Don’t Accept the Default

Question the standards, question the system

Karan Tibdewal
Sep 8, 2018 · 2 min read
Source: NatGeo — Evolution of Diet

When I was just a young, left handed kid on our dining table in a big Indian family, eating all I could and as fast as I could, there was one obstacle for me. No one on the table wanted me to eat with my left hand. Back in India, many families still believe that even if you are left handed you shouldn’t eat with it. As a result, I could not eat as fast as I wanted to and as much as I wanted to. After some time, one fine day I gathered the courage a small kid could gather and I challenged the “default”. I asked why I could not do what I felt would get me to my food faster, I could eat properly and also enjoy it more! To be honest, that is all that was required and then no one ever asked me about it ever again.

Although food might have been the most important thing for me back then, these systems keep recurring — people keep doing what they found. There are few who question it, fewer who find improvements and rarely someone gets to make that improvement into a system.

In Adam Grant’s book ‘Originals’, they found out that the call centre executives who merely took the initiative of changing their default web browser at work, were happier and better at their jobs. The key characteristic that sparked their better performance was that they did not accept the default and looked for improvements in how things were already setup. It is important sometimes to realise that the systems in place are not there to not be changed or challenges but to the contrary. The existing systems were setup by someone who was looking for improvements and developed a system to do so. Like with many other things in life, if you extrapolate the line, you find that not accepting the default for what it is and to constantly look for ways to improve on them, not only in your jobs, but in your social life and structures can make you enjoy it way more than you can expect!

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