Tuesday, August 5, 2025

First What... Then Why... And then How...

 A truly inquisitive and resilient mind doesn't stop at "what" something is or "how" it works—but seeks to understand "why" it exists, why it works that way, and why it matters.

The first and foremost task of a student is to figure out the purpose of why he learns any specific subject. And once he gets the idea - the how follows. The basic purpose of a Guru is to help his disciples find that why.

It's true for every profession that teaches skills. We must not only learn a subject from what’s and how’s point of view, but also why's point of view.

What… How… Why…

Here's a concise breakdown of this triad of understanding:

What → Identification

"What is this concept, object, or phenomenon?"

→ Descriptive knowledge.


How → Mechanism

"How does it function or occur?"

→ Technical/operational knowledge.


Why → Purpose or cause

"Why does this happen? Why was it designed this way? Why should I care?"

→ Philosophical, causal, or ethical understanding.


Nurturing the "why" mindset leads to:


- Original thinking, not just replication.


 - Deeper learning, rooted in curiosity.


- Innovation, since questioning assumptions often sparks breakthroughs.


- Purpose-driven action, not just routine.


It’s the same mindset behind scientific inquiry, design thinking, and even spiritual introspection. So yes—let’s raise thinkers, not just doers.

Now let me tell you about one of my own experiences.

I joined NOKIA, Bharat and got my first taste of Symbian 60 there. There is a concept in Symbian C++ - the two phase constructor which helps avoid memory exceptions while constructing a C++ object.

I was curious about it and asked many employees in NOKIA, but got the standard answer that this is the norm. Then in Japan in 2007, I studied a bit of Boost library, especially the different types of pointers and understood why Symbian people did that - because there was no template concept in the early days of C++ and hence there was no smart pointer - so the Symbian community had no other way to avoid memory exception during construction of C++ object because the destructor works only for a fully constructed object. Note that early mobile phones did not have huge memory… hence even an insignificant memory leak was disastrous.


Read…

Read…

Here's a write up on the Symbian two phase constructor.

Symbian used two-phase construction partly because:

1. Early C++ lacked features like templates (pre-C++98 days).

2. So, smart pointers like std::unique_ptr, std::shared_ptr, or even std::auto_ptr were unavailable or unsafe.

3. This made automatic resource management difficult, especially in the face of exceptions or “leave” behavior.

🔍 The primary reason for two-phase construction was:

> Symbian's custom exception handling mechanism (based on “leave” and “cleanup stack”) and restricted runtime environment

📌 Why Not Use Traditional RAII?

RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization) — the modern C++ idiom using constructors/destructors — was impractical in early Symbian because:

1. No Exceptions → constructors couldn’t safely fail.

2. No Smart Pointers → no automatic cleanup of heap objects.

3. Low-Memory Targets → needed ultra-predictable, minimal-overhead code.

4. Destructors only run on fully constructed objects → Symbian needed a way to clean up partially constructed objects.


📚 Cleanup Stack = Manual Smart Pointer

Symbian’s cleanup stack was a manual alternative to smart pointers, ensuring that dynamically allocated objects or memory could be cleaned up reliably if a “leave” occurred.

🔁 Two-Phase Construction Solved All This By:


Phase                   Role                              Fails?

Constructor Allocates memory only      No

ConstructL() Initializes and may leave  Yes

If ConstructL() failed, the partially constructed object could be safely deleted via cleanup stack.

Engineers by degree is OUT... Engineers by curiosity and skill is IN...

Will AI Kill Engineering Colleges in Bharat?

One of the silent but severe casualties of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution could be engineering colleges in Bharat. With over 3,500 engineering institutions across India, many of which were established during the IT boom, the AI wave is now acting as a stress test — exposing what’s outdated, inefficient, or simply irrelevant.

The Harsh Reality: AI Doesn’t Need Your Degree

AI is not just another “tech trend” — it’s a paradigm shift. It doesn’t ask where you studied. It asks:

  • Can you solve real-world problems?

  • Can you build, deploy, or integrate AI tools?

  • Can you learn, adapt, and innovate?

In this new landscape, a 20-year-old with a laptop, access to ChatGPT, YouTube tutorials, and GitHub can outperform a degree-holder from a Tier 3 college. And companies are taking note.

Why Are Engineering Colleges at Risk?

1. Obsolete Curriculum

Most engineering colleges are still teaching programming as if it’s 2005. AI, prompt engineering, data science, or even modern DevOps tools are nowhere in the syllabus. When AI tools can write boilerplate code or automate testing, students need to learn why and how things work — not just what.

2. Low Employability

Even before AI, a report by Aspiring Minds showed that over 80% of engineering graduates in India were unemployable. AI has only accelerated this crisis by eliminating low-skill jobs that once served as a cushion for average grads.

3. Rise of Skill-Based Hiring

The job market is shifting. Platforms like LinkedIn, GitHub, Kaggle, and HackerRank are becoming more important than your college brand. Startups and even tech giants now hire based on portfolio and problem-solving ability, not campus placements or paper degrees.

4. Self-Learning Has Been Supercharged

Why pay ₹5–10 lakh for a 4-year engineering degree when:

  • You can learn from Stanford or MIT lectures on YouTube?

  • Take Google’s free AI and cloud certifications?

  • Build AI models with help from ChatGPT?
    The Return on Investment (ROI) of many private colleges is rapidly approaching zero.

5. Unsustainable Infrastructure

Many colleges were set up with the assumption:

“Every family wants an engineer.”
But now, families are asking:
“Will this degree get my child a job?”
Expect mass consolidation, closures, or conversions of many colleges into polytechnics or skill development centres.

A Silver Lining: Reinvent or Perish

The crisis is real — but so is the opportunity.

Engineering colleges that accept the disruption and choose to reform boldly may emerge stronger. Here's how:

  • Curriculum overhaul to include AI, ML, robotics, prompt engineering, and ethical tech.

  • Project-based learning over rote exams.

  • Faculty upskilling programs with direct ties to industry.

  • Hackathons, open labs, and AI research cells instead of dusty lecture halls.

  • Start-up incubation centres within colleges.

The Future Belongs to the Makers

The AI wave won’t spare the passive. But it will reward the curious, the creative, and the committed. The age of “engineers by degree” is fading. The age of “engineers by passion, curiosity, and capability” is here.

Let’s not mourn the death of outdated institutions.
Let’s celebrate the birth of a new engineering culture — rooted in inquiry, innovation, and impact