Critical Thinking:A New Perspective

            From the first day of my arrival in India, I had a  strong feeling things would be different. I knew I would have to adapt to the change in climate and most of all food. From sporadic driving, no beef, and cultural differences, I was in for a change of pace from daily life. While these situations stated above did lead to a new perspective, I believe it was my research that led to a more stark change in perspective in regards to my work and focus of study.

I am a Computer Scientist and due to that I am used to receiving a problem and told to solve it in a short span of time, with minimal direction. However, in my intern position it was different; I was given more specifics for a project and got to directly hash them out with my boss. This was not my typical project I couldn’t simply begin coding mechanically. It was a completely different situation.

My project did involve intensive research into current technologies, limitations and understanding of Indian society. I spent weeks planning out capabilities of my project, which was agreed to be a 3D Web Player with tools which would represent common conventions such as temperature. During this time, I had to consider that my product was to be used by people who spoke different variations of languages and dialects. Due to this my application would have to be as least text dependent as possible. This meant attempting to attribute aspects of my work in ways that locals would understand. One part which proved to be difficult was finding a way to describe things such as weight without the use of numbers. What sort of unit would a farmer or a brick worker or a poor villager understand, if it was not to be a numeric representation?

I could describe myself as being computer literate but had to understand that what to me seemed like commonsense would be far from the truth for others. This led to a complete overhaul of my user interface. I found that I had too many buttons and capabilities that needed to be simplified and more obvious.

Working with my adviser and other peers really helped as well. I had in my arsenal graphic designers and peers with experience with human interaction and most importantly understanding of Indian needs. With their help I was better able to change the style and working of my project that would best suit the users. I owe a lot to them for the final outcome.

My perspective changed a lot. I was used to a more type of “plug and jug” system, essentially, give me the assignment and it will be done. However, this summer project made me think deeper and while it was difficult I do believe that the change in perspective will help me in my career. While I knew that asking for help is important, I didn’t completely understand the importance of asking for help from others not in the same line of work. I did find that external expertise can help personal expertise grow.