Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Quote of the day
"An amateur expects things to work, and is surprised when they don't; a professional expects things to not work and is surprised when they do."
Friday, February 08, 2008
Busy searching for truth(s)
If there is ever a truth or a number of truths for the matter of life, I would be delighted to know that. Spending most of my time looking for it/them and has no success so far makes me wonder if the effort worthwhile. It might be just a puppy chasing its tail action, which is something that I will never know.
What I do realize is that, the truth can come in different degrees of certainty (so as evidence in legal). As an engineer, what works in the lab and still reproducible every time (most of the time up to 99.9%) it shows that you have got something right. The hard part is the one to get there, but once you are there, you are fine. As a patent engineer, I think it works differently. You might be able to draft a good argument in minutes or hours. The effort required depends on how much you are willing to spend. However, you would think that you have come to the result, the fact is it is still subjected to the interpretation of all other people who will read your work at some point of time in the future (or never). The contrast is, you think you have parked well at the destination, it is never a "sure" thing, and always subjected to further discussion. When you think that you will be having easier life because now you don't have to work to the absolute rightness, the target of absolute rightness has become multiple targets. You get one of them, you dont get to cover them all.
What I do realize is that, the truth can come in different degrees of certainty (so as evidence in legal). As an engineer, what works in the lab and still reproducible every time (most of the time up to 99.9%) it shows that you have got something right. The hard part is the one to get there, but once you are there, you are fine. As a patent engineer, I think it works differently. You might be able to draft a good argument in minutes or hours. The effort required depends on how much you are willing to spend. However, you would think that you have come to the result, the fact is it is still subjected to the interpretation of all other people who will read your work at some point of time in the future (or never). The contrast is, you think you have parked well at the destination, it is never a "sure" thing, and always subjected to further discussion. When you think that you will be having easier life because now you don't have to work to the absolute rightness, the target of absolute rightness has become multiple targets. You get one of them, you dont get to cover them all.
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