(re)Defining Directions

I hoped to find direction by moving in a different one.

Cambridge was my way of literally and figuratively moving out. Moving out of MIT into somewhere new, moving out of my comfort zone into the unknown, and whether for better or for worse, moving.

Since then I've found that being out of the MIT intensity has been a double-edged sword. I needed the change of scenery to disrupt my mental bubble, but the lack of like-minded, passionate people at Cambridge quickly led me to complacency. DFA used to be my reminder of why I get up in the morning, but now I didn't have that constant tap on the shoulder.

After a lazy month of thinking about the future only in passing, the internship search catalyzed my focus. "What am I doing this summer" led to "What do I want to do for the rest of my life?" The internal conflict between d.thinking and engineering, people and product, the personal and the physical, kept recurring.

And now I'm trying to find my niche on the spectrum.  Where do I belong? What do I want to spend the rest of my life doing?

I love working with people, but don't want to waste my engineering background. I appreciate the quick iterative process of design, but want physical deliverables to show for my work. I love the buzz of gathering user insights, but am too aware that "understanding people" doesn't sound like a legitimate interest, especially in the engineering world. My background has made it so I will never be completely satisfied by the fluffiness of strategy or organizational design. On the other hand, a completely hardware approach will keep me wanting for more personal interactions.

So where's this leave me? Mike has inadvertently taught me a lot throughout this search. Seeing how passionately he pursues projects, I see my own passion for working with people. His excitement for solving difficult problems is the same as mine for advising project teams or redefining organizational structures. It's clear now that my heart is not in hardware design itself; I'm driven by the people I can affect and the minds I can change. I want to inspire, and that's easier for me to do through interacting rather than creating. For me, product design has always been a means to an end and that's no way to go about things: I know I will never be completely satisfied in hardware design when I am living from the high of one user interaction to the next.

So the struggle is now in finding the perfect balance, and many flowcharts and cafe visits later, the working idea is this: 

Start a design consultancy that has two focuses:

1. Design solutions for impact-driven clients looking to redefine how people live in a meaningful way (vague I know, but it's a start :D). Shoutout to Gravity Tank for doing some damn cool and inspiring consulting work.
2. Redefine CSR by having employees mentor students in design for social impact projects. Take an active role in the community like ideo.org or Vecna do. This will hopefully set a new precedent for corporate community engagement.

So that's where I am now, and I'd say that's a pretty reasonable start. I'm sure this idea will go through many iterations in the next few months, even weeks, but the core is there: I want to impact lives and understand people. The path to get there will likely wind through many obstacles, but I'm more confident with those uncertainties now that the goal is defined.