Erik: How did you choose what to study at college and how has it remained relevant as
you've gotten older?
Idan: So I chose to study physics and art history, and I got there in a pretty weird
way, because I started off—I started off studying—I did one semester in CS, in Computer
Science, and I just—I already knew how to program and it was a lot of math, and it was
just like very theoretical programming, and I was just not interested and disengaged,
and then I said, okay, I'll switch to—I actually did a semester in chemistry, and
I said, okay, this is also interesting but then I saw that actually what's interesting
for me is physics, then I did a semester in physics and I said, this is great.
I enjoy it.
It's a little bit of like a manual for universe, you suddenly understand how things work, from
very big things to very small things, to just this thing moving on the table and friction
between the table and whatever, and gravity, I loved it.
But I needed something a little bit more for the soul and as I saw the math getting more
complex, I took art history in addition, and that was great because suddenly I was in the
university, I was going to these very, you know, technical theoretical math and physics
classes but then going and studying about art and photography and music and architecture,
and it was awesome.
Looking back at it, then I think it's all just tools for life, and I think that that's
what most people should look at when they're going to college, if you are going to go to
college, I believe a lot in just apprenticeship, you know, a little bit like, we—like the
path that I took, I mean going for instance into the army then having someone to learn
from, how to code, or how to, you know, whatever we did there just—but someone that works
with you, so you don't need all of the theoretical knowledge but someone will help you get into
it, and I really believe in that, just learning on the job.
And on the other hand, there's very few real professions that you can come out of academia
with, so, you know, if you wanna be a medical doctor, probably you need to go there, although,
as well, by the way, they learn a lot of theory and then they learn a lot on the job.
If you wanna be an accountant or a lawyer, probably you need to go there 'cause there's
a lot of theoretical material that you should learn.
But then there's so many things that just have nothing to do with sitting in class and
studying.
So if you are going to go there, just make sure you're gonna study something that is
very broad, very shallow, but is gonna give you tools—thinking tools that you can apply
later in life.
So from, you know, just understanding history or how things were made, and why, and being
able to appreciate a work of art or, you know, physics, and just even though I probably forgot
a lot of what I studied, and just being able to look at things and understand better how
the—you know, what they're made out of, and how exactly they function, I think that's
great, it's just—it's really useful day-to-day tools, and I wish that people would focus
more about that.
I think that when they go to college, they are so obsessed with what they're gonna do
in life, and we're so privileged compared to our parents for instance, that probably
we're gonna—every 10 years, we're gonna change what we're doing, like there's something
about today's environment that just allows us to do that, so don't focus on that, just
focus on what theoretical knowledge you can obtain now that will serve you through life,
and not necessarily through the next 10 years.