15. If not now, then when?
If not now, then later. But you should be doing something else worthwhile now instead. I think one of my dilemmas in life is that there is so much I want to do and so much I want to try, but I feel like I don’t have enough time to do all of it. Just in computer science: I want to do research, work at a prestigious company like Google, work at an early stage startup, found a startup and get funding and IPO, be in management, teach computer science, be a PM, etc. just to name a few things. In hobbies/extracurricular: I feel like it’d be fun to learn how to beatbox, freestyle rap, be a DJ, learn how to dance, be a photographer, play soccer to name a few more. And that’s not to even mention family and friends goals.
The point is, a lot of times I feel stressed that there isn’t enough time to do everything. And I probably won’t end up doing all of these things, but I think another thing was that I want to do all of these things now or soon. Things take time, and you can’t do everything at one time. So if I’m not doing it now, I’m doing it later. I just need to give myself more time to try things and that way I won’t be rushed doing these things as well. And who knows, my goals will probably change, and I’ll have new interests. This question is designed to make you think about whether you are doing what you want, and if not, why not? But sometimes things take time to figure out, so there’s no need to do all of your dreams now as long as you are doing something towards one of your goals.
83. Would you rather lose all of your old memories or never be able to make new ones?
I would prefer to lose all of my memories. Logically, I’ve only been alive for 21 years, don’t remember the first 4 years of my life, elementary school and middle school memories are kind of faded, so that’s only like 9 years of my life (which no doubt, have been a real adventure). But the rest of my life will also be an adventure and I think there’s a lot of interesting memories coming up in the next 60 years (assuming I live that long). : )
131. How have you changed in the last five years?
I think I’ve changed quite a bit in the last half a decade, but most people do since high school and college are really formative years where you grow up a lot. On a tangent, one thing I really liked about my high school experience was that they made us in freshman year write letters to our senior year selves and gave us back the letters senior year to see how we changed. I thought that was really cool and a big regret I have now is that I didn’t do that for college. So every year I’m gonna write my future self a letter and then I can reflect on how I change over time and how I view life. I think it’ll be pretty cool to see how my future self disagrees or agrees with my viewpoints now.
I’m not sure how much I’ve changed, but I feel like I’ve…learned a lot more about myself. It’s not so much drastic changes I think, but more of slight molding into who I am today from different experiences. I do think one thing that has changed is that I have a lot more faith in things working out in the future. I used to not really “trust” the future and I would stress every little detail, but now I have more confidence in just doing things I like and make the best decisions I can and things will work out? It’s okay to take risks and do unorthodox things and not play it safe all the time. Which is kind of strange since I ended up in such a technical major? I think I’ve also become more accepting of bad and unfortunate events and that they are learning experiences and a chance to grow.
171. Is the risk worth the reward?
Well, that just depends on a lot of things. Usually with any venture or decision, you have to consider also the cost as well as the risk and the reward. And it really depends on what you want out of life and what kind of person you are. Some things are worth it. Some things aren’t. I also think it’s best to evaluate the worst case scenario (you paid the cost and nothing panned out) and if you would be okay with that. The best case scenario is probably already thought of, which is why you would consider the risk in the first place.
254. Who impresses you?
I think I'm really impressed by people who don't take the well-worn path and pursue more unique things and don't care about what other people think about them. I really like those people who aren't scared to be different and take unorthodox paths and are confident about it. I admire people who have a certain idea of what makes them happy and goes after instead of chasing what society pressures us to value in the world.