[Essay] Academic Alchemy

Why Having many Interests Doesn’t Mean You're Unfocused.

On February 16th, 2020, an hour before midnight, with my fingers tapping on the keyboard like they’re composing a new sonata, I published my first short story. 

Since I was 7 years old, I’ve always wanted to tell stories. Storytellers are magicians casting spells to make people believe for a few hours that toys talk, dogs sing, and dragons rule the skies. 

But it wasn’t until February 9th, 2020, I chose to act. 

On that night, Parasite, a South Korean thriller, won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Their win was like hearing the voice of an old friend decades later and seeing how far they’ve come. Someone who never expected to see again back in your life. New voices in film were getting their stories heard.

With a dumb look on my face, I realized an industry was shifting. It’s now or never to get my voice heard.

As they accepted the Oscar, a game plan formed in my head. 

I dropped my dinner and dashed for my phone. I texted friends that I'd email them a short story every Monday morning. And all said yes. 

Oh, crap. Clock’s ticking. 7 days to finish a story.

But I was an engineering student with no time and no help. I grew up in rural Ohio which is known for corn fields & jokes about Ohio. Not film.

So, I wrote alone for 3+ years, sculpting my craft like Michaelangelo. 

I solved engineering equations by day, and by night, I wove imaginative threads through stories connecting dimensions across time and kept my 2 interests separate. But both my engineering grades and writing suffered. 

Until I realized: Storytelling & Engineering are the same.

• What attracts viewers = Unique Value Proposition for Funding

• Pitching a TV Season = Pitching a work project 

• Story = My final year project

Different terms. Same blueprints for success. Instead of being opposites like oil & water, they mix, and elevate each other. 

Having many interests doesn’t make you unfocused. It makes you an Academic Alchemist. 

It creates the unique opportunity of creating worlds no one’s seen before. There are 2 benefits to being an Alchemist.

Benefit 1: Use Insights from One field to elevate another.

Take an idea from a different field into another and you’ll define a whole new world. 

I stopped viewing engineering projects as products, and instead saw stories. What would a customer experience be using a product? Think of Da Vinci bringing anatomical detail to paintings or artistic flair to his engineering projects or Paul Graham’s essay called Hackers & Painters. Or how an actress and pianist invented Wi-Fi using their knowledge of music.

Academic Alchemists don’t see the world others do, they create their unique perspective to shift paradigms and demolish beliefs.

Benefit 2: Shattering Other People’s Expectations

I get more double takes than Steve Jobs using an Android. 

Being an engineer by day and storyteller by night astonishes people. In their minds, the two career paths are separate like oil and water.

Academic Alchemy is about embracing what makes you unique. 

People think you're going about it one way, but instead you combine different strategies to succeed.

Take a look at your goals and dreams.

• Are you charging at them head on through the path provided by others?

• How can you take your strengths and use them to reach your goals? 

There’s no one else like you in history. 

Mix ideas from other areas that you find interesting.

Embrace your Inner Academic Alchemist.