I made a post just now, sharing my dear friend @[636590252:2048:Barry]'s music video.
I literally, only went through the JEE process so I could go to college with people like Barry. Between finishing school in 1997 and joining IIT Madras in 1998, I had found admission in the Civil Engineering course at what is now NIT Bhopal. I would have been perfectly happy living in Bhopal as a day scholar and attending college, were it not for the fact that the place had hardly any co-curricular activities.
So JEE was my ticket out of Bhopal, to place where I could do wonderful things. And I daresay I made full use of the opportunity Chennai and IIT presented to me, splitting my time between volunteering, cultural activities, making friends and geeking out.
Earlier today I was party to one of the regular gatherings the children's school organises - the school teachers, management and parents get together as a community and discuss the school's present and future. When asked what I want from my children, I said "I want them to be self confident, self aware. And with due respect to what the school does for them, I want them to know that college, career, school - this does not make them. It only adds to who they already are." To this Manit said that I hope I remember this as the kids progress to higher grades.
It's true. We all change colour when our kids get to grade 11. Life suddenly becomes all about college admissions. But I am writing this post so I can share with you that I was not made by my college. This might help those around you who are struggling with academics. And it will serve as a reminder if I were push my own kids hard.
Some of you are surprised that Kavin is already programming. I was lucky enough to start even earlier, at the age of 8, on a ZX Spectrum. But I honestly didn't enjoy programming as much as I enjoyed systems work.
I discovered Linux in the year 1996, when I was in grade 11. By then I had replaced a Novell Netware RPL remote boot network with diskless Windows 3.11 PCs connected to a Windows server. Slackware helped me replace that server with Samba. But the funnest part about Slackware was that I could recompile the kernel from scratch, with changes.
It's 2020 and nothing has changed. I still boot Linux on all kinds of weird processors. This week I've fiddled with booting the kernel in FIPS mode in AWS. Earlier this year, when I wanted to understand AWS CloudWatch better, I set up https://meet.thinvent.in. I now use CloudWatch to monitor all kinds of cloud based systems.
It's always been this way. I do some projects on the side to learn about new technologies. And very soon I am able to plough that learning back into work and earn 💰. College did not teach me Linux. On the flip side, I was able to use Linux to become the system administrator for my entire department in the second year itself. I had access to hundreds of computers and all kinds of labs. In grade 12 I had learnt C programming, and that helped me build fantastic projects in college and after. Between clearing JEE and joining IIT, I learnt Java, which later helped me get selected for a summer internship at the MIT Media Lab.
All this didn't make academics any easier. I still struggled with the fact that IIT insisted on teaching high voltage engineering to a chap who had signed up for a five year course in communication systems. I got top grade in subjects I liked or which required lab-work, and barely scraped through courses that had no bearing with communications.
Some people like me find their calling early. Some people don't. Either way, college doesn't make anybody. College gives you a degree, and degrees are of some use in getting a job. But college does not prepare you for work life. Destroying your childhood and school life over college makes very little sense.
So I encourage parents to live in the moment. For kids, having a marketable skill early on in life gives them perspective. In 1995, I made ₹3,000 over a weekend doing graphics designing for a book. That's about ₹18,000 in today's money. Right then, I realised, making money is easy. It is just about being at the right place at the right time with the right skill. From then on, I wanted to do bigger things than just earn money.
If you master the art of acquiring skills on your own, you never have to be dependent on a particular job, industry or economy. Over the course of my life I've learnt to use a hundred different software, from SolidWorks to KiCAD to CorelDraw. If my current industry melted, I could just as easily be a full time draftsman, graphics designer or web developer, or even a driver or electrician.
Anyway. I'm rambling. Be like Barry. He turned his childhood passion for music and dance into a lifelong pursuit. His full time job is in software and he is very good at what he does. He would take us all to watch the latest movies, and now his blog about movies is one of the top ten blogs in the world. And literally none of these successes can be traced back to his four years getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering at IIT Madras. Find passions and pursue them with love. Success will follow. Or not. Success isn't important. Happiness is. Be like Barry. He is always happy.
I literally, only went through the JEE process so I could go to college with people like Barry. Between finishing school in 1997 and joining IIT Madras in 1998, I had found admission in the Civil Engineering course at what is now NIT Bhopal. I would have been perfectly happy living in Bhopal as a day scholar and attending college, were it not for the fact that the place had hardly any co-curricular activities.
So JEE was my ticket out of Bhopal, to place where I could do wonderful things. And I daresay I made full use of the opportunity Chennai and IIT presented to me, splitting my time between volunteering, cultural activities, making friends and geeking out.
Earlier today I was party to one of the regular gatherings the children's school organises - the school teachers, management and parents get together as a community and discuss the school's present and future. When asked what I want from my children, I said "I want them to be self confident, self aware. And with due respect to what the school does for them, I want them to know that college, career, school - this does not make them. It only adds to who they already are." To this Manit said that I hope I remember this as the kids progress to higher grades.
It's true. We all change colour when our kids get to grade 11. Life suddenly becomes all about college admissions. But I am writing this post so I can share with you that I was not made by my college. This might help those around you who are struggling with academics. And it will serve as a reminder if I were push my own kids hard.
Some of you are surprised that Kavin is already programming. I was lucky enough to start even earlier, at the age of 8, on a ZX Spectrum. But I honestly didn't enjoy programming as much as I enjoyed systems work.
I discovered Linux in the year 1996, when I was in grade 11. By then I had replaced a Novell Netware RPL remote boot network with diskless Windows 3.11 PCs connected to a Windows server. Slackware helped me replace that server with Samba. But the funnest part about Slackware was that I could recompile the kernel from scratch, with changes.
It's 2020 and nothing has changed. I still boot Linux on all kinds of weird processors. This week I've fiddled with booting the kernel in FIPS mode in AWS. Earlier this year, when I wanted to understand AWS CloudWatch better, I set up https://meet.thinvent.in. I now use CloudWatch to monitor all kinds of cloud based systems.
It's always been this way. I do some projects on the side to learn about new technologies. And very soon I am able to plough that learning back into work and earn 💰. College did not teach me Linux. On the flip side, I was able to use Linux to become the system administrator for my entire department in the second year itself. I had access to hundreds of computers and all kinds of labs. In grade 12 I had learnt C programming, and that helped me build fantastic projects in college and after. Between clearing JEE and joining IIT, I learnt Java, which later helped me get selected for a summer internship at the MIT Media Lab.
All this didn't make academics any easier. I still struggled with the fact that IIT insisted on teaching high voltage engineering to a chap who had signed up for a five year course in communication systems. I got top grade in subjects I liked or which required lab-work, and barely scraped through courses that had no bearing with communications.
Some people like me find their calling early. Some people don't. Either way, college doesn't make anybody. College gives you a degree, and degrees are of some use in getting a job. But college does not prepare you for work life. Destroying your childhood and school life over college makes very little sense.
So I encourage parents to live in the moment. For kids, having a marketable skill early on in life gives them perspective. In 1995, I made ₹3,000 over a weekend doing graphics designing for a book. That's about ₹18,000 in today's money. Right then, I realised, making money is easy. It is just about being at the right place at the right time with the right skill. From then on, I wanted to do bigger things than just earn money.
If you master the art of acquiring skills on your own, you never have to be dependent on a particular job, industry or economy. Over the course of my life I've learnt to use a hundred different software, from SolidWorks to KiCAD to CorelDraw. If my current industry melted, I could just as easily be a full time draftsman, graphics designer or web developer, or even a driver or electrician.
Anyway. I'm rambling. Be like Barry. He turned his childhood passion for music and dance into a lifelong pursuit. His full time job is in software and he is very good at what he does. He would take us all to watch the latest movies, and now his blog about movies is one of the top ten blogs in the world. And literally none of these successes can be traced back to his four years getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering at IIT Madras. Find passions and pursue them with love. Success will follow. Or not. Success isn't important. Happiness is. Be like Barry. He is always happy.