Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Monkeys and the Market

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and told the villagers, who were farmers, that he needs monkeys. The villagers laughed at him and never minded about what the man told. Later the man announced to the villagers that he would pay Rs.10 each monkey that the villagers catch for him. The villagers have seen a lot of monkeys in the nearby forest that used to raid their villages too, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought every monkey at Rs.10 and the villagers made a good deal. Soon the supply
started to diminish, the villagers thought that it was not worth the effort, so they stopped catching monkeys.

The man further announced that he would now buy each monkey at Rs.50. This villagers thought that it seemed to be a good deal, started catching monkeys again. And again, the supply diminished even further and people stopped the monkey business and started going back to their farms. Now the offer rate increased to Rs 75 and the supply of monkeys became so scarce that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catching it.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at Rs.200 per monkey! However, since he had to go to the city on some urgent business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant placed a deal with the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at Rs. 125 per monkey and when the man returns from the city, you can sell it to him for Rs 200". The villagers found it to be promising squeezed up funds from all their savings to buy the monkeys at Rs. 125 per monkey. After that they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!!!

Welcome to the Global Market!!!

So long until the next post...

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Cat

Once upon a time, there was a Guru, who was the head of a Gurukulam. He had many student disciples who learnt spiritual lessons from him. The Guru also had a pet cat, which wandered around in the gurukulam.

One day the Guru was teaching something very important in the lessons of spiritual enlightenment. By then, the Guru's pet cat strolled nearby. This caught the attention of one of the students. He started to gaze at the cat rather than listening to what his Guru said. The Guru noticed that and warned the student, in addition, he asked one of the other students to tie to cat to the mast outside and also instructed that cat should be tied to the mast to avoid his students gazing at the cat when it strolls inside.

From then on, when the class started, one of the students would tie the Guru's pet cat to the pole outside the class. A few years passed, the Guru died and the next senior person became the Guru of the Gurukulam. But the practice of tying the cat to the pole when the class started continued.

A few years passed, the cat also died. And in the next day, when the class was about to start, the new Guru shouted. "Where is the cat, don't you guys know that a cat should be tied to the pole outside before the classes start?"

The other students got afraid because the new Guru got angry, found another cat, tied it to the pole and then the classes started for the day.

These days, organizations getting the ISO/CMM certifications do such acts without meaning or purpose. Maybe, the processes recommended in those certifications are to streamline the functioning of the organization in a smoother way. But, many organisations start preparing the laborious and monotonous documentation only at the end of the project/cycle, rather than having them prepared during the course. Reason for preparing at the end - Come on, everybody is busy at the other times :)

So long until the next post...

Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Fox

Once upon a time, in a forest, a hunter was in search of some animal to hunt for a meal. He found an elephant, so he threw his spear at the elephant that killed it. While throwing the spear, he inadvertently stepped on a venomous snake. The snake struck the hunter with is pangs and the venom instantly killed the hunter. When he fell dead, he fell on the snake killing it.

A fox went strolling by, scouring through the forest for a meal. On seeing the three things deal, the fox was happy that it has hit with a treasure trove of meals. It thought it could save and eat the elephant for one month, the man for 3 days and the snake as a meal for that day. But it also found a peculiar thing that was near the hunter, it was a bow. It thought that it was some new meal it did not have before, and hence should have it immediately.

So, the fox went to the bow and bit its string, the string snapped and reflexively the stick in the bow stretched out, striking the fox killing it instantaneously.

The foxes in every organisation are curious about something, and they have some fancied opinion about it that they don't even have an ounce of knowledge about what it is. Be it technology, be it software etc, they don't try to understand it completely before they try it out, but jumpstart into it putting everybody including themselves in an unpleasant situation.

Curiosity about new things and venturing into that space after proper understanding is not a problem, but "curiosity" alone, kills.

So long until the next post :)

Friday, November 27, 2009

The Sapling Planter

It was a bright day and the things were quite normal at dawn. As the sun rose higher, an oddity began to sprout out. There were these two men of which one dug a hole in the ground along the side of the road. A few feet after him and another man was burying the hole with the mud dug out by the first man.

One elderly man watched this odd behaviour these two men were demonstrating. The oldie went straight up to these men and asked. "Why are going guys doing this? You are digging up a hole and he is closing it with the dug out mud?"

The first man answered, "Sir, we are three of us working for the City Administration. I dig up the hole, the next person plants the sapling and the third covers up the hole. The guy who has the plant the sapling is on leave today, but we guys came to work!!!"

The same is what happens in many organisations, they have some stupid policy that directs the people to do something that is neither useful to the company nor useful to its employees, but yet still, they are supposed to do that work! It might look odd to an outsider, but for the insider... nevermind... he gets used to it :)

So long until the next post :)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Rooster

Once upon a time, in a poultry farm, there were hens that used to lay eggs that were sold by the farm to make money. The business grew and the demand for the eggs increased. But the hens laid only one egg per day that was not enough to meet the demands. So the farm owners decided that they should bring out a new policy.

The policy was that each bird has to lay two eggs a day to meet the demand and there was a threatening clause that if any bird that did not lay two eggs will be deemed unfit and will be beheaded.

The birds were alarmed and for the fear of being beheaded, each bird laid two eggs from the next day, except for one bird that laid only one egg. The farm owners were furious and called the bird in for investigation.

In the office room, the bird was questioned - "Why have you laid only one egg where you are supposed to lay two? Are you not aware of the new policy that requires each bird in the farm to lay two eggs?"

The bird replied, "Yes sirs, I am aware of the new policy. I have done the best to lay this egg, rather I have done this beyond my capacity, because I am a 'ROOSTER'..." :)

Sometimes in some organisations, policies or requirements of a project are specified in such a way that in most cases, it pushes employees beyond what they can do in their capacity or capability. Being a mobile software developer, I have known companies that require apps on BlackBerry to be developed with an iPhone user experience. BlackBerrys applications be programmed to give a rich look and feel, but the user experience on a BlackBerry is entirely different. If you need iPhone experience, go get an iPhone, BlackBerrys are meant to be BlackBerrys and not iPhones. The pity is on the roosters who work on BlackBerry apis and other mobile apis (J2ME, Window Mobile, Android etc), where they are expected to give an iPhone experience :)

So long until the next post :)

The Ostrich

There was this hen that used to loiter around the fields and peck its food. One day, it came across something it has never seen before. It was the egg of an ostrich. The hen was awe-struck by the sheer size of the ostrich's egg. As it has never seen an ostrich before, it thought that some other hen would have laid such a big egg. It then thought, if ate more and tried harder, it too could lay such a big egg.

It set the determination to lay a big egg and started to eat like anything, scouring to the fields eating whatever it could find. It had eaten enough that it could hardly take anymore. It rested for the day expecting the big event to happen the next day.

The next day, it had the impetus to lay the egg, it started to try and push harder to deliver the egg it had expected. After all the hard work and effort, it laid the simple small egg that it used to lay daily.

Some organisations/people at the higher helm think this way, like the hen did. It is not that they should not aim high, but it is the fact that they are aiming/doing things out of proportions than they can handle :)

So long until the next post.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Donkey and The Rain

Once upon a time, there was a King who was very much interesting in hunting. He used to go to hunting regularly in the forest in his kingdom. Whenever he sets out to hunting, he would ask his minister "Will it rain today? Shall I go for hunting?" The minister told "Yes my King you can go for hunting and it will not rain today". The king went for hunting and had a good hunt.

Another day he asked his minister the same question, the minister told that it would rain that day and it is not advised to go for hunting. The King did not heed to the minister, went out for hunting. And as the minister said, it rained heavily and the King was all drenched wet. He returned back to his palace and thought that his minister had amazing ability. So, he called his minister and asked how he got he ability to predict rains.

The minister told that he does not have the ability to predict rains, but he finds it when he sees a donkey with its ears upright. The king got irritated at the minister's answer of not having the ability himself, sacked the minister and replaced him with the donkey as the minister. Now the king had a new problem, the donkeys of his country came rushing to him asking for the minister's post.

Similarly, some donkey would have been promoted for some particular reason to a manager or a member of the higher helm. He will not have the proper training or capacity to handle the new helm causing a chaotic mayhem in the company. Consequently, that donkey serves as a role model for the other donkeys to get promoted to higher positions. The real ministers who are capable are sacked and replaced by donkeys :)

So long until the next post :)

Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Bear

Once upon a time, a group of Accountants, a group of Doctors and a group of IT Managers went on a trekking trip into a forest all together. Suddenly one of the groups posed a challenge to the other 2 groups. The challenge is that each group has venture into the forest catch a tiger and return back to a designated spot. Whoever comes first wins. The challenge was accepted each group went into the forest in search of a tiger.

The Accountants group had a plan for their search and they calculated the plausible location of the tiger, went inside the forest and in about 5 hours they were back with a tiger to the designated spot.

The Doctors group made a plan, they had the map of the forest, something similar to an X-Ray, they plotted their whereabouts against the possible whereabouts of the tiger and they waited for the right time to start their operation they ventured inside the forest and in about 24 hours they got a tiger and returned to the designated spot

The IT Managers group sat down preparing a presentation the scope of the present task, their expertise in that field and then started out to estimates for the effort needs in person days to catch the tiger. They had no idea either about the forest or the tiger, yet ventured into the forest to catch the tiger. Hours went by, and slowly days too went by. The Accountants and Doctors have been waiting for five days and no sign of the IT managers group, so they both decide to go in and find what the IT managers were really doing. The groups went in and searched for sometime and found the IT Managers group at a distance.

When they went near, the IT managers group was having a bear tied to a tree and were smashing it, shouting... "Accept that you are a tiger, Accept that you are tiger..."

This is what happens in the real world scenario, most IT managers don't have a clue about the project they are going to execute, do some document preparations that might be no longer relevant or useful for the project; they catch up some irrelevant bears into the team and stress them out to have the project completed in time, at least for namesake.

So long until the next post :)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Skunk

There was once a wealthy landlord who wanted to build a very big home. Hence he called out a construction company to send their architect. The architect came home as requested and spoke to the landlord. The landlord told his wish about building a big home and asked the architect to come up with some of his best designs. The architect is one of the best the construction company ever had. So he came up with 10 great model design for the landlord's home. He took it to the landlord to show which one the landlord liked. He showed those designs one by one to the landlord but the landlord was not satisfied with any of those designs. The architect did not worry about that because it usually happens like people rejecting the designs. So he went back and worked for a few days came up with 10 more, showed it to the landlord. Again, the landlord rejected them all. This went on for a couple of times. The architect by now has shown about 50 designs and felt dejected, because most customers would select one from the first few designs he comes up with. Therefore, he wanted to really understand what the landlord really wanted, so the next time he did not take any designs with him.

The architect met the landlord and told him, "Sir, I have shown you over 50 of my best architectural designs for your home. Yet, you did not like any of them. May I know what you have in your mind, so that I can design to your liking"

The landlord went inside his house and came after sometime. He came with a floor carpet. He showed that carpet to the architect and told, "See Mr. I bought this carpet when I went to Japan, I want you to design something that would suit this carpet...."

The architect's fury knew no bounds. You imagine yourself in the architect's shoes and do whatever you want to that Skunk, sorry landlord.

The liberty of the aforesaid imagination is not available to many organisations, because either the organisations are too small or budding to deal with those wealthy skunks; or they are decently reputed and are worried to create a smelly confrontation...

So long until the next post.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Parasites

There was once a lawyer who had an apprentice lawyer. The lawyer trained the apprentice for a few years and during the few years, the apprentice could not pay his apprentice fees to the senior lawyer as the apprentice was penniless. The senior lawyer felt pity on the apprentice and thought he could recover it after the apprentice completes his training and gets a few cases for himself to make a living.

The apprentice completed the training, got to become a lawyer on his own. The senior lawyer was proud that his apprentice is on his own. So, he thought that he could the apprentice fees that was due. The apprentice told that he will not pay his apprentice fees. The lawyer felt very bad about the apprentice and told that he would sue the apprentice in the court of law. The apprentice nodded.

The lawyer sued the apprentice in the court of law. The notice was served about the hearing. The lawyer called in apprentice to talk to him. The lawyer told that he was not willing to sue him, but he had no option. The apprentice told that he will not pay even if he wins or loses the case. The lawyer was puzzled and asked the apprentice why he said so.

The apprentice explained, "If I win, the court itself has declared that I need not pay. If I lose, I will sue you again on the grounds that you have not trained me correctly to even win this simple case, so I need not pay you the money"

The lawyer really felt pained and took the apprentice out of his good books and withdrew the case too.

Every company has a lot of parasites. These parasites are mostly the indigent, the unworthy and the loathsome without the sense of gratitude. So, how do we win these parasites? You cannot, or rather, you should not.

The parasites remind me of Q's dialogues from Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Non-Star-Trekkies, refer Wikipedia to know who Q is)

"You can't outrun them! You can't destroy them! If you damage them, the essence of what they are remains. They regenerate and keep coming, eventually you will weaken, your reserves will be gone. They are relentless!"

There might be a question, if we cannot or should not win, we are the ones who are losing, how can we admit that? This again reminds me Q's dialogue

"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here, it's wondrous with treasures to satiate your desires both subtle and gross, but it's for the timid" ;)

Parasites will be there, never give a damn about them, but be cautious and brave :)

PS: See, we have encountered a new type of species - the parasites - in our channel :)

So long until the next post.

Friday, November 6, 2009

The Jackass


The Original Version

There was once a man who had a dog, the dog was very affectionate to him and would jump in joy when its master is around. The dog used to cuddle, embrace, jump on him and at times lick its master's face in joy. The man also had a donkey that did helped him carry the load. The master used to beat the donkey when it does not carry the load properly. One day, it saw the dog doing his playful and joyous tricks like jumping, embracing its master. On seeing this, the donkey decided, if it too behaved like the dog like showing affection by jumping, putting its leg over the master and licking his face in joy, the master would feel happy and will not beat it. So one fine day, the donkey found its master alone and its joy knew no bounds that it went to its master, jump on him and started licking his face to show his affection. But the master grew angry and beat the donkey heavily. From then on the donkey realized that its cannot do what the dog does and to avoid the beating it has to work properly.

The Noble Version

The man had a dog and a donkey. The dog as said before showed its affection by embracing, licking its master's face and so on. The donkey wanting to do the same to please its master, found its master alone. Went near him and showed its affection to its master in the same manner as the dog. The man took pity on the donkey, understood that it too can show affection, stopped beating it and treated equally like the dog. And they lived on together like this happily every after.  Happy Ending....

The IT Version

The man had a dog and a donkey. The dog as said before showed its affection by embracing, licking its master's face and so on. The donkey wanting to do the same to please its master, found its master alone. Went near him and showed its affection to its master in the same manner as the dog. The master grew vicious, went to the dog and beat the shit out of the dog and shouted "Had it not been for you jumping on me, the donkey would have stayed where it should"

This is the plight of all the top performers/contributors like the dog. They are curtailed of their privileges and freedom, just because of the wrong doings or inefficiency of some jackass like the donkey. It is not that the organizations cannot be paranoid but they have to be very careful in taking measures, as it could drive away the enthusiasm and spirits of the top contributors - dogs.

PS: No animal was injured or hurt by the author during the writing of this post :)

So long until the next post.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Monkey Business

In a forest, there was a monkey. One day, it rained cats and dogs in the forest. The monkey was drenched all wet in the rain. A weaver bird saw this and felt pity about the monkey. The bird went to the monkey and said "See my friend, if you build a home like the nest I have built, you would not have been drenched in the rain and you would have been safe". The monkey quietly listened to the speech then suddenly jumped above and tore apart the weaver bird's nest and shouted "Yippee, now that you have lost your home, give me company in the rain..."

Some people, like this monkey, are there in every organisation, right from the top helm to the entry level employee. If they get any advice from anyone, then the person advising is in soup. So, if you are a weaver bird, just shutup your mouth and stay in your home when it rains, don't land in hot water advising monkeys :)

See, as I mentioned in one my earlier posts, we are getting to see a lot of animals like the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet :)

So long until the next post :)

The Disparagers

There was this man who used to smoke a lot of cigarettes. An old man in his neighbourhood watched this man and wanted to explain the benefits of stopping the habit of smoking. So, he went to the man and had the following conversation.

Old Man: Hello I wanted to talk to you.
Smoker: Sure, go ahead.
Old Man: You smoke?
Smoker: Yes
Old Man: How much does a cigarette cost?
Smoker: Rs. 3
Old Man: How many cigarettes do you smoke in a day?
Smoker: 20
Old Man: How long have you been smoking?
Smoker: Over 20 years
Old Man: See, if you had not smoked in these 20 years, you would be having about Rs. 4.5 lakhs (The amount you spent on the cigarettes in all these 20 years).
Smoker: Hmm, fair enough, do you smoke?
Old Man: I haven't touched a single cigarette in all my life!
Smoker: So, you should be having about Rs. 10 lakhs right? Do you?

The old man was dumbfounded. There are good managers, who really have a good heart to have his/her subordinates to get out of their habits that are the stumbling blocks to their success. But those subordinates do behave in an inert and obstinate manner that the attempts or advices to improve their subordinates' lives go literally unheeded. Such good managers getting such disparaging subordinates is more or less getting to be a universal rule. :)

So long until the next post.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Palace

Once upon a time there was a King who had a very wise Minister. One day the king desired to build a palace out of wood with all the craft work done on it, so he thought he could take the minister along with him during the next hunting in the forest, so that he could identify the right trees to build his dream palace. They both went into the forest and this is what happened.

The King encounters a tamarind tree, he asks the minister "Minister, can we build the palace out of tamarind wood?". The minister answered, "Of course, My Lord, however we can also build the palace using teak wood"

The King encountered a need tree, he asked "Minister, can we build the palace out of neem wood?". The minister came out with the same answer "Of course, My Lord, however we can also build the palace using teak wood".

Next comes a mango tree, the King asks if the mango tree can be used to build the palace. There is the same answer from the minister. This goes on for the next few tree varieties. Later they both, return home. There the King asks his puzzlement because of the minister's answers. He asked the minister, "For every tree that I pointed and asked if we can build a palace out of that tree, you said that we can build it, however we can also build using teak woods. Why?"

The wise minister politely answered "My King, Teak wood is quite durable than the other trees. However, when you, The King, have something in mind, I do not have the authority to refute your ideas. At the same time, my duty to you as a minister is to give you the right advice". The minister continues "I did not want to rebuke your ideas at the the same time, I did not want to do injustice to my duty, that is why I answered so".

Now, consider the same story with the Customer being the King and the Minister being the IT organisation. We will refer to the customer as "The King" and the IT company as "The minister". The King asks the minister, "Minister can we use the tamarind tree to build the palace?"

The minister now goes and prepares a 20 slide Presentation demonstrating the capabilities of building the palace with a tamarind tree along with the cost of building it. The King is awe-inspired and gives a go ahead.

Later the King asks if the palace could be built with a neem tree. Again the minister prepares a 20 slide presentation, the king is again cheated, sorry awe-inspired, asks if they could build it using the neem tree. The minister asks the king to give a "Change request or Request for Features Change". Then the minister proceeds on with the neem tree.

Then the king asks for the mango tree palace, the same process - 20 slide presentation, awe-inspired, change request. This goes on until the customer, sorry the King, either finds that the teak wood is the best for building a palace or if he becomes a mendicant.

At last when he realises that he has been awe-inspired, sorry cheated, so many times, he feels very angry that he feels that the person who invented "Change Request" should be ?________________________? (Fill in all the swear words you can think of). Sometimes, the king (customer) becomes so pathetically downtrodden that he realises that he should have never thought of building a Palace - Late realisation. :)

So long until the next post.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Scapegoats

மகன் : அப்பா, தம்பி  ஜன்னல்  கண்ணாடிய  உடைச்சிட்டான் அப்பா
அப்பா: எப்படிடா  உடைச்சான்?
மகன்: நான்  அவன்  மேல  கல்லை விட்டு  எறிஞ்சேன், குனிஞ்சுடான்  அப்பா

Son: Dad, Little Brother, broke the window glass...
Dad: Oh is it? How did he break it?
Son: I threw a stone at him, he ducked

Like the little brother, there are scapegoats in every organization who bear the brunt. They send the emails, on behalf of their leads or managers, that have very bad repurcussions. Moreover, they are supposed to the take the blame, when his lead or Manager is caught in the responsibility trap. Poor creatures! Their sole consolation is that English language gives them different idioms for them to feel happy about, those idioms are
  • Cat's paw
  • Whipping boy
  • Patsy
  • Fall Guy
  • Frame-up
  • Soft touch
  • Sucker
  • Gull
They don't have to be goats always, they can rotate these idioms, in whatever order they like, whenever they are being referred :)

PS: The use of masculine pronouns his, him etc refers to both genders unless otherwise specified. Such use is for the author's convenience and does not represent any male-chauvinism. Women do have equal rights to be scapegoats :)

So long, until the next post

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Euphemisms

Euphemisms are now a core part communication either through email, telephonic conversations etc. I have come across two types of euphemisms. The first one is a bit sensitive and the other one is a humorous. The sensitive one has a list like Slavery under the comfortable euphemism Leadership, Stupidity under the name Policy and so on. Let us not provoke anyone by discussing this sensitive euphemism further. The other type is the one almost everybody in most IT companies encounter in their day to day routine. Let see those that I can remember with the Euphemism and their real version.

  • To my understanding, this is so and so.... - Damn, I don't understand a thing. Explain it to me as you would to a kid
  • This is actually... Correct me if I am wrong... - Shut up and don't open you bloody mouth until I ask you to..
  • Mr Simon, please add any comments if you have... - Simon, I have added you in the email just to let others know that you are in the loop. Don't try to be smart by posting any stupid comment of yours
  • Actually, it will take too long to explain - Damn, I don't have the least bit of idea of what it is...
For those who can understand Tamil
  • Sir, avar pasu maadhiri sir - Sariyana maattu paya sir avan
Readers, I believe you too would have come across such expressions. Please feel free to add more in the comments section. This sentence is not another euphemism, I mean it and am serious :)

So long, until the next post.

Monday, October 19, 2009

The Beetles

No no no... Don't confuse the post to be something with the famous music band. This is a short story by a famous writer about ego. I am not sure if it was James Thurber or Bertrand Russel. We will refer to the writer as 'the writer' itself. The writer was in his high school or college days where the class teacher was lecturing about "Ego". The teacher was giving a lengthy discourse about ego that most of the students either did not understand what the teacher told about ego or they grew tired. Suddenly our writer jumped to the front and told the teacher that he could explain the same thing a bit differently using some analogy so that even a layman understands it. The teacher gave a go ahead and the writer started to explain with a short story that went like this.

"There was once a big elephant that wandered in the forest. One day it came across a bridge that was formed by a fallen tree between the edges of a small stream that went below. The elephant wanted to cross the stream by walking over the tree. When the elephant put its foot on the tree, a beetle sat on its head at the same time the elephant put its leg on the tree bridge. And the tree bridge collapsed without being able to bear the weight of the elephant. Hence both the elephant and the beetle fell below. Now the beetle got up and thought, this bridge is too weak to bear even my weight. The attitude of the beetle is called 'ego'"

This story brought our writer a loud applause from the entire class including the teacher.

Now coming to the point, as in this story there are many beetles who are around in an organization who tend to think that things happened only because they got involved. But, in reality, a lot others would have put in their blood and sweat to make things happen. These beetles don't appear until things are ripe to proclaim their contribution. The beetles happen to be all over the hierarchy (from Software Engineers to Projects managers and above). The more the beetles higher in the hierarchy, the more the scapegoats. The more the beetles in the lower hierarchy, the more the pests. See we have come across a lot of animals, I believe that this can expand into another Discovery channel. :)

So long, until the next post

The Prologue

This blog is all about the funny paradoxes that exist in today's work environment in every corner of the globe. It is more of an inspiration out of various famous things out there - Dilbert (Comic), Office Space (Movie), The Milkshake Moment (Book) and many others. The interesting thing in this is the fun part - the satire and humour that is often related to the situation/work environment. This blog is to explore further such fun and humour that all of us can laugh it out. As Charlie Chaplin quoted "Life is a tragedy in close-up and a comedy in long shot". We are going to look the paradoxes from the long shot. Of course, everybody will have reasons for doing such paradoxes, we just enjoy the fun part. As a starter read this post by one of my friends