Sridhar Iyer’s Post

A day late for Father’s Day, but still worth saying. I’m often asked how I ended up pursuing a career in technology. I was always drawn to math and science, but it was my father, a physics professor, who helped turn that interest into a real passion. Growing up in India, I saw how hard he worked to build the life he did. He came from humble beginnings, valued education deeply, and pushed me to take learning seriously. But one of the things I appreciate more now, especially as a father myself, is that he never treated learning as something that only happened in a classroom or a textbook. He taught me to learn from people. To observe carefully. To listen. To understand what drives someone, how they make decisions, how they handle failure, how they take risks, and how they keep going. I didn't fully understand that lesson when I was younger. I thought education was about knowledge, achievement, and credentials alone. As a father now, I see it differently. Some of the most important things we teach our kids are not in what we say, but in what we model - curiosity, humility, resilience, and the will to keep going. That is one of the biggest gifts my father gave me - and continues to give me every time he sees me struggling with something. Thanks, Dad - for the lessons I understood then, and the ones I’m still understanding now.