Having a perspective is ballsy.

I don’t care for summaries. I care for perspectives.

My first publication in my first year of my PhD was a perspective on catalyst design. It wasn’t a review or summary of what’s been done — it was a take on what research questions we should be asking towards developing advanced materials. Reviews bore me. Summaries are easy. But I love a perspective. There’s something inherently challenging about forming one. You have to push yourself to think beyond what is and understand what it means. You can’t get away by listing a string of facts — facts are inarguable and they’re defined. They’re too safe. A perspective, on the other hand, invites disagreement. It isn’t right or wrong. It’s risky, and it’s valuable.

That’s what makes having a perspective ballsy — it forces tension. And I love that. There’s a lot of energy stored in tension, and that can easily become dangerous and polarizing if it’s not responsibly handled. I love when someone can hold a strong point of view and deliver it with class, clarity, and respect.

My first perspective for this blog is that I don’t think your career needs to be your calling.

I’ve always found the question “Why are you getting a PhD?” annoying. Not because I don’t know the answer — but because I don’t have the “right” one. I wasn’t motivated by a burning passion for science or engineering. I can fulfill that by teaching myself fluid mechanics on my own without a five year shot in the dark commitment. If you know me, you know the string of events that got me here. I’ve always hunted for opportunity — that’s what I do. That’s what led me to this. And while I might not care deeply about my specific research topic, I definitely care about being part of something ambitious, something important. If that something happens to have strong societal impact? Icing on the cake. But I would be lying if I said saving the Earth from climate change was my north star that I was set on from a young age.

Recently, I was on a date and the guy said he could see me running a massive event planning company — because, in his words, “event planning is just a big optimization matrix which [I] would crush every time” That stuck with me. He saw career alignment through traits — not passions. I liked his perspective. He’s a private equity financier.

When I ask people what they do for a living, I rarely take their first answer at face value. Maybe that’s cynical — or maybe it’s honest. I just don’t think most people are driven by a single, clean-cut reason. People are shaped by circumstance, by necessity, by curiosity, by randomness. Some answers are deep, and some aren’t.

If someone tells me they’re in medicine “to save lives,” and someone else says they’re in finance “for the money,” I don’t rank those answers morally. I don’t assume one person is noble and the other has sold their soul. I think they’re both being practical, responsible, ambitious — in their own way.

That’s my first perspective.