A few weeks ago I participated in a career panel for high-schoolers at my son’s school. Generally, I avoid advising people I’m not familiar with, but I thought about my younger self, realized how valuable such a forum would have been to him, and decided to share whatever experiences I had with the students.

After my fellow panelists and I introduced ourselves, the students got to their questions (the panel had five other parents). The initial set of questions were familiar and obvious:

“What is your typical day like?”

“What did you study to do what you’re doing now?”

“What did you wish you did better when you were our age?”

“How do I find my passion?”

After a while, the seriousness-factor of the questions went up a few notches. They came from all parts of the room and were phrased differently but they all boiled down to one burning question that revealed a palpable sense of the uncertainty they felt about their futures: 

“How do I know what I’m doing will be useful in the future?”

This anxiety is understandable. Even people with decades of real world experience struggle with this question. The world presents so many interesting problems and opportunities. How do you know which problems to focus on or opportunities to pursue? And how do you go about doing this? There is no one-size-fits-all answer and there never will be. But there are a few things we all could do while we search for these answers.

Learn how to learn

It’s impossible to foresee which problems will capture the world’s imagination in the next 10 – 20 years. But we can be certain that we have to continue learning if we intend to contribute to solving any of these problems. In this context, the ability and willingness to learn new skills and ideas is more important than specific expertise since this allows one to adapt to opportunities and interests as they appear. 

It’s not immediately obvious, but most people learn – I mean, really learn – by themselves. I took me a long time to realize this. We all need instruction, discussions, exams, classes, teachers, mentors, and such. But true learning emerges from the willingness to burrow deep into the rabbit holes your mind notices, to ask thoughtful questions, seek and assess different answers, and to wrestle with and tame incomplete ideas. The good news is that anyone can do this, even ‘just’ a high-schooler, at any time. Take a topic or project of interest to you and really dig into the details: talk to others who are interested in the subject, follow people who work on similar issues, read the indices on the reference books. Dive really deep, and when you come back up for air, even if you never complete the project, you’ll have developed a sense for how you learn.

Focus on the fundamentals

The world is changing wildly beyond our imagination. These changes appear dramatic on the surface, but under the hood all the complexity arises from the combination and interaction between a handful of simpler, more fundamental ideas. And these fundamental ideas change, if they do at all, at a much slower pace. Consider the following examples:

• CRISPR is at the cutting-edge of genetic engineering but to get here one needs to understand how DNA works. 
• Computers will continue to become smaller, faster, and cheaper. But the fundamental architectures, after a half a decade of innovations, remain the same. 

There are some among us who intuitively understand where to direct their energy. For the rest of us mortals the only way forward is to explore different paths until we discover what works best for us. And in this pursuit, a deep understanding of the basics and the ability to learn will always serve us well.

Also read Paul Graham’s thought on how to keep your options