Seek Inspiration More Than Learning

In 2007, I was way over my head. I was fortunate to get into Carnegie Mellon University and experience that amazing institution. However, the level of academics was tough and my 12 years long root learning stint in Pakistani education system had not prepared me for that. Programming was easy for me. I had been doing it for 10 years. It was everything else that troubled me. Discrete Math, Statistics, Telecommunication, Data Mining and the list goes on. I should have pushed harder to learn but frankly I was never a nerd despite looking like one. I passed most of the courses by doing the minimum to not fall apart.

But, great institutions are not just academic pillars. They enable us to meet inspiring people and get inspired from them. There is ample life beyond books.

2008 summer, my school (Heinz College) Dean had resigned pending alleged charges of favoritism. Another Professor Ramayya Krishnan took charge. I had been searching for a good Internship opportunity for the summer. The best students were hired by Googles and Apples and few like me were still looking. I had emailed Prof Krishnan a day earlier to help me find an Internship when the next day the news of sudden change in Dean position broke out. The first thing that came to my mind was now Prof Krishnan will be too busy to help me out. But to my surprise I get a call from an unknown number around noon. It was Prof Krishnan asking me to share updated CV. I was shocked. He had just been appointed Dean and I was not the top of my class in any way. Among all the chaos he found it important to respond to his student's request.

One of the most difficult courses I took during my Masters was Discrete Maths. It was taught by a then famous Professor whose name I can not recall. He has been an engineer of design team that redid Software for the famous fighter jet F-16 known as Fighting Falcon. I recall the Professor's office was full of pictures of various jets he had worked on. He was smart, I mean super smart. I knew that because I could hardly understand anything he said. But I liked his class. He was tough and not social. He was to the point person. I would sit in front of his class God knows why but I never thought he knew my presence. The class had 40 plus students. Once during the lecture he asked something difficult and the class went silent. I had little idea but he pointed at me to respond. Funny enough I said I most probably had the wrong answer. The Prof smiled and said its OK we are all wrong sometime. I gave my answer which was, guess what, wrong. Prof helped me reach the right answer and moved on. He inspired me to be wrong but speak up.

But the OG of all was the famous CMU "Dying Professor" Randy Pausch. I was strolling in the university center when I say a poster "The Last Lecture of Dying Professor". I thought it was a joke. But it was not. Prof Randy was actually dying with cancer and had few weeks to live and was going to deliver a lecture about life and death. I was fascinated and inspired. On the said date I rushed to seminar hall but it was packed, I found an awful back seat among crowd so I stepped out to sit in a quiet corner to watch the live stream. From the get go the Dying Professor blew me away. He came out looking fresh, did push-ups and made joke after joke. I had not expected that. No one had expected that. The crowd was crying. laughing, in awe, in tears and every other emotion one can think of in those two hours. I had never seen anything like that. I had never seen anyone like that. If I am fortunate, I may see something like that again. If I am fortunate, I may meet someone like that again.

So whats the point then? I think Learning is internal. We can pick a book and read. We can try something and learn. We can watch a lecture and acquire knowledge. What we really need is inspiration to be better, to do better, to live better. Life is short, and its really short without inspiration.