To Do Or Not To Do?

Niranjan Gidwani explores the inevitability of contradictions in our life and the ways in which we can tackle them

- Niranjan Gidwani

Life is full of contradictions. As we grow up, we begin to get exposed to the many contradictions of our professional and personal lives. Examples abound all around us. A school teacher is expected to teach values in the classroom, but the system wants them to give preference for admission to a less-deserving child because that child's parents offer a large donation. A manager is expected to be people-oriented, but he must ask a good teammate to leave because business has slowed down. A journalist writes exposes on many social issues, but he can see skeletons in his own organisation. A young executive is faced with the issue of working on a project for which the client is an alcohol company. By building a more efficient Al-based information and delivery system for the client, would he not be increasing the possibility of more people getting addicted to drinking? Likewise, the head of a tobacco distribution company wants to speed up his packaging and delivery processes. Or a doctor recommends unwarranted surgeries to meet the return on investment targets of the hospital a owners.

How to deal with contradictions?