Pragmatic Idealists

2006.03.26

I was surprised to read this post by Molly. I was touched by the honesty of her words, and the courage of the writer behind them. And I was saddened by the reality of it all. I always thought she was the uber-successful woman of the web, an inspiration to all of us. Sometimes we forget that our super heroes are human afterall.

Kev’s comment on that post gives an insight only someone who has seen and lived it through is capable of making.

We are taught that making compromises is a negative thing. That it is ’settling for second best’. I don’t see it that way. It sometimes happens in life that the things we feel we want are just not going to happen even though the fact that they won’t is not your fault and cannot be affected by you.

When you are from a third worlddeveloping country, most of the compromises are already made for you. For us web designers that translates as poor connectivity, immature markets, undervalued labour, and no SXSW or @media. Throw in an unstable economy and the odd war, and web standards seem invisible in the bigger picture. No wonder we don’t have Asian WaSPs (Japan doesn’t really count) - our standardistas are working hard to make ends meet.

But our weaknesses are also our biggest opportunities. Poor infrastructure: more room for ISPs. No/badly-designed websites: more room for good designers. Poor localisation: more room for local experts. So we are holding our heads high, and remain optimistic. We are lucky in that the Sri Lankan culture was never really one that valued riches (although that’s changed somewhat in recent times). One of the most beautiful quotes I’ve ever heard was from my friend Lankitha, fellow Vesessin, who said that our goal should be to create a team of average guys with exceptional values. If you think that’s too idealistic, that’s true, that’s exactly what we are: a bunch of pragmatic idealists.

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6 Comments

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  1. Janin

    March 26th, 2006 at 3:05 pm

    The biggest asset that Sri Lanka has and always will be is it’s people, irrespective of their racial background. Our ingenuity at making something, even with all the adversity that living here throws at us. Combined with our generally high level of education, is sadly highly undervalued in this country. We don’t shout enough about our succesful people in Colombo, and don’t nurture or openly mentor people enough. If we had more industry role models, Sri Lankan equivalents of Richard Branson ,Alan Sugar and the like. It could all help us and the country be a place we want it to be

  2. Dulan

    March 26th, 2006 at 4:20 pm

    a team of average guys with exceptional values.

    not sure about the “average” part, but Amen to the “exceptional”!

  3. sittingnut

    March 26th, 2006 at 9:15 pm

    one is lucky to live in sri lanka at this point of time. opportunities are endless and as long as one tries one’s best, probability of a successful outcome are high, whatever way one measures it by. even the buffalo herd wont be able to stop one. not many ppl realize this.

  4. Janin

    March 27th, 2006 at 3:30 am

    I agree certainly there are a lot of opportunities here, but we all need inspiration and a guiding light at some time in our careers. Particularly if we have been fulfilling a position for what we feel is too long a time, or we are running a buisness and could do with some advice from outside the company. It still do’s not take away the need for local role models and mentoring, maybe some form of internet forum where a panel of highly sucessful heads of private commerce could dispense some of their insight and knowledge. If you can find these people in Sri Lanka that would be great, hopefully they will be confident enough to do it.

  5. Mat

    March 27th, 2006 at 5:59 am

    Now that’s a job title.

  6. Kishore

    March 28th, 2006 at 9:35 am

    Well, I believe there is great potential for development, though for now things are still bleak. One look at this shows how few web designers with a penchant for web standards are found in these parts of the world.

    In India, the Internet is still to reach millions of people, and those who do have the access still do not have a broadband. So businesses still are hesitant to invest in proper websites.

    I also feel we lack proper education in this field, and yes, that’s coming back to the point about guidance again. Events such as @media and SXSW would be so enlightening, but sadly they are out of reach for the not -so-rich web developers from these parts of Asia.