It’s been 600+ days since I finished college; I’ll have 2 years of work experience in not too long a time, so it’s a great time to reflect on how on the moments that are now behind me and condense my learnings. The world is weird There no certification for adulthood, people just assume that if they’re not hearing too much bad news from you, it’s all good and that they can proceed to be assume that you’re an adult, because that’s how they became adults in the first place. The world is not a pure meritocracy. It’s a natural assumption that talent, skill, foresight or some heightened ability is needed to excel in life; those things are useful but not necessary . Hard work and focus beat most other things.

Life as a working adult is bloody boring. You don’t have people doing as much non-sense they did during their college days. People come home tired and have no time or energy to do pursue things they love. People are much less connected. Not uncommon to see people living under the same roof but locked into their own rooms and barely interacting. After college, you lot make a lot more acquaintances, much fewer friends . Friends here have to be earned.

Degrees don’t matter; but they do! Once you’re in some place, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, however there is no reliable way to measure a persons suitability to work and everyones assumes a good school means you’re intelligent so getting the dream company/position is easier for some. Risk in life is usually rewarded but not necessarily in obvious ways. The journey of life is a long one and don’t worry if you haven’t figured it out yet. You have 40 years to work on your career so there’s absolutely no hurry. Life is non-linear and it’s crazy. People are lame People have no fucking clue what to do with their lives. Most people have zero ambition, and the world doesn’t judge them for it or care about it; probably rightly so . You may take 5 years extra but you’ll eventually be in a position where you’ve reached your level of incompetence, earning enough money to get by and just cruising along.

Decisions are taken so randomly that you better be on the correct side of the decision-makers subconscious.  People waste time and do stupid things. This is probably truer for the youth that any other segment of the population. A weekend spent chilling with friends and drinking like a boss adds mostly no value to you, does nothing to make you a better person and is a fruitless waste to time. People are so extremely feeble. People don’t want to get into fights or challenge anyone openly. They generally lack balls. Bullshit is distributed freely everywhere. Filtering it out and digesting the essence is a valuable skill. People form random opinions, throwing them around with confidence without caring to investigate its validity or its basis in fact . But there is an upside to this; people selling bullshit are equally susceptible to buying it and this is something that can be exploited easily.

Vocal minorities everywhere. “Ask and you shall receive” isn’t just a biblical platitude but something that rings true universally. Its crucial to not only be good but also equally important to be known for being good. Introspection is just missing everywhere. Brands have crazy power. Other Determinism can go fuck itself. Random incidents come and ruin the best made plans, such is life and there’s nothing to be disappointed about if that happens. Just change your plans. You’re never really hitting a wall. You’re just not seeing around it. About me: Getting paid enough to live a decent life, staying away from family and achieving complete financial independence is an incredible feeling. I feel greatly liberated . I’m standing on my feet, finding my own way through the roads of life, there’s no one to stop from doing anything I want, I feel much bolder and adventurous but this also brings along a heightened sense of responsibility, I’m completely in control of the ship called my life and whether it sinks or sails is in my hands alone.

I talk to a lot more people, this probably comes naturally from working in huge company. I’m even surer that most people are complete zombies and/or idiots but that doesn’t mean that they’re completely worthless or cannot be useful or successful. It’s good to lend a listening ear to everyone. I have begun to be intolerant to my own stupidity and introspect much more. I’m a geek and that dictates how I think about things. Useful in some cases but not everywhere. I’m level headed but still emotionally detached. Being a nice guy helps immensely or rather people thinking you’re nice is what helps. I love talking to people and having thoughtful debates/conversations but most people aren’t available for anything more than small talk. I don’t think I’m introverted because inspite of coming off as a quiet person, interacting with people doesn’t drain me and is actually fun. Being able to crack jokes (however lame they may be) and having a positive outlook are solid professional assets. Complimenting people, listening to them, smiling unstoppably at them can work wonders even if you’re completely faking it. I’ve gained the ability to question everything, people authority, their motives for doing anything, their ideas, etc. Well summarized by Steve Jobs: “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.” This a rather random list of realizations expelled from my mind, i’ll probably revisit this list many times in the future.