A bear, riding a unicycle.

I did a four-year bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, then worked as a software engineer, which eventually led me to pursue a master’s in computer science. Fast forward to today: I’m juggling a full-time PhD in material science while also building an electronics startup, along with it trying my best to still squeeze in time for gym, football, books, blogs, and art.

I often ask myself why this constant hustle? why not specialise in one thing , and be happy with that one label. Its interesting because a PhD is typically seen as the epitome of specialisation, and here I am going against that prophecy. How dare I?

Came across a line, I don’t remember who said it, but it stuck with me: “specialisation is for insects.” It makes perfect sense for a honeybee to spend its entire life collecting nectar, but we as humans are wired differently. We’re meant to be multifaceted. History proves this again and again. Socrates wasn’t just a philosopher; he was also a statesman and a soldier. Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, and inventor. The same could be said of Marcus Aurelius, Benjamin Franklin, even Gandhi, figures who lived across different roles and identities.

But then I notice a pattern. In ancient times, being a “jack of all trades” seemed almost natural, but at some point, perhaps after industrialisation, deep specialisation became the dominant way. Society needed people to focus on one thing, do it with precision, and become a cog in a much larger machine. I don’t know the full historical reasoning; maybe I need to research more. But I feel a strong pull towards that older way of living , exploring, experimenting, and walking across different paths in life, instead of confining myself to just one label.

See, it’s not about doing everything in parallel or always appearing busy. It’s also never about chasing everything out there. Its about refusing to make excuses for the things you ought to do or love to do. "Oh, I am 'this', how can i do 'that' ". You’re not a honeybee, you are freaking human.

Be the engineer who sings. The singer who paints. The painter who runs marathons. The athlete who builds a startup.

One of my favourite analogies comes from Naval Ravikant’s podcast. Imagine you’re at a circus. You see a bear, hmmm...interesting. You see a man riding a unicycle, hmm..okay, not bad. But then you see a bear riding a unicycle, Oh wow! and that’s extraordinary. Why? Because when you combine two things that don’t normally go together, you create something beautiful, something better than the original individuals aspects. And it’s more possible now than ever before isn't? We live in an era of infinite leverage. The internet and AI are at our fingertips. From Harvard lectures to Beethoven’s symphonies to Ramanujan’s notebooks, everything is just a couple of clicks away. The world is overflowing with resources, and inspiration. So why limit yourself?

We live in an era of infinite leverage.

I’ve carried this “bear on a unicycle” idea into my own work. In my PhD, I’m trying to bring together artificial intelligence and material science. I don’t know yet whether it will lead to something groundbreaking. But I’m happy that I’m not just incrementally improving some metric in a problem that’s been studied for the last ten years. I’d rather take the risk of doing something disruptive. For my startup too, we are building electronic toys for early native language learning, combining board games and play activities.

Today, for example, I spent the morning reading research papers, the afternoon packing products to be sent to a nearby supermarket, and now, in the evening, I’m writing this blog while my startup buddies are waiting for me to debug that C code. I already know I’ll be going to bed late again, but there’s a kind of happiness in acknowledging it. A strange mix at first glance, but that’s the point, right?

Sometimes...sometimes...the magic lies in bringing together things that never seemed to belong together.

I’m not saying this is the truth for everyone, or that I have it all figured out. Come on, don’t ever cast your thoughts in that way. These are just perspectives from my own journey and I share them as a question: isn’t that the way?

So here I am, the Indian sloth bear, riding that unicycle! Because why not?

*My understanding of the world change with time, so do my perceptives and ideals, I will update this write up, if needed, when I learn more.