Smart people stuck inside buildings…

Not a day goes by without someone talking to me about their "projects". I am tired of saying those people that many of those projects are actually just an idea and they need planning and a budget in order to become an actual project.

In developing countries, the reason why people send bright ideas to the waste bin without even giving them a chance to turn into projects is closely related to the fact that they prefer knowledgeable children to the talented children. Such countries, where people can barely meet their essential needs, do not nurture a fair environment that can help the owners of bright turn their ideas into projects and their projects into reality. Although they say that geniuses may come from the most unexpected homes, no one actually believes that a genius would be born in his own village. Even if the shepherd in their village came first in an exam, it would not be enough to change the opinion of that village’s people about themselves and their fates. This is the reason why putting people inside buildings and making them work overtime has always been the most basic business style, especially in countries like ours. Business owners who employ hundreds of thousands of people never tend to accept the existence of people smarter than they are. Therefore, they put these smart people in an inefficient working environment and try to stay away from situations where, as an employer, they might need or have to ask the opinion of their employees, especially the smart ones.

Unfortunately, in countries like ours, bosses do not easily accept, or sometimes even respect, other people's opinions. Constantly facing such adversities, smart managers had devised different methods to get their boss to accept bright ideas. One of these methods is introducing a bright idea to their employers as if it were theirs from the beginning. However, only top-level managers can do this. Unfortunately, ideas coming from middle or low levels are killed before they can reach the top. Just like bosses are afraid of smart managers, senior managers are afraid of their smart subordinates. So, you can see only a handful of companies filled with employees who can take initiative, who can question, who establish a network instead of hierarchy and work with transparency rather than secrecy.

The same applies to academia. Some administrators believe that they can yield efficiency by having artists, athletes, and scientists work overtime inside buildings. However, academics need to gain experience in industry, market, art and sports, besides performing their duty of teaching and advising students. No human being confined in buildings will be productive, as proven by research and surveys conducted since the early 21st century.

Mirroring the security approach of centralist governments, today’s employers force people to work overtime and obey the established order instead of encouraging change and innovation. Usually, in a company, the entire burden of work falls on the shoulders of only ten percent of the total personnel. In this system, people are asked to spy on each other and ignore the misconduct of senior executives. Enclosing people within walls people cause them to feel emotional strain and pressure. And again, in this system, you cannot tell after a while who are the productive employees and who are the unproductive ones.

Given today’s available technology, the actual percentage of the personnel who actually need to work at a physical workplace is a mere 10%. Watching people put inside buildings by other people on the pretext of needing “human touch” makes me both sad and worried.  Because, by cramming them inside those buildings, they become the ones who are deprived of human touch. How possibly could people who see anyone other than their co-workers from nine to five everyday produce meaningful contributions?  This is the result of an economic policy that values real estate above humans.