A Tale of a Technician (with no Ending)

[Original Post at my Blog | My Blog]

[Let me start by saying that this writing is tagged “serious” three times. This signifies it as the most thought-provoking piece (according to my so-so standard) that I've ever written in this blog to date.]


Prolog
If I'm allowed to make a satire about technicians (which I loosely use to refer to engineers and scientists), then perhaps one possibility is to depict them as extremely methodical people; those who uphold objectivity and impartiality above anything else.

[Before continuing, I offer my sincere apology should any engineer/scientist is offended by my remark! Trust me, I have not the slightest intention to offend any of you.]


A Stubborn Technician !
I know one technician who has his own prime example of absolute objectivity. His is about a certain finalist of a popular singing-and-showmanship competition, whom the technician thought to deserve to be crowned as a winner.

Why pick this as an example?

Because the technician thought that this finalist had top-notch vocal and showmanship skills, even though the finalist's personality may court controversies. The technician insisted that in a singing-and-showmanship competition, socio-religious-political aspects shouldn't be the decisive factors (assuming that the rules of the competition are still observed).

Inline with this principle, even though the technician disagrees with certain aspects of the finalist, still the technician deemed the finalist as the worthy winner solely based on his vocal and showmanship. And considering the technician's upbringing, his stance may be arguably controversial, not least within some of his own circles.



A not so Stubborn Technician ?
And yet, in this season of the same competition, the technician is consciously re-assessing his stubbornness of absolute objectivity. All because of one contestant who was cut yet the technician would like it not be the case.

Why does this worth a dedicated writing?

It's because the technician didn't base his preference on vocal and showmanship anymore! Not that the technician deemed the contestant to be a bad performer. No, far from that; the technician didn't catch the show on that particular week, so he's not in a position to judge anyway.

Instead, the technician wanted the contestant to do well because of the contestant's predicament unrelated to vocal and showmanship at all. A predicament where the technician is very fortunate to be blessed with countless opportunities for first-hand observations (and for a prolonged period of time, somewhat).

While the technician's experience is nothing compared to the said contestant's (i.e., it's like comparing an armed-chair critic to a man-in-the-field), the technician seemed to get a timely reminder that extreme impartiality and objectivity is not necessarily appropriate for every practical situation.


Epilog
“... will come back to haunt me.” — perhaps this phrase nicely describes the technician's dilemma (if it may be called so). What was believed as “right”, is being shaken by what had been denounced as “wrong”.

Sometime, unexplained bias is just unavoidable, at all...