A Cerdikiawan and His Three Stories

If he had to describe himself in one word, he would be called resourceful, or maybe cerdikiawan?

He really relates to one of the early Gojek ads called “Cerdikiawan”. It’s not a real word, but more like a pun, or a mix between cerdik (clever) and cendikiawan (scholar). It is a powerful word for him, and honestly, he thinks whoever made that ad deserves to be called cerdikiawan themselves.

The ad shows ordinary people finding workarounds for small everyday problems with whatever they have on hand. Whether it is about someone using a fork to fix a broken dispenser button, someone tying a strap around a plastic bag so the “kuah bakso” can stay separated at the bottom while the “bakso” sits on top, or about someone filling a large plastic bag with water and poking small holes in it and hanging it from the ceiling to make a DIY shower.

He wasn’t sure what the right English word for it was. Is it cunning, ingenious, or resourceful? But he thinks he would go with resourceful, or maybe “a resourceful scholar”.

He wanted to tell three stories the way Steve Jobs started his speech on Stanford in 2005. There is a line that stuck with him: “Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.”. So here goes his three stories, no big deal, just three stories.

One of the first events in his life that he can remember clearly happened was when he joined a drum extracurricular at 4th grade. He remembered he couldn’t do the basic hi-hat, snare, and kick pattern. He almost always kicked again on the third beat, because his muscles were still a bit stiff since it was the first time he’d ever played drums.

Then something came to his mind, “what if I just pressed my foot toward the kick on the third beat, but instead I moved it off the pedal?”. It ended up sounding good, his foot muscle still tapped the floor, but at least it wasn’t hitting the kick pedal anymore. He felt great. He could finally play the basic beat.

Not sure whether it is a good method or not (or maybe it is for a beginner?), but it felt great and he felt… cerdik, maybe?

The second event coming to his mind was when one of his friends just got an espresso machine. His friend was very excited to try the machine, and so was he. But the thing is, his friend forgot to buy the espresso shot glass, a small glass used to catch the coffee straight from the machine before it is poured into a final cup.

His friend actually already had a glass that could replace the shot glass, but it was too tall cause they also needed to use a scale to weigh the shot. And something came to his mind again instantly, and he told his friend, "Wait here, let me do something". Three minutes later, he gave him a can of soda that had been cut in half and said "The glass was tall right? We can use this.".

"How do you even come up with stuff like this?" asked his friend, and he felt… cerdikiawan, again?

Then the third event he remembered was when he became a product management intern on one of a tech startup. There was a friend of his asking something that goes like, “how do you solve this?”.

His friend was an engineer from the same company he worked for, but different vertical. He never managed that vertical, so he didn’t really have the basics. But again, something in his mind struck him immediately, “What if you just add it like this".

Truth be told, he forgot what the detail of the problem was, but later his friend ended with something like, “wow you really are a product manager”.

He knew it was a basic task, but he got confident after what his friend said that, and there it went again, he felt somewhat cerdik.

He probably should have ended his story the way Steve Jobs ended his speech, by looking back and explaining how these moments led to success, how “lucky” Steve was that the dots eventually connected. But he doesn't think he can do that, cause truth be told, he is me. I don't think I can do that, well at least for now. I haven’t lived far enough past these stories to know how they connect, or where they lead.

So I think I’ll just end it here for now. Thank you for reading this, and I really hope that one day, I can look back and “connect the dots” the way Steve did.