Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Difficulties: ways to win

I am as busy as a bee these days of course mentally and physically. Performing the final project, university courses, learning modern scientific techniques and skills, teaching and particularly planning for future are the most noticeable tasks I have to concentrate on. My final project can be divided into two main parts: experimental tests and simulation. Each part again can be partitioned into several sections and each section consists of many different works! You see, there is a disastrous combination of things I should think about! As Remy in Ratatouille said “the only predictable thing in life is its unpredictability!” As a matter of fact, in doing something especially in Iran, you should get used to confront events which you never expect and also brake or sometimes stop the flow of your procedure.
Those kinds of problems can be seen in both scientific parts and humanly behaviours. Let me give you an example of what these brakes are and how they work! In the very beginning of my project I have to conduct the uniaxial compression tests on the cylindrical specimens. I made 60 specimens and it took me more than 1.5 months but when I wanted to do the first test, nothing happened! I mean the power of the hammer of the compression tool was not enough even to make a small plastic deformation. So I had to decrease the size of the test piece from the diameter of 25mm to 20mm. again no plastic deformation! I reduced the size of specimen to 15mm but there wasn’t any deformation effect yet! But eventually the specimen yielded in the size of 12mm. That process lasted one month and accordingly I fell behind with my schedule. About rudely behaviours of people in university I can give you millions of examples of stopping my works, not doing their jobs, irresponsible demeanours, ironic speaking, blowing me off and etc.
Allow me to reach to the main point which I want to get from the first paragraph. Some people fight with these difficulties, some escape from them (like what migrants do), some get confused, some remain indifferent to those problems BUT I accept them as a fact and I try to learn something new without jeopardizing my personal profits or dignity. Of course in some situations I get angry and may be confused but at last there is something new to acquire. You know, learning how to solve scientific problems and behavioural puzzles guide you to a higher level of social behaviour. The interesting point is that after a while, you will gain useful and sometimes unique experiences by acting like that and as a result you will own a novel database of solutions which helps you to win over different difficult problems. Life is a game: the more powerful database and more complete information you have, the more problems you get over and the fewer difficulties you encounter and finally the calmer and happier life you experience.

1 comment:

Nava said...

Right! But have you ever thought why should we spend so much time and energy and creativity to find ways to overcome these kind of difficulties, specially the human ones, While they could have been resolved in the first place had every person done their responsibilities? The question is why do you accept them as part of your life, while they are not, and they are only wasting your productive energy. Some people may spend all their lives, playing these games. Some just get tired..."enough is enough"...and then some of them might "escape".