What do you want to be when you grow up?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

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What do you want to be when you grow up?

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I got this question a lot as a kid.

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Think most kids do.

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Shit, I’m even guilty of asking it myself.

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As if a 10-year-old knows what they want to be when they’re an adult.

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They don’t.

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And yet, adults make us believe when we’re kids that we should know what we want to do.

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We should have a plan.

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We should have a path.

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But life is weird.

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Life is windy.

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Life is the furthest thing from a straight path.

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And if it isn’t, go live a little.

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Go take some risks.

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Go fail at something.

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Don’t be so cookie-cutter.

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Don’t always colour within the lines.

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Don’t always follow the rules.

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You may have grown up in a family with structure.

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I certainly did.

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My parents wanted me to know what I wanted to do since I was a baby.

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As every Indian parent would say, a doctor, lawyer or engineer.

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Followed one of those paths.

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Yet as I was finishing it, I knew it wasn’t for me.

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That couldn’t be it.

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Life couldn’t just be ‘become a doctor’ and that’s it.

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I knew there was something more.

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I wanted more.

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Hence the big switch into venture capital.

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An industry I barely knew existed in a job I had never really heard of.

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Am I glad I did it?

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Absolutely.

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Wouldn’t have it any other way.

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And yet, I never knew about this path.

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Never knew about this career.

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Never knew what I could be doing.

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That’s the world we’re going into.

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The world is no longer cut and dry.

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AI and technology have changed everything.

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If you’re a kid now, you have to stay resilient.

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You can’t be sure of exactly what you want to do.

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Because everything will change.

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Look at software engineers.

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What seemed like a sure-fire way to have a good career and stable life when I was graduating high school has become completely obsolete with the advent of AI.

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AI will do a junior software engineer's job better than any human.

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And it will work 24/7 for a fraction of the cost.

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So all those kids going into computer engineering are cooked.

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Now, if you use those skills you learned and find your own path, you’ll be fine.

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Oftentimes that means exploring careers on the edge.

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Combining passions into one mode.

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I remember this interview years ago, where I heard someone say,

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Go become the top 10-20% in two or more domains.

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If you can do that, you’ll be set.

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For example, not just software engineering but also writing.

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If you can write about software engineering and the future, you may have an incredible path ahead of you.

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Too many times, we’re told to specialize.

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To go so deep in one career or domain.

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Don’t listen to that advice.

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It’s terrible.

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Go learn about multiple domains.

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Multiple paths.

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Try new things.

Be a generalist.

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There’s even new research that came out this week (link here).

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A paper was published in the Journal of Science, one of the most prestigious journals, which followed the paths of the elite.

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Nobel prize winners, chess grandmasters, Olympians, and more.

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The conclusion was that early specialization gets early wins. 

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But over time, generalists outperform. 

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Those who explore multiple domains consistently rise higher than early specialists, who often plateau.

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The takeaway is this - try new things.

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Explore widely.

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Follow your curiosity.

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See where it takes you.

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Your future self will thank you.

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Especially into this AI world we’re going into.

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So when someone asks you what you want to be when you grow up, tell them you don’t know.

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It’s ok to say that.

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Follow your curiosity instead and watch where it takes you.

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