Suppressing Ego

I have been a fortunate person all through my life. I have had decent education, didn't face financial problems and have great parents. I am at a better position than lot many.

But, it has a side-effect. I have felt my ego increase with every step I took in my life. I get offended easily and judge people too often(I judge myself too).

Therefore, I have thought of a plan to control my sense of self-importance - learn things outside of my comfort zone. So that I feel humbled. Often.

The first step I took was to complete an online course on Cosmology. It is actually the last of four courses being offered by Australian National University on our Universe. It is being taught by Brian Schmidt, a Nobel laureate and Paul Francis, a distinguished educator.

Reasons for choosing cosmology are straightforward:

• The CS courses I took had very little to do with physics. So how I think is not in sync with how physicists think. Therefore I would be pushed a lot harder. And I was. It was one of the hardest courses I have been through. It was unbelievably fun too.
• Universe is beautiful. Period. As much is out there, astrophysicists and observational astronomers use "indirect" techniques to learn about things. I was curious about what these techniques were.
• You don't get many chances to learn from distinguished people.

That was it. I am still to complete the final exam(but have faired quite well on the Homework problems). It is much work and I can't spare my time as I would like to. But I will do so soon.

Next step? Learn another thing! I have procrastinated a lot on learning Neuroscience. Hopefully, now I will. Wish me luck!