A Computer Scientist Among Economists

So the first week of work passed rather smoothly. I was thrown right into the thick of things, rapidly reading up on the background material and even helping to write part of a paper that my team is working on.

My job is quite interesting. It has the potential to really make a difference to the lives of Singaporeans. Well much more than a tech job would have in any case. But I guess, it's my absolute lack of background that makes me extremely uncomfortable. I'm not confident of my reasoning process, and neither do I have any intuitive feel for the matters I'm dealing with. I don't even know what I don't know.

But perhaps it is the first week at work, so all this is rather expected. However, it is rather sad though, that 4 years of training in computer science, 4 years of learning how to think like a computer scientist, how to have an intuition like a computer scientist, is going to waste. I mean, whatever they say about training of the mind - yes it is training, but whether it transcends so freely across different fields, I have my doubts.

And I guess I will wonder if yet again, I have turned my back on something which I had a passion for, and was pretty proficient in, for something that I know nothing about, something which is a more socially well-defined route to success. I guess life will have a way of telling me that I have made a mistake some how.