Blissful Life

When you apply skepticism and care in equal amounts, you get bliss.

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.

    • Healthcare With Smartphones?

      Imagine this. You are a 36 year old lady working as maid in two houses, not supported by an alcoholic husband, and mother of two school going children. Your husband had a wart on his genitals and now you have it too. It is not particularly bothersome, but you are not sure what you should do about it either.

      You think it would be a good idea to go to a hospital, but which hospital? Which doctor should you meet? Would they judge you? Do they charge too much money? Is it going to hurt? Whom do you even ask these questions?

      Enter our app.

      You will be asked a series of questions in your own language. The questions get more and more specific as you answer them. They will also be read out to you in case you can’t read. By the time you have answered about 10 questions, the app knows what your problem is.

      The app has been fed with a well designed set of protocols/algorithms that need to be followed in each situation. It has a curated collection of resources (hospitals, clinics, labs, lawyers, etc) which are guaranteed to give you quality care without judging you or making you feel uncomfortable.

      The app might suggest you to get over the counter paracetamol for a fever it thinks is not serious. But for your wart it is suggesting that you consult a dermatologist near you.

      You can book an appointment with her through the app at a time convenient to you. Your data will be passed on to her with your consent. Later at the clinic you can start from where you stopped.

      —

      Information is strength. Knowledge is power. As a doctor, I have witnessed countless situations where patients struggle because they did not know the right room number or doctor’s name. What the app does is eliminate those knowledge barriers by presenting trustworthy and relevant information in a friendly interface.

      The possibilities that this idea brings are endless.

      It can be tied together with a call center where people who do not have a smartphone can be given service.

      A subscription based service that gives discounted rates for various medical tests and consultations can be introduced.

      Micro-insurance schemes cab be brought in.

      Transgenders can be employed as distributors of the app to otherwise hard to reach strata. They can be given additional training to be able to work more or less like ASHAs in the community.

      Otherwise hard to navigate healthcare facilities can be easily navigated. (Think of how easy google maps has made walking around an unknown city)

      —

      The bottlenecks:

      Affordable healthcare providers. Whom do we have?
      Government is cheap. But what about quality and comfort?

      It might be possible to tie up with private companies under Corporate Social Responsibility to fund the charges at private hospitals. But the costs can become too high too soon.

      An intelligent mix match of services public and private using a friendly application can solve this in my imagination.

      And that is what I am working on now! Ping me if you’re interested to join forces.

    • 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.

    • Way Forward

      On 30th of June, SVYM organized a one day session on careers after MBBS at Vivekananda Memorial Hospital.

      Interns and/or final year students from Mysore Medical College, Bangalore Medical College, Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences, JSS Medical College Mysore were among the ones who were in the audience.

      After the SVYM video, it began with introductory remarks by Dr Chaithanya Prasad, the director of VMH.

      Then Dr MA Balasubramanya talked about administrative careers after MBBS. The gist of it was that as doctors, we are already administrating. There is no running away from it. We should embrace that reality and go forward with it.

      Dr Kumaran K took the audience through the story of his life in research and thereby had them thinking about how to pursue a career in research.

      Dr Ravindranath motivated the audience to take up surgery as a career and showed various alternatives to the MS degree to become a surgeon – majorly about options in various other countries.

      Dr RK Nair talked about his passion for emergency medicine and how to go about it as an Indian.

      Good lunch in between, and then a snippet on Fellowship in HIV medicine.

      Dr Dushyanth P who is the technical lead of SVYM’s palliative care talked about careers in public health and palliative care.

      Dr Seetharam MR and Dr Kumar GS and the audience brainstormed on the direction where healthcare is headed or should be headed.

      Later the participants were taken on a walk around the SVYM Saragur campus and the interactions continued over various tourist spots in and around.

      Downloads

      The presentations [Powerpoint, Google Drive]
      Recording of Dr Kumaran’s talk [Soundcloud, audio]

    • The Sour Grape

      I have been told by at least one person (and I think many more might have the same idea) that “I have disregard for postgraduate entrance examinations and am working where I am currently working like it is something heroic because I find entrance examinations difficult to crack, because I’m incapable of getting a good rank, and I am just finding excuses that I can’t figure out what postgraduation to do, that I don’t want to lock myself in a garage to learn”.

      To them I would say, maybe you are right.

      Maybe I am an idiot.
      Maybe I barely passed MBBS.
      Maybe I should not have been a doctor on the first hand.
      Maybe I do not have the aptitude to crack entrance exams.
      Maybe I am not even smart enough to do the “right” things in life.
      Maybe I am stupid.

      But, guess what?

      I don’t care.

      My choices are entirely mine. My outlook is formed by my thought processes and I can live with the same. Maybe I don’t fit your definition of success. Maybe I don’t fit your definition of smart. I don’t care.

      It is my life. And I will choose how to tread it.

      If your idea of successful and smart is to eternally run behind happiness in a pattern that is set by the expectations of the community. Pity you. I am happy where I am. And I am confident of being able to find happy places throughout my life. I don’t need your free advice on what is the smartest thing to do.

      Do I sound arrogant? Well, that’s your problem to solve. Because if you feel like you have been smitten, it’s exactly you whom I intended to smite.

      You think I will learn myself? Yeah I will. I might some day come back and write entrance exams. But I won’t be writing it for you. I will be writing it for myself.

      I am in control of my life.
      Don’t try to wrestle that control away from me.

      You can try to unsettle me and shake my confidence.
      Well, thank you. But it doesn’t work on me.

      You know why?
      Because my strength lies in knowing what I am doing.

      My future is uncertain. But I’m comfortable with uncertainty.
      My ideas are abstract. But I can think in abstract.
      My philosophy is impractical. But I can make it work.
      You may be right. But dare you say I am wrong.

    • Joining Vivekananda Memorial Hospital, Saragur

      I joined Vivekananda Memorial Hospital as a Resident Medical Officer, on 18th April, Tuesday, around noon.

      VMH is a secondary care hospital started by Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement at Saragur which is a place almost 1.5 hours by bus from Mysore, but just one hour by private vehicles.

      There is a one year course called Fellowship in HIV Medicine offered by this hospital and educational institution that I plan to join later.

      I had visited this place a couple of times earlier. First as an attendee in a research workshop back in my second year of MBBS and then, in the first week of April, as a prospective student and employee. At both times, I have felt that this place works in a well organized way.

      I am sure this place will help me become a better physician and a better person.