Who is a Fool?

This blog is triggered by today's date and the significance of the same. “Fool’s Day”.

At the outset, let’s take a look at the reason this day came into being: The theory goes like this: In 1564 France reformed its calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Those who failed to keep up with the change, who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st, had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of this prank were thus called Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish—which, to this day, remains the French term for April Fools—and so the tradition was born.

Whilst this theory is seemingly simple (and stupid), what it does clearly tell us is “Who is a Fool?”. It is not about taking wrong decisions. It is not about  not being able to understand some obvious things. It’s about being closed to learning. It’s about thinking that you know enough and you do not need to know any further. It’s about making assumptions rather than taking the pain of finding out the reality or change.

If you are closed to the learning, I would also interpret the same as “Not Asking the Right Questions at the Right Time”!

Moving on to a real life situation. It’s a large forum and a presentation by the Department Head is going on. In one of the slides, you cannot make out the point being made. But, it’s a large forum, you don’t know if the question you’ll ask makes sense. You are afraid that you’ll be laughed at. You are collecting strength to raise your voice and ask that question. Meanwhile, a colleague of yours raises his hand and asks the same question. You Thank God. The question is appreciated by the Head and everyone in the room applauds your colleague for the same. You think even you were smart enough to think of that question. Do you realize what you really were? You were a Fool.

Consciously or unconsciously, a lot of us go through these situations. Momentary fear of being laughed at or over confidence in ourselves are two extreme situations where we actually make a fool of ourselves.  In the first situation, you keep fighting with yourself, feeling lesser confident and thereby, losing interest in the rest of the topic – missing one vital piece of information completely! In the second one, chances are, that you continue believing and working on the wrong information, a phenomenon commonly known as “living in Fool’s Paradise”.

Some thoughts to make yourself “Fool Proof”:

1.      Act Like a Child : I am sure you will agree that a child has very high level of inquisitiveness. Can we behave like a child. Ask questions which will have obvious answers and a lot of times, not so obvious! We need to decide what is more important – our public image, or our wisdom!

2.      No Age / Limit for learning – I genuinely believe that every day we learn something new, and its never ever too late to learn something. If you have doubts on some process, which you should have clarified long back, don’t hesitate, ask! Maybe this knowledge gives you a new idea to carry out your work in an efficient manner.

3.      Never Assume – It is easy for me to assume a lot of things and move on without bothering any one of you. Asking questions only help is cross verifying that everything is in place. 

4.      Speak Up – “No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions”. I completely believe in the thought. For the fear of one moment of embarrassment, you let go your lifetime of wisdom. Make the wise choice.

He, who knows, and knows that he knows, is Wise – Follow Him!

He, who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is Simple – Teach Him!

He, who knows, and knows not that he knows, is Asleep – Wake Him!

He, who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is Fool – Shun him!

Avoid being in the last category.

PS: As usual, would be looking forward to your feedback and opinion on this blog! You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.