In Bangladesh, numerous negative stories exist aimed at discrediting AI and discouraging its adoption. One school introduced AI to grade Bangla essays.
A classic and familiar office tale: Meet VP (Vice President) Mojnu. Mojnu bhai, known for his “strict leadership,” has one peculiar habit: never making eye contact.
Let’s begin this serious discussion with two extremely serious incidents, both tragic in their own way. A Sardarjee, celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary, took his highly educated and poetic wife to a posh candlelight dinner.
Eid-ul-Azha was meant to be a lesson in sacrifice, empathy, generosity, and humility. But in our version, it often turns into a festival of flexing, where the size of your cow somehow reflects your spirituality, and the price tag gets more attention than the prayer.
One reason we remain stuck in the slow lane of progress is painfully simple: in Bangladesh, the individual trumps the institution, and the institution trumps the nation.
Meet Imran Bhai. His last vacation was during the 2018 hartal. He thinks “OOO” means “Only On Outlook,” not “Out of Office.” His hobbies include forwarding work emails to himself at 2:00 AM and replying to “Happy Birthday” messages with a Gantt chart. Imran Bhai isn’t alone; he is the unofficial president of Bangladesh’s ever-growing workaholic club.
There is a special breed of professionals in every Bangladeshi office, those who seem to know everything from quantum physics to kebab recipes. They speak with such confidence that even Google starts to doubt itself. But here is the twist: a new study by Stav Atir, Emily Rosenzweig, and David Dunning reveals that the more of an expert you are, the more likely you are to claim knowledge of things that don’t actually exist. Welcome to the glamorous world of overclaiming with “I know it all syndrome” or as we like to call it in Dhaka boardrooms, “Bhai, I already have the idea!”
If you place a frog in cold water and gradually heat it, the frog won’t react; it just adjusts, thinking “I can handle this”. But as the temperature keeps rising, it reaches a point where the frog realises it must escape. Sadly, by then, it’s too weak to jump. It didn’t die from the heat; it died from not acting in time. That’s the “Boiling Frog Syndrome”.
Bangladesh’s digital infrastructure services -- towers, fibre networks, submarine cables and data centres -- have all the potential but sadly, it is buried under layers of mismanagement and corruption.
The shift from “Digital Bangladesh” to “Smart Bangladesh” was like trying to drive a car without an engine — all talk, little substance. While we have made big claims on paper, the reality was far from impressive. While waving the “Digital Bangladesh” flag, we ranked 105 out of 132 in Global Innovation Index 2023 (Source: World Intellectual Property Organization).
It goes without saying that in national politics and even in the corporate world, one needs a godfather to survive and succeed. This godfather is not the kind that you find in movies, as in Marlon Brando. These come in the form of mentor guides and, let’s be real, they are the heavyweights who have your back.
We often say “a leader is as good as his team.” It is like making a perfect cup of tea -- sure, the leader might be the one pouring it, but without the right blend of tea leaves, sugar and milk, it is just hot water.
While being interviewed, Jamil was asked if he was ok with working overtime without extra pay, and he quipped, “I can, as long as you don’t expect results”, to which the interviewer laughed, acknowledging the playful exchange.
In a local company, two sales managers, Reaz and Mohsin, both graduates from the same university, faced a stark difference in their career paths.
Human nature has an innate tendency to escalate demands once an initial concession is made, and thus, the saying goes “If you let someone sit, he wants to eat; if you let him eat, he wants to sleep”.
In Bangladesh, gossip is a national pastime, both inside and outside the workplace. During tea breaks, or “cha breaks”, employees gather to exchange the latest news, often drifting from work-related topics.
On a hot, scorching day Asif’s office air conditioner broke down, with workers doing little and complaining more.
We have all been taught the virtues of honesty from our early childhood. Every child is instilled with the belief that truthfulness is the foundation of success and “honesty is the best policy”.
