The absurdity of questions at conferences

Aug 12th, 2023

personal

I went to listen to Ashneer Grover at an event geared toward a young audience. At the end of the talk was a Q&A round with the audience. A few of the questions I remember were, “When should someone quit their job and start their own thing,” “What advice would you give to a 20-year-old for their career,” and “Why do VCs fund people from top colleges?”. Similarly, there was a college talk by Nandan Nilekani last month. The questions from the audience in Q&A ranged from “Why India can’t lead in Quantum computing,” “At what time should someone give up on their startup if it’s not working out,” and “How can someone learn to take a risk”.

I found the questions being asked very absurd. The questions follow one of the below patterns.

• Too vague - How does one learn to take risk? When does one quit their job? How does one know this is what they should do for the rest of their life?
• Crib about the world that is out of the person’s control - Why do VCs fund a specific set of companies and not the other? Why is the US doing better than India in something? Why is there social inequality in India?

The people in the above passages are so distant that these question starts resembling questions you would ask god. You can sense that it’s not even a question anymore. It’s a rant or a plea. In essence, what the audience is asking is, “What to do with my life” and “Why does the world work like the way it works?” (or “Why is the world unfair”)