Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
07.10.15
Last saturday was July 4th, and many people in my neighborhood celebrated with fireworks. Seeing fireworks on the birthday of this great nation is nothing out of the ordinary, except, I can't help but notice that many people setting off the fireworks are of Asian or South Asian decent. This is what's so great about this country, people from all kinds of backgrounds can come together and celebrate the same holiday. When I was young, my parents brought me here to the land of opportunity, where fortune favors those who put in the hard work, so I would have a shot at the American dream.
Yesterday, during a JavaScript class I'm taking in Berkley to solidify my knowledge of JavaScript in prepreation for the upcoming intensive onsite portion of Dev Bootcamp, a classmate came up to me and asked for my adivice on how to study. He said that he was impressed by the way I answered questions in class, which showed my understanding of the material. I didn't know what to say, because I didn't study anything other than the recommended resources, but I did study them with a voracious fervor and intense focus that I didn't know I had. The thing is, sometimes we discover new values and qualities within ourselves as we grow.
Thinking back, I've never really worked hard until recently. I pretty much coasted through high school and college, and I only did work when there is a test looming over the horizon. I currently have no concrete schedule or deadlines, but I'm still spending all day trying to master the art of coding. So why now? Why am I suddenly spending so much more effort than I ever did before? Before I do a deep dive into my own psyche, let's take a quick look at the upstart of one of the great titans of the Silicon Valley: Elon Musk.
When Elon Musk, the current CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, started his first company Zip2, he used to work so hard that he slept on a bean bag in his office. He would code late into the night, sleep for a few hours, wake up, and keep coding. He certainly wouldn't be as successful as he is today if he didn't have the motivation to go above and beyond. But how did he get his obscenely large amount of motivation? I think the answer lies in having a concrete goal and...dopamine.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in our brain that participate in the motor, immune, and among many others, the reward seeking pathway. We get a rush of dopamine when we anticipate that our actions will lead to a reward. For Elon Musk, that reward is his insurmountable goal: he wants to put humans on Mars. This huge reward is the reason he can bear the excruciating work overload in his startup days.
My current goal might not be as lofty and interplanetary as that of Elon Musk, but it is still a powerful driving force behind my current state. My goal is to get more freedom in life. But doesn't everybody want that? True, everyone wants more freedom, but to most people, freedom is this ethereal, almost magical, and ever unobtainable idea. We can work hard, get a high paying job, save money, and then maybe someday, when we are old and gray, we can buy our freedom. I really don't see the point of putting off exploring all that life has to offer until every part of your body aches from old age.
On the other hand, pure escapism doesn't hold the key to unlock freedom either. You know the type: the trust fund kid who hasn't worked a day in their life., paying for their Ferrari and hedonistic ways with daddy's credit card. Are they free? I hardly think so. Those people are often the most dysfunctional individuals you will ever meet, they are trapped in a void that they try to fill with ever more materialistic desires. There is fulfillment in hard work, just not to the point of workaholism. The American Dream isn't about being stuck with 40 years of 9 to 5, or blowing your parent's money on cocaine and Gucci Handbags. True American pioneer spirit lies in thinking hard about what you want, and then reaching out to grab it.
What I want is the freedom to choose how I work and where I work. This is why I'm trying so hard to learn code. In a previous post, I mentioned how programming is a portable skill that does not depend on facilities or equipment. As long as there is communication, work can be done. And in today's Internet age, communication is cheap and efficient.
In the current American working culture, people are always rushing around that even on vacations they act like they are completing missions. I want to be able to go on adventures in the Andes, climb the pyramid in Egypt, watch the Northern Light in Iceland, all the while holding a steady job and not having to worry about running out of vacation days. This version of the American Dream is not quite like the "white picket fence" version of my parent's generation. But maybe dreams are like computer programs, they should be updated over time as we discover new values from within ourselves.
