00:00:00
mediocrity I love my job you hate your
00:00:02
job anxiety I'm very satisfied where I
00:00:05
am and skills I am
00:00:09
inevitable I feel this is a vicious
00:00:11
circle most Engineers of our country are
00:00:13
stuck in there's this constant anxiety
00:00:15
amongst young Engineers about what their
00:00:17
future might be a few years from now
00:00:19
anywhere you go you hear the same thing
00:00:22
this isn't a good time to get into the
00:00:23
job market the job market is saturated
00:00:26
development overall is saturated
00:00:27
development might die AI can do in few
00:00:30
minutes what you used to do in a few
00:00:31
hours the goal of this video is to
00:00:34
understand what needs to change at a
00:00:36
fundamental level for India to produce
00:00:38
solid products at a global stage and
00:00:41
solid Engineers who can be great
00:00:42
employees let's uncover the truth layer
00:00:45
by layer let's understand where this all
00:00:47
started
00:00:49
from let's start from the top CS wasn't
00:00:52
the most lucrative field back in the day
00:00:54
but the core Fascination was towards
00:00:56
building a company that Blitz scaled so
00:00:58
quickly building something that
00:01:00
connected the world and brought them
00:01:01
together so quick the core motivation
00:01:04
was solving a problem it wasn't getting
00:01:06
a stable paycheck every month well that
00:01:08
was true until we joined
00:01:13
College I have a cousin back in Canada
00:01:16
and you'll notice a stark difference in
00:01:18
his attitude and mind towards life
00:01:21
Indians live with a very risk averse
00:01:23
mindset this country is overly satisfied
00:01:26
with 1 lakh a month jobs and it's been
00:01:29
ingrained in into most of middle class
00:01:31
that if you've reached a certain level
00:01:33
it's time to stay in that company
00:01:34
forever pay your debts get married have
00:01:36
kids and then your kids continue down
00:01:38
the same route rarely are people from
00:01:41
the middle class strata seen to take
00:01:43
risks but usually the smartest lot lives
00:01:45
here the smartest lot has had a fairly
00:01:48
average childhood they've always wanted
00:01:50
to break out of mediocrity they've
00:01:52
always had problems at home financially
00:01:54
or otherwise and their core goal has
00:01:57
been to break out of that mediocrity the
00:01:59
problem is they run back towards
00:02:00
mediocrity with a certain CTC in mind
00:02:03
the problem with the country is not that
00:02:05
we don't have ambition is that we have
00:02:07
limited ambition most of the country in
00:02:10
fact I would dare to say most of the
00:02:12
Ians are overly satisfied with a certain
00:02:14
paycheck as long as it comes with a lot
00:02:16
of security the same is not true for my
00:02:19
cousins living in Canada they've been
00:02:20
pushed out to the world at as early as
00:02:22
16 and since then they've been taking
00:02:24
care of themselves this is in Stark
00:02:27
difference from what happens in India
00:02:28
your family is supposed to take take
00:02:30
care of you until you're 22 and you're
00:02:32
supposed to take care of them after
00:02:33
you're 22 there's nothing wrong with it
00:02:36
the problem is Indians are overly
00:02:38
emotionally abused especially when it
00:02:40
comes to career choices it's hard for a
00:02:42
generation above us to understand the
00:02:44
kind of jobs that exist today they've
00:02:46
been raised in a different world
00:02:48
opportunities today are significantly
00:02:50
different than what they used to be and
00:02:52
it's hard for them to digest outcomes
00:02:54
like 1 lakh a month or 2 lakh a month
00:02:56
considering they've broken their back
00:02:58
for 40 years working at a government
00:02:59
government job and by the end of it
00:03:01
reached a similar number once their kid
00:03:04
starts at this point number one it's
00:03:06
hard for them to believe and number two
00:03:08
they really want their kid to stick with
00:03:10
it it's really hard for the kid to ever
00:03:12
run out of that salary cycle and this
00:03:14
leads to the first reason of mediocrity
00:03:17
extremely risk of mindset they say the
00:03:19
rich keep on getting richer and I think
00:03:21
that's true one of the biggest reasons
00:03:23
being the rich have more appetite for
00:03:26
risk the poor don't the good thing in
00:03:29
Tech is that even if you're middle class
00:03:31
if you're smart there are people out
00:03:33
there who will fund your ideas you get
00:03:35
to work on building something taking
00:03:37
risks while drawing a salary that's
00:03:39
never been true for any other career
00:03:41
with such freedom to build products and
00:03:43
experiment the country still is the
00:03:46
biggest job center for everyone all
00:03:47
around the world people still want that
00:03:49
job and are happy staying in that job
00:03:52
until they're 50 and retiring there's
00:03:54
nothing wrong in it um it's how things
00:03:56
have been going on forever I think the
00:03:58
thing that is wrong is to expect us to
00:04:00
compete with countries like the us when
00:04:02
we don't have the risk appetite or more
00:04:04
technically smart people don't have the
00:04:06
risk appetite to build businesses and
00:04:08
it's not just building businesses I
00:04:10
think even as an employee you can
00:04:11
provide a lot of value uh what people
00:04:13
lack is the courage to go against your
00:04:16
parents will and take a 50% pay cut
00:04:18
because your friend is starting up the
00:04:20
final outcome uh the money that you
00:04:22
retire with is going to be a lot even if
00:04:24
it's half of the amount your outcome
00:04:26
won't change you will still have the
00:04:28
same lifestyle what may end end up
00:04:29
happening though is that if a lot of the
00:04:32
country starts to adopt a business
00:04:34
mindset compared to an employee mindset
00:04:37
the country has a whole might have a
00:04:39
chance to compete with global economies
00:04:41
like the US this takes me to my next
00:04:43
Point abundance mindset versus scarcity
00:04:46
mindset let's start with a tweet in this
00:04:48
tweet you'll see someone complaining
00:04:49
that zato is charging slightly higher as
00:04:52
compared to a traditional restaurant and
00:04:54
hence you should just visit the
00:04:55
restaurant order directly from the
00:04:57
restaurant or just eat out you find a
00:04:59
problem in here or not if I do a poll U
00:05:03
I think a lot of people would agree that
00:05:05
what zomato is doing is wrong but how
00:05:07
else do you think a company as big would
00:05:09
ever make money or ever be profitable if
00:05:11
they're not keeping a cut for themselves
00:05:13
but the cut is too high well they get to
00:05:16
decide that if they've created a
00:05:18
monopoly if everyone's ordering from
00:05:20
them they can jack their prices to
00:05:22
whatever they want if it's too much
00:05:23
someone else will come out compete them
00:05:25
and beat them down in the market it's an
00:05:27
open market 90% of India's filled with
00:05:30
speculators ners people who are not
00:05:33
super happy uh looking at other people
00:05:35
succeed even if a company like zato
00:05:38
provides employment to thousands of
00:05:39
people takes a lot of money from the
00:05:41
rich provides jobs to thousands of gig
00:05:43
workers if they themselves pull out a
00:05:45
profit they're seen in a bad light every
00:05:47
other day you'll find a tweet trying to
00:05:49
pull down the legitimacy of these
00:05:50
platforms why because Zamata is one of
00:05:53
the first tech success stories from the
00:05:55
country it's one of the first startups
00:05:57
from India started back in 2008 and I've
00:05:59
successfully built a profitable business
00:06:02
that's public and doing extremely well
00:06:04
more companies will follow I'm not
00:06:05
saying every startup is on this path but
00:06:08
a lot of them are and to see such value
00:06:09
being created by strong entrepreneurs
00:06:12
who had the option of getting a job in
00:06:14
Microsoft back in 2018 but they took a
00:06:16
risk stayed back in the country built a
00:06:18
business over a span of 15 years to see
00:06:21
them become a success most of the
00:06:23
country isn't happy there's the saying
00:06:25
in
00:06:28
three but
00:06:30
first every success story every time
00:06:33
someone's seen making some profits
00:06:35
they're essentially seen in a bad light
00:06:36
people aren't happy seeing other people
00:06:38
succeed that's one of the biggest
00:06:40
reasons the country is stuck in
00:06:44
mediocrity you need to understand this
00:06:46
is a growing pie economies grow over
00:06:48
time if someone is growing the least you
00:06:51
can do is not pull them down the best
00:06:53
you can do is either join them compete
00:06:55
with them or just support them from the
00:06:57
sidelines this is what is known as
00:07:00
abundance
00:07:02
mindset abundance mindset is the belief
00:07:05
that there are enough resources time and
00:07:07
opportunities for everyone to be
00:07:09
successful and the success does not come
00:07:11
from the expense of others India doesn't
00:07:13
have an abundance mindset yet it has
00:07:16
what's called a scarcity mindset the
00:07:18
reason is obvious we've always been a
00:07:20
risk aers country we've never promoted
00:07:23
taking risks we've always looked down
00:07:25
upon failure but the best entrepreneurs
00:07:27
the best businesses the best people are
00:07:30
built out of a lot of failures remember
00:07:31
we're a strong country we're as strong
00:07:33
as iron and no one can destroy iron but
00:07:36
its own rust care I think we're rusted
00:07:39
but we're not rusted Beyond repair let's
00:07:41
talk about how can we fix this what are
00:07:43
the biggest reasons of scarcity mindset
00:07:45
one of the biggest reasons we don't like
00:07:47
to see other people succeed is because
00:07:49
deep inside we know we won't we know we
00:07:51
waste a lot of our time on social media
00:07:54
we know we're not putting in the efforts
00:07:56
in the right direction we just hope
00:07:58
other people aren't as as well and
00:08:00
frankly today the bar is that low
00:08:02
majority of the people are stuck in an
00:08:04
extremely comforted lifestyle a
00:08:06
lifestyle where everything is available
00:08:08
at the touch of your fingertips a
00:08:09
lifestyle that we were not meant to live
00:08:11
but unfortunately most of the country is
00:08:14
Tik Tok India was one of the biggest
00:08:16
consumers of Tik Tok back in the day
00:08:18
remember no such product has come out of
00:08:20
India yet and it did not come out of the
00:08:22
US it came out of China and India was
00:08:24
one of the biggest consumers of it
00:08:26
people hate China for a thousand reasons
00:08:28
they're very restrictive they don't
00:08:29
allow YouTube access from the country
00:08:31
they have their own apps for everything
00:08:33
they don't allow foreign trade to kick
00:08:35
in these are rules no one likes rules
00:08:38
but have they worked well for
00:08:40
them I would say yes have you ever been
00:08:43
to China it feels like they're living 20
00:08:45
years ahead of everyone else even ahead
00:08:47
of the US sure there should be freedom
00:08:49
of speech no human should be forced to
00:08:52
do anything against their own will I
00:08:53
think we strictly need rules very early
00:08:56
in our lives we're being exposed to
00:08:58
social media to a world of people to
00:09:01
things we probably shouldn't be exposed
00:09:03
to and rules aren't the worst thing in
00:09:04
the world 3 to 6 months of social media
00:09:07
detox 3 to 6 months of working hard
00:09:09
rather than cribbing on the internet
00:09:11
might lead to outcomes no one might have
00:09:13
ever seen the bar is so low all you have
00:09:16
to do is for 3 months just keep your
00:09:18
phone on the side and most probably you
00:09:20
will be at a 10x better position than
00:09:23
where you were unfortunately it's really
00:09:24
hard it's probably really hard for you
00:09:26
to sit through this video without
00:09:27
forwarding it our mind has been trained
00:09:30
in a way it's very hard for us to focus
00:09:32
on what's right because there's too much
00:09:35
entertainment on the other side will
00:09:37
this entertainment give you short-term
00:09:39
pleasure yes will it make you a
00:09:41
miserable human being cribbing on the
00:09:43
internet about other people's success in
00:09:44
the long term yes so what's step one for
00:09:48
the country to adopt abundance mindset
00:09:50
it's for the country to have some rules
00:09:52
I think as controversial as the
00:09:54
statement might sound Bing Tik Tok was a
00:09:56
good idea and I think there are a few
00:09:57
more apps that might not be the worst
00:09:59
idea in the world to ban sometimes these
00:10:01
things need to be forced there's a
00:10:03
reason that the average screen time you
00:10:05
might have on Instagram is probably 6
00:10:07
hours but you're not able to sit through
00:10:09
that 3-hour Emi course that's providing
00:10:11
thousands of years of knowledge in a
00:10:13
span of 3 hours you would rather scroll
00:10:15
on dreams because you need something new
00:10:18
every 3 seconds what we're aiming for is
00:10:20
the country to be successful for that we
00:10:22
need an abundance mindset the first step
00:10:24
there is just reversing our attention
00:10:26
spans is just making sure we can focus
00:10:29
on things that we know are right and not
00:10:31
avoid the right things and find any
00:10:34
excuse out there to work
00:10:36
hard with that I'll move to the next
00:10:40
Point step one thankfully is the easiest
00:10:44
step it's just staying still for a day
00:10:47
try to sleep well try to have a deep
00:10:50
sleep of 8 hours try to stay away from
00:10:53
your phone almost throughout the day try
00:10:56
to spend time with your family try to
00:10:58
avoid that merge to eat junk food just
00:11:01
try and stay still that's step one step
00:11:04
one is super easy India is filled with
00:11:06
mediocrity right now but it won't remain
00:11:09
there for long when people start to come
00:11:12
out of mediocrity competition will
00:11:14
increase at a higher level as well trust
00:11:18
me I can be super persuasive turn the
00:11:20
camera around and look at the people
00:11:22
working hard at 5: a.m. there's a woman
00:11:25
sitting in the office until 5:00 a.m.
00:11:27
preparing I like solving challenging
00:11:30
problems that's what I've been doing all
00:11:31
my life and I haven't found a problem as
00:11:35
challenging as this keeping people
00:11:36
motivated enough to make sure they're
00:11:39
just putting in the input without
00:11:41
worrying about the output making sure
00:11:43
that there are infinite some games
00:11:44
running all around me I will be
00:11:46
persuasive on the channel and in person
00:11:48
with a lot of people and when that
00:11:50
happens the above average lot will
00:11:52
become extremely crowded right now
00:11:55
though the bar is extremely low if you
00:11:57
can break the dopamine routine for a
00:11:59
week the next steps will become fairly
00:12:01
obvious to you very quickly you'll
00:12:02
declutter your feed you'll make sure
00:12:04
you're following the right people you'll
00:12:06
make sure you're understanding where the
00:12:07
value is coming from it was very obvious
00:12:09
where the value was in the last 10 years
00:12:12
it was in tech it was in products it was
00:12:13
in startups a lot of startups that are
00:12:16
being used by 99% of India now that's
00:12:18
scrolling on their phone there's still a
00:12:20
lot of Need for competition in these
00:12:22
markets more competition leads to a
00:12:24
healthy economy so try to be on the
00:12:26
other side of the phone build products
00:12:28
rather than using them I'm already an
00:12:30
engineer I'm assuming most people on
00:12:32
this channel are already Engineers
00:12:34
somewhere involved in coding or computer
00:12:36
science computer science is probably the
00:12:39
only degree where you can make half a
00:12:41
mill to a mill as an employee this is
00:12:44
sort of unheard of unless you're
00:12:46
involved in very core sales rarely do
00:12:48
you make this amount of money as an
00:12:50
employee even there in sales you have to
00:12:52
show outcomes in Tech a lot of times
00:12:54
you're rewarded just for being smart if
00:12:56
you've written a research paper if
00:12:57
you've published a library there's a
00:12:59
high probability a big Tech will hire
00:13:00
you just for the sake of it and you can
00:13:02
stay their Mentor Coast for a few years
00:13:04
for packages that even small to
00:13:06
mediumsized businesses sometimes don't
00:13:07
make it's a very healthy business with
00:13:09
believe it or not when I say this
00:13:11
extremely low competition no one's close
00:13:13
to being at the top as I said people
00:13:15
love mediocrity most are looking for
00:13:18
what they can do the next month to get a
00:13:20
30% pump but no one's looking at a 10e
00:13:23
horizon how can you be a better engineer
00:13:26
so that by the end of 10 years you're an
00:13:28
extraordin resource to a very big
00:13:30
company or you are a very big company
00:13:33
after 1 lakh a month if you're still
00:13:35
stuck in the job rut then most probably
00:13:38
it's not your parents forcing you it's
00:13:40
yourself I agree that risk aess gets
00:13:44
pushed onto Us by our parents we don't
00:13:46
take a lot of risk in lives because we
00:13:48
want to make our parents proud get them
00:13:50
a house so on and so forth but beyond a
00:13:52
point if you're making 2 to three lakh
00:13:54
rupees a month as an engineer if you're
00:13:56
still not ready to take risks most
00:13:58
probably
00:13:59
the problem lies in you you've absorbed
00:14:02
the risk aess inside you so much it's
00:14:05
very hard for you to break out of it now
00:14:06
and it only gets worse over time people
00:14:08
keep saying I should be job givers and
00:14:10
job takers but if you look at the
00:14:12
distribution of iens you'll find 90 to
00:14:16
95% of them still working at jobs and
00:14:18
maybe 5% doing startups they're probably
00:14:21
at least on paper the most qualified
00:14:23
people to start startups even though
00:14:24
this statement is slightly controversial
00:14:26
they're supposed to at least on paper
00:14:28
perform really well in anything that
00:14:31
they do including business but they're
00:14:33
always stuck in this canundrum and I see
00:14:34
this very closely amongst my friends
00:14:37
it's hard for me to lose the salary
00:14:38
check and also there's a 30% increment
00:14:40
waiting in the next company or at the
00:14:42
end of the year there's nothing wrong
00:14:43
with it it's a great lifestyle but I
00:14:45
think one should accept at that point
00:14:47
that you're yourself the one whose
00:14:48
Rovers for everyone else people who are
00:14:51
supposed to be job takers you'll find
00:14:53
one very common quality amongst most
00:14:55
Ians they despise if someone from a
00:14:58
different College joins the same company
00:15:01
at the same package and they love it
00:15:02
when there's a very big disparity based
00:15:04
on College in the compensation packages
00:15:07
their identity is tied to being an IAT
00:15:09
and they always want to be the elite
00:15:10
class uh and this entitlement stays with
00:15:14
them for a long time it's like defense
00:15:15
employees uh my dad even after he
00:15:18
retired you know expects people to
00:15:19
salute cuz he was once a group Captain
00:15:22
even though there's nothing wrong in it
00:15:23
I think it's a false sense of
00:15:25
entitlement and people around you
00:15:28
without you even knowing uh might
00:15:30
surpass you when it comes to skills
00:15:32
salaries and every other aspect of being
00:15:34
a wholesome human being while you're
00:15:36
stuck in that entitlement of you
00:15:37
clearing a paper 10 years ago if you are
00:15:40
one of my friends who's been an Ian
00:15:42
here's a wakeup call for you I know
00:15:44
you've been wanted to Startup and I know
00:15:46
you've made enough money to maybe not
00:15:48
retire uh but be safe for the next few
00:15:50
years so if you have the opportunity at
00:15:52
hand if you have the skills and if you
00:15:55
have the willpower it'll only get harder
00:15:57
from here this might be the right time
00:15:59
to start up to everyone else that's
00:16:01
99.9% of the audience it's very easy for
00:16:04
you to reach the same level as any of
00:16:06
your Ian counterparts and from there the
00:16:09
trauma should go away trust me does go
00:16:11
away in 5 to 10 years the entitlement
00:16:13
might not go away for an I but the
00:16:15
trauma goes away for a non let that
00:16:17
trauma go early and try to think of what
00:16:20
your next steps are try to assume you're
00:16:22
already an I try to assume you're
00:16:25
already at that level and plan your
00:16:27
future based on that don't let let a
00:16:29
degree or a college be an excuse for
00:16:31
mediocrity it might make sense as an
00:16:33
excuse very early in your career for the
00:16:36
first year or two after that if you're
00:16:38
still holding on to that trauma it's as
00:16:40
bad as that I and holding on to that
00:16:42
entitlement for over a span of 10 years
00:16:45
step one is just gaining Clarity k no
00:16:47
one is too far ahead of you and it will
00:16:48
take you less than one year to surpass
00:16:50
anyone's level in Tech because almost
00:16:52
everyone the smartest people you know
00:16:54
are all stuck in a social media frenzy
00:16:56
the people who come out of it are
00:16:57
probably going to be the ones that when
00:16:59
and you wouldn't even see them they
00:17:00
Sprint past you so quick because well
00:17:02
everyone else is still stuck on their
00:17:03
phone step two and this one's the most
00:17:06
actionable is avoid doing extremely
00:17:08
simple things I've been trying to lose
00:17:10
weight for a while and my toxic trait is
00:17:12
if I've put in enough hours in the day
00:17:14
that'll lead to an outcome so I walk a
00:17:16
lot a lot you'll see me doing the most
00:17:20
basic exercises the most basic stretches
00:17:22
and very basic walks throughout the day
00:17:24
in Hope of losing weight over a long
00:17:27
span of time while that might work it's
00:17:28
not the best approach for me to break
00:17:30
out of obesity and similarly for you I
00:17:32
know it's much easier to copy lead code
00:17:36
questions and to them I doubt any of
00:17:38
this is going to be relevant at all in
00:17:40
the next few years people are looking
00:17:42
for solid value when they're hiring
00:17:43
someone they really need someone who
00:17:46
takes away the pain points of the
00:17:48
founder the founding team the
00:17:50
engineering manager you're just saving
00:17:52
their time and charging slightly less
00:17:54
than what their time is worth that's
00:17:56
what employment is in Tech if that's not
00:17:58
the case right now now it will
00:17:59
eventually converge there right now it's
00:18:01
highly unoptimal a lot of Engineers are
00:18:02
chilling but productivity tools General
00:18:05
Dev tracking is coming and when it does
00:18:09
only people who are providing real value
00:18:10
are probably going to do well in this
00:18:12
career this is one of the reasons that
00:18:14
most people top out at L3 L4 L5 at
00:18:17
Google and very few move beyond that
00:18:19
because very few are ready to do complex
00:18:22
things so if you want to succeed in Tech
00:18:24
if you've already decided this is what
00:18:26
you want to do irrespective of where
00:18:28
you're at you might not have a job right
00:18:30
now you might be in college you might be
00:18:32
in school pick challenging tasks every
00:18:34
company that you look at today every
00:18:36
successful company is either a deep tech
00:18:38
product that's very hard to build or a
00:18:40
company that's figured out on ground
00:18:41
business really well zomato lies in the
00:18:43
second category and a company like open
00:18:45
a or an anthropic lie in the first
00:18:47
category all of these products at its
00:18:49
core have been built by humans and
00:18:50
thankfully 99% of these products can be
00:18:53
cloned by anyone as dumb as a monkey
00:18:55
it's all first principles thinking and
00:18:58
I'm not saying you'll build open AI on
00:18:59
Day Zero but you can build a smaller
00:19:01
version of an llm you'll learn much more
00:19:04
building that than trying to build a
00:19:05
Todo application I know it feels hard
00:19:07
but it only feels hard because most
00:19:09
people don't have 8 hours to give at a
00:19:11
stretch here is an amazing video that
00:19:13
will take you through how to build an
00:19:14
llm from scratch amongst the millions of
00:19:16
people who've seen this video I doubt
00:19:18
more than 5% have actually built it or
00:19:21
gained any value from it pursued it
00:19:23
later on to build something better but
00:19:24
the only way to increase your learning
00:19:26
curve is by solving more and more
00:19:28
challeng challenging problems that's
00:19:29
what phds do and they're usually
00:19:31
considered extremely smart and known to
00:19:33
retire fairly Rich so if you are
00:19:35
thinking of getting into Tech don't but
00:19:37
if you do make sure you like to keep
00:19:39
your head down spend a lot of hours
00:19:42
coding understanding computer science
00:19:44
how computers work that's really all
00:19:45
that most mediocre developers lack if
00:19:47
you're just keeping your head down and
00:19:49
solving complex problems stepping out of
00:19:52
your comfort zone almost every other day
00:19:53
before you know it you have a following
00:19:54
of half a million people thinking you
00:19:56
know something but I don't know anything
00:19:58
I just just like solving complex
00:19:59
problems um if you keep doing that over
00:20:02
a long span of time there are only X
00:20:04
number of things that you need to know
00:20:05
to become a good computer scientist to
00:20:07
be able to communicate with other people
00:20:10
to make sure you're not feeling
00:20:11
alienated in a conversation uh among
00:20:13
smart people make sure you're ready for
00:20:14
it and if you are it's a very nice cozy
00:20:18
small community of developers that
00:20:21
eventually end up doing this for a
00:20:23
living the good ones aim to be there
00:20:25
keep a longer term Horizon in mind and
00:20:28
make sure you're staying away from any
00:20:30
distraction until you get there with
00:20:32
that we'll end it I'll see you guys in
00:20:33
the next one bye-bye