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Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

calnewport.com

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Re: Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

#11

Post by rpvnwnkl »

wccrawford wrote: post #4

I couldn't understand how the title related to the advice until I finally looked up the definition of "bargain". "an agreement between two or more parties as to what each party will do for the other." I've never, ever heard anyone use the word "bargain" in the way that the author is doing. I can't deny that it technically fits the definition, but if you want to be understand, I think it's important to use language th…

What most people “do” with their lives is a Job. At face value they do this for pay, but Jobs aren’t free and you also have to make a payment: time and attention. Make sure you are getting a Bargain for what you’re paying.

The article discusses a way to define a Bargain.

Re: Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

#12

Post by aangjie »

nefitty wrote: post #10
collyw wrote: post #7

Wow, having worked as a database guy in a number of academic institutions I find it hard to believe that he is suggesting academia over a high paid stable career in MS. Maybe CS PhDs are different, but biology ones who I have worked with are low paid, stressful, and highly competitive to get past a couple of postdoc positions. It might be more interesting work, but is your work the only real interest you have in life…

The older I get, and as my family grows, I find it harder and harder to invest time in projects outside of work. If I can rig or find a job that fulfills my need for mastery, it ticks one of my most important needs. I can go home and focus on my family instead of having my attention wander to another task.

Here's the catch in that, my master's experience convinced me that even academia, isn't as free as it is hyped up to be. There's a strong marketing drive to hype up the freedom in academia, but there's a strong guide/suggestive coercion from the guides, to do your work along the lines and plans they have. Eventually i decided not to do a ph.d.

Note: This is the case of an average coursework. Perhaps cal newport was always extraordinary and so had extraordinary options, but the advice has it's limitations for applicability to everyone.

Re: Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

#13

Post by majos »

collyw wrote: post #7

Wow, having worked as a database guy in a number of academic institutions I find it hard to believe that he is suggesting academia over a high paid stable career in MS. Maybe CS PhDs are different, but biology ones who I have worked with are low paid, stressful, and highly competitive to get past a couple of postdoc positions. It might be more interesting work, but is your work the only real interest you have in life…

CS PhDs are different than biology PhDs. They are still low-paid relative to industry, stressful, and competitive. However, multiple postdocs in CS are pretty uncommon, and it is not uncommon for a PhD candidate to get faculty offers with no postdoc (though many do a year of postdocing anyway, since it's less pressure than being junior faculty but at least twice the pay of being a grad student).

I think a reasonable rule of thumb is that the quality of life for grad school in area X is directly proportional to the employability of a BA/BS or MS in area X. In CS most anybody doing a PhD at a decent school could leave for a CS job paying at least twice as much. In biology this is less true, and in the humanities it's even less true. IMO this explains mych of the difference in grad student experiences across these areas.

Re: Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

#14

Post by maroonblazer »

dcminter wrote: post #8
wccrawford wrote: post #4

I couldn't understand how the title related to the advice until I finally looked up the definition of "bargain". "an agreement between two or more parties as to what each party will do for the other." I've never, ever heard anyone use the word "bargain" in the way that the author is doing. I can't deny that it technically fits the definition, but if you want to be understand, I think it's important to use language th…

I think the author is using the term in the more common sense of "good value" as he includes this: > choose the available job option that offers the greatest variety of these traits in exchange for career capital - wherein he defines both value and what you're paying for it. I assume that by "career capital" he means the opportunity cost of working for one organisation over another.

I took it to mean a set of skills that will make you valuable to any employer longer-term or could be used to bootstrap your own venture.

Re: Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

#15

Post by z-tech »

What have I gained from reading this other than learn that the author is a high achieving person? I'm a software engineer in my late twenties in America. I would guess this blog is geared toward people like me, yet the author seems comedically unaware that very few, remarkably close to zero people, have opportunities like pursuing a PhD at MIT. So you chose MIT... I think most people would have. This is just a self congratulatory story with a cheap facade of wisdom.

Re: Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

#16

Post by joekrill »

z-tech wrote: post #15

What have I gained from reading this other than learn that the author is a high achieving person? I'm a software engineer in my late twenties in America. I would guess this blog is geared toward people like me, yet the author seems comedically unaware that very few, remarkably close to zero people, have opportunities like pursuing a PhD at MIT. So you chose MIT... I think most people would have. This is just a self c…

I kind of got the same feeling, though I'm not discounting that there is a lesson in there someone. But this line in particular got me:

> ...then pursue only jobs that will reward you with these traits if and when you master rare and valuable skills.

In my experience, most folks don't really have this luxury.

Re: Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

#17

Post by rb808 »

z-tech wrote: post #15

What have I gained from reading this other than learn that the author is a high achieving person? I'm a software engineer in my late twenties in America. I would guess this blog is geared toward people like me, yet the author seems comedically unaware that very few, remarkably close to zero people, have opportunities like pursuing a PhD at MIT. So you chose MIT... I think most people would have. This is just a self c…

Yeah I was going to say he probably didn't have a big student loan and a kid to support.

Re: Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

#18

Post by intended »

If you are unsure of the next best move choose the next move which leaves you with the most options.

The meta point being that advance programs recognize this pattern and then judge you accordingly.

The meta meta pattern thus leads to making all your moves seem like they were all planned from the start.

This is sort of encapsulated by a saying attributed to GE executives: “if at first you don’t succeed, bury all evidence that you tried.”

Re: Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Seek Bargains (2012)

#19

Post by barrkel »

This article is bordering on tautological, with post-hoc rationalization.

Something is a bargain when it has a large ratio of value to cost.

The trouble with career choices is that the value is in the future - it is, at best, only probabilistically estimable.

Thus this advice merely moves the problem from choosing between alternatives to estimating future value of those choices. This doesn't really decrease the problem difficulty at all.

The justification for "methodology" is post-hoc. There was no guarantee he'd pick up rare and valuable skills in academia; to the degree that he did, using that fact as justification is very shaky.

I've worked with a number of people who spent years in academia and came out in varying states, some less suitable for the workplace, others enamoured with a way of living more compatible with student life than professional life, others more interested in digging into problems than getting things done, etc. I think these risks are real if you're aimless on a post-grad path.

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