Margins is where it's going down, where are you?

 One common theme to my behavior/aspirations through-out my adult life has been the need to be unique. I hated direct comparison's with anyone. I didn't want to be just the guy who does research/the guy who plays the guitar/ Or the mallu guy/ Or the business-econ-polSci aficionado/ The gymming-running kinda guy. 

I figured I could never be the best in any single one of these things.What made me tick was the confluence of all these things coming together. I could be the best scientist who understands the soft sciences, who plays some sport, who does some music etc. That is a sweet spot that I wanna hit.

 For a long time now, I feel very alone in this thought. Most people around me seem to be okay just being good at one thing and letting it slip. I feel a child-like bliss knowing different stuff about a whole different kinda things

One experience that bought it to bear very starkly, was me partying with African Americans the other day, I was so intrigued by their culture and upbringing that I just kept on asking these people what I had known through the popular narrative of their lives.It was such a delightful experience for me to know something unique, it just brought me so much joy. I hope it never stops being this way :)

I find my approach to be a bit better as it added a whole different scale of richness to my life that would not have been achieved if I was insular in one of these buckets of expertise ( Shoutout to Robert Sapolsky). I figured this out by talking to different sets of people that I met after undergrad, most STEM grads plead ignorance on basic Econ/polSci/business ideas which is sort of mind boggling to me.

I have certain rationalizations for my decision to be broad rather than depth oriented,

1. One of the hotbed of recent scientific advancement has been in the margins and the buzzword being "Inter-disciplinary"- Taking ideas from one field to another and mish-mashing them. biophysics is an interdisciplinary field and I can really feel the difference. I am making strides in may research now itself compared to what my friends in ossified fields like condensed matter theory, high energy etc are struggling to make their voices heard. This logic can be extended to the expertise that people carry in regular life
2. Winners take a huge chunk of the wealth (Pareto distribution). If you can't win in this game, change the game.
3. This is kinda philosophical. You have 'one' go at the game of life, won't you wanna be exposed to how the world works? And the world works at different scales and aspects, won't you wanna know how all these cogs fit together to make this entire complex system work? That's something I always strive towards and I feel is a noble cause to pursue.

Rage, rage against the dying of the childishness.

Rage, rage against the dying of the humility.

Rage, rage against the dying of the I-can-be.