While reading “Mind, the Gap” again, I felt the need of explaining the usage of term ‘economics’. The classical definition of the terms goes somewhat like the following:
economics (ĕk’ə-nŏm’ĭks, ē’kə-)
n.
1. (used with a sing. verb) The social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and with the theory and management of economies or economic systems.
In other words, it is classical trade but in a much advanced and re-defined form. All throughout 1900’s, economics remained the force of forces, surfacing in clear sight in forms of capitalism, especially towards the last couple of decades of the century (whilst communism was being defeated by its own self).
In the current century, however, the term has to expand event more that “production, distribution and consumption” to encompass the new dimensions of technological proliferations of the society – namely, Web 2., et al.
In the sense that I would like to use the term economics whilst talking about ‘the Gap’ should also include not just monetary-economy (though it remains the flagship), but also the “attention economy” (how Google makes money by having you to give attention to all those sponsored contents and ads), and “reputation economy” (how Google ‘pressurises’ you to improve you hit-count of your online presence – your website, blog, social-networking profile – that should feature among top 20 Google hits when someone fires a relevant query. That, and also Google PageRank.)
Technology is raw. Net is the medium by which technology would interact and interchange information with society. Whilst technology has to prove itself (by turning profitable) economically, it could only do so if (and perhaps the only if) it would get the tune of the psychology of the society.
When the inventors start to really master the tune of psychology of the society their technology is serving, you find that the society is ‘hooked’ to the given technology. People are so wound up into it that almost no questions are asked. The hook is attached to a line, and the sinker is usually heavy (with right marketing). The spin of the spindle wounding up the line is actually the economy making profit.
In an interesting parallel with the ‘Mind Gap‘ concept, here is a quote from the strategy by a marketing guru to the modern successful IT enterprises, advising the CEO’s of the interplay between psychology and economy in making of an effective marketing strategy and selling their systems:
“… the strategy is to focus market development efforts on the end-user community [who you want to use your system], not on the technical community. Specifically you want to enlist the support of the economic buyer, the line executive or manager in the end-user organization who has the profit-and-loss responsibility for the given function your product serves… [Psychologically] you should not expect to secure primary sponsorship from the IT professionals… [A new product and a paradigm shift] is not in the interest of the IT department. It means extra work for them, and it exposes their mission-critical systems to additional risks… [Psychologically] it would not have been in the interest of the end users who report to the economic buyer. From their point of view, the old paradigm is more familiar and secure. In the short term, with the learning curve required to come up to speed on the new one, they are actually going to be less effective. So they may resist you as well. It is only the economic buyer, who has to pay the ongoing cost of the status quo but can no longer afford to do so, who can be counted on to be unequivocally supportive of the change…”
As it happens elsewhere, so is in this example, that the strategy has the psychology and economy components in a direct interplay. Towards the end of the quote it also gives the hint that it is not simply restricted to marketing strategy, but is equally found in change management as well.
An ancient Sanskrit saying has it:
तुंडे तुंडे मतीः भिन्ना।
(tunde tunde mateehi bhinna)
Which literally means that every head has a differing mind. Less subtly, everyone has a different opinion.
It may remain unsubstantiated at this hour, but I may argue that this difference and diversity is stemming from the ‘Genetic diversity’ as found prevalent as a principle under Biodiversity as a hole. Biodiversity, in a sense, is a science of studying all the various species and their interdependence that gives the significance to the ecology and bio-ecosystem of the Earth. Taken a few logical steps further on the same line, this would translate into the social phenomenon classified as Cultural diversity, and so forth.
It is the Mind, the psychology, that divides and at the same time units all individual aspects under the single ecology of the cultural fabric.
In other words, things are as they are in the world, good or bad, because of this Diversity principle – what may be considered good for one may not be good for someone else… If one applies this theory to the state of one’s living, saying that the solution to your given prevailing unfavourable personal condition lies is a certain product or service, one becomes a party to the economy. For this very principle is also an integral part of world economy. (Look around and you would find examples are aplenty.),
It is that Gap, disparity, demand vs. supply, the fundamental logic behind any economy, that gives goals and ‘purposes’ to individual lives in the contemporary world.
And, as we just argued, that gap, the economy, stems from Mind, the psychology.
Having said that, one may approach psychology through economy and argue that – economy also contributes into framing of an individual psychology. Which is absolutely true as well – for economy is largely responsible for the socio-political environment one lives in. This environment influences one’s thought process all the way from childhood – which the psychoanalysts know as conditioning of the ‘mind’.
Now, here we have Mind (the psychology) stemming from the gap (the economy).
So, I suppose it is safe to say that both of these are like best buddies, going hand-in-hand, none leading the other, nor one following the another. They are like the two aspects of the duality that is so omnipresent in the world at large.
These two, always co-joined, create what I would want to call a Mind Gap, which is perhaps more significant than all other gaps – generation gap, cultural gap, socio-political gap, et al. And it is this combination of psychology and economy that rather ‘rule’ and ‘runs’ the world.
Mind, the Gap.
mind × the + gap 