Missing the days of debating ideas—now it’s all “action items.”
MISSING THE DAYS OF DEBATING IDEAS—NOW IT’S ALL “ACTION ITEMS.”
Follow for more unfiltered takes on the post-grad journey.
Remember those late-night sessions in the common room, dissecting Kant or challenging economic theories, fueled by questionable coffee? The sheer joy of a truly rigorous debate, where ideas were explored for their own sake? That intellectual playground, where every opinion is a potential thesis and every argument a step towards deeper understanding, now feels like a distant, glittering memory. The corporate world, by contrast, often feels like a different universe entirely. We arrived, armed with critical thinking honed in lecture halls and seminars, ready to engage in thoughtful strategy. Instead, we're met with 'synergy,' 'low-hanging fruit,' and the omnipresent demand for 'action items.' The nuanced discussion is replaced by the need for deliverables. The 'why' often gets lost in the rush for the 'what' and the 'when'. It's a culture shock, isn't it? The shift from deep academic dives to the surface-level sprint of corporate efficiency. We miss the luxury of intellectual exploration, the freedom to just think and discuss. Now, every conversation seems to bottleneck into a to-do list, a task, a concrete step. The very skills we perfected—questioning, analyzing, synthesizing complex arguments—sometimes feel… out of place. Navigating this transition means finding new ways to satisfy that intellectual hunger while delivering on the practical demands of our careers. It's about adapting, but also acknowledging the piece of us that still yearns for those campus debates.