Albert Einstein
On the one-year anniversary of this blog I thought that it would be interesting for you to hear directly from someone who has been instrumental in shaping my view of the incredibly talented students that attend Yale. Moreover, this rising junior is emblematic of the wide toolbox metaphor that I have been using to describe a portfolio of skills that at its core defines a unique level of preparedness for future leaders of the 21st century knowledge workforce. This skill-set is formed at the intersection of the humanities and technology.
In an earlier post “The Wide Toolbox,” I cited Deborah Fitzgerald, professor of History of Technology, and dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Fitzgerald asserts that while students need advanced technical knowledge and skills, they also need “an in-depth understanding of human complexities – the political, cultural, and economic realities that shape our existence-as well as fluency in the powerful forms of thinking and creativity cultivated by the humanities, arts, and social sciences.” She further states, “Calling on both STEM and humanities disciplines – as mutually informing modes of knowledge – we aim to give students a toolbox brimming over with tools to support them throughout their careers and lives.” For Fitzgerald, this toolbox includes: critical thinking skills, history, anthropology, an ability to work with and interpret numbers and statistics, access to the insights of great writers and artists, a willingness to experiment, to open up to change, and the ability to navigate ambiguity.
The following Q & A is excerpted from a larger set of questions.
Why did you choose Yale? What were your other options?
Yale was actually the only school I applied to. My other favorites were Washington University in St. Louis and Pomona, but I got into Yale early action and decided not to apply anywhere else.
I really liked the vibe I got when I visited Yale. What’s great about the school is that it seems like they try to recruit people who have a “thing.” Everyone is very passionate about a particular pursuit. I love the diversity on campus. Not necessarily the racial diversity, but the diversity of thought and the diversity of interests. Yale on the whole is more arts inclined and seems to attract a wide array of personalities. Academically, Yale is a place with the perfect balance of flexibility and requirements. You have to fulfill certain distributional requirements, but they give you a ton of flexibility within that requirement. The fact that you can take 2/3 of your classes outside of your major was also a big draw for me. Lastly, the residential college system is incredible and there aren’t many schools that have something like it. It gives you a built in community that lasts all four years and a “home base” of sorts, which is really helpful when adjusting to a totally new way of life.
What did you expect to achieve in college?
I really liked the Steve Jobs quote about “putting a dent in the universe,” (emphasis added) and wanted to put myself in a position where I’d be able to make my own little dent. I’ve always been a very curious person, and all I really wanted to do in college was to satisfy that curiosity. I also wanted to surround myself with really interesting people because my high school was filled with kids who were pretty apathetic about everything. More specifically, I wanted to double major in Computer Science and Political Science and do something at the intersection of law and technology. (I was a big fan of Larry Lessig.) To be honest, I also went to college because it’s just the normal thing to do in the area where I’m from. I wanted to be able to check off that box.
What is your college major and why did you chose it?
My major is Cognitive Science. Cog Sci is made up of six sub-fields: neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, economics, computer science, and psychology. I chose the major in part because of the academic flexibility it gives me. In the Cog Sci major, you pick a theme you want to focus on and then design a course plan around that theme. The courses you take can be drawn from any one of those six sub-fields, which means I’ll have a lot of exposure to a lot of different ideas. It doesn’t make sense to me to study anything in isolation (especially not something as complex as the human mind). I think the most interesting discoveries happen at the intersection between different fields, and I’m excited that my major will give me the tools to think across disciplinary boundaries.
Describe your interest in innovation, design, and entrepreneurship.
I’m not sure I like the word innovation. It’s sort of a buzzword that seems like it’s lost a lot of its meaning. If every new photo-sharing app in Silicon Valley says they are “innovating”, then what does the word really mean anymore?
I first became really interested in design after watching the documentary Objectified. That movie showed me that design is all around us, even if we fail to notice it. Almost everything around us is designed. Designers have a really interesting job because they make choices that impact our everyday lives—from the shape of a spoon handle to the architecture of a jet engine. Learning about design makes you look at the world in a new way. You have a new appreciation for objects because you realize they didn’t just appear; they’re the product of someone’s hard work. Design, as they say, “isn’t about how things look. It’s about how they work.”
I became interested in entrepreneurship when I started reading TechCrunch in 7th grade. TechCrunch is a website that writes about new tech startups. I thought it was so cool that someone only a little order than me (e.g. Mark Zuckerberg) could start something in his dorm room and have an effect on millions of people’s lives just a few years later.
Since reading Evgeny Morozov’s book To Save Everything Click Here, I’ve become more skeptical of the culture surrounding design/entrepreneurship/technology. I think the whole industry could use a healthy dose of skepticism. It’s filled with a lot of fanatics like Peter Thiel who think that technology and creativity will, together, fix all the world’s problems. They talk about what technology “wants” as if it has a mind of its own. They think throwing software at a challenge will be enough to solve it. There’s a lot of sensationalized rhetoric out there about how Twitter, Facebook, etc. are changing everything and how nothing will ever be the same again. This sort of response is characteristic of most revolutions, but I think the Valley would do well with a little more skepticism. There are two sides to every coin. For example, even though social media has vastly improved communication, it has also allowed for the sort of surveillance we’re seeing with the NSA now.
What are your career aspirations, and how are you preparing yourself for the opportunities in your chosen post-graduate endeavors?
I don’t have specific career aspirations yet. I like to describe my future in terms of visibility (like the kind airplane pilots talk about). My visibility right now is about six months out. I know what I’m doing this summer, and I know I’m going back to Yale in the fall. Beyond that, everything gets a little more foggy. I really like Paul Graham’s advice, from his essay “What You’ll Wish You’d Known.”
Instead of working back from a goal, work forward from promising situations. This is what most successful people actually do anyway. Flying a glider is a good metaphor here. Because a glider doesn’t have an engine, you can’t fly into the wind without losing a lot of altitude. If you let yourself get far downwind of good places to land, your options narrow uncomfortably. As a rule you want to stay upwind. So I propose that as a replacement for “don’t give up on your dreams.” Stay upwind.
I work hard and fill my days with interesting experiences. I’m not working toward any career specifically. I think that career opportunities, at least as a graduate from Yale, come as a side-effect from staying curious and working on interesting problems.
Do you have an interest in starting a venture while in college or after graduating?
I’m not one of those people who wants to start a startup just for the sake of being able to say that I started a startup. I’m not opposed to the idea, but I’m also not obsessed with doing it. If I happen to have an idea that a) I think would add value to the world and b) would best manifest itself in the form of a business, then I would start a venture. If not, I would do other work that I find meaningful. It’s my belief that the best kind of startups form organically out of a good idea, rather than out of the desire to start a business just for the hell of it.