SDS 280: Gap Year

Kirill: Okay. Welcome back everybody to the SuperDataScience podcast. I’ve got Hadelin de Ponteves here with me. How are you going Hadelin?

Hadelin: Very well. So excited to be here again on the podcast. It’s always very interesting conversations that we have and I’m always super excited to be part of it.

Kirill: Yeah, remember that time back in 2017 when we had the idea of the lifestyle show?

Hadelin: Yes, yes, yes. I think we should start again someday.

Kirill: Yeah, we should. But for now I think it will be cool to capture these on audio.

Hadelin: Mhm, yeah.

Kirill: And yeah, so for those of you who are joining us for the first time, we’re continuing the series of episodes, this is the second one of this series, where we’re going to be just chatting with Hadelin about different topics that we find interesting for ourselves. And if you don’t happen not to know us, I am Kirill. I’m a instructor, online instructor and Hadelin is my business partner, also an online instructor. We’ve taught close to a million students now in topics of data science, AI, machine learning. And also recently we launched our artificial intelligence consulting firm Bluelife. Oh, what’s that? We’ve figured out our, um, what’s it called? Brand today.

Hadelin: Yes. We figured out our brand, which is simply ‘Artificial intelligence for good’.

Kirill: Artificial intelligence for good.

Hadelin: Our vision is to build some artificial intelligences, that will take the world in the right direction. Cause, you know, all these theories about what AI can do. Well as some people are scared of what AI could go up to. And we don’t want to take this wrong directions. We want to leverage AI to bring some good in this world. Like solving the main challenges of the 21st century, doing AI for the environment or for health care. Well…

Kirill: Assist renewable energy and water.

Hadelin: Exactly. Yup. Basically AI for the good of this world.

Kirill: Yeah. So at this stage we’re very excited to explore different projects. If you are in spaces that do good for the world, then we need to talk and you can find us at www.bluelife.ai.

Hadelin: That’s right. And besides we have a super talented team. Super passionate, lot of talents and they are like lions in cage waiting for some projects to be solved.

Kirill: Yeah, that’s right. Okay. Well, enough of that. Let’s move on today’s topic. We are talking about gap year. So on our little road trip from Paris to Slovenia where we are now, brainstorming some ideas for our business, we had one interesting discussion. We had many interesting discussions. Well this one was about taking a gap year and I’ve heard of the concept of a gap year, because of like movies and things like that, but it’s not really a common thing in Russia where I was doing end of my school and degree. So I was always interested in it and Hadelin, you actually took a gap year.

Hadelin: Yes. I’m super grateful for my engineering school, which gave me the option to do a gap year in the middle of the school program. So indeed, in the third year of my engineering school, instead of moving onto my specialization in artificial intelligence, well I decided to do a gap year. And the cool thing about this is that you can just do whatever you want during the gap year. It’s not like you have to do an internship or go to a different university in a foreign country. No, you can just do wherever you want. You can start a music band, you can shoot a movie, you can start something, start a company. It’s really amazing. But, I chose any way to do an internship in the US because it was my dream actually to have a work experience in the US. And it was amazing! Because, on the first hand I could do this internship, which was in my objectives, but at the same time, on the other hand, I really enjoyed life. And why is that so good? That’s because, well, after graduating my engineering school, I worked nonstop. I worked super hard. I, well first I worked for Google, which required a lot of work.

Kirill: This was later, after you finally graduated.

Hadelin: Google was right after I graduated.

Kirill: Not the gap year. After the gap year you came back, you studied and then you got it.

Hadelin: That’s right. Yes. And what I mean is that I worked so much after graduating. I worked for Google and then I started the businesses, which requires a lot of work. And, the good thing about the gap year is that I enjoyed life fully, which allowed me to not have frustrations afterwards. Because I did all these great things during the gap year. I visited all the natural parks of California. I learned surfing. I was surfing every morning before going to work. I discovered many places, tons of experiences. Well, because of this, then when I worked hard after graduating, I had absolutely no frustration and I was even more productive. Because you know how some people sometimes challenge their life and say, okay, it’s good, I’m working hard, I get all these results, but I’m kind of frustrated that I didn’t enjoy life more before. Well, I’m very grateful for this gap year because thanks to this, I didn’t have these kind of frustrations.

Kirill: No. So you could always look back to your gap year and say that, hey, I did enjoy life. I had that gap year and now I can work hard.

Hadelin: Exactly.

Kirill: That’s awesome. And it was really cool. We were talking about this and I thought to myself, Oh, I’ve never had a gap year. I’ve always been busy. But your comment that you were actually working during your gap year, that you had a full time job and still you saw it as a gap year, you enjoyed life to the fullest, made me think about my life. And I realized that indeed in Russia I studied super hard. I was doing a bachelor of physics, maths in one of the most complicated or intense universities, but then, it’s the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology if anyone’s interested. But then I moved to Australia and compared to physics I was studying in Australia, I was studying masters of accounting and finance. And compared to physics, accounting and finance was extremely easy. Still very interesting and I loved the subjects but it was very easy.

Kirill: So I wasn’t studying as hard at all, pretty much just studying right before the exams and still got fantastic grades in the end. And looking back I can see that indeed I was also enjoying life to the fullest for those two years. I had a really good friend who we are still friends with, Artem, who’s been on the podcast several times now. We did some really cool things. I was at the beach a lot. I was doing watersports like wakeboarding, I was doing outdoor activities, I was meeting a lot of people. It was a great time. And your comment, why we decided to record this episode is that Hadelin’s comment about how he sees his gap year in the past and how it feels him up with joy and energy now, made me realize that I can do the same thing.

Kirill: And I should be doing the same thing. I should look back at those years, those two years, and be grateful that I had them and think about how awesome it was that I lived life, not that I’m not living life to the fullest now, but like in a different way that I was enjoying things, I was doing things like a variety of different things, basically carefree and that’s, that’s good. Now I don’t have the regrets of like, oh, I never got that chance. So now I can just focus on working and building my future and not kind of being resentful that I didn’t have the opportunity to just be, live carefree for a certain period of time.

Hadelin: Exactly. And you know, when I meet a young people who are asking me for advice or recommendations of how they should start their business, well, what I answer most of the time is, well, first try to enjoy life. You’re young, you have plenty of time to start a company and be successful. You have plenty of time to learn. But first you must enjoy yourself. You must enjoy life to the fullest with meaningful stuff. I am not talking about doing endless parties. I’m talking about doing experiences, traveling, discovering, meeting people. These are great things that you won’t have much time to do then if you want to start a business or if you are working in a super hard company. So it’s really, really important. And I give this advice myself to people.

Kirill: And if you are already past that stage, if you’re already working super hard or starting a business, look back on your life and try to find a time when you did have that already and you might actually discover a lot of internal joy that resonates with that, that that has been part of your life and you might, that might empower you more and give you more energy.

Hadelin: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. You, you’re right to talk about this people because for example, at Tony Robbins conference, I met one of the coaches or one of the stuff, staff members. And, so we were getting to know each other and he said that he used to work for like one of the big four companies and he actually decided to do a gap year. So it’s not like he was a student and the gap year during his studies. He actually had a job before, a hard job, and he decided to do a gap year in the middle of his life. And during the gap year, well, he traveled the world while at the same time he is being a staff member for Tony Robbins events, which is a great thing.

Kirill: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s also an option, right? Like you can always do a gap year or another gap year at any point in time in your life and that can give you extra energy and revitalize you for further conquest.

Hadelin: So, yeah, our advice is, be aware of your life. Be aware of the different periods and be grateful for them because they can have a great impact for your future.

Kirill: That’s true. All right. Thank you my friend and we’ll chat to you guys next time.

Hadelin: See you.