Acharya Prashant narrates an incident about a gentleman who brought his son, a 12th-grade student, to him. The father's dream was for his son to study computer science at a top institution like IIT. However, the speaker observed that the son's appearance suggested he was not academically inclined. Upon asking the boy some very basic physics questions from the 11th-grade curriculum, the boy could not answer and was not even ashamed of his ignorance. Despite this, the father insisted that his son was very sharp but just inattentive. The speaker points out the discrepancy between the father's dream and the reality of the son's capabilities, who had scored only 56% in the 11th grade. He questions how, with such a foundation, the son could achieve the grand success the father envisioned. The speaker uses this story to illustrate the problem of living in dreams. He states that the one thing that feels like poison to a dream is the truth. He then extends this to a larger example of the UPSC exam, where 1.2 million people fill out the form, but not even 1,000 are selected in the final list. He attributes this to people living in dreams. He questions why people wait for an external authority like the UPSC to tell them they are incapable, often after four or six attempts, instead of realizing it themselves. He asks if they lack self-knowledge, questioning why they cannot assess themselves and must wait for others to declare them unfit. Responding to a question about the security of a government job and its pension, Acharya Prashant questions why a young person is worried about old age. He recounts his own experience during a placement interview at a private bank when he was in IIM. The interviewer, noting he was a qualified UPSC officer, suggested he join the government for the pension. The speaker, who was 24 at the time, was told to think about his pension. He found it interesting that he was being advised to secure his future 40 years ahead. He compares this to Arjun standing in Kurukshetra, who should be concerned with the immediate battle, not with his hair turning white in 40 years. A young person has the challenges of today to face. Given the state of the world with issues like climate change, he questions if things like pensions will even exist in 30 years. He concludes by emphasizing that there are so many pressing tasks to be done today, and one should not be preoccupied with a distant, uncertain future.