The Bottom Line? Learn, Work, Innovate

Why should students consider studying majors that focus on a passion rather than a potential career?

I assume by 'potential career', you mean a career in which you can make a lot of money, as soon as possible, such as finance, law or medicine. So you want to make a choice, a major that is not related to these money-making professions but for which you have a strong passion vs. a major that is directly related to these professions but for which you don't have a passion.

First, there are many people who end up in a career that is seemingly not related to their college major(s). So doing a major not related to money-making professions in college won't prevent you from doing those professions.

There are more important reasons why I think you should do a major for your passion. Basically, in college, you will get these things that will benefit your life:

1. You'll learn how to learn new things. (Methodology)

2. You'll build up a social network beneficial to your future career and make life-long friends. (Yes, you can do this after college, but professional life is much more complex than college life. You'll deal with things like office politics. So it's harder after college.)

3. You'll learn some technical skills that are particularly useful to your major, such as computer coding skills, writing skills, using a specific experiment apparatus...

4. You'll learn knowledge related to your major.

In all these four categories, I think 1&2 are much more far-reaching and essential for your success than 3 and 4. College life plays an indispensable role for you to earn 1&2, while 3&4 can be learned even after you graduate. If you do well in college (not just earning decent grades), 1&2 will give you life-long benefits that will help you even if you end up in a career unrelated to your major, to which 3&4 will be less useful.

In order to get things in categories 1&2, you need passion for things you learn. You tend to work much harder, think much deeper and practice much more often when you have a passion for it. Only with a passion can you figure out how the things you learn are organized the way your professors present them to you, can you fathom out the inherent connections between different subjects, can you find out the best learning methods which suit you.

Professors can only teach you a small portion of things you'll learn in college, you must learn the rest by thinking actively over the materials you learn, by interacting with your exceptional peers, and by practicing again and again in spite of failures. 

You can't do these without a passion for what you learn because they require you to work much harder than ordinary people and have more will power for your studies.

Moreover, learning with passion will give you a much better overall college experience than learning without passion. I double major in maths and physics. I remember many of the best moments in my college life are moments when I solved a maths/physics problem by myself, using some creative methods that none of my peers had thought of, and then shared my thoughts with my peers and got their feedback. I can't imagine doing this on something I don't inherently like. Learning something you don't like is painful. You put more time in, and you earn less.

If you really care about making money after graduation, while you want to learn something you like in college, see if there are double major programs offered. My college offers second Bachelor programs in law and economics, which are generally considered money-making majors. These are resources you can make use of easily. 

The bottom line should be: spend most of your time learning things you have a passion for.

I asked the question above on the website Quora.com. I did so in part as a response to Priscilla’s interview that I posted a few days before. Her journey, both literal and cognitive, brought her to the US to study liberal arts. She followed her passion for Opera that also include learning skills about film. Now she has a film showing on the Discovery Channel and a show coming out this fall.

The question above then was an attempt to see if there are many others who have followed their passion (or wish they’d had) and have had success in doing so. There have been several excellent answers so far, but I wanted to post this one here because it is clear, succinct, and persuasive—to me at least.

The last line of thus answer bears repeating: “The bottom line should be: spend most of your time learning things you have a passion for.”

Students who find or develop a passion in secondary school or college are lucky. They can then focus on this passion and develop skills. But those who have broad interests are not doomed. A passion across disciplines is a passion too. I would, however, highlight the word “most” in the “bottom line” quote. There are some things that students should learn even if they may not have a passion for them. For example, a student who is great in math and physics should still learn to write well even if it not a passion.  Students should learn critical thinking skills even if the passion for the creative arts is what takes up most of the mental space while at university.  The writer of this answer shows us a passion for STEM subjects but also demonstrates the ability to write far better than most.

I would at this point like to ask readers to play a guessing game. How would you describe the writer who answered  my question, (Those of you have have read my essay tests will find these questions echo some that I ask there)  Is the writer male or female, old or young? Is the write an academic or in business or something else? Where is the writer from?  Create a mental portrait.

I would like to thank Xinghe Li for his answer and for his permission to post his answer here. Xinghe is currently a PhD student in theoretical physics at Stanford University. He completed his undergraduate study at Tsinghua University in China (for those who do not know this university is it often called the MIT of China. It is far harder to get accepted there as an undergraduate than to any of the most selective universities in the US).  Does this information surprise you and if so why?

The people I have asked to play the guessing game already have not come close to guessing the attribute of Xinghe (except that most guess male). One of the reasons I think no one thought that the answer could have come from a student who was educated in China  (or in Singapore or Korea etc.) is the stereotypes many of us have about what the system of education is like there and what the students are like too. All too often I read “experts” on education say that Asian students may be smart but they don’t have a passion. They are good at memorizing but not great at thinking about things in philosophical terms. Both Priscilla and Xinghe undermine the stereotype and so do a number of the other students I have profiled on this blog.

A generation ago, rote learning was pretty much mandatory, but things have changed dramatically, at least at many of the top secondary schools and universities in Asia. The energy  and need for innovation and creative thinking is now a part of the landscape. If this sounds like hyperbole then let me just finish with a brief bit of advice from one of the greatest innovators in the world today—Jack Ma. The founder of Alibaba, Mr. Ma has accomplished what only a few others --Zuckerberg and Bezos come to mind—have done. He too encourages young people to develop a passion to follow it. He also advises them to find mentors and this too is something that not enough people do in university or out in the world.  For those who are looking for ways to achieve their dreams listening to Priscilla, Xinghe and Jack Ma might help. Innovative and creative risk takers like them are part of the cultural fabric of Asia and they are changing the world.