#WhenIWas15 Why do we have to choose?

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#WhenIWas15 is the hashtag to celebrate LinkedIn's 15th anniversary. I am delighted to join in the celebration because it is by far the social network I am most comfortable with. Here you learn and discuss in a safe environment, and find career opportunities quite easily. There's also a downside, like all the tricksters that have come up lately, or the people who collect contacts like stickers, instead of establishing genuine professional relationships.

The purpose of this article is to tell what I wanted to be (or do) when I was 15. This requires a brief introduction. That is why I have used this iconic cover image: a Sony Walkman, specifically the model that I carried everywhere and that largely defined my life in those wonderful and difficult years. I've always been a great music lover. I listen to music all the time. Now, while I'm working. Then, while I was studying, despite the rancid advice of absolute silence, more akin to monasteries than to modern life.

At that time I made great friends, many of whom I still have. Sometime between the ages of 15 and 16, I had a huge emotional conflict, as I suppose all normal teenagers do. These were, in short, intense, turbulent years. It seems almost a joke to ask young people in these conditions to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives.

Everything has changed radically since then. Life went on slower and we didn't know everything instantly. It was much harder to get an idea of what you aspired to do with your life. I've never considered myself a science or humanities person. In fact, I was deeply upset that I couldn't choose a curriculum that combined everything. Although today we know that people can completely reorient their professional career at any age, we still force students to make a firm choice about their destiny, without any chance of regret. At the age of 15, I wouldn't have chosen to become a writer. My intention was to write a sublime work and destroy it before I died. All very romantic and age-appropriate. But it was also not clear to me that I wanted to study just one scientific subject. I was fascinated by Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, Philosophy, Paleontology... At some point, I began to decide (I was forced to make choices) between genetics and neuroscience. I was attracted, on the one hand, by the idea of being able to add superhuman capabilities to people through gene modification, such as breathing underwater or being able to withstand extreme temperatures. On the other hand, I wanted to build a device that would translate the thoughts of higher mammals into a language discernible to humans, and vice versa. Some kind of universal translator. It was all a teenager's dream.

In the end, I didn't become a scientist, although I still love science. But in my work, there is a mixture of technical and artistic disciplines that I love to mix. This allows me to evolve as a complete human being. It's not easy to be a Software Architect, Photographer, Writer and Creative Writer Mentor, but it's fun and enriching. Just like then, music is a great help to keep my thoughts in order and concentrate. I no longer use a walkman, but my laptop or smartphone, and music is in the cloud instead of on a cassette tape. I no longer need to define myself as just one of my facets, but for all of them at once. Why, with all the progress we have made, are we still demanding that teenagers define themselves with just one of them?