Why Leaders Fail to Recognize their Own Incompetence: Bureaucracy and IK

Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence.

Incompetence of the "competent authorities" of pakistani government bureaucrats. And belief of PTIans in competence of IK. 

Dunning Kruger-Effect: Why Unintelligent People Don’t Learn?

Economic Hit of Pakistan and Illusion of Monetary Policy's Independence from Fiscal Policy

Central Banks are required by law everywhere to manage and control monetary policy or value of money. There is nothing "natural" about value of money or forex rates. Monetary policy (always artificially crafted) works in tandem with fiscal policy and international policy to establish value of money. Tools used by fiscal/monetary policy include (1) interest rate changes, (2) unemployment rates, (3) inflation reports, (4) gross domestic product numbers, (5) manufacturing data, and (6) commodities. 

Imran Khan's Tabdeeli- Change Management and BPR

IK got elected on the slogan of "tabdeeli" (change). He doesn't know ABC of change management or how BPR (Businesses Process Reengineering) achieves substantial and visible "tabdeeli". BPR is about reducing the complexity of Inter departmental processes by eliminating 60-80% steps and increasing efficiency by up to 80%, and resulting in substantial reduction of corruption as seen in CNIC process of NADRA, passport process or CDC system for share purchase and sale processes.

Growing up with Magazines

In 1969-70 I was 7 when I started reading Taleem o Tarbiat and other magazines. We had almirahs shelves full of magazine issues going back to early 1960s and to even mid 1950s. 

First Makeup Experience: Impact of Childhood Experiences across Time and Space

Vividness of childhood experiences and the distance it travels across time and space. As I am going through the letters, papers and other documents of my parents dating back to the days before their marriage (1940s, they married in 1951), I come across the clues to their personality that I observed during 1966-2003, time of my conscious interactions with them till before their death. An FB post reminded me of a page from my mother's diary where she writes about an incident when she was around 10 or 12 ( 1946-47) about makeup.

History of PKR Pakistani Rupee

چمڑی جاۓ پر دمڑی نہ جاۓ

دمڑی نہ جائے چاہے چمڑی جائے۔

دمڑی کی بڑھیا ٹکہ سرمنڈائی۔

دمڑی کی بلبل ٹکا ہشکا ئی۔[1]

دمڑی کے تین تین۔

دمڑی کی آمدنی نہیں گھڑی بھر کی فرصت نہیں۔

دمڑی کی ہانڈی گئی کتوں کی ذات پہچانی گئی۔

اونٹ دمڑی کا اور دمڑی بھی پاس نہیں۔

دمڑی کی ہانڈی لیتے ہیں تو اسے بھی ٹھونک بجا کر لیتے ہیں۔

دمڑی کی دال بوا پتلی نہ ہو۔[2]

 

My First Brush with Philosophy: A Tribute to Sir Nafees Siddiqui of ICB/IMS

I remember Sir Nafees Siddiqui who used to teach English at ICB/IMSB, G6/3,Islamabad. He didn't teach our class but we had the opportunity to be taught for a couple of class sessions when he came in to fill in for the absence of our regular teacher. Sir Nafees Siddiqui gave us our first introduction to philosophy and its terminology. He drew a vertical line at the center of blackboard to divide it into two columns. On left side he wrote physical, temporal, mundane, real, objective ... and on right words like metaphysical, transcendent, spiritual, abstract, subjective ,.. And then explained the terms and their difference which were instrumental in raising my awareness.

ICB/IMSB Teachers Autographs 1975-80

Tribute to my school teachers who laid the foundation for my learning at ICB (Islamabad Model School for Boys) G-6/3 near Covered Bazar/Melody. 

Autographs from 1975 and 1980:

Sir Ghalib Raza (Urdu) 

Sir Hanif Tahir (Maths) 

Sir Subhan Ullah (Geography)

Sir Rafique Malik (English)

Sir Jan e Alam (Urdu)

Sir Sabir Raza (Urdu)

I regret not having taken autographs on this autograph book from some other great teachers like Sir Saleem A Khan (Physics) , Sir Tanveer (Chemistry) , Sir Wajid Nawaz (Pak Studies) , Sir Muhammad Ahmed, (Technical Drawing), Sir Zafar Zaidi (Chemistry), Sir Arif Husain (islamiat) , Sir Shabihul Hasan (Biology)... But I do have reports with their comments and signatures 😊..

Social Media and Medium is the message

ٹیکنالوجی نے اب اتنی زیادہ ترقی کر لی ہے کہ عام عوام نے کتابیں "پڑھنے لکھنے" کی صلاحیتیں چھوڑ کر 1435 کی گٹنبرگ پرنٹنگ پریس کی ایجاد سے قبل کے زمانے کی عوام کی طرح صرف "دیکھنے سننے" کی صلاحیتوں تک محدود کر دیا ہے!

انسٹاگرام ٹک ٹاک جنریشن کو مبارکباد

FB is not a medium but message itself? tiktok is not a medium but message itself? Instagram is not a medium but message itself? Is technology value neutral or does it bring its own values?

"Medium is the message" Marshal Luhan observed this phenomenon in TV, radio, movies, newspapers. Now this observation is clearly visible in different media now available such as FB, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.

McLuhan in his 1964 book uses the term 'message' to signify content and character. The content of the medium is a message that can be easily grasped and the character of the medium is another message which can be easily overlooked. McLuhan says "Indeed, it is only too typical that the 'content' of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium". For McLuhan, it was the medium itself that shaped and controlled "the scale and form of human association and action".[4] Taking the movie as an example, he argued that the way this medium played with conceptions of speed and time transformed "the world of sequence and connections into the world of creative configuration and structure".[5] Therefore, the message of the movie medium is this transition from "lineal connections" to "configurations".[5] Extending the argument for understanding the medium as the message itself, he proposed that the "content of any medium is always another medium"[6] – thus, speech is the content of writing, writing is the content of print, and print itself is the content of the telegraph."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Media

There is substantial research now which indicates technology brings its own values and it rejects the earlier notion of technology being value neutral. For example you can say things on Facebook which you will not say in an email. And you can write certain things in chat which you will not write an email. Also you can say things in an email that you will not say on phone call. There are things that you can say in phone call which you will not say in person.

Similarly, what you can see in a youtube video, you will not see in a cinema hall,.....

 what Marshal Luhan says is that the medium is so impactful that voice of the content is drowned by the medium

yes that's why I said it is part of context.. and effects the message, intended message precisely BUT not the message per se.. You see same has been true in retrospect in all times.. For eg writing on bones with charcoal to writing on tablet with quills, then on paper with fountain pen, then ball point... All methods and media brought substantial changes in handwritings, and hence also carried noticable effects on message because handwriting reflects the inner psychological context of the writer.. like body language carries in verbal communication.. Jab bhi to log ye hi kehte the email typing mein wo bat nahi.. Because handwritings personal touch is gone.. TRUE.. اب ye to ہوگا.. but saying medium is the message is misleading in my opinion.

there is substantial research now which indicates technology brings its own values and it rejects the earlier notion of technology being value neutral. For example you can say things on Facebook which you will not say in an email. And you can write certain things in chat which you will not write an email. Also you can say things in an email that you will not say on phone call. There are things that you can say in phone call which you will not say in person.

Similarly, what you can see in a youtube video, 

you will not see in a cinema hall,.....

Medium is the message. SMS/texting is only suitable for short messages that were exchanged via telegram like short messages that have urgency such as informing about death, arrival, departure, rendezvous, change in meeting time, an emergency, hospitalization, congratulations on success, death info, condolence, receipt, acknowledgement of communication confirmation , etc. It is totally inappropriate for sharing your profound thoughts, intense grief, expectations, disappointments, future plans, major life decisions, etc.

People are getting their love accepted, getting committed and even great break ups through SMS, this cannot always be misinterpretation :) many hidden love affairs are also making love through these messages. We can't call them misinterpretation completely

Mohammad Ayub Latif my point is that medium

 being an overpowering message will dilute and misconstrue your deeper messages. Why do you think the Hidaya Academy students were sitting on the floor during the awards. The medium (seating structure) through which you go for the award is an overpowering message. Similarly, SMS has its intrinsic message which overpowers what the content means. It is constrained by the structure of device, word count limits, sequence in which you see the messages, the hierarchy of display etc is similar in impact to whether the talaba are sitting on floor or on chairs/sofas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

People are getting their love accepted, getting committed and even great break ups through SMS, this cannot always be misinterpretation :) many hidden love affairs are also making love through these messages. We can't call them misinterpretation completely

Irfan Hyder yes boss agreed and I think the floor seating shows more of learning attitude and also gives the message that asatza and akabareen are Afzal 

Q: But Sir why then writing on social media books npapers etc has such profound effect even tweets, even official matters even arguments by lawyers to great extent, but when it comes to messages why we deem it so useless...

A: Problems are often too complex. For example, Twitter is simply a soundbite. When you reduce a complex issue to a tweet of one sentence consisting of max 280 letters, you have to reduce the complexity arbitrarily to a simplicity which does not do justice to the problem and you are forced to come up with slogans or simplification that can not withstand the complexity of real life. This is what happened to Trump's messages and also IK's messages. They were forced to reduce complex problems to simple soundbites that they were not. Extremist and fringe thoughts of populace pulled the message in their direction. Message got reduced to satisfying the simplistic mind. Nature of Twitter medium focusing on count of subscribers and count of likes forced the message to be  reduced to satisfying the simplistic mind only. Once in power, reality exposed the impossibility of their soundbites! 1 crore jobs, 50 lacs home, Mexico border wall.... See the devastation in both countries

How many taxpayers are in pakistan

فائلر ہوں، چور نہیں ہوں:

ہر پاکستانی GST,WHT دیتا ہے، 

صرف FBR فائلرز 1% ہیں

مگر 13 کروڑ فون، بجلی پر ٹیکس دینے والے بھی فائلرز ہیں!

It is a blatant lie that there are only 1% tax filers who are supporting the taxes of the whole country. Government has files of taxpayers who are giving huge amount of indirect taxes, they must be called filers too!

 

Shajra Taxonomy of Sufi Tassauf Terminology

 شجرہ معرفت الہی و حقیقت روح و صراحت عالمہائے ظاہری و باطنی و طریقہائے تصوف متعلق نور ایمان

Ausaf Husain and His Sincere Frankness

Syed Ausaf Hussain Marhoom: On 18th January, 2012, Ausaf Bhai left for his heavenly abode. A wrangler in the true sense and a man of high principles. With the way he carried himself, no one could gauge his true age. I remember sharing an anecdote with us that he once visited a Hakeem. Hakeem sb as per practice took the pulse and asked what was Ausaf Bhai age. Ausaf Bhai replied either 72 or 79, I cannot remember. Hakeem sb got furious and told him not to joke and that Ausaf bhai must be in 50's. A solid person upon whom you could rely in times of need. Irfan, Sara, and Khurram can dwell more on Ausaf bhai personality. May Allah grant Jannah to Ausaf bhai and buland his darajats. Ameen

Ausaf Husain with his mother

Depressive Thoughts and Poetry- How Poetry Mellows and Enriches Social Interactions

What is the relationship between depressive thoughts and poetic expression? How poetry enables us to face hardships in our lives. 

What a mournful separation of the family members after the partition is depicted through poetry. Note the following message of eid Mubarak and its poetic response by members of the family across the divide. Also, note the level of education in the 1950s and the ability of the educated to express through poetry their feelings and experiences. Today educated can't even read poetry, let alone compose it. 

Elegy on the Killing of PM Liaquat Ali Khan by Shah Abdul Shakoor Faridi

مرثیہ ترجیح بند در شہادت لیاقت علیخان

بر بند سعدی علیہ الرحمہ

از شاہ عبد الشکور فریدی، مانک پور

یہ مرثیہ ایک ١٩٥١ کےخط میں ملا جو کہ شاہ عبد الشکور ساکن مانک پور کا بھیجا ہوا تھا-

 شاہ عبد الشکور فریدی میری والدہ کے نانا تھے- بڑے بزرگ تھے- ان کے منظوم ملفوظات میرے پاس کچھ موجود ہیں- ان کے مزار پر اب بھی عرس ہوتا ہے- ان کے کئی خطوط میرے پاس ہیں- پارٹیشن کے بعد ان کے خاندان کے اکثر لوگ ہجرت کر کے پاکستان آ گئے مگر انہوں نے اپنے آباؤاجداد کے قصبہ کو چھوڑنا مناسب نہ سمجھا- وہ وہاں اکیلے ایک دو افراد کے ساتھ رہ گئے- ان کی ایک بیٹی عائشہ فریدی(میری والدہ کی خالہ) ان کے ساتھ رہا کرتی تھیں جن کے تواتر سے دلخراش خطوط میری والدہ کے پاس آیا کرتے تھے جو کہ ان کے انتقال  1967-68 تک آتے رہے- ان خطوط میں شاہ عبد الشکور فریدی کے منظوم ملفوظات بھی ہوتے تھے- ان کا کچھ دیوان ہمارے ایک عزیز کے پاس ہے

Inter-Disciplinary and Multi-Disciplinary PhD Research

As I look back I am trying to connect the dots that I have been trying to follow the footsteps of Prof Dr JC Browne at UT Austin, TX, in multidisciplinary research. He was, my PhD Supervisor during 1990-95 whose pic is here:

Irfan Husain, Mazdak, Begum & Akhtar Husain Raipuri and Zafar Umar

I have been reading Mazdak/ Irfan Husain's articles in Dawn for last 20+ years. Although I often disagreed with his opinions but yet used to read them regularly. 

My Wing Sung Pen

Wing Sung Pen. Fountain pen. 

Tons of hard work and cherished memories with this friend. 

I got one in 1975, when I was in 8th class, this same color, and it remained in my use till 1987. All my exams: Matric, Inter (HSC1 and HSC2), Engineering (40 course papers), MBA (20 courses papers) and their preparatory work on reams and reams of paper was done with that one pen. I left it in my stuff when I went to USA in 1987. Remember seeing it when I returned in 1995. Then I don't know where it vanished. May be it is there somewhere in that old stuff. 

I remember the smoothness with which it would glide on the paper. It's nib due to long use had become thick. But, it flowed in my hands.

Social History Archival Project of Family Documents and Letters: Heritage Detectives

During the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020, when work from home was imposed and most outdoor activities and social commitments were heavily curtailed, I maximally utilized the available time in structuring and organizing my family letters and documents. During 2020-21 I managed to organize around 5000 handwritten letters and other documents dating back to 1870s: The organization process involved assigning a unique identifier to each physical letter document, dating each letter/doc, and labeling the writer and addressee of each letter and doc. Then the documents/letters were sorted, categorized, indexed, and inserted into plastic protector sheets for preservation, and placed in named phsyical folders. Following processes began to evolve with practice: Adding an index entry in an excel sheet for each physical item, sending a batch of letters/docs for scanning, receiving back the batch of items and their scans, and saving the scanned files in designated computer folders. Then sending a batch of scans to the typist for transcription, receiving the computer readable transcriptions from typists, entering them into dated word documents, and then editing them and also formatting them began to evolve. This project is still a work in progress and this blog post is being updated every few months to reflect the additional learnings. 

The project which had started out as a Family Documents/Letters preservation effort has now morphed into a Social History Archival Project. Eventually, this archive will become the primary data for writing a historical saga of the family travails, a window on the social history that would result in a series of videos, books, research papers or even novels or their adaptation. I am looking forward to my children or their children or other family members who opt for social sciences or can appreciate the importance of social history and may decide to continue the effort in some of these genres! My inspiration is, of course,  "Kar-e-Jehan Daraz Hai" by Qurratul Ain Hyder (my father's cousin), Shajra Project by SMKA Zaidi, and UT Austin's Social History Museum as explained in my following two posts and am looking forward to others to continue the effort: 

Family Tree Shajra of Sadat e Nehtaur: A Case Study of Compilation of Social History
Lesser known dimensions of US Universities - Archives of history and literature

The project required meticulous attention to detail and following the clues to identify when the documents came into existence and were preserved, and then peeping into the minds for motivations of social behaviors of that time. It often requires weaving a most probable story around them which reminds me of the detective work described in novels of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.  Not surprisingly I came across the term "Heritage Detective" on google search which indicates that this is a specific genre and specialized services and there are careers that can be made out of it. 

Library Search for Articles at UT Austin in 1989: How searching of articles has changed

Think about researchers who reviewed hundreds of papers that they had to access manually! UT Austin,  Texas in 1987 had around 6 millions items distributed in several departmental libraries. Some of these were several storyed library buildings. There was also a huge 6 floor central library. For example, In Engineering building library each engineering discipline had their own encyclopedia type abstracts volumes. Computer and control abstracts had around 50 volumes (encyclopedia like thick volumes containing the abstracts of all papers published). Volume 1 and 2 contained the index of citations only. From the alphabetical index search you identified the particular volume,  say volume #34 containing abstracts of a particular area. Then you pulled out volume#34 to read the abstracts and titles. If you thought the abstract was any good or relevant and the article was worth reading, then you noted the reference in a diary. Once you have noted these 20-30 worth reading citations, the next stage was to get the article. Fortunately, library catalog was computerized and UT Austin had a huge subscription of journals. Online catalog told you whether whether the journal was available and at which library, and which floor and which shelf. Generally from 20 citations you found 5-7 not available on campus. For these you needed to go to inter University loan service that typically took from 2weeks to two months to get the photo copy from a partner University. If the journal was available on campus, you went to that physical library location to find the volume of journal. You were lucky if the journal was available on shelf. Often another student may have taken out the volume and placed it in the library somewhere. For that you had to contact the library staff to search the item and hold it for you  which may take a few days. Finally, you find the relevant volume and read the article. If it is really good and relevant you got to get the photocopy from the machines where you had to insert a prepaid cartridge to get the photocopies. 

Of Excellence in Ironing and Remembering the Learnings from Mukhtar A Siddiqui, My Khaloo

Of Excellence in Ironing and Remembering Mukhtar Siddiqui

Mukhtar Khaloo once came to Islamabad and was traveling to Mardan. This was the mid-1970s. He spent a few days at our place. There are two memorable incidents from his stay. 

One was my learning about excellence in ironing. The way he ironed his shirt and pants was a memorable observational experience. The way he sprinkled the water, and the way he used the damp gauze to dampen the areas of pants and shirts before ironing was so meticulous. The way the crease was properly laid on the ironing table, the care with which each leg of the trouser was placed on another and the crease of the two legs were aligned and then pressed was a treat to watch. I first time realized that ironing is nothing casual. It is deliberate, it requires time and patience, it requires meticulous skill, it requires attention to detail, it requires proper heat and dampening. It requires proper placement of different parts of the suit in particular positions before the iron is used for pressing. 

Mukhtar Khaloo's Famous Chand Gari that was a source of great enjoyment to the whole family