Do you have any ambitions?

Excuse me for being all philosophical and emo but surely this isn’t what life is all about! Waiting for weekends, sleep deprived weekdays, questioning “what am I doing” every second week? Like what are we even solving for? The governments and corporates control it all while we work like puppets. Does having something of your own (a business for the lack of a better example) make things better? Thoughts?

Rant alert: Have you felt the same way? How many years of work ex after which you started feeling this way? Stability and money I’m grateful for. But I hate the constant comparison and competitiveness among peers/colleagues. Makes me want to quit and do a Teach for India fellowship. A little corporate detox. Wish I had become an athlete instead. I know it’s not an easy life, but It’s the kind of competitiveness I’m inclined towards. Not inclined towards the kind where you compete with people to please a company that will never care for you as a human. But people fail to recognise that, lose perspective, and lose themselves too. People have no class in this shitty world. If I have kids, they’re definitely becoming athletes and not entering this hellhole. Most ironically, I’m borderline considering an MBA to escape the corporate life for 2 years, but obviously I’m aware I will only get entrenched further in it due to the degree.

Recently, every friend or colleague of mine have been on rant mode and very dissatisfied with jobs despite being paid bomb money and crazy esops. Is everyone in every organisation in all functions so unhappy or is this just GenZ problem of setting wrong expectations from the Job?

Hi all, I have noticed that the experienced senior people around me [ ICs, EMs, etc ] have too much work and they are always in a work mode. Seeing them makes me wonder whether I would want to be like them in the future. All the senior experienced people here, how stressful / hectic / difficult is your work life as you move up the corporate ladder? Is it even worth it to chase meaningless numbers, and promotions, and grow up the career ladder?

Shall earn half money, work from home, be near family, see my parents getting old and take care of them. And not subscribe to this Bangalore hustle anymore. I am done with this!

I have all the respect for those who start their own business. But frankly that kinda advice is just so tone deaf and lazy when you are job hunting. For starters business is not meant for everyone, you need to have an aptitude for it. More than that you need to have an ecosystem in place. Business means having to bear losses, running after clients for pending payments, dealing with crazy tax laws and regulations. Unless you are equipped to handle all this, you cant survive. There is a reason certain communities in India dominate business. And those who quote Steve Jobs, Bill Gates at the drop of a hat, don't know that these guys had a good support system in place that pushed them. But basically I hate the way people aspiring for a regular salaried job or those having one are looked down upon. This was especially so during the startup boom. Why don't people get it that many just want a regular salaried job? And those businessmen, entrepreneurs, startup founders still need the regular salaried folks, corporate drones to run their companies. Most just want a regular job, work for a fixed amount of time, go home and relax. Lack of ambition? Yes. Is that a bad thing? No not really.

What's you take on working ... Is it something that we don't get about the work or money? What's hidden here from us who are earning for their survival and hoping to become Crorepati/Millionaire with the job... Please share your take here for us all 🙏

Silicon Valley has the smartest people on a convention IQ scale - the Ivy League grads and Olympiad winners. Where are India’s smartest located? Are they all abroad? Bengaluru doesn’t seem to be it because all they are coming up with is yet another B2B SaaS or work for some big tech company.

I am penning this post because so far working in corporate I have realised that somehow we all are going through the same shit. Not everyone needs an adventure in life and start a business. Some of us like our stability. But with that stabilty comes loneliness. Everyone in corporate ( talking about bachelors) is looking for meaningful relationship with good sex. Approaching the other person in office is difficult. Half of us don’t believe in marraige but will get married to someone else’s love one day. I dont know what is the solution to this. More importantly I dont even know the problem. But something is missing. I see everyone in the morning wearing badges sipping coffee trying to gather energy just enough to survive the day. There is no gaurantee of job, life and happiness. Somehow we all have become incapable of living. We are just surving. These are mixed thoughts just like my morning mails.