Quick couple of thoughts

Really busy this month so not much time to do a thorough update, but just a couple of things:

1) I'm realizing there's a lot of small things that can make me inordinately happy if I learn to recognize them. I was at Starbucks one Monday morning trying to get a coffee, and the cash register froze just as I made my order. I was waiting there for like 40 seconds (i.e. not much time at all), and the cashier apologized for making me wait and told me the coffee was on them. I was happy about this for like two weeks following. This is the first time after starting to read Search Inside Yourself by Chade Meng-Tan that I actually felt that yes, mindfulness exercises do work. I definitely am buying into it more now, and want to work on that.

2) I realized I never want to work at a place that I'm not proud enough to own working for. This might seem obvious, but it never seemed more obvious than when I was at a startup career fair held by the CDC. There were two tables in particular that made me particularly grateful of where I am career-wise and the privilege I have in not having certain pragmatic concerns be as pressing (e.g. income).

The first was a conversation with a guy from a company that sells gifts for men, and they are shipped in this wooden box with a pathetic mini crowbar. I found myself standing in this crowded space with a lot of, as far as I can tell, code zombies/monkeys with this guy shaking a small crowbar at me telling me how awesome his company, which as far as I can tell is full of men that subscribe to some stereotype of certain gender roles, and I just thought to myself "I am so happy that I am not you."

The second was a conversation from a different guy whose elevator pitch had this hook: "Do you want to win $1000? Come play in our Angry Birds competition!" This was already a pretty big red flag for me, but I heard him out, and my gut reaction was right. His career fair giveaway was two wristbands to an open bar in Palo Alto, and I found myself so relieved that I feel like my passions and personal sense of identity are captivating enough that I don't need to use the possibility of winning money or the promise of alcohol/other material goods to fascinate the people around me.

These two conversations made me realize how hollow and empty I'd feel working somewhere I didn't enjoy. If short, 5-minute conversations could seem like they were sucking the life out of me, imagine what 40-hour workweeks would feel like. Blech. I promptly left the startup career fair. (I felt much more at home at the social impact career fair the following day, although even there some of the companies present just felt greasy and fake.)

3) I'm doing this thing where I try to watch a TED talk every other day, amounting to 3 TED talks or so a week. This can be while I'm waiting in lines, between classes, in the restroom, whatever (this whole smartphone thing is pretty neat). I realized that in the process of working towards my degree within the infrastructure of formal education, I've lost sight of the joy of learning for the sake of learning. I rarely do leisure reading any more. I'm determined to change that, and TED talks are conveniently digestible, free, and interesting. I definitely feel like watching more of these talks makes me the 21st century equivalent of "well-read" in that I am more open-minded, keeping up with developments in fields that I care about, and generally becoming a more intellectually interesting person.