I have too much on my plate at the moment. It must be obvious to the few people who read this blog that I haven't been around much on blogger the past month or so. It's going to continue this way for a couple of weeks more, until things cool down around here. I haven't really lost interest in blogging, it's just that blogging has to take a back seat to real life.
My rambling mind makes a weird connection to this: when I play bridge, I get awarded masterpoints for good finishes. As I gain more points, my ACBL ranking improves. Initially I would keep track of such things, but in the past few months I realized the futility and vaingloriousness of it all. There are a lot of important things in life. Things like bridge and blogging may be fun pastimes, but they don't come under the category of important things to deal with. They are things to do when one has leisure time, which for me has been increasingly at a premium.
At present, I'm sitting at one of those cusps in life when everything can change; in another year or so, my life might be unrecognizable from what it is today. I'll be back to the blog world after two weeks. In the meantime, wish me luck.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Friday, December 01, 2006
Degrees of Freedom
It's a rather stupid pun, actually. That the more degrees you study, the more degrees of freedom your career has.
Education may not be necessary for making a good career for yourself, but it certainly helps. For all the people who roll their eyes at grad students and claim that a bachelor's degree is more than enough to start you off and the rest is up to your ingenuity, I feel only pity. Not everyone has a love of learning, but at least be smart enough to acknowledge that having an additional degree to your name will take your farther in your career.
The thing is, I am considering extending my Ph.D. by a year to get a masters in math. If I do that, I'll be qualified as a mechanical engineer, manufacturing engineer, industrial engineer, operations researcher and a mathematician, all before my 27th birthday! Strangely, I do not think any part of that education is wasted. As a matter of fact, I do not think any education at all is wasted. Education is the one of the few things that nobody can take away from you. It is a source of respect, from the self and from others.
Now, I feel that the more diverse your education is, the more breadth of problem solving methods you can bring to bear on your work. I have made it a point to take courses from fields as diverse as electrical engineering and chemical engineering, and I am constantly surprised by how useful it would be to approach a problem in my field (er... fields, if you prefer) from their perspective. It's so interesting, sometimes I think I could do another couple of degrees after this one.... kidding! Three is enough... a fourth I am considering. End of story :)
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Education may not be necessary for making a good career for yourself, but it certainly helps. For all the people who roll their eyes at grad students and claim that a bachelor's degree is more than enough to start you off and the rest is up to your ingenuity, I feel only pity. Not everyone has a love of learning, but at least be smart enough to acknowledge that having an additional degree to your name will take your farther in your career.
The thing is, I am considering extending my Ph.D. by a year to get a masters in math. If I do that, I'll be qualified as a mechanical engineer, manufacturing engineer, industrial engineer, operations researcher and a mathematician, all before my 27th birthday! Strangely, I do not think any part of that education is wasted. As a matter of fact, I do not think any education at all is wasted. Education is the one of the few things that nobody can take away from you. It is a source of respect, from the self and from others.
Now, I feel that the more diverse your education is, the more breadth of problem solving methods you can bring to bear on your work. I have made it a point to take courses from fields as diverse as electrical engineering and chemical engineering, and I am constantly surprised by how useful it would be to approach a problem in my field (er... fields, if you prefer) from their perspective. It's so interesting, sometimes I think I could do another couple of degrees after this one.... kidding! Three is enough... a fourth I am considering. End of story :)
Cheers,
Prashanth.
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