Is every human a maniac?

I am not Stephan covey neither am I Robin Sharma nor Subroto Bagchi.I am yet another animal in the league of what people call ‘IT professionals’. I am one of those who curses Monday mornings and loves Friday evenings. I am also the one whose joy knows no bounds when I get a glimpse of good looking crowd in the shopping malls. I am also one of those who ends up being ‘Picture less’ when people (specifically managers) talk of big picture.
Perhaps I am a frog (rather a tadpole) in the well (The company I work for).

But one day when my body was home to viruses (not computer viruses) but the ones that cause good enough fever and body ache to take a days off from office in the name of ‘Flue’ also called influenza(in medical parlance). I lie on my bed doing nothing but thinking about philosophies that are not even worth the penny. One of the interesting thought was “Is every human a Maniac?”
The thought seemed very true as every one of us is obsessed with one thing or the other. The thought became so intense that I decided to test it out with 3 samples (3 people I interact with quite often and know a little about them).

Exactly at this point of time I saw a line of ants carrying chaff of bread on the floor of my room (I must confess that my room is an ideal definition of Bachelors room. It is just not my room but a sanctuary for spiders, ants, butterflies, insects that I don’t know about and off course the ubiquitous mosquitoes. We all live with great harmony. I wish my country was harmonious as my room)
Coming back to ants, I thought of finding out what kind of statements would my 3 samples make and how would they perceive the activities of ants. Like the icing on the cake they all (3 samples) visited me to find out if I had recovered enough to come back and do my share of work for the upcoming release. After a few courtesy statements like “How are you man?” “Feeling better now” etc I asked them their opinion on the ant’s activity.




Sample 1: Tom
Tom is an IT professional and has of late been chasing a myth called “Passion”. He is very obsessed with the buzzword and believes that “every thing happens because of passion”.
His statements:
Ants are truly passionate about their work. I wish people were as passionate as ants. I sometimes think that ants could release better deliverables than us. I love people with passion; people like RAM GOPAL VERMA as he is passionate about film making; be it flops or hits he goes on
[My reaction (could not dare to say it though. In fact all my reactions to their thoughts were only up to me ) : His fans are equally passionate if not more no matter how much he tortures them they go watch his movies and some are perhaps hyper passionate they go watch it first day first show]
Every man should be passionate about what he/she does. All greats discovered their passion early
[My reaction: that’s why they are great and being great is not every ones cup of tea]
I have only two passions work and drink and so I passionately call myself “workalchohalic”
[My reaction: Is this passion or a misconception?]

Obviously my belief that “Every human is a maniac” strengthened a little as my hypothesis passed its 1st test




Sample 2: Dick
Dick is also an IT professional making transition to team leadership roles but obviously obsessed about another scary buzz called “Process”.
His statements:
Ants follow the process so well. They know how long to carry the shaff and whom to transfer it to. Process is vital and ants are extremely process complaint. I wish people followed the process with as much diligence as ants do.
[My reaction: Are they Ants capability Maturity model level 5 certified? Do they have an activity matrix? What is their escalation hierarchy?]
Process has the power to get the work done by the brainless. It gets rid of human dependency and ant’s activity is the best example to prove it.
[My reaction: Humans are a little brainier compared to ants and perhaps that’s the root cause of all the misery]
Look at their communication protocol. There is no miscommunication whatsoever and every communication happens timely and every communication is acknowledged. I acknowledge every communication too be as trivial as saying a ‘sure’. I wish people communicate as well as ants do
[My reaction: communication protocol??????? Ohh God!]
I wonder how ants get trained and I wish we could groom people as well as ants are groomed
[My reaction: All ants undergo training and certification in ‘chaff carrying’ conducted by the International ants Institute of chaff carrying]

My hypothesis passed its second test too. I waited for the final round with Sample 3

Sample 3: Harry
Harry too is an IT professional with the staunch belief that “every thing happens because of people” and we need to network with and influence as many people as possible to be in the center stage. He is one of those flirtatious happy go lucky kind of people who need no reason to strike a never ending conversation.

His statements:
Ants really like the other ants they care for each other. Ants share a strong emotional bond unlike us. I wish I had a team of ants. I am sure they enjoy carrying chaff and they must be having a lot of fun in their own way which we don’t understand. I personally try my best to make our place a lively and joyful place to work for.
[My reaction: Ants don’t look for good looking ants do they?J strong bond ah ……. How does he know? Do ants refer other ants for jobs? And what is this “Ants have fun” ……… do they party? Do they go out for team outing?]
Look how much ants empathize with other ants. Men should learn from ants in this regard. I empathize my colleagues, talk to them on varied topics and I build very good personal rapport with them.
[My reaction: Ants don’t flirt and they don’t gossip. They just carry chaff. Where did empathy among Ants come from?]

He would have gone on and on beating around the bush but I stopped him as my hypothesis had passed its test for all the three times.


Later, after they left I wondered how every human is a maniac in one way or the other. Every one of us is obsessed with some principle, idea, concept, buzzword, technology or domain or whatever. I believe obsession is a result of our perception, belief and value system which in turn stem from our past experiences and as the saying goes “no two persons have the same experience” no two people are the same maniacs. The success of any individual or organization lies in appreciating the fact that every other person has his own aspirations, beliefs and values and in respecting it.

So what do you think “is every human a maniac?”