The original post appeared on LinkedIn. You can view it below.
I failed on two consecutive attempts, missing the Prelims cutoffs by less than 0.5 marks each time.
In the grueling marathon that is the UPSC journey, failure lurks at every corner, not as an exception, but as the unrelenting rule. The popular response in such a scenario would have been to attribute it to luck and gamble again. However, the failures made me realise that just like many systems in nature, UPSC too has an element of inbuilt randomness in it’s process.
The solution lies in building redundancy (an idea that I have shamelessly copied from ‘Antifragile’ by Nicolas Nassim Taleb). Redundancy often seems like waste of efforts if nothing unusual happens. Except that something unusual happens - usually.
Based on this, my new creed was to not just pass, but to soar beyond the prelims cutoff by an audacious 15 marks. I studied things even that shouldn’t be studied. I attempted tests more than required.
Consequently, the prelims became not a barrier but a milestone, surpassed by a triumphant margin of 15 marks, that validated and reinforced my faith in redundancy.
Following the same approach - expecting something unexpected in the later stages, I opted for redundancy in mains. With so many subjective papers in CSE, at least one paper/Interview bound to suffer from “badluck”. To get into IAS one needs to get under 80 All India rank, and to ensure that I had to prepare aiming for AIR under 8 in the Mains.
The pics I have shared are the pens that I exhausted every month between Prelims and Mains of CSE 2022.
Something unusual, as it usually happens, happened and I scored average marks in Interview. But redundancy helped in secure a good rank.
The concept of redundancy is not only limited to UPSC.
Take any government system - Mistakes can be very costly, future is uncertain and failures are not an option. Again, redundancy comes to the rescue. Redundancy is built in the form of extra capacity to tackle any worse outcome. Be it elections, defence, disaster management or administration.
Crux is whether it is UPSC or life or governance, build redundancy.
Redundancy is not defensive, it more like investment than insurance. Redundancy is ambiguous, because it seems like a waste if nothing unusual happens.— Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Except that something unusual happens - usually.
