Of folo's and fomo's

I first heard of this term about 4-5 years back. FOLO being fear of being left out and FOMO being fear of missing out. In past few days, the articles and posts that i read on Linked in have made me FSLO, feeling so low, that i was actually FOWE, feeling overwhelmed with emotion. 

FOLO as a word has several expansions, each one borderline different than other. Most of the people in tech industry have a fear of logging off - even and especially when on leave. The fear of missing out is more common among non smokers and non drinkers, who definitely miss out on close circle conversations, where the tongue is let loose by whatever is being consumed. You may call it insecurity or lack of confidence. But it is a problem that is existential. Mine is more of a different form of FOLO which is fear of living offline. The "online" aspect is more towards being in trend on the technology side and which means not just improving/learning on what is new in our area of work, but also across the whole spectrum. I often wonder how people from non-technical (read not working in IT industry) are so well versed with so many tech offerings and often occupy the role of strategic advisor or on consulting roles whereas people who are supposedly SME in a particular product or domain, gets left behind. It is the difference between doing work and getting work done. With the tech industry reinventing itself at a much quicker pace with each passing year, being an SME is it even relevant anymore? May be one should be SSME (not small scale medium enterprise!! Indha post poora full formla oray full forma poitruku!!) Several Subjects Mildly exposed! The word management folks would use is adaptive - adhavadhu, edhu epo thevayo adhula apovay expert aagikanum. Oru vazhia postoda reasonku vanten.

Like the dialogue from the movie 3 idiots, when we fail in exam we feel bad but when we see our friend topping the same exam, it feels even more bad!! I happened to connect back with one person after almost ten years. Even when we were in touch i wasn't much aware of their background or expertise, but know them as fellow blogger, who was enthusiastic about taking photos. More of a photo blogger. The fact that they knew so much about lenses and lighting and cameras should've been indication enough that they are quiet techie. But their professional profile wasn't much revealing in that aspect. Now that person is settled in US and has been churning articles left right and center on topics that make me feeling all those abbreviations beginning with F (sathiayama andha abbreivated words mattumay. No other kuriyeedu implied or otherwise). But i was fascinated by the topics being presented - Revops, indepth understanding to the extent of highlighting what is needed further to improve on AI (not your regular chatgpt and stuff) like Google gemini etc. For me to read the post fully, it felt like how i started reading editorials on Hindu paper during school days, where ever alternate word needed a reference from dictionary. The difference here being, i had to google for the same. Unlike the newspaper where the acronyms were explained with their full form on first time usage, these people were merciless and didn't even bother to explain the words. Meaning, in their world, such terminology are common place occurrences, where if you need to explain about those words, it could be construed either as you learning about them the first time for the purpose of the post or on your target audience, whom if they had to be educated on such basic stuff, may raise questions on the kind of circle you maintain!!

My takeaway was only this - as a topic, whatever were being discussed was so interesting that i wanted to learn about them and even tried to reach out to them for some quick guidance. But considering that they are already at the top of their spectrum, moving faster progressively, answering novices could only delay them and honestly is of now value addition for them. When they can learn on their own, what stops you would be the next logical question. I am from that tribe who believes the spoken word than written. Somberikku vaazhapazham kadhaiya irukay nu sonna..apdithaan! But now that i am smitten on these topics, would try to explore more on them and do some nuni pul meichal in near future. Bare minimal rendu post podavachum topic kedaikumla :)