I was recently at the Big Data Singapore meetup and had a chance to chill out with my good friend, John Berns. John has always been an inspiration to me for alot of amazing things that he has achieved but more importantly, one of the aspects I absolutely admire him for is that he is always on the lookout for learning new things.

Now this may seem to be a default advice for people but what makes John different from the rest is that, he actually goes all out to make this happen, including organizing meetups and coordinate user groups to facilitate this. One such example was for the Coursera Machine Learning course thats in session now. John decided that he was going to participate and learn (not that he actually needs to, the guy is a genius), but the trick to ensure he stuck to it was to ping the Big Data User list and actually setup a meetup group to go through the Chapters and exercises together on a weekly or biweekly basis.

This fascinates me. Not many people I know actually go all in and find a way to stick to it. The takeaway from this is 1) Always be Learning and 2) Stick To It till the end.

Thanks John. You’re an inspiration.

I find it interesting when I hear people dismissing higher education on a whim, what now with the dawn of young successful Technopreneurs. What they fail to realize is, college offers more than just education. There is a a reason why Stanford or MIT or Harvard or most top tier schools have a stringent admission process and it goes beyond that form you fill or that essay you write.

What college offers you is the ability to be in a melting pot of culture, and thought and action. In essence college is a place of revolution and enlightenment but not merely physically, but where it matters the most, in your mind. You meet different people and learn different things, and mature the process of thought and confidence in your mind.

You may not need the whole 4 years of Undergraduate or a continuation there beyond, but what you need to realize is the takeaway from it – I have grown. I have developed. Not just physically but mentally and that’s what matters.