Thoughts on standards and traditions

 Change is inevitable. There is no stopping it. The only question is how you do you mange to cope with it.

Today I had a discussion with my colleagues on the matter of 'working from home'. In their opinion, as more companies opt for a working from home approach, it is going to negatively affect the human psyche. The social contact that people get at the work places are very important for the mental health. The less/loss of it will lead to mental health problems. Also personal discussions with the colleagues is what sparks new ideas.

 My view on the other hand is that in this day and age, it is a positive change for tech industries. It is also a starting point for many other changes. For sure bringing up that change during a global pandemic will have a negative impact. There is no place otherwise to socialize. It is not a sound opinion, but let me elaborate.

The social system, including, but not limited to, the work environment, the school system, and the work week, were not selected with a common consensus about what is good for the people. It was mostly motivated by economics or decisions made by a single entity or a small group of people. The mental psyche or the amount of social contact for the people were the last thing on their minds.

The last months of the year were named with respect to their numbers. That was until one guy, Julius Caesar showed up and added two months and shifted the complete thing. Now 'sept'ember, 'octo'ber, 'nove'mber, and 'dec'ember are the 9, 10, 11, and 12th months respectively. May be one day governments can band together and come to a consensus to shift the new year to the 1st of March. But imagine the chaos that will ensue. Of course there will be pro-January groups defending the current new year coming up with all sorts of reasons to keep it. Oh the social gatherings, the snow, etc. And there will be pro-March group trying to explain how the nature renews its-self in the spring and we should do the same by shifting the new year to March. All in the name of one Julius Caesar, long gone, for about 2060 years. This is just a small straightforward example. There is no real need to change the new year. 

Let's come one step inwards. Why are there seven days in a week? Because several thousand years ago, the person or the small group of people who numbered and named the days knew only seven main objects in the sky: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. Why is there a holiday in a week? because it is holy. Somewhere some god took rest on that day. It could be Friday for some people. Some people have it on Saturday. Most of them have it on Sunday. Why do we have five day work week in some places? To accommodate more religious freedom of people. And also workers in Britain demanded for reduced five-day work weeks. And many parts of the world adopted it. 

Go to any city on a Saturday, and it will be crowded with people. Because everyone gets the day off on the same day. The shop are full, the traffic congested, and people are overwhelmed by the limited time to do stuff they want to do. Just looking at the work week and weekends, big changes can bring about huge positivity and betterment in the society. Changing the number of work days to 4 or making flexible weekends boosts the productivity of the people. People having weekends on different days of the week also reduces the Saturday rush to the city. Give the choice to the people to select their work week. Another important factor is the time of work. People do not usually have a common peak efficiency period. Some people are more productive in the evening and some are early in the morning. Give them the choice to select their work times. 

This changes will of course clash with the school system. Students cannot choose when to go to school. This also makes the parents to choose the same work timings as the schools. Now, the school system is also not perfect. It was concocted during the industrial revolution. Even though some form of teaching existed before that all around the world, the current form of education has its roots in the 18th century. The economic needs of that time was vastly different from the current state. Looking at the mental health of students, almost 80% of students report frequent stress. And depending of the sources, from 9 to 30% students are diagnosed with mental health problems.

So here is my conclusion. Instead of defending the existing systems blindly without considering why there are like that in the first place, we should focus on what we need with respect to the current state of things. Instead of trusting the old traditions, look at what is often overlooked - the people. Do not be afraid of huge changes. Don't appeal to some irrelevant 2000 years old authority. Sometimes drastic changes are necessary to make life better and enjoyable.