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It's so strange to be considered a "peer" to people who have spent years working harder than I can imagine at the same career path.
by casual_slacker 13y ago
It's so strange to be considered a "peer" to people who have spent years working harder than I can imagine at the same career path.
- Schwolop 13y agoI can completely empathise with this viewpoint. People jump through increasingly complicated hoops because everyone else is doing it, without stopping to think whether the end result they're after can be achieved in a simpler way. Then again, there are definitely benefits to competition encouraging a strong work ethic, even if what you finally end up doing doesn't require such efforts. (Anecdotal case in point; I wanted to do Mechatronic engineering at university, requiring me to place in the upper 0.75% of university applicants. This requirement was purely because of the popularity of that course. I noticed that a combined BE/BSc degree was less popular, requiring only a top 20% score - and yet the combined degree let you study exactly the same courses, and you could drop out of the BSc part if you wanted! Lazy ol' me took that option...)
- ashray 13y agoThat's the right choice - work harder or work smarter ? It's true that getting into a top school like the IIT will open some doors, but that's really important if you don't know about the doors you want to open and head down. When someone already knows what they want, there's often a simpler way to get it. Unfortunately, that's not expected of 17/18 year olds and in fact, parents in India will say "Oh you want X now, but what if you want Y later ? Better go to an IIT so that your options are open".
- MagicWishMonkey 13y agoIn my humble opinion, most Americans don't really appreciate what it means to be an American. It's not something you can really comprehend until you spend time in a country like India or China.