Reflecting back on my career, the most significant benefits I gained at each step were often far from what I anticipated. In many cases, they were things I couldn’t have predicted going down that path. This realization challenges the idea of planning life solely through logic and reason.

When I started my master’s degree at Georgia Tech, I assumed the biggest advantage would come from the knowledge I gained, the connections I made, or the credential boosting my job prospects. Instead, the most profound impact was on immigration—not to the U.S., but to the UK. My graduate degree allowed me to meet UK’s point-based immigration requirements for a work visa. Working in the UK eventually led me to Facebook, a major turning point in my career. Interestingly, when I applied to graduate school, I had no plans to move to the UK or pursue immigration elsewhere.

At Facebook, I expected my biggest gains to be technical knowledge I learn at work, money I make or connections that I make that will help me land future jobs. The biggest impact came from learning to invest in the stock market from trustable, smart engineers and not losing money to financial advisors. Investing was uncommon in my family, but putting money into low-cost index funds doubled my earnings over time, significantly improving my financial situation.

It’s worth acknowledging life’s unpredictability and limitations of our imagination when trying to plan our path through logic and reason.