Blissful Life

Category: career

  • Practical Career Guide for First Benchers

    This is partly a response to “All That Glitters” by an IITian and partly a message to my brother who is an IITian.

    Although I used to sit mostly on the back bench during school, I fit the first bencher stereotype more – good scores, liked by teachers, great expectations. I currently have a career tragectory that I am happy in. It hasn’t stood the test of time and that is a caveat, but otherwise I’m perfectly qualified to write this guide.

    The problem

     

    What to do in life?

    The dilemma is faced by every first bencher just after their schooling and throughout their college years. For me it extended till about an year after that.

    Image by moritz320 from Pixabay

    It is a dilemma because there is choice overload and there is opportunity cost. There are virtually an infinite choices on what to do in life, especially so for the first bencher. The “back bencher” has it easy because a lot of choices are eliminated by steep barriers and therefore their options become simpler. But the first bencher knows nothing called impossible. They feel that they can do anything if they put their mind to it. And so they have all the options they can think of.

    But the opportunity cost is real. No matter how productive you are, you can’t sleep 8 hours in 4 hours. There is an opportunity cost to every damn thing. And that’s where the crux of the problem lies.

    What to choose to do in the limited time alive? What things to prioritize? Happiness? Sure. But what brings about happiness? Does money bring happiness? Does autonomy, creativity, and intellectual satisfaction bring happiness? Does good relationships bring happiness? Can one not have all these? What if I do what everyone else is doing for a while and figure out in some time? What if I get stuck in that rat race? What is the meaning of life?

    Existential crisis apparently is sort of depression.

    Potential solution

    I’m very wary of prescribing one size fits all solutions. There is one approach I have followed in my life which I’ve found to work very well for me. I call it “being ambidextrous”.

    The fundamental tenet of this approach is to shun exclusionary thinking. Exclusionary thinking is when you think “if I take up a 9-4 job, I can’t become an entrepreneur”, “if I get married, I can’t do adventures”, or “if I become a doctor, I can’t become an engineer”. There is always a way to pursue two or more interests together.

    The challenge is in finding that way. Sometimes it is hard and will involve moving geographies, spending money, losing sleep, etc. But once you find a way to follow your heart in all directions your heart wants to go, you will have a happy heart.

    Should I not make money?

    There are a few basic things you need in life

    • Food
    • Clothing
    • Shelter
    • WiFi

    You really need to take care of this. And that involves making some money. But the money required for meeting these basic needs is trivial to make for first benchers.

    Then there are some other needs which also require money

    • Friends & Family
    • Health
    • Entertainment
    • Transport

    These are some areas where frugality really helps. With good accounting of income and expenses, careful planning, and hard work the money required to take care of these can be kept low. When you don’t need a lot of money, you don’t have to make a lot of money.

    What about ambition?

    There are two ways to look at this. One is that ambition is bad/unnecessary. That success is hyperromanticized. In this outlook, you try to make time for simple things in life. You call ambition as society’s unreasonable expectations from you.

    The other is that ambition is helpful. That it gives a direction in life. That it gives meaning to life.

    But do you notice the circular reference in that latter approach? How do you choose your ambition?

    Here also being ambidextrous has helped me. It is important not to go too much behind meaning. It is also useful to have a few ambitions. Maybe a better word is goals. Not all goals need to be achieved. Goalposts can be shifted. In fact, if you grow up, you’re bound to realize some of your goalposts were wrong.

    Footnote

    I’ve had two mentors tell me that confusion is a sign of thinking mind. So if you’re confused, that’s a good thing. Another thing is that the confusion never ends. Mid-life crisis occurs at all ages and at all junctures in life. The approach to deal with this that I suggest above is greatly influenced by Zen Habits.

    • Bridges, bridges, everywhere

      I’m a Bangalorean now. I have a metro card as well. For about a week now, I have been talking to a lot of people and reading (also searching for 1BHKs around IISc). Turns out there are not many secrets in answers to “What to do in life?”

      There were a few points that made sense and helped me gain immense clarity. I’ll list them down.

      Immanuel Kant: Mark Manson’s post on him is a nice read on the kind of moral philosophy that we can have. It is slightly complicated but boils down to “strive to be the best, if not you’re doing injustice to yourself”.

      Remember it was the same idea that propped up earlier with reference to Gita.

      In fact, Priyanka Chopra lists down 12 rules in her breaking the glass ceiling talk which sounds similar as well – be fierce, fearless, and flawed.

      Stoicism: Talking about fears, Tim Ferris made a really nice TED talk on defining fears and defeating them. He gives an excellent tool to practice stoicism. And stoicism is an absolutely useful “-ism” in times of uncertainty.

      Bridges: The place where I have to go to isn’t really somewhere that people frequently go to from my place. Therefore, I have to build a few bridges to that place. The only issue is to differentiate bridges from hangouts.

      Money: There are a few important lessons about money.

      One is that money saved is indeed money earned. If you can decrease your expense, you won’t need a huge income.

      The other is that money created is a measure of value created. If you are building a product and want to know if it really adds value to the world, just count how much money has been generated by the product.

      Integrity: When we talk, we need to walk the talk. This doesn’t mean you stop talking about anything that feels important to you. It means that you should keep pushing. Talk, then write, then do, then do more, then do maximum, and then keep doing.

      Bed bugs: Bed bugs are really pesky pests. Do not try to adjust with such annoyances. Overcome them.

      Failure is not a choice. But success definitely is.

    • What Next?

      I am privileged. I was born into a higher middle class family in Kerala. I have not been discriminated against based on my family’s religion/caste/colour/whatever. I am male. My parents are both alive and work in public sector. I even had access to internet at a very early age. I was allowed and assisted to dream.

      Precious copy of my life plan (written after 10th standard)

      My father is a doctor. I became a doctor. Natural. It was not incredibly difficult. I did not have to fight unfair situations. I had plenty of help.

      I think it is because of my excellent background that I am able to even recognize these privileges.

      Consciously or not, much of my life’s philosophy is influenced by this. My obsession with free knowledge, is a good example. I may not be able to erase the advantages I already have, but I try to avoid relying on them.

      There is no point in beating myself too much either. I am not responsible for my privileges. But I am accountable. Having had all this, if I do not make the best out of them, I am wasting them. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But what if life gives you apples?

      I have a few straightforward options.

      • Become a specialist/super-specialist doctor. Work in one or two hospital(s). Make a lot of money. Help a lot of people.
      • Go back to SVYM. Help build a resurgent India.
      • Join some other organization/hospital/research project which can benefit from a clinical doctor.

      None of these are mutually exclusive options either.

      Yesterday I was coincidentally discussing with dad a verse from Gita which has many different interpretations.

      karmaṇyēvādhikārastē mā phalēṣu kadācana.
      mā karmaphalahēturbhūrmā tē saṅgō.stvakarmaṇi৷৷2.47৷৷

      Specifically, it is the last part we concentrated on. “You should not not do your duties.” How do you know what your duties are, though?

      Every person plays multiple roles in their lives. They would have multiple roles each inside family, work, society, and any other sphere of their life. There are duties in each of these. Is there any way you can prioritize one above the other?

      I have never been good at prioritizing things in the past. I usually get distracted by the most visible task and forget rest of my duties. I sometimes am able to note them down and come back to them. But this is fixable.

      24 hours is what everyone has per day, on Earth. There are indeed people who get a lot accomplished in that 24 hours. If they can, so can I. I will have to organize my time well and get disciplined. And more importantly, I will have to choose the right commitments.

      That is what we are coming to, aren’t we? Commitments. What are the right commitments for me now? What should I do next?

      I keep reading “A Guide for Young People: What to Do With Your Life By Leo Babauta” now and then. The gist is this:

      The idea behind all of this is that you can’t know what you’re going to do with your life right now, because you don’t know who you’re going to be, what you’ll be able to do, what you’ll be passionate about, who you’ll meet, what opportunities will come up, or what the world will be like. But you do know this: if you are prepared, you can do anything you want.

      Prepare yourself by learning about your mind, becoming trustworthy, building things, overcoming procrastination, getting good at discomfort and uncertainty.

      You can put all this off and live a life of safety and boringness. Or you can start today, and see what life has to offer you.

      Lastly, what do you do when your parents and teachers pressure you to figure things out? Tell them you’re going to be an entrepreneur, start your own business, and take over the world. If you prepare for that, you’ll actually be prepared for any career.

      Is this advice for me? Am I already at that point where I should be knowing what I’ll be doing and who I am? At the end of my final MBBS, I thought the one year of internship will be the time when I finally understand what I will do with my life. But I was wrong. During FHM, I got a few ideas on the kind of life I do want to pursue. I am sure I will not be going back to a university in a few years. And then there are a few preferences.

      I sort of want to do things that create massive impact. That is why I got bored of clinical work. It was the same thing happening every day. Sick patients, some diagnosis, some treatment, some outcome. At the end of the day, not much has changed in the way things are.

      I want to do creative things as well. I do not want to be remembered for things I did. I want to be remembered when people use things I built.

      I love internet. It is a technology that has immense potential. I want to utilize it.

      I love computers. Computers (including the small ones called smartphones) are all over the world. Sooner or later they will take over the world. I definitely want to be a part of this take-over.

      I love teaching and learning. I want to help people learn all they want to. Knowledge should not become monopolized. 

      I believe I am good at a few different skills – programming, writing, clinical care, teaching. I want to do things that utilize all my skills. If I do not utilize all the skills I have, I am wasting those skills. That would be running away from “duty”.

      In fact, I have a few ideas in my mind which are aligned with all these preferences. I want to build free software (free as in freedom) that bring the power of internet and data science to healthcare. I want to enable people (especially the ones in healthcare) to achieve more through the use of technology. I want to make sure this immense power (of technology) does not get accumulated in a few hands. And I want more people like me – I want to ensure there are hundreds of thousands of people with me who do things like me (or better!).

      These can’t happen if I am alone. I need to connect with people. I need to build on collective strength. I already know a few people I would love to work with. Almost all of them are in the Silicon Valley of India. What makes perfect sense for me to do next is – move to Bangalore and start talking to people. That’s what I am going to do as well.