Yesterday I was taking a talk at the Bangalore User Group. There was this one person in the crowd who I noticed, have noticed before too who was actually listening to the talk. Listening in the sense of trying to understand how things work.

At least that is what I hope because somewhere is his/her eyes there was this interest in computer science, not just in knowing what the technology can do for you, but actually caring about technology for sake of the science that it caries.

I get to talk to a lot of professional programmers though various technical communities and one thing I feel is that there are very few people, in most gatherings none, who really care about computing. There are folk who are passionate about their one patch of grass, some about all the software that Microsoft write, some who will simply hate everything that MS writes simply because it is written by MS. Some who will praise anything that is Java, some who will praise anything that is Linux, some who will praise anything that is GNU, some who will praise anything that is Open Source. And other who will hate the same software simply because of the same reasons that someone likes it.

This dichotomy bothers me. You actually feel a little lonely in talks, when you are standing there scanning the eyes of your audience for someone who seems to understand computing, someone who seems to care about computing.

And you see that glimmer occasionally in people’s eyes when they pursue something and understand what they mean – but that glimmer dies off very fast for most.

And then again occasionally you see someone in the audience who you think is genuinely interested. Not interested for the sake of fitting it into their own value perceptions (though we are all that way at some level), not interested because they want to yes-sir the speaker, but interested because they really care at some level.

The smart ones argues back for what is right and will completely refine their views if you are right and expect you to if they are. The smart ones.

And what is good Pheadrus,

And what is not good,

Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?