Six months ago, we interviewed Ali as part of his application to become a Baret Scholar—a conversation that ranged from Hokusai’s Great Wave to making music on a theremin. Curious, caring, and composed (pun intended), Ali is a quintessential Baret Scholar, and it was our pleasure to talk to him again last week in São Paulo.

Let’s jump in. You’ve been a Baret Scholar for more than a month now. What’s it been like?

Oh wow. To be honest, it’s been an intense month of questioning and discovering.

Questioning?

Well, I’ve been asking myself some very important questions. Why do I want to do what I say I want to do?

Tough question. Thoughts?

You see, before Baret, I was in an international school in Hong Kong. I was following a logic of opportunity: in Hong Kong, I knew there were plenty of opportunities in finance and computer science, and I was good at it, so my plan was to pursue that.

Understandable.

And then I heard Simone White at the Morning Program. She sang to us and she spoke to us. She said that she didn’t commit to being a musician until she was 30 years old. She had another career and found herself in a rut asking herself, “why am I not making music?” She said she wished she’d followed her passion sooner.

I’m sure that question resonated with you. I know you love making music.

It really did. And there many other speakers at the Morning Program saying similar things: follow your passion, do what you love. My passion is music, and I want to make sure I include it in my career in some way or the other. I’m going to figure out how.

That’s a big shift.

You know, it could be bigger. I was in San Francisco for my Fellowship earlier this month; we were visiting tech firms, meeting entrepreneurs and talking to venture capitalists. One of the tech founders there was kind enough to share his personal story. He told us that he had pursued an academic career in string theory (!) because he was trying to prove something to people in his life. It took him years - very tough years - before he realised that it wasn’t what he wanted to do, switched careers and founded a company.

That’s one hell of a knot he found himself in!

Ha! Yeah, I just don’t want to go down a road for the wrong reasons.

This is a year of roads and a year of reasons, isn’t it?

And we went down a pretty interesting road in San Francisco earlier this month. As part of the Fellowship, we visited an affordable housing project, and it really influenced the way I think about economics.

How so?

I used to be quite a free market guy, a believer in the invisible hand. But after seeing how expensive San Francisco had gotten, how prices had pushed people out, and who those people were, I felt something. I saw the human side to it, and that, perhaps, government sometimes needs to do something.

That’s economics in action, right there.

That’s learning through experience.

Thanks Ali. We appreciate you and can’t wait to talk again.

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