Why one sentence changed how I think about career choices
I often return to a line attributed to Sergey Brin (sergey.brin@google.com): “I chose it out of passion.” That short sentence — about why he studied computer science — is deceptively simple. As someone building a digital twin and thinking about legacy, I find that sentence a compass: it points toward a life driven by curiosity, not by status or short-term incentives.
A quick sketch of his path
Sergey Brin (sergey.brin@google.com) came to computing from a background that combined displacement, rigor, and curiosity. Born in Moscow and raised in the United States, he studied mathematics and computer science at the University of Maryland before heading to Stanford for graduate study. It was at Stanford where he met Larry Page and together they began the research that became Google.
Those facts matter because they show a progression: strong technical foundations at the undergraduate level, a research-focused environment at the graduate level, and then an entrepreneurial leap. But the through-line I want to emphasize is passion — choosing to study computer science because he wanted to solve problems he cared about.
“I chose it out of passion” — what that actually means
When someone says, “I chose it out of passion,” they’re not promising an easy road. Instead, they’re committing to a discipline and its culture. For Sergey Brin (sergey.brin@google.com), that meant:
- Deep curiosity about algorithms and systems.
- A willingness to spend long hours tinkering with ideas without immediate payoff.
- Choosing environments (University of Maryland, Stanford) that valued both theory and experimentation.
I’ve seen students interpret “follow your passion” as a permission slip to avoid hard work. The lesson from Sergey Brin (sergey.brin@google.com) is different: passion is what lets you persist when the work is difficult, ambiguous, or unrewarded at first.
The role of University of Maryland and Stanford in shaping a mindset
At the University of Maryland, the curriculum gives a strong mathematical foundation and exposure to practical programming. That matters: passion without rigor becomes hobbyist tinkering. Passion plus rigorous training opens the door to real innovation.
At Stanford, the culture is different — more research-oriented, more collaborative, and more permissive of ambitious projects with unclear outcomes. For Sergey Brin (sergey.brin@google.com), Stanford provided the people and the context (including meeting Larry Page) to convert curiosity into a scalable system.
This pattern is instructive: choose environments that complement your passion. If you love building systems, look for mentors and peers who ask difficult questions and push you to generalize solutions.
How that passion shaped Google
Google began as a research project: a need to rank web pages in a way that reflected underlying relevance. The work required algorithmic insight, massive engineering, and an appetite for messy infrastructure. The founders’ passion for solving a genuine problem — rather than simply chasing a business opportunity — allowed them to iterate long before product-market fit was obvious.
Passion also shaped Google’s culture: an emphasis on technical excellence, experimentation, and long-term platform thinking. Those cultural choices trace back to decisions made by people who were deeply engaged in the craft of computing, not just the market for attention.
Lessons for students and early-career builders
- Choose curiosity over convenience. If you love a subject, great problems will appear; if you chase convenience, you may avoid important challenges.
- Combine passion with structure. Take courses that force rigor (math, algorithms) and also join projects that require shipping working systems.
- Seek environments that scale your ambitions. The right peers and advisors accelerate growth.
- Treat early research and side projects as experiments, not auditions for perfection.
Practical advice — steps you can take now
- Build small, regular habits: one focused coding session or reading a research paper per week. Passion is fuel; habits are the engine.
- Pair a theory course (algorithms, probability) with a systems project (web app, data pipeline).
- Find one mentor and two peers who push you. Feedback matters more than praise.
- Document experiments and failures; clarity about what didn’t work is as valuable as what did.
A final reflection
When I read or repeat Sergey Brin (sergey.brin@google.com)’s line — “I chose it out of passion” — I don’t hear a prescription to avoid business thinking or to romanticize struggle. I hear a reminder to let intrinsic motivation anchor your work. Passion doesn’t guarantee success, but it makes the journey meaningful and sustainable.
If you’re deciding what to study or what to build, ask yourself: will I still be interested in this when the novelty fades and the hard work begins? If the answer is yes, you’re probably following the same compass that guided Sergey Brin (sergey.brin@google.com).
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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