Sekitar dua minggu lalu saya membuat halaman AMA (ask me anything) yang semi-anonim. Rencananya pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini akan direview berkala setiap minggu-nya dan nanti dijawab dalam satu artikel sendiri, mungkin bisa dikelompokkan dalam tema tertentu juga kalau cocok. Nah, artikel ini adalah hasil pertama dari kumpulan jawaban dari pertnyaan yang ada.

Dan.. Kebetulan beberapa waktu lalu saya juga sempat sharing di grup whatsapp teman-teman SMA yang formatnya tanya jawab juga. Saya ambil beberapa tanya jawab yang agak berfaedah dari sana juga. Oh ya di bagian ini saya pakai kata ganti “gw” bukan “saya”, karena aneh juga ngebayangin ngobrol sama temen SMA pake kata ganti “saya” haha.

Oh ya, tanya jawab di whatsapp group SMA ini di-moderatori oleh temen saya bernama Zego, co-founder Cozora.com, sebuah startup platform kelas online indonesia. He’s a cool guy, you should definitely check him out.

The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to… No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.”. — Richard Feynman

I already have a clear picture of what the library in my dream house will look like. It will be filled with many interesting and classic books including Harvard Classics collection, Ibn Battuta’s Travelogue, and of course, Feynman Lectures on Physics series.

Seek knowledge even if the journey took all the way to China. (Proverb)

This morning I stumbled upon a video that mentions one of the famous traveler, Ibn Battuta. And the deeper I dig, the more fascinated I am by his journey. It is one thing to visit a place and buy merchandises before return to home, but another thing to travel intentionally to explore foreign lands in the pursuit of knowledge then go back home 24 years later.

The most inspiring about his life for me is that the fact he was an outlandishly learned scholar who managed to parlay his knowledge of Islam into the most magnificent road trip in history. He went to Mali to Constantinople to India to Russia to Indonesia; he was probably the most well-traveled person before the invention of the steam engine. And everywhere he went he was treated like a king, and then he went home, and he wrote a really famous book called, “The Rihla” that people still read today.

Yap, it looks like he had the most awesome life ever.