A few weeks ago I had shared the essay I wrote about, 'My Idea of Happiness',
as an assignment for the Design and Analysis of Algorithms course.
Strange but true.
Well, below is the feedback given by Ranade Sir on the classes' 'performance'
on this assignment. Not is it one of the best analyses of an IITians psyche,
that I have seen, its heartning to see that some professor would take so
much time out to contribute to the students' growth!
Not Surprisingly, one of the most lasting images of contentness, that I have
seen is that of Sir himself, sitting at Shack reading a book, golden rays
streaking all over him.
In his time, to a stray observer, Newton would have appeared something similar
to an Oxfordian, instants before the apple hit him.
Here goes the mail ::
Here are some comments on the Happiness assignment.
I will begin by describing some of the major issues raised in your
essays. I will then describe why I gave this assignment -- why I
think more students should relate happiness and academics. Then I
will talk about job satisfaction and competition.
WHAT YOU WROTE: SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS
First, the most important source of happiness reported by many, many
people were family ties -- happiness in just being with your
parents/siblings as well as enjoying specific family events and get
togethers. As it turns out, this also tops the list of what makes me
happy.
A number of people did say that academics/solving problems gives them
a kick and in general makes them happy. Several also said that
accomplishment makes them happy. These two are of course different --
you may be happy with accomplishment because it is noticed by your
family and friends; the study/work needed for the accomplishment might
not have made you happy -- just that you have the persistence and
mental strength needed to complete a task once you undertake it.
Several people also mentioned hobbies such as music that made them
really happy. There seemed to be some disappointment that they cannot
pursue the hobbies and some hope that after they are settled in life
they will devote time to their hobbies.
Finally, there were also several who said that the competition in IIT
makes them nervous and prevents them from enjoying what is going on.
ACADEMICS AND HAPPINESS
The first point I would like to make is that it is worth asking
yourself whether you are happy with academics. By this I dont mean
the grade you get -- but whether the material you learn is itself
causing any excitement in you, whether you are feeling that you are
learning anything of significance, or whether you are seeing anything
beautiful in what you are studying. The beauty/excitement in
academics is not always easy to see, however. Anyone can see the
beauty in snow clad mountains/flowers/ocean. To see the beauty in a
computer you need to be able to look under the surface a little bit.
But once you do see this beauty, it is as exciting as natural beauty.
Anyone can see the excitement of being able to play tennis well or
play the guitar well. I hope you can also see that being able to
design good algorithms (or analyze them or program them) is an ability
as hard to cultivate -- it has as many intricacies and frustrations as
there are in playing tennis or learning music. But it is also as
satisfying.
Being able to relate happiness to academics has a few other important
side effects.
JOB SATISFACTION
I feel that as an adult it is very important to get a lot of
satisfaction out of your work. After all, you will spend about 10-14
hours every day on it. Note that satisfaction is different from
salary/promotions/prestige. You may have salary/promotions/prestige
but may not really like your job. If this happens, then you will have
to look elsewhere for your real happiness -- remember you only have
8-6 hours for it outside your work. And that time is also needed for
many of your natural responsibilities as an adult (including
maintaining the family ties that are important to us).
If you developed the ability to see beauty and excitement while you
are a student, you will find it easier, I think to see beauty in your
job too. This ability I am talking about is not related to CSE -- it
is the general attitude of looking under the surface, looking for
patterns and order etc.
I dont mean to suggest that you should learn to be content with your
job -- by all means aspire for promotions/better jobs/salary. But
decide for yourself whether the Narayan Murthy's of the world
accomplish a lot because they like their work intrinsically or whether
they work (even without liking it much) because of the money/prestige
involved.
COMPETITION STRESS
Many of your essays report that academics in IIT is very competitive
and causes stress and hurry and so on.
I think there are reasons to ignore competition as well as reasons to
pay attention to it.
Competition usually focuses on external attributes -- how many marks
you get rather than what you have learned. To keep things in
perspective, note that your relative standing in the department will
play a smaller role after you finish than the role played by what you
really have learned. So it is worth focusing on what you should be
learning -- are you learning the ideas/techniques being taught --
never mind what others are doing. Again the message is similar to the
one before: focus on the material you are learning, see the beauty in
it and so on, rather than worry about the marks.
Of course, you cannot ignore competition and marks entirely. For the
simple reason that most of us have a tendency to get lazy -- some kind
of spontaneous decay. So competition keeps us on our toes. It asks
us "how come he/she gets so many marks while I cannot, am I just
lazy?". If you think you are working hard, then you could ask
yourself -- "how come he/she gets more marks and understands
everything faster -- is there something more he/she sees in all this
that I dont? Is it because he/she is having more FUN with this than I
am?". If you can ask such questions you will be able to make
competition work for you than hurt you.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
I am not an expert on happiness, or on people's motivations,
personalities and abilities. So what I have written is to be taken
with a grain of salt, and as an inexpert opinion.
Yes, I have in fact seen people who can do work that they find
unpleasant just because they have will power that keeps them going.
However, most high acheivers I have seen have made their mark because
they love their work. The first step to loving work later in life is
to develop the ability to love academics right now. This will require
efforts on the part of students, and also, I am sure on part of
faculty. If more students participate in this process, the better it
will be.
