Why do we work/study etc?

Find myself and others around me asking this question over and over. Its a variation of the whats the point of existence question I suppose. Try to answer it and there are obstracles. If you say for money - then it become why do you need it? - sustinence, family, enjoyment,future etc... But at what point do you draw the line between the need for money and the time to enjoy the fruits of your labour so to speak. Is there a point of providing for the family but not realy being a part of that family as you are never realy present in the household? Is it too soon to be asking these questions? i.e. when we don't have families etc. should we just work so that we may work less later - but what about your loved ones now are they not as important as when you have a family? And can you slow down or stop later if you become a workaholic now?

Another answer might be - it is expected of us...we are expected to study to a certain level and get a "good" job etc - especially in our societies its about studying to college and getting a professional type of job. Then individually too there are expectations from your parents etc to make something of yourself/ help out siblings other family members/ other comitments - we do things to fulfil these expectations - but do they always make you happy. Even if you think you are doing something you wanted to, is it realy what you wanted to do or something that was sort of drummed into your head till you though that was what you wanted. Think about it a lot of people at A/L college level say they want to be doctors and engineers and such - do they all realy want to do that or they have been conditioned to think they do. There is also the expectation to do something because you are good at it. You might be an allrounder type who wants to try something else (possibly diverging from your "set" path) but you are realy good at what you have been doing so you are expected to go further along that path than diverge.

Then there is the answer that you enjoy or want to do what it is that you are doing/plan to do. Do you put everything into your work/study because you love it ignoring all around? (and because may have to to do it well). Is it possible to suddenly not like it? (I'd say so when I see people question what they are doing when a year or few months before they were saying the reverse.) What if you are doing what you love but it clashes with the other answers (ie it doesn't realy bring in much money or isn't what was expected of you). What do you do when you start questioning what you want...do you quit and change? - What about the time spent - would it be considered wasted or just a phase you went through, a part of your experiences.

So following which path would make it least likely for you to look back someday and say "what if?". I guess it realy does depend on individual perceptions but perceptions can change and what you think is important now probably wont be what you think is important later causing the what ifs to come. I guess everyone whatever path they chose finds themselves asking these questions (unless they have no expectations to live up to, had a trust fund and were able to do something they loved.) I find a lot of young people asking what is the point very early on in their a and its a bit disconcerting - did our parents and older generations have these questions too?

Think before you speak

Some people are guilty of blurting out whatever coming to mind, or acting on impulse. On the plus side such people would be pretty truthful or straightforward I guess. But the down side is that they can say thing they might regret - like make a commitment without thinking things through and end up having to carry it through even though it would be wise not to - or could end up saying something hurtful to others.
The flipside are those who ponder their words and actions thoroughly before saying or doing anything. Great they've wieghed the consequences of their words/actions and probably made an informed decision. Problem is they have thought so long the moment has passed. There would be two courses of action at this point. Say or do nothing as the moment has passed - hence the thought process was utterly pointly plus there is the regret of not having done/said something. The other way is to say or do it anyway which leads to the problem of it being akward since something which is a natural action in one moment would be utterly inappropriate in the next and leaves everyone going "huh?".
I have met people who belong to both categories and wish in both cases that they would be more balanced. But then I guess not very many people are very balanced. Most of us would be in either category in different situations.

Naive Economic Loser?

A friend of my forwarded me this article The Ph.D. Glut Revisited . Reading through one had to agree with what the author had to say that since the 1970's " The number of entry-level full-time professorial positions has remained stagnant. Few new universities have been constructed." , but the number of PhDs passing out each year is on the rise. Ok so this article was pretty harsh ending with a word to the wise - "If the public understood the economics of earning a Ph.D., people would think "naïve economic loser" whenever they hear "Ph.D."" and reading it indeed cause many to wonder their paths (ok including me). But then I think we also need to re-evaluate the article according to individual circumstance. Take for example my uni and department- where 90% of the post grads seem to be scholars and earn equal or more than their industry counter-parts when you consider the stipends and GA salaries. And in an engineering field there is always opportunity in the R&D industry even if you don't go down the professorial track so I guess its a bit of a different situation that that portrayed by the article.
Nevertheless I think we should always consider why we want to do this before embarking on such a long comittment. Last month when my sup asked us what was the reason you all wanted to do a PhD there were a lot of varied answers ranging from "I didn't want to leave school" to "Fulfilling my parents dreams" and we realized we needed to be more motivated than these empty reasons if we realy intend to complete it. I see my seniors down in the dumps sometimes when their experiments refuse to yield anything or when their papers get rejected and you realy need some purpose to keep going through those times. I do hope I will have the strength when my turn comes around.

Enjoying your work or working to enjoy life?

A friend of mine said the other day that it is not realy necessary to find a job that you realy enjoy. The idea is to do something such that you have the resources to do the things that you enjoy. So if we were always were looking for a job that we would enjoy we would be forever starting afresh and then would be stuck at quite a low salary range for a while hence wont be able to do other things that we enjoy. Ok that was a bit confusing but well there is somewhat of a point there. Though i'm not so sure I agree with it. The big flaw I see in that argument is that most of us work 5 - 6 days a week till at least 6pm so unless we have brilliant time management skills how are we actually supposed to do all these things out of work? The maximum we'd get it one day per week and even if we do get to something we enjoy then i don't think its worth not enjoying you self the other 6/7th of the time. I mean I totally see it happening even with those around me - cannot go out on weeknights because you must come home and sleep to get up early the next day - even if you plan something for the evenings more often that not there maybe something to prepare for the next day and then thats gone - even on sundays whole day affairs cannot be planned casue that is the only day you have to tidy up your homes and do other domestic stuff.

Fighting over everything

Everything we do seems to be a fight over a small number of resources. When I mean fight I dont mean physically punches or a full fledged war but ... err well I think everyone knows what I mean. We struggle! We struggle for housing and land. If your working then your fighting for resources or funding to finish a project - even though you are working for the same company. Even studies - everyone doesn't get equal marks... theres something called a bell curve so you have to fight to get to the other side of the curve even if you generally do well. Then you fight for a limited number of jobs and promotions. Sometime you push yourself other times you try to push off the other person. People even fight to keep friends or find a 'soulmate'!
Ok someones going to say wow brainiac are you just seeing this now! I guess so. So I guess thats existence a fight to survive. And you spend so much time on the fight that you have no time to spend on what you actually fought for. I guess thats why reality programs do pretty well .... they just exaggerate and make an obvious competition out of what we all do.

Ramble Ramble Ramble...

Ok to start this off I'm bored hence the post. Stuck in the lab waiting for my prof to come - supposed to have a meeting so cant do anything either. Just waiting and waiting...
People complain that others are shallow, see only surface level etc...I have said that too no question about it; but now all of sudden I think is it possible to be too deep? I mean its a good thing to see beyond the surface of things and analyse get to the root of the issue and so on but when you do that with everything doesn't that make you cynical of everything and no enjoyment is left? Take a book or a movie for example - one can watch it and be highly entertained by it - it may or may not have a deeper meaning - but do we always have to look for that deeper meaning/message moral of story so to speak. I guess in a way thats how we were brought up - fables and stuff how ever amusing or adventurous would have a meaning and in case you missed it there at the end would be " moral of story is....". Obviously that would be insane to put that in movies and novels but must it be there - couldn't it just be a piece of work for pure enjoyment sake? Maybe the way I think has to do with my general disposition - no one has ever accused me of being shallow but I would admit to my self that I'm not an overly "deep" person. I guess im a half half person in almost everything I do - a sitter on the fence so to speak. But being that I sometimes don't see sarcasm and the like cause I don't look for it or think it would be there. When I tend to look at things at face value I guess I miss a lot of intended conversation - but then I sometimes see others find meanings or sarcasm where they are not present at all - if you look hard enough you will find it even if its your own interpretation.
On that note - my friends say I am easily contended - maybe its true to an extent or is it that I appear so. I have a feeling that the later is the case as I want this and that and do this and that and a lot of thins never accomplished and I do have regrets. So what does contentment mean exactly is it waht you feel or what others perceive - is it that even if you want los of things if you can be happy with what you have - thats contentment?
Sometimes in the heat of argument or discussion I feel like saying something but don't ...or think aout it and think about it till it becomes irrelevant so I dont say it anyway. Then I go have a pretend conversation of what I should have said. Ha talking to oneself - is it a sign of going cookoo - hey it cant be all that different from writing journals or blogging - kind of the same thing isnt it. So what I think is if all these people are keeping journals a) the world is filled with cookoo people or talking to oneself is perfectly fine - so says the mad one.
I see pretense everywhere, everyone pretends to some extent I guess its the severity that worries me. We all present different faces to different people - families realy close friends, aquaintences, professional associates. Its the fault of society to some extent that if we were the same to everyone one or the other group would be so shocked. (Try shaking hands and waiting to be asked to sit and all polite careful talk with you close friends and see how wierd that would be). Well when I mean pretense is when a person tries oh so hard to put a face that goes so against what everything else about him is saying. You can see the excitement when a person wants to say run around and play the fool or something but maybe is taught to prim and proper so doesn't do it or does so when no one else is looking - hmm, is that because its demanded of by society? Proper behaviour withing reason is fine but beyond just makes it a bit ridiculous. But then again reason is what each of decide for ourselves I guess.
Ha think enough rambling for one day!

A different 31st night

A week or so before we had made plans of what to do on 31st night, but well what a difference it was. Even here in Singapore which could be said as relatively untouched the major fireworks and countdowns were cancelled or very scaled down. By around 10pm when we were getting back from the embassy we were so tired that most of us just considered going to bed...but decided to stay up till midnight at least. Just sat and talked and suddenly realized it was 12, wished each other in the most anticlimactic of ways. Then around 2 we get calls from Sri Lanka and were told that not a single cracker had sounded. Very different from the normal days indeed.
On a similar note, it has been very heart warming to see people help out. Even though I have heard of reports of aid being hijacked and looting and false alarms etc...I want to beleive that overall people have become good for the time being. Even over here we see locals who come to drop off stuff then end up helping to load the containers till night - there were even realy old folk who I was feeling extreamely scared about them carrying stuff. On 31st, since it was a holiday there was a large turn out of people to help. There were even little kids lugging around boxes that were twice as big as them!!. One lady mentioned to my friend that she had dropped off all her kids at different points to help. Makes one feel guilty for having such a cushy life!