Sunday, December 26, 2010

Shall we share?

While surfing the Internet for random information and comparing the ease of access to information today as compared to my student days this thought struck me hard- should a person be obliged to share his knowledge freely? And would that lead to a fairer world?
There’s no doubt how much better life got for most of us with free information on the Worldwide Web, with free software led by Linux or free encyclopaedic information from Wikipedia. We are all happy to get free advice from experts in newspapers – on issues ranging from the stock markets to fitness and healthcare- people who have collected reams of information and distilled it into knowledge over years.
And now for a moment let me cross over to the other side. Most would agree that a manager should be guiding his team to success, giving his team members free access to his experience. But, as that manager, I may find it difficult to share the result of my years of hard work with team members who may just see it as a routine input. I may not see a sense of gratitude and can easily resent such a painless transfer.
And then again, can such inorganic learning actually lead to results similar to that of first-hand collation? Can I really take down Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe and become a great chef? Or can I follow a supermodel’s diet to become one myself? As anyone of us knows, there is that X factor that makes an individual excellent at what he does. Can that be just casually passed down to anyone?