Alternative Value

So I was in the PGCSAB: provost and graduate college student advisory board. The work is boring, we discuss different administrative policies in graduate college (like gradlinks, student insurance stuff etc) and provide recommendations and feedback. Then I really don’t want to do it anymore because of the boring nature of the job, but I thought it’s good to spend minimum time on it and put it on my resume, and it’s a good chance to get to know American public university stuff and observe how American people talk and discuss things under such circumstance. (even for such a meeting, I am trying to be a human behaviorist)

Then I ask myself, with the 2 hours that I have to be in the meeting, what else I could have done with it if I am not on this board? Shit I could have done a heck lot more interesting stuff.

So each thing in the world has some attractive parts to drive you to do it, at the same time there are always more interesting/important things to do. I have been always trapped in tons of tasks that is “valuable” but not necessarily worth the time comparing to the alternatives.

So my conclusion is, in choosing what to do, I should not look at the value of that thing itself, instead I should think about what’s the alternative. Value is relative in this case and I should do the things that have no better alternatives.

So I resigned from the board and start to read tons of books that are piling up on my shelve, how awesomely nerdy I am.