Microscope + Fisheye lens

I love photography. I have learnt some of the finer points through reading literature. Not to long ago I was flipping through the pages of a popular magazine on photography and lenses when a came across a couple adds. On a single page were two separate small ads. One was about lenses for a microscope and the there for a fish eye lens for a camera. My mind had begun to wander as I started to think about the two.

Truly antipodal I thought, although the principles and concepts of optics and physics the very same. The same material, silica and everything else I guess, but yet so different. The ad left me thinking about an incident from years ago. My dad is a Mechanical engineer by training. He still takes active interest in machines and mechanisms. Years ago I remember an important piece of equipment in his factory was down, couple of his engineer friends had spent a day or more trying to figure the problem. A foreman who had learnt the trade on his job and lacked any formal training came along and offered to fix the machine. My dad stepped away and let the old man take a shot. The machine was up and running in no time. As a young boy when I heard the story I was confused.

Like any little kid began to wonder if education and training meant much? Here there were a couple smart engineers trying to figure a problem that a foreman fixes up in a flash. I asked my parents what that mean? My parents simplified the episode into simple things my mind could assimilate. They explained at length, until I understood.

When I read the ad that explanation resonated in my mind once again. It is the difference between an EXPERT and a STRATEGIST, none less important than the other, but yet uniquely different.