There are a lot of things that I am cynical about. I might as well end up cursing the whole world. But then the glory in been cynical is by making at least a little bit sense. The wonderful thing about cynicism is that you can say anything and through one angle it is always true. Its not lies, it partly is the truth and since everybody has a bit of cynicism in him/her they are bound to agree on your point as an alternate way. I have always been able to think of things in the most critical way. Any problem that comes to me or any work is assigned I always start with a very negative attitude. I know that most of the times a “positive” frame of mind is the best solution but it is also a drab. It is wasteful to think “positive” because a job at hand does not sort itself. It has to be done. As far as my experiences have shown, any work which has begun the process of getting done never finishing unless an effort is put. While putting an effort, it is after all “human” to start thinking negative. There are not many people who start with positive and end with positive. Now again don’t go about shouting that this is my point of view. Of course this is my point of view and to tell you something else this is how cynics think. We start of completely negative. Though at the end of it all, we turn much more positive, in terms of percentage, when compared to the positive blokes. Lets try with an example, we start with lots of negativity. As soon as some work is given we outright deny it. We say there is no way in the world it can be done. Now at this point the person who is assigning you the work has two options
- Assign the work to someone else.
- Try convincing the cynic to do the work.
There is no discussion necessary when it comes to the first point. Of course the other person is going to work and get the necessary appraisals. But the cynic he is having a time of his life rather than ponder over a problem. Now in this case if the work is specific to the work the cynic has been doing all the time he works and is considered to be an expert there is a silver lining. The other person who has been assigned the work will come to the cynic and ask for help. Considering the experience and the knowledge of the cynic he will try to help out the other person (most likely a junior) with the problem but never end up solving the problem, which means he will be recognized for his help on the issue at hand and also necessarily be awarded as suited the best. The cynic in such situations will make sure that the problem is solved by the other person but will give his “invaluable inputs” when the other person is stuck.
Consider the second point, the person who is assigning the work tries extra hard. The response of the cynic will depend on the level of cynicism he is on.
A low level cynic will take the problem at hand immediately without much more drama. But he will again start the problem with cynicism. He will definitely consider himself lucky if he is going to solve the problem. But still to show that, the outright denial of the problem ever finding a solution, is still the right approach he/she will keep denying and if the problem is actually very difficult or “out of scope” we just stand there giving them a wry smile and say “I told you so”. If the problem is solved then it is a good thing anyways isn’t it?
The medium level cynic is the cleverest soul. He does not want to solve the problem. He will not be persuaded so easily. He will ask for people to work with him for the problem. He will set a very large deadline. He will think about the solution without actually going through the problem and give you a brief description and he would not care if that is what you are expecting or not. He will bargain with all his might before eventually taking the issue. He takes things to the next level. If ever the solution he gives is not considered or if the problem is, again, actually very difficult and “out of scope” he will not stay still and smile. He will go on a rampage. He will accuse everything and everybody. He will ruin the person who tried to get work out of him. He will see to it that the next time, some smart ass comes over and gives him an issue, that the smart ass really knows what he is doing and not just wasting both his own time and the cynics time. This level of cynic is very dangerous because he can play the game very well and also goes to the extent of making your life miserable.
The upper level of cynicism is very rash with every word he would say. He would not be ready to accept any problem. He would give irrational excuses to defend why he is denying the problem. He would even go to an extent of saying, “yes, I am not working. But still I will not take the current issue because there is no point in taking an issue which cannot be solved.” The person who is assigning will either give up after a lot of fight and go on or will simply assign the problem to some one else. The true hard core cynic has giving all hope of getting even close to trying to find a solution. Hence he will not help with the issue at all even when the other person comes asking for help.
At the end of all this, everybody is a cynic. Everybody first thinks that every problem is impossible. But the main benefit of doing that is the end result. The confidence is very high at the end of it all. He/she feels like they can take on anything at that particular moment. If you start thinking about an issue with a positive frame of mind and end the issue at the same level there is no gain of confidence. You might be as positive as your were without much addition. There would be addition only after you have solved many such problems and on the overall scale you would have grown a tiny mm on the graph. But then a cynic’s graph shows amazing versatility and improvement. People rely on them more just by statistics irrespective of his attitude because, like it is said, in the end the work is done.
