“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I was in high school when I first heard this quote from Arthur Clarke, but it accurately captured how I felt at the onset of the technological revolution we were experiencing in the 2000s. To me, seeing the first iPod or talking to someone across the world over Skype made my eyes light up like magic does for others. Ever since then, I’ve been the stereotypical technologist, obsessing over every new technology from the incremental smartphone to the revolutionary autonomous car.

However, college brought for me a different connection, this time more emotional than intellectual. I worked with Engineers Without Borders and other social impact organizations, both locally and internationally, and found that this gave my career a meaning I hadn’t found before. My own life had been the subject of great fortune, moving from India to Alabama thanks to my parents and finding my way to a institution like Rice University where I could grow and learn. Of course, even with my subsequent work in the developing world I’ve had a minimal impact in the grand scheme. However, in a slightly selfish way I recognize that this path fulfills and energizes me more than any of my previous jobs.

So, how do I reconcile this emotional prerogative towards social impact with the intellectual drive towards cutting edge technology? I find myself spending much of my free time reading, learning, and thinking about new technologies and how I would implement or improve on them. However, I’ve worked in the tech sector both as a consultant and a manager and haven’t found the day to day fulfillment I did in social impact, although I was more excited about the product I was working on. This is the question I’m hoping to answer in this class – how do I reconcile these two differences to craft a career that is both fulfilling, yet intellectually satiating with my love of technology.