You have the right to remain silent

I have always meant to blog about this, but circumstances, one way or another, have pushed this till now:

It is a common sight for people to celebrate or feel disappointed by their favorite sports team's victories/ losses, and equally common for folks to criticize on-screen players for poor performances.We criticize players' performances in a match,  and captains' tactics in a match without giving it much thought.

Along the same lines, we also criticize leadership of top companies on their ability to steer a company to the number 1 spot in a market, or for 'screwing up' a strategy or for being unable to steer a company successfully through a crisis situation.

My take on all this is purely this: Do we have the right to criticize them?

On the one hand, this is the job of these employees/ sports people and hence they better be damn good at it - heck some of them are even paid as well! On the other hand, by criticizing them, we are in-turn suggesting that we possibly can do their job better!

While I seriously doubt that we can do a job on-par, let alone a better job, it then becomes unfair to criticize someone in a domain/ stream with no experiential knowledge, practical experience, and past wisdom to draw upon. (theoretical knowledge of the subject/ person is assumed here!) On the other hand, because this is the profession these people have chosen (or been at the profession for 'x' years), they better have learnt something and be damn good at whatever they do - they do get paid for it after all!

For example, a recent fire at RCF in Mumbai meant loss of PPE as well as injuries. A lot of articles were written criticizing the plant manager for his (mis)management policies. Honestly, at that point I felt parents and children who have no idea on the practicalities of managing a factory were being arrogant and ignorant when offering their comments on the factory manager's (in)abilities!

My personal opinion is that one must be careful when criticizing without relevant experience. It is essential that we understand our own limitations before we offer our 2 cents...