computer science at UC Berkeley
Sather Gate on Berkeley campus
It is always a nice feeling to leave a chapter of your life thinking you were good at something and then upgrading your environment and realizing how average you are in a school full of exceptional people. I remember going into UC Berkeley thinking I was a great A+ student and math classes were easy to questioning whether or not I belonged at the university.
The first few courses I took in computer science and anything STEM related gave me a rude awakening for the work ethic I would need to survive in a competition against some of the smartest kids in the world. On top of the curriculum being conceptually difficult and professors expecting an unrealistic amount of time from you, the resources like office hours at a massive public school were few and far between. And while we collaborated as classmates, in a cutthroat environment with very strict plagiarism laws, you were ultimately on your own. I managed to do okay, and I also managed to get a 6-8 hours of sleep each day, join a fraternity, have somewhat of a social life, and play on the club soccer team.
Having to work hours on end doing mind intensive work is a beast of its own. It’s like taking a 10 hour midterm - there’s a reason classes and exams are usually 45-90 minutes. The good thing is that this environment forces you to work smart. What does that mean? It means realizing that sitting and staring at a screen past a couple of hours, you become inefficient. It means taking breaks and using that time to do chores and other things you’re going to do anyways during the day. It also teaches you to work in bursts and set aside focus time with 0 interruptions. It’s amazing how much time the “70 hour week” workers waste on reddit, youtube, and their phones. I think it is a tragedy to gage your success based on amount of time spent. The main thing that matters is how much you got done, and if you were efficient with your time. I’m a big believer that you can live a normal life and still do well in the business world… it’s just a matter of being efficient, staying healthy, and avoiding burnout. It is amazing how much better you gain and retain knowledge, and how much better you work, when you’re healthy and well rested.
Learning how to tackle difficult problems was another important thing Berkeley taught me. That is, after all, what you do in business. I learned the importance of truly understanding the environment and circumstances of what I was working in. Without truly understanding things (like the underlying proofs behind the formulas you rely on daily), I don’t think you can really get creative on how you solve problems in that space. Furthermore, I learned that tackling a complex problem without taking a step back and really taking the time to plan your solution is a recipe for disaster. Planning out a solution into manageable and sequential chunks before diving in not only makes it easier to understand and solve the problem, but also helps you implement things more quickly.
And can’t forget the most cliche of them all: “I learned how to learn.” But this one is so true, it is worth saying again.
