Knowledge meets Wisdom
My ego was shattered, and I’m glad for it. This happened last winter when I was in Delhi for my internship. I was working as a hardware engineer intern at an Electronics Company. It was my first job in any industry, so please don’t judge me for what happened.
Before I begin, let me explain what my daily tasks were. I was required to test non-functional/damaged motherboards of old, like 1990s old, BSNL telephonic systems and find out the faulty electric components. Now, let me paint the person I was back then. I was a cocky, overconfident, full-of-himself type of boy, and this pride was mostly fueled by the fact that I topped my semester, and henceforth was super confident in my electronic skills.
Pride comes before fall, and I learned this lesson on a regular working day at the office. I was stuck with an issue on one of the motherboards. I couldn’t find any errors, yet the output voltage was fluctuating, and this frustrated me. So, I turned to my mentor, Baldev Sir, and he treated what I believed was the greatest problem of hardware testing, by saying “Go check it with Pradeep”.
Now, Pradeep was a high school graduate, who managed to get into the company by some juggad (hack). Assigning my doubts to this man was an absolute disregard for my knowledge, yet I took it to him. He took a quick glance through the surface of the motherboard and said “Aapne ye 10 ohm wali register ko solder nhi kiya”(meaning, you haven’t soldered that 10-ohm register). I was furious, and I immediately went to verify. As it turned out, he was correct. In that 10-ohm register, I had overlooked soldering some of the pins, hence resulting in only 2-ohm resistance to the circuit, hence the deviation.
It was a humbling experience that demolished my pride. With my pride lost, I could see how wisdom and knowledge differ. Despite being less informed and significantly younger than me, that individual possessed far more expertise in his field. The lesson I took is that age is just a number and degree just a piece of paper.
