"When I was young I set out to change the world.
When I grew older I perceived that this was too ambitious,
so I set out to change my state.
This too, I realized as I grew older, was too ambitious,
so I set out to change my town.
When I realized that I could not do even this, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man I know that I should have started by changing myself.
If I had started with myself, maybe then I would have succeeded
in changing my family, the town, or even the state-
and who knows, maybe the world."
(unknown)

November 29, 2016

Like never before

This year has had a lot of big things happened everywhere, like never before. But I was focusing on a rather small thing -- finishing my university degree and getting a job I want.

Well, it is a degree like never before. That's like the highest of its kind. I should present something (final product) that I had been working on (so called research) for years, which is judged to deserve the degree. The way of taking lectures and final exams becomes irrelevant. So, there are no answer sheet to refer, no past-year questions to practice, and no grades to aim. In a way, this means it can be almost anything you can contribute to the field of knowledge (and let people know so) in order to graduate.

The thing is not many jobs require having a degree like that high. People like me, who chose to go through the degree thing, usually have had some ideas of the jobs for us. Job hunting takes time and efforts with many things to consider. I think knowing first what we want to do for now is crucial. It might change over time, and so we remain open for options. Nobody knows of the sure-right job to pick and the sure-win path to follow. In a way, this means it can be almost anything you want to do, and archive whatever like never before. Ideally.

Anyway, it's done (degree and job). Holiday! I wish to do exciting work in next year.