During a coffee corner discussion, I chanced to ask a highly ranked, senior engineer what his plans for the future were. Funnily enough, the guy who always ready with an answer was a bit dumbfounded by my question.
‘Well, I’m quite satisfied in my present role, and I have no further professional ambitions,’, he replied. ‘I have a well set family, and that’s where my goals truly lie.’
When I asked him if this was all he ever really wanted out of life, and if twenty years ago this was what he had envioned he would be doing now, he started to laugh. ‘I too used to think like you when I was in my twenties – steadfast and ambitious. But as life took its course, things changed. Now I earn more than enough money for myself and my family. Life is pretty good as such.’
I was disappointed, I admit. And worse still, I also couldn’t help but face the reality that maybe someday I too could let my dreams slip away and let myself be unrecognizably molded away by ‘experience’. Yet all the more, I still couldn’t understand this lackadaisical attitude.
The world inherited by my generation is a rather crappy one, with a lot of healing and rebuilding to be done. The previous generation bequeathed us a legacy rich in genocide, poverty, ecological damage and terrorism. Yet, why are our best and brightest satisfied by effecting change and bettering solely themselves and a select few around them? Do they not see that their next of kin will have no world to live in unless they provide the transformation themselves?
‘Oh that’s just your young head talking Ramesh,’ said another very senior engineer. Peering past his bushy white beard, he continued: ‘Now that I’m the father of three grown kids, I know that the only real satisfaction in life is to be gained from one’s children and family.’
I realized then that even if I wanted to substantially better the world, I don’t have the best role models around me. The best of engineers don’t seem to recall the oath they took when they received their title: ‘I will strive to apply my skills only with the utmost respect for the well-being of humanity, the earth, and all its species; I will not permit considerations of nationality, politics, prejudice, or material advancement to intervene between my work and this duty to present and future generations….’
Yet, a couple of decades later, many of the best engineers outside of academia are lost in earning a salary for themselves, and supporting a variety of semi-exploitative ventures.
I was deeply moved by this incident. After much deliberation, I realized that my only possibility to circumvent this self-serving quagmire is to not postpone starting to make a difference through my career. Maybe I’m a novice now, but I foresee that if I stay patient enough to garner all the required faculties, it might be too late. I prefer trying now and risking failure, rather than falling into the smart crowd that never tried.
Ramesh Chidambaram is from India. He is a recent MSc micro-electronics graduate of TU Delft and currently works for NXP Semiconductors in Nijmegen.
During a coffee corner discussion, I chanced to ask a highly ranked, senior engineer what his plans for the future were. Funnily enough, the guy who always ready with an answer was a bit dumbfounded by my question. ‘Well, I’m quite satisfied in my present role, and I have no further professional ambitions,’, he replied. ‘I have a well set family, and that’s where my goals truly lie.’
When I asked him if this was all he ever really wanted out of life, and if twenty years ago this was what he had envioned he would be doing now, he started to laugh. ‘I too used to think like you when I was in my twenties – steadfast and ambitious. But as life took its course, things changed. Now I earn more than enough money for myself and my family. Life is pretty good as such.’
I was disappointed, I admit. And worse still, I also couldn’t help but face the reality that maybe someday I too could let my dreams slip away and let myself be unrecognizably molded away by ‘experience’. Yet all the more, I still couldn’t understand this lackadaisical attitude.
The world inherited by my generation is a rather crappy one, with a lot of healing and rebuilding to be done. The previous generation bequeathed us a legacy rich in genocide, poverty, ecological damage and terrorism. Yet, why are our best and brightest satisfied by effecting change and bettering solely themselves and a select few around them? Do they not see that their next of kin will have no world to live in unless they provide the transformation themselves?
‘Oh that’s just your young head talking Ramesh,’ said another very senior engineer. Peering past his bushy white beard, he continued: ‘Now that I’m the father of three grown kids, I know that the only real satisfaction in life is to be gained from one’s children and family.’
I realized then that even if I wanted to substantially better the world, I don’t have the best role models around me. The best of engineers don’t seem to recall the oath they took when they received their title: ‘I will strive to apply my skills only with the utmost respect for the well-being of humanity, the earth, and all its species; I will not permit considerations of nationality, politics, prejudice, or material advancement to intervene between my work and this duty to present and future generations….’
Yet, a couple of decades later, many of the best engineers outside of academia are lost in earning a salary for themselves, and supporting a variety of semi-exploitative ventures.
I was deeply moved by this incident. After much deliberation, I realized that my only possibility to circumvent this self-serving quagmire is to not postpone starting to make a difference through my career. Maybe I’m a novice now, but I foresee that if I stay patient enough to garner all the required faculties, it might be too late. I prefer trying now and risking failure, rather than falling into the smart crowd that never tried.
Ramesh Chidambaram is from India. He is a recent MSc micro-electronics graduate of TU Delft and currently works for NXP Semiconductors in Nijmegen.
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