And not just scientists; I think every healthy adult should practice
this form of thinking because this form of thinking takes the focus
off of the thing which one can not control which in this case is
whether they will get into the program or not and moves the focus to
the thing that they can indeed control which is the amount of effort
they put into developing their skills so that they may get into the
program.

In less words it moves the focus from external factors that are not
under your control and lets the person focus on themselves so that
there is more room for personal development. If there is no more room
for personal development then we have already lost the battle. :-P

While sabotaging the competition may seem like a great thing to do; it
is mostly a very un-sustainable thing to do. You may win the battle
but you will lose the war.

For the love of science!!

I love science. I love science to a fault. I am willing to do anything
in the interest of science. I can confidently say that if I were in a
situation where I had to choose between myself and another person for
a scientific position of critical importance, I would choose the
better person out of the two of us.

Given a specific job, I would rather have the best possible person for
the job, do the job rather than myself do the job if I am not
qualified enough for the job. This might look like a passive stance
but this kind of thinking means that in most cases I work really hard
to make sure that when the time comes I am the best possible person to
do a job.

The reason for all of this is that there is a bigger picture to all of
this than just who gets to do the job. That is the progress of the
scientific community. It doesn't matter who does the job as long as the
job gets done with the best possible quality.

Conclusion

So what I am trying to say is this; If you are incompetent; then you
are incompetent and your level of competency does not depend on your
opponents competency.

Work on yourself and let the rest sort itself out. :-)