I was having a talk with Javohir Akramov today. We discussed a few topics related to career, education, startups, and F1. I wanted to share a little insight I drew after our conversation. (But I wrote this in a stream-of-consciousness mode, so my thoughts are scattered.)

What is a college major? It is a certain educational path you take that builds up the foundation of the career/social ladder you may want to climb later in your life.

When you declare a major, you are also declaring what some future version of you will be doing and thinking about. So you are essentially caging your future self with your current self's keys.

Am I saying it is bad? I don't know.

But Bohr says an expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. On the premise that being an expert is something good, we should strive to niche down to specificities, which, of course, requires one to choose a major. Yes?

No. Not necessarily. You can still have deep dives (husanisomiddinov.com/deep-dives) into whatever field you want, not entirely limiting yourself to a certain path.

But again, I don't know. One thing I know for sure is that one would wanna be in an institution with a multitude of options. If you can go to a university interested in law, but leave as a physicist, that's good. That's what a good university should offer.

I will excerpt a text below that'll explain my point better (it is not about me, btw):

I think re-frame the what to do as --> what do I want to learn about. I think you'll go nuts trying to craft a perfect path. People who constantly do well follow their curiosities and obsessions. Like you, I was obsessed with VC and breaking in for a bit of time. I still love it, but realized that my curiosities were currently somewhere else. So I joined a startup. Was this in my plan when I graduated? Certainly not. But it's what gives me the most energy right now, and it just so happens that I did banking / VC to get here.

In short, the actual occupation is not what gets you what you want. It's your curiosity and willingness to tell your story and why you are interested, and how your experience is best suited for things that will help you.

And again, I don't know.