Habits and Muscle Memory

(This is something I wrote quite some time back on my phone on 14 Sept 2020 from a COVID Hosp)

 

Today morning I was waiting for my turn for the daily check-up in COVID Hosp. There was a queue of 10-12 patients and even though there was ample space, I was surprised to see all of them were standing very close to each other; almost *touching* each other.

Now they were well-educated people, and they must have been hammered at least 10,000 times in the last 5 months by no other than our PM. Our Prime Minister has been telling us relentlessly ... Do Gaj ki Doori, Sabake Liye Jaroori.

But all that relentless hammering was meaningless when it comes to their natural behavior. Our natural behavior is not driven by knowledge or data. It is driven by our deep-set habits. From childhood, these habits are set like a drip-irrigation system. And it is very difficult to accept something new, even if it is obviously logical and obviously beneficial.

In our professional life also, we are drip-irrigated from the early days to believe that solving complex problems is cool.  So, it does not come naturally to us to look out for some simple work that can give more value to customers.

We are brainwashed to think that carrying more work in our hands makes us look more capable. So, it does not come naturally to us to think like... Let us focus on just these 3 vertical slices, the remaining work should wait.

We are brainwashed to consider multitasking is cool. So, it does not come naturally to us to think Multitasking is nothing but a diluted effort.

The funny thing is hundreds of software professionals happily give a good amount of money to learn these simple & logical things based on common sense, in a 2 days training program and then go back to their offices just to fall back into the same old working style within a week. 

And all these people are highly educated, and intelligent folks. It is not that they lack intelligence or logic. Not at all.
It is the power of drip irrigation and old habits and muscle memory that beats logic, intelligence, and common sense.

{ In this article I have used words "we", "us" etc.  Read it as "Most of us" }