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TL;DR: I left my job and enrolled in UCL to get a formal education in brain sciences.

I moved to the UK in 2020, If someone had asked me at that time whether I would ever consider joining a master’s program, I would have answered no without thinking twice. Yet here I am. So what changed?

A bunch of things happened(below) and I came to the conclusion that going for master’s now is the most optimal trajectory.

  • ILR: After working for 5 years, I managed to get Indefinite Leave to Remain. This meant I no longer need a skilled worker visa to stay in UK and I also qualify as a home student. If I had to pay international student fees, I honestly wouldn’t have enrolled because, as much as I love the program, I don’t think the international fees are worth it.

  • Burnout: I loved being a programmer, but after 5 years at Facebook Meta, I belive I experienced a burnout. It became clear I was no longer the person I was at the start of the job. I don’t know if this was due to the culture shift that started in 2023, the intense internal competition or due to personal reasons and at this point that’s immaterial.

  • Formal education helps: I have always been interested in learning more about the mind but never had the time. Before applying for the master’s, I spent close to six weeks studying books, research articles and blogs, hoping to get a high-level understanding of brain anatomy and cognition, only to realize I severely underestimated the effort needed. If I tried on my own, it would take multiple years to get to reach the level of understanding I wanted, and even then the odds are not really in my favor. So I had to consider the formal education option.

  • Global moral crisis: This deserves a seperate post but I will keep it short here. Answer the MCQ, the current president of USA is ?

    You can see where this is going. I always thought the felon was the problem but after seeing 70 million+ people vote for an insurrectionist I realized he is the symptom of a much bigger global problem. I expect things to get very bad before we can see some improvement(if it ever happens). So I decided to get out of the game and pursue personal interests.

PS: I was supposed to post this weeks ago but life got in the way.