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Are we still living in the 1970’s?"We are not often aware of how our biases are living inside of us, reinforced by our culture and expressed by our behavior"Here are some recent research study examples of unconscious bias given by Dr. Brian Welle (Google Director of People Analytics) and Howard Ross.Virtually all of the things we do are fundamentally governed by emotions (including discrimination). Therefore, humans are far less rational than we are rationalizing. Every single second the human brain is inundated with 11 million bits of information. However, we are only capable of processing 40 bits of that information. Therefore, our unconscious represents 99.9% of what helps us survive every day. However, we should not rely on this unconscious processing alone as it may lead to unconscious bias thinking, and to negative consequences, such as discrimination.Research studies confirming our Unconscious Bias (Welle and Ross).GENDER BIASManagement Positions Male vs. Female: This study opened the eyes of Google to the negative impact of unconscious bias. In 1971 Professors at leading United States Universities were sent resumes of potential applicants for the position of Manager Science Lab. The Professors were asked to evaluate the credentials of each person (based on the level of competence). However, the results showed that the Professors were willing to pay candidates with male names more than female candidates (even if they had the exact same qualifications). New York TimesOrchestra Musicians Male vs. Female: In the 1970s, 5% of musicians in major orchestras in the world were women, in 1980 it was 12% and in 2009 it was 37%. Today that figure is closer to 40%. The reason for this change is that orchestras around the world have put in place a host of activities to remove bias when selecting musicians. One structural change was to have musicians audition behind screens and on rugs so that people could only evaluate the music rather than the musician.Police Chief Jobs Male vs. Female: Researchers created resumes of people applying for the job of Police Chief. There were two types of resume categories (one with street smarts and the other with a higher level of educational attainment – school smarts). By and large, evaluators preferred resumes of people with school-smarts. A second study was then done where 50% of resumes had male names and 50% female names (both with school smarts candidates only). By and large, the evaluators of resumes preferred people with male names. The evaluators reported that they were unaware that they were influenced by gender. A third study was done where the evaluators were first asked what the most important criteria for selecting a candidate were. The priming of evaluators (articulation of the qualifications necessary) resulted in them overlooking the gender of candidates when evaluating candidates a third time.Job Promotions Male vs. Female: The smallest representation of bias of men and women in an organization can have a big outcome. Researchers created a computer simulation of attrition (15%) and the attrition was filled by promotions in an organization with 8 levels of hierarchy. In the simulation women candidates were given a maximum performance score of 100 and men were purposefully given a maximum performance score of 101 (men had a 1% built-in advantage). The simulation was run 20 times and at the end, women represented only 35% of level 8 employee positions (the highest level in the organization). Therefore, even a 1% bias can cumulatively have a big impact.Venture Capital Funding Male vs. Female: Of all the venture capital-backed US startup companies only 11% are headed by women or founded by women.Startup Pitches Male vs. Female: Researchers studied startup Pitches to VC companies in Silicon Valley over a three year period. Men who were pitching were 60% more likely to get VC funding. Attractive men have a better chance of getting money than unattractive men. The researchers then did another experiment where men and women got identical pitches (and training) and 68% of those successful pitches were won by men despite the identical nature of the competition.Leadership Traits Male vs. Female: 71% of all of the words used to describe a good manager overlap with words used to describe men (confident, assertive, logical, firm, etc.). Only 10% of the words used to describe a manager overlap with words used to describe women.Google Doodles (2013) Male vs. Female: Google celebrates the birthdays of famous individuals on the home page Doodle (often an animated image). Previously the gender representation of the Doodle’s was only 10% women. Of the 15 conference rooms in one Google conference room, only one was named after a woman scientist.Discrimination against women is not the only way that unconscious bias impacts our behavior.SEXUAL ORIENTATIONBaseball Caps: The research studied how we interact with people who are different from us and those who are the same. The researchers sent people out to area shopping malls in order to apply for a job. Candidates had to wear one of two baseball caps with text on them (‘Texan and Proud’ or ‘Gay and Proud’).The interactions with candidates varied considerably;- Number of words used during conversation; Texan 257, Gay 169- Total interaction time; Texan 6 min. 23 sec. Gay 4 min. 5 sec.- Perceived negativity; Texan 2.94 vs Gay 3.84This study was conducted by Rice UniversityRACEHomopholy (we love people like us) is a tendency towards in-group vs. out-group bias.Basketball Referees: Referees tend to give fowls to players of the opposite race more than to players of their same race (true for white referees and African American referees). Research by; Justin Wolfers, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and Justin Price, Cornell UniversityAccents: People make determinations of other people's credibility based on accents. We tend to believe people more if they have an accent that is more similar to us and less if they have an accent that is more different. Research by; Boar Keysar University of Chicago and Shiri Lev-Ari Tel Aviv MPIPNames: Names used on job applications and the likelihood of getting a job call-back. Names: Brendan, Greg, Emily, and Anne 50% more likely to get the job call-back. Names: Tamika, Aisha, Rasheed, and Tyrone 50% less likely to get the job call-back. The study was conducted in Chicago and Boston areas on entry-level sales assistant jobs. All candidates had the same level of experience, education, etc. Research by; MITFacial Features: Empathetic neural responses…decreased significantly when participants viewed the faces of other races. Research by; Xiaojing Xu, Xiangyu Zuo, Xiaoying Wang, and Shihui Han, Peking UniversityIn-Group Members: When the target is an out-group member, people may have powerful motivations not to care about or help ‘the other’. Research by; Mike Cikara, Carnegie Mellon University, and Emile Bruneau, Rebecca Saxe, MITSkin Color: Empathy is diminished when people (black or white) who hold racial biases see that pain is being inflicted on those of another race. Research by; Salvatore Maria Aglioti, Sapienza Universita di RomaSocial Networking @Google: Cross-functional collaboration is limited based on the functional areas (HR, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales), even in Google.PHYSICAL FEATURES AND DRESSLeft-Hander vs Right-Hander: Hand dominance is also a factor. People tend to make decisions based on hand dominance. In other words, if you are right-handed, you may be more likely to hire somebody who is sitting on your right (rather than someone who interviews sitting on your left side). Research by; Daniel Casasanto, Max Planch InstituteDress Code: Howard Ross has an artificial knee. When he is dressed in business clothing he goes through airport security screening 47% faster than if he is dressed in casual clothes. Research by; Howard RossSUBLIMINAL MESSAGES AND SCHEMAPhysical Space (Red Bull vs. flowers): Researchers had students visit a computer science building in Stanford and to fill out an interest inventory (how interested are you in history, psychology, Russian, computer science, etc.). Half of the candidates visited a room that was decorated with stereo-typical engineering stuff (PCB boards, computers, gaming consoles, soda cans, etc.). The other half visited a room (in the same computer science building) that was decorated with more gender-neutral things (fruit, healthy water, Time Magazines, colorful, etc.). Female students were much LESS likely to say they would major in computer science when they walked into the stereotypical engineering room. Men were significantly LESS likely to say they wanted to major in computer science when they visited the gender-neutral room. Research conducted by Stanford UniversitySubliminal Messages (flags and music): Messages can have a big impact on people. Researchers went into a wine shop and cleared the shelves out except for German and French wine. On alternative days they played German or French music or had German or French flags in the shop. They then tracked the buying behavior of customers. On days when the French flag was up (or French music) , 76.9% of the wine sold was French. On days when the German flag was up (or German music), 73% of wine sold was German. Only 14% of customers said they even heard the music or saw the flags and only one person in the whole study felt that the test influenced their purchase behavior. Research by; Adrian North, David Hargreaves, and Jennifer McKendrick University of Leicester (United Kingdom).WEATHERRainy Days: Researchers tracked medical school interviews against the weather reports for the days that people were interviewed. Medical school applicants interviewed on rainy days received scores equivalent to a 10% lower mark on MCAT than those interviewed on sunny days. Research by; Donald Redelmeier and Simon Baxter, University of Toronto Medical SchoolPOSITIONS OF POWERPowerless Mindset: When people are in a ‘powerless’ mindset, their mirror system is increased (they become more sensitive to external stimulus) however, when people were feeling powerful, the mirror neuron activation was lower (they became less sensitive to external stimulus). Research by; Sukhvinder Singh, Jeremy Hogeveen, and Michael InzlichtIntelligent People: Larger blind spots are associated with people who possess higher cognitive ability. Research by; Richard F. West and Russel J. Meserve, James Madison University and Keith Stanovich, University of TorontoGroup Pressure: Being excluded from a group triggers activity in the same region of the brain associated with physical pain. Research by; Kipling D. Williams, Purdue UniversityPrisoners and Power: Scared Straight was a program implemented in Rahway New Jersey (1970’s) in order to reduce criminal teenage offenders. They brought juvenile delinquents to the Ralway State Prison to meet convicts in order that they would be scared straight (not want to ever go to jail). 25 years later they evaluated the programs and found that the youth in the Ralway Program were 13% more likely to engage in future criminal activity (and go to jail). LESSON LEARNED: careful evaluations of unconscious bias effects are necessary."We are not often aware of how our biases are living inside of us, reinforced by our culture and expressed by our behavior"---------------------------------------------------------------------------------The author has no affiliation with Google of Howard Ross

Well someone finally asked. Good question.Before going into the topic I would like to mention that, my answer will be inclined towards 3D CGi Film-making and not the film-making in broad terms and I will not be talking about 2D or Flash Animation either, I am sure there are people who are way more qualified than I am to answer about film-making. And I am not talking about outsourced work either, I am going to talk about Indian made movies. So with that said, here is my analytical view on 3D animated film in India as a very passionate 3D CGi artist.(Please keep in mind that if I have lambasted anyone, I am talking about their work and not targeting anyone as a human being or their character).Let’s dwell in the current scenario first, before speaking about the future of the industry, because by the time I'm done writing about the present the future shall answer for it itself:Realistically speaking, the 3D industry in India is in a very sad situation, even in the year 2015 - its still quite young. We have a lot of catching up to do. Do we blame the artists for it? No, not entirely. They are a part of it but again not entirely. In fact India has some amazing talents, who can create just wonderful imageries (like these folks TONIC - They are mainly into product rendering & presentation, they haven't created any short movie or film yet. But their quality of work is simply amazing.), and many more like them. So how is it affecting the industry? Well it starts with Indian narrow-minded society (I am talking in a broader perspective, not saying everyone is the same. Anyone who thinks out of the box in this country feels ostracised or somewhat discriminated), they can’t digest any career apart from the typical 10:00-18:00 job, and there is a general misconception, rather a presumption that a majority, if not all the artist has a over-all look & getup like this (no offence to MF Hussain, just that we all don't really look like this or always dress like this. I am mentioning this because of the stereotyping of artist's attire) –1. SOCIETY:The majority of society’s intellectual outlook towards art is so constrained and in a locked up state that they don’t realize that a film director, a dancer, a singer, an actor, a stage performer, a photographer, a song composer are all artists, like wise are the people who are into the CGi industry. You are mercilessly ignored and avoided if possible and the expression on fellow human being's face changes as they hear we aren't 'engineer' or a 'doctor' or a 'lawyer' can sometimes can be very unpleasant. It's as if 3D career is reserved for the lowest performing individual in academics and to the doomed and vagabonds - the unworthy scum who has no intellect. Artist are those who smoke pot and succumb themselves to unsocial habits, a pervert at times and in extreme cases an anti-social element in the self-proclaimed 'perfect Hindustani society' of self proclaimed and virtuous class of individual.However say you own a company that deals with animation, the perception changes, 'cause you run a business and that makes a lot of difference in Indian society. Even though this is my first reason, I would still say that we can come out of the reserved web of society, go out there and do what we love. "I am thankful we aren't ruled by extremists." (however this notion can be argued upon & not entirely true, I have counteracted my statement below!)2. PRIVILEGED, BUT TALENT-LESS SELF STYLED FILM-MAKERS:The next and the major reason for the sub-standard quality of Indian animation are the self-styled, fake but then rich & influential CGi film-makers like Soundarya R. Ashwin (I kindly request my sensitive Tamil friends not to get offended, as I have nothing personal against Soundrya R Ashwin, but I am disgusted at her body of work and there is nothing to appreciate or to be proud about Kochadaiyaan. And she is one of the example, there are a few like her out there), Anil Goyal who makes movies like Crackers (2011 film). I do not understand why they do, what they do. People like them assume that learning few general topics, watching the ‘making of’ of Hollywood animated movies and few tutorials will make them John Lasseter - do they even know or understand story telling? I wonder. After Kochadaiyaan was released, Soundrya claims that she has set a quality of benchmark for Indian industry, can you believe that? And Anil Goyal claims that his film is special as its not mythology and the typical movie that Indian Industry keeps making, embarrassing us further more. Well to me it seems like their creative eyes are tightly shut and oblivious to what’s happening outside. Look at these team of youngsters from France, ArtFx they started as students and now they are crafting very inspiring CGi shorts. Or this couple who struggled to make a game, that won them many awardsDon’t you think people like Soundrya should at least learn something from them? Do these guys even get inspired? Sometimes I wonder whether they are all a big joke, and we can laugh them out.Big Hero 6 is an upcoming animated feature by Disney Animation studios (at the time of writing this answer), Have a look at how much detail they get into when designing a 3D character for the film. It looks very simple, but you will be surprised at the amount of work and thought process that goes into creating that simple character. If you are not from the industry and has managed to read thus far, please watch the video below for the first 20 minutes to get in-sight on how the process of design goes. You can skip the rest if you choose too.And this is Kochadaiyaan's Character, I think the images explains it all.​Sena's pose seems a little awkward to me. So this is what Soundray was claiming to be realistic.John Dykstra, Dennis Muren, Joe Letteri & others, I sincerely apologize for the blunders of these so called film makers who keeps calling their work photo real, a direct insult to all your hard work and effort.And look at this piece of rubbish. Sita is blown out of proportion​Oh Dear!!​I think I should stop at this image.​Is that wrinkles on his chest?!3. PEOPLE WITH DOUGH:I am not saying everyone who has money should invest in a movie heavy with VFX or an animated movie. When they can invest on outright rubbish like what Rohit Shetty creates, I cant wrap my head around what's wrong with an amazing story that probably will be CG or animated - but it's a no no. India has some of the wealthiest in the world (well their wealth might not be publicly announced, but you get the idea), yet none of them wants to take the first step or a leap of faith in crafting a brilliant 3D animated movie, they are too scared of losing their precious wealth (that’s understood. But investing on a talented team who has an amazing script is only going to make them famous and frankly wouldn't hurt them as much as we think), however what they don’t realize is, if everything is done the right way, i.e with an inspiring and open-minded Producer, with a superb Director & AD along with a passionate & visionary Team of CGi Artists, energetic VFX Supervisors and Team leads, motivated group of Technical Developers, with outstanding music Composer armed with state of the art technology and software’s to create that ninety or more pages of script that might give you a goose-prickle in the theaters is what India needs, and India has all of it, just not used in the right manner or channeled correctly. No producers are willing to spend a $69 million (the amount Despicable Me was created with – they got $543,113,985 in return) on an animated feature. So tell me how will the film get funded?And lets be honest, we dont need $69MIL here in India to make an animated movie, but that doesn't mean stuff will get done in few crores either.People are crazy behind the absurd, horrendous and absolutely rubbish 100 core films nowadays. The Indian audience seem to swallow anything with a “SALMAN KHAN” in it, India which gave birth to people like Satyajit Ray, veteran animator Ram Mohan and produced series & movies like Malgudi Days, etc. is producing the most sub-standard of films lately. Truly sad. How is this related to 3D Animtion?Well it is apparently, if an animated film gets made, it will get crafted towards what a mass wants to see. What we all know, that nowadays the mass follows talentless morons like Honey Singh. And there seems to be no explanation to this adverse effect.Think about it when Disney Pixar or BluSky Studios are composing their next feature with an orchestra and talented musicians and we have, this, YO YO Honey Singh and his garbage to listen to in our animated features. Thought for the day, huh?*NOTE: I am not targeting anyone's storyline or script. Hollywood too has produced some the worse stories & performance; Piranha 3D, Aliens Vs Predator, etc but no one claims its Photo-Real or go on blabbering about the crap they made. I am well aware that choice of a movie is a very personal opinion, however the content in it or the asset rather can be criticized.4. SCHOOLS & COLLEGES: Oh boy, there isn’t a single day I regret in joining a school in India for learning the art of CGi (I am sorry, but I feel it’s wrong to name the school I went to and defame it here on Quora even though I hated it). I at least had a three year programme, however the six months and one year short term courses really misguide students into something unimaginable – they have no clue what they should be doing or how to climb the tough ladder of a very competitive industry. I was shocked at the lack of knowledge the universities have when I had an opportunity to tutor students as a visiting faculty. Colleges & institutes are following syllabus with technologies that are in some cases obsolete and students have no exposure to the outside world of CGi, except a few tutorials. They lack good & talented faculties. And few tutors who are there are even worse. What I'm going to mention, shouldn’t be judged as exaggerating; there are tutors who on purpose down trodden students and they wear an envious nature, they do not like the students growing, and they lack basic communication skills. Personally, my outlook towards teaching is that, one of the traits of a good tutor is to have unfaltering communication skills, especially in an industry like CGi. One should be Motivating and Inspiring and selfless in what they do (like this human being here – Ryan Kinglsin. The best teacher anyone can ever dream of having).​​The tutors should be prepared and well researched in both artistic & technical aspects. You rarely find good tutors here in Indian institute. There are few awesome tutors, but they are but a handful. Institute assume that an awesome artist can be an inspiring tutor, which is so wrong, a good artist need not be a good tutor, not everyone has it in them to teach and pass the torch of knowledge without harming the ability & judgement of the pupil. In a field like CGi or for that matter any art, emotional and psychological motivation is crucial, even if it sounds silly, it isn’t. Creating an art is mentally exhausting and sometimes emotionally challenging, as we are expressing something through what we create, and making it believable, selling it to the demanding & challenging audience and terrifying critics, who are waiting to judge the work. Above all this, students lack basic facilities and infrastructure to create the art. 3D is an expensive career to get into and that’s understood, but it’s not an excuse to give the students a Pentium IV machine and then expect an short movie in return, with a deadline of 4 months. They can hardly render or work without limitation. No! No one is demanding a server setup with 1000 core machine like ILM or Dreamworks, but a basic i7 machine has become a necessity not a luxury to cope up with the sophisticated but a suite of amazing 3D software applications & programs to craft the art.The other major factor is lack of knowledge and exposure in these areas, students who find every door closed are easily attracted to a six month diploma course just to get a degree or diploma in something, and when they join and the real course starts or rather when reality surfaces up, they either give up or end up in the companies I have mentioned below as slaves, and very sadly they end up in this quicksand of miserable life - a victim of circumstances, as I would say. And it is one of my biggest goal to make sure that what actually happens in the 3D industry is out there for everyone to read or watch and understand before taking a plunge.5. THE INDIAN VFX STUDIOS & its EMPLOYEES:(I have heard a thing or two about studios abroad as well, it’s not very pleasing either in some cases. However every industry has its dark side, for lack of a better world. But In India the dark side is simple over-powering everything else. There is of course a reason.) So, there is this funny saying that tags the Indian VFX companies (which by the way, are mainly thriving like a parasite does, on outsource from companies abroad). So the axiom, if I may, goes something like this “These aren't studios, they are slaughter houses who makes sure they squeeze every bit of you and then throw you out like you were nothing but a commodity.” I used to rebuke such remarks during my early days in CGi, however the more I started researching & looking into the facts and speaking to artist working at major Indian VFX companies, I was horrified at how they treat the employees and artist, not a trace of respect for what these artist do for the company. If the HR asks you to vacate the studio premises in a given time, you have to do it, you cannot complain. If they ask you to work for 12 hours a day, you have too, and after all this do they acknowledge your effort even a little, no. Do they pay you enough, no!So how & why is it thriving? Well because the studios are dumped with a mass amount of outsourced work from industry goliaths like Disney, Warner Bros. or similar studios to mass produce Tv series or films, one after another. The Indian companies hire a large amount of people and send this work to these employees under incapable & incompetent team leaders, who will blame the artist under them for any issues. Students who aren't guided properly and people who are in desperate need of job gets in and majority settles there (The typical Indian mind-set, why bother for more – I have enough now. I am content with all this. Trust me I have been with few), they become narrow minded and self-centered and these artist are very difficult to talk too or interact with in an open minded conversation as they see only in one direction. They become a robot trained & assigned to do the same task over-&-over again. If my sentences above has offended any, I sincerely apologize, however this is the truth. They become something that an open-minded individual will find difficult to get along professionally as they become rigid as iron on their opinion, they do not take healthy criticism, as if they run on a mechanized key, they craft every work in a similar fashion, which becomes very boring. Mind you, majority of the studios are started by people who had no idea about 3D. They either picked it up on the go or by word of mouth, like I mentioned above in the second point. These are people with a lot of money to through around and they get it back with this mass production. So how is it deteriorating the industry? I think I have already answered that above. What will happen if a self-centred team of unmotivated & misguided artist along working with an amateur Directors and self-styled team leads and art directors, who wouldn't know what they are doing most of the time, with pathetic producers and add people like Yo Yo Honey Singh to the mix; what do you think you will get? I shall leave that to your imagination.Note: In case of Kochadaiyaan, you can only blame Soundrya R Ashwin for the output. She is just not the person to direct something like a big motion captured CGi. Photo-Realistic renders, it seems. I'm wondering how she picked up all these fancy word, I mean, I am sure if she knew the meaning she wouldn't have used it for a film like Kochadaiyaan.Here the making ofAnd here is a motion capture making the recent Ninja Turtle 2014I have to even mention the difference?- But there is always an excuse for this - "we dont have enough budget."Come the f**K on, then make something in the budget you have - that's what a true passionate film-maker would do!! Make something small, but beautiful that we as Indians can be proud of rather than producing garbage.This is the quality of work (Behance) created by group of artist in Isreal, yeah you heard it right. ISREAL!!China is producing way superior work than us.The problem with us - we love giving excuses!!6. YOU & I, the ARTIST:The final reason why Indian animation is where is it is also because of us, we love to compromise and give in to the situations we are put into, so let's admit it, that has to change. There are some amazing talents in India and they are simply superb, just open ArtStation and you will see, however I have met countless number of artist who give up early. They just don’t want explore and expand their creative window. Agreed, not all can do it and many are victims of circumstances again, but what about the rest? The rest who can create a difference? Let me tell you, they are too busy brushing their ego. India and Indian artist are simply amazing and we can equal the western counterpart with quality and stories. The group of scientist who launched Mangalyan proved it, things have changed a lot over the years, and we have access to technology much easier than before. Sadly instead of researching on how the industry is moving forward & developing ourselves, we are busy reading & arguing about things like Hrithik Roshan’s divorce case or watching Rohit Shetty’s next 100 crore movie. We are what we make ourselves off, and our art will reflect that. If you train yourself to see and learn from quality outputs out there, you will produce quality, and the opposite holds true, you see rubbish & graft that into yourself, you will produce rubbish.Future of Indian Industry:I can only dream and hope that there are people with the same mind set to create the best 3D animated or CGi film or short, mythology or not. Not compromising in quality whatsoever and doing it right with an artistic vision.I do not agree that India has over done mythology, the reality is it has never been done the right way. It has never been given the quality and passion that the mighty mythology stories of India deserve.I mean what on earth is this? Absolutely third rated quality of work, look at the thumbnail of the video, is this really how our notoriously awesome mythological characters should look? No way!!Till today no justice has been ever done to these characters & stories, animated or live action.I pray and wish that a studio will be born out of pure passion, and that Indian studio can create something like thisthe example is a game making of, but the same hold true for a film or short film - I deeply urge everyone who managed to read thus far to watch this documentary, please. It's phenomenal!!)And above all, I dream & hope that I can be a part of the team as well. I will do everything I can for that.I hope these turn into a movie someday and maintain the same quality of work. Alas! I fear it might stay a dream for a long time to come.(images posted below is going to be a bit opinionated & personal choice)Now that's HanumanThe most bad ass Ram I have seen. This is doing justice to the epics written centuries ago!Well that’s my sincere and hopefully unbiased opinion (if you ignore the Honey Singh, Salman Khan & Rohit Shetty part - I can't stomach them) about the 3D industry in India.About we not being ruled by extremist, well the awesome images of mythological figures above (Gods in Hinduism - my religion, which I love for the Mythological stories, that I grew up with), well the comics had to shut down because of extremist groups that have a suffix 'Sena' to their names - stating that these artists are mocking the Gods.When you have a generation that still lives under the tribalism of religion, caste & creed we humans created, what do you expect to happen? My hope is that my generation and the generation to follow will change this mindset, where they know how to separate culture from creativity and understand the meaning of freedom of expression.Have a good one!Edit #01: 28-09-'15Even though it's not there yet, Bahubaali and the upcoming Pulli did set some benchmarks. I hope the CG is constantly pushed further. Since they realized there is an audience for it. I am sure it's moving forward. Hope the good times are coming.Edit #02: 17-12-'15Well maybe not to the scale of how it is in India currently, but whatever I have mentioned above happens in the other part of the world too, seems like. In the podcast below by Chaos Group's CG Garage; Gnomon's founder Alex Alvarez talks about the hardships he faced when he started out.CG Garage Podcast #45 | Alex AlvarezEdit #03: 15–03-'18Replaced few broken YouTube links, after I got a few requests to replace them

This is a very personal based question because the difference between this phrase insulting you or complimenting you is based solely on how you want to live your life.If someone said this about me I would be quite happy because my goal is to be reasonably good at most things. So this compliments me. If i wanted to be only good at one thing I would be insulted.So if you are a specialist in chemistry and someone said this to you then you might be offended.What this saying means in essence is that you are average at all things but you are not excellent at any 1 thing. Now that's not a bad thing but its not technically a good thing.I'll give you two real world examples of where this phrase is in effect.When you are at school there are different groups of people.You have the cool kidsThe nerdsThe goth/emo bunchAnd then you have the average bunch.Now the metaphorical master of this bunch is the cool kids.They are attractive, fit and good at sports, really good.But that's all they are good at. They rarely go to classes and they rarely get any good grades.But there is one thing they are good at. Sports.They already have a pre-determined path for them to follow because they are only really good at one thing.These are the masters of the metaphorical phrase.Not eh other hand you have the jacks.They are the average bunch.They aren't particularly good at any one thing.They aren't the captain of the school sports team.Or the star student of the chemistry class but they are consistant.They rarely get bad grades. They often get b+ and A- on most of thier lessons.They are average at pretty much all of thier classes.Thier path is not pre-determined because they are not a master of any one thins. They have a choice of multiple different things to chose from because they are average at all.This means that they most likely won't become the next president or captain of your country's best rugby team. But they have a lot of choices of the average jobs which aren't specialist jobs.Another real world example of this could be.The master, the one who specialises has decided to specialise in aerodynamics and become a pilot.He has worked hard on this one thing for years on end and now he is finally the best pilot that the airliner has. He worked hard and at last he got the prestigious job he always wanted.A couple of months into his job he gets some bad news. Ali's are taking over and he is no longer needed. There are now Ali's that can automatically fly aeroplanes without fault and they don't need to be paid like he does.He has now lost his hard worked for job and doesnt know what to do.He was only ever good at flying. He doesnt know what else he can do now.So now he has to go back to university and start learning a whole new thing.The jack on the other hand.He got out of school with average grades. He wasn't perfect but he didn't fail.He gets a nice easy job as a bus driver because it was the first employer to accept his job application.Just like the master he is also told after a couple of months that he is no longer needed to work. The busses will now be run by AI which dont need to be paid.He loses his job but its not such a big deal. He didn't spend years training to become a bus driver. It was just a quick application and he was in. He doesnt stress or worry because he knows there are a lot of other jobs out there that still need humans so he starts applying.Two days later he gets another job as an assistant mechanic for the busses he used to drive. It pays a little better and he has job security for now.Just to sum it up.The master is a high paid professional at high risk whilst the jack is an average paid worker with little risk.Hope this makes sense. Sorry for the rant.If someone said this to me I personally would take it as a compliment not an offense.