Be Useful to the World

At the 2019 Deep Learning Indaba I overheard a wonderful conversation between a few delegates during their lunch break and I just wanted to share the sentiment that they were so eloquently discussing.

When we think about our careers, there are a vast number of factors that play into our decision-making. The amount of money we can make, the lifestyle it affords, the social status of the occupation, what our parents think, the difficulty, and many many more. It can be overwhelming at times to figure out exactly what we should be doing with our lives.

The line that caught my ear was when one of the women in that conversation said: “You just need to focus on being useful to the world. If you optimise for that, the money and fulfilment will follow.”

I thought that was beautiful. If we are useful to the world. If we provide people value. If they would miss us if we were gone - then we are doing something meaningful.

Be useful to the world.