Figuring it Out!: Recent Episodes
Amith Narayan
Happy New Year! I hope the new year brings happiness and joy to you and your family.Every new year is the beginning of new dreams, goals, and aspirations. To some, it is an opportunity to begin a new pursuit. For a few years now, I have struggled with the question of how to pick a career and what is worth pursuing. Having pursued several disconnected career choices, I always wondered if I could amount to anything worthwhile. Thanks to some excellent books, I always found somebody to look up to and push forward. While unsure how to make the appropriate career choice, I share three stories that tell you whichever path you choose; you can succeed if you are willing to keep trying.
Being a Teaching Assistant (TA) is inevitable for most Ph.D. students during graduate school. Some students find it as an opportunity when the research funds are exhausted. For other students, it’s a stopgap before identifying a research advisor. Being an effective TA is vital to navigating grad school successfully and pursuing a career in academia. I was a TA during the last year of my Ph.D. I led the discussion sessions on Electromagnetics-I & II, considered the most challenging courses in Electrical Engineering (I ran a poll to be sure!), and won the Best TA award. I have shared my learnings and hope new graduate students find it useful. To the regular reader, this might be an exercise in lateral thinking.
In the Spring of 2022, we decided to take the plunge and buy a house. We contemplated the idea for almost two years before deciding to do it. If you google 'How to buy a House?', you will find a hundred step-by-step guides at your disposal. Real estate listing websites, mortgage banks, or brokerage firms write these articles to emphasize different things and collectively provide a perspective on home buying. Yet, almost all of them only prepared me partially for my home-buying experience. I have elucidated the home-buying process with my personal experience. They can offer practical & valuable suggestions to prospective homebuyers. To the general reader, the analytical approach to solving any real-life problem using excel sheets might come in handy in dealing with other situations.
Last week, I was watching The Last Dance on Netflix. For those of you who aren't familiar with the show, allow me to paint a picture. The Last Dance is a sports documentary that revolves around the career of Michael Jordan, with a particular focus on his final season with the Chicago Bulls. In my personal opinion, it is one of the greatest shows ever made. And no, I am not talking about the technical finesse of the show. I am not qualified to critique that. My opinion is limited to the content of the show. Why do I say that? Read on!
Why do some students do spectacularly better than others despite going to the same school, getting the same education, having the same private tutors, and working equally hard? A reasonable extrapolation would be how some adults make more money than others despite graduating from the same college, same course, and the same year? How does one become an Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Narayan Murthy, Warren Buffet? What made them the people they are? Given the same opportunities, can anybody achieve the same things? Leroy Burrel set the world record in June 1991 with 9.90 seconds in a 100m sprint. In the 1991 World Track and Field Championships, he broke his own personal record and clocked 9.88 seconds. He won the silver medal because Carl Lewis clocked 9.86 seconds. Carl Lewis went on to win 9 Olympic gold medals. Burrel went on to become a university athletics coach. What role did luck have to play in these people's lives?
Why do some students do spectacularly better than others despite going to the same school, getting the same education, having the same private tutors, and working equally hard? A reasonable extrapolation would be how some adults make more money than others despite graduating from the same college, same course, and the same year? How does one become an Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Narayan Murthy, Warren Buffet? What made them the people they are? Given the same opportunities, can anybody achieve the same things? Leroy Burrel set the world record in June 1991 with 9.90 seconds in a 100m sprint. In the 1991 World Track and Field Championships, he broke his own personal record and clocked 9.88 seconds. He won the silver medal because Carl Lewis clocked 9.86 seconds. Carl Lewis went on to win 9 Olympic gold medals. Burrel went on to become a university athletics coach. What role did luck have to play in these people's lives?
Nobody teaches us about money. And yet, it decides our future in more ways than we can imagine. Money can't buy happiness, but neither can poverty. Good money decisions can enable us to plan for uncertainties in life. It can put us on a path to peace & happiness. Here are a few money lessons I have picked up throughout my life.
Over the last year and three months, my wife and I have focussed all our energies on raising a premature kid to good health. Good health can mean different things to different people. I will narrow it down to some measurable metrics. Our baby was 39 cm (15.35 inches) tall at birth and weighed 1.25 kg (2.75 lbs). On the growth chart published by WHO, he was well below the 3rd percentile. Roughly a year later, he is 77.5 cm (30.5 inches) tall and weighs 10.7 kg (23.5 lbs). On the growth chart, he is at the 53rd percentile in height and the 74th percentile in weight. Is that good? Our pediatrician thinks he is doing great, and we agree. Is it all hunky dory? The journey has been reasonably pleasant. We do have our challenges, and we continue to figure them out. I hope and wish nobody goes through our journey. But if you do, here are some things that might come in handy. For the general reader, these lessons might be insightful in the face of any adversity. Here are our five life lessons in raising a premature kid without further ado.