Very cringey stuff.
why do you say that?
Yeah, why?
I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
31–40 of 82 posts
Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
#32>Even my programming has taken a toll even though I do it every day. I find myself abstaining from studying advanced topics in programming and computer science, and instead sticking to this comfort zone of what I know. I contemplate blaming this last issue on the fact that Silicon Valley is quietly cutthroat; you need to be the best at what you do in order to land jobs at e.g. Google. If I stay in my comfort zone, I am able to keep small unimportant details of a particular language, tool, or implementation in L1 brain cache, which proves useful during interviews.
The way I deal with this is getting the most highly paying job I can and then having three months off where I do what I please.
I've just finished a contract with an Evil Inc that's paid me enough that I can buy a lab to do synthetic biology in. While waiting for the machines to arrive I'm doing some really fun C.S. stuff I have not done before.
When the money runs out I will go back to doing what I was doing before. This is the 4th time I've taken time off. It hasn't hurt my career progression at all.
Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
#33>Even my programming has taken a toll even though I do it every day. I find myself abstaining from studying advanced topics in programming and computer science, and instead sticking to this comfort zone of what I know. I contemplate blaming this last issue on the fact that Silicon Valley is quietly cutthroat; you need to be the best at what you do in order to land jobs at e.g. Google. If I stay in my comfort zone, I…
From your post it sounds like you do consulting or freelancing. If I may, how long do these engagements typically last? I've flirted with the idea of short periods off in between jobs (FTE though) but have typically kept up ~2 year engagements.
Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
#34It’s always a little bit risky to write something personal that will inevitably come across as something other than humble. Especially when it’s also mixed with something that comes across very first-world-problemy. Mind you that showing that one can do a little bit of calculus isn’t a testament to being a genius or anything like that. The examples the story describes might as well be equivalent to something more obviously creative in nature that isn’t bound by the constraints of time, like amateur painting or music making might be. (Professional mathematicians or physicists would agree that a hypergeometric series doesn’t even scratch the surface of “difficult” mathematics.) There are real geniuses in the world having extraordinary intuition being extraordinarily productive and have something to show for it. This is not that.
I posted this because I was reminded of it after reading pg’s Bus Ticket essay—which to me was more about discovery than it was genius. When you have 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week, with no dependents and no job, there’s a lot of room to follow interests, as petty/useless/insignificant as they may be, and frequently if you spend that much time, you’ll discover new things or make new connections.
The conclusion of the story maybe is obvious in retrospect: that doesn’t happen (as easily) if you have a job (or family or partner or ...), even if your work is in an area you ostensibly love. You won’t have the same space to dive deep in areas that you choose, and you may not reach the same level of creative zen. It’s not something I realized going into the job market over a decade ago, and I think it’s a worthwhile consideration for people who value not being preoccupied with what time it is.
(For those expressing concern, don’t. Or those taking away that I’m not doing something that I like or following my passions, I am. I still do the things I like to do, but I don’t sacrifice everything else in life to focus on them exclusively. It remains to this day that that has its costs and benefits.)
Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your comment is grade AAA r/tallpoppysyndrome.
I mean the guy is literally talking about how smart he was.
Not only that, but the guy also talks of how he was able to appreciate the finer points of graduate level mathematics when he was 16. We're either dealing with another Terry Tao here or he has delusions of grandeur. I'll let you decide which one is more likely. I'm far from being a genius myself, but from spending a few years at research labs I know a few people who could legitimately claim to be genius material. Never in a million years will you find them beating their chest about their intellectual capacity or sophistication.
Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean the guy is literally talking about how smart he was.
Not only that, but the guy also talks of how he was able to appreciate the finer points of graduate level mathematics when he was 16. We're either dealing with another Terry Tao here or he has delusions of grandeur. I'll let you decide which one is more likely. I'm far from being a genius myself, but from spending a few years at research labs I know a few people who could legitimately claim to be genius material. Nev…
It was an expression of creativity one might have if they spend the entirety of their time on something, and how a good deal of that is lost when you have to tend to adult life. There was absolutely no judgment on the value of the work. It’s neither Tao-level math nor delusional mumbo-jumbo.
Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
#37The guy sounds like Stephen Wolfram with how casually he strokes his ego by going on and on about all his wonderful intellectual pursuits. His account does bring up the awful-but-rarely-discussed issue how to keep even somewhat "mentally sharp" amidst all the demands of life.
It was kind of funny. I recall people talking about what they did like that before. At least here I could skip ahead instead of wait for them to get to the point.
Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
#38I read this article and while it's sad the author doesn't pursue passions anymore, I also can't help think that maybe they just aren't as hungry as they once were. I was diagnosed with cancer 4 years ago and it changed my perspective on life. I'm mid 30's now and more productive than ever. I also work full time and am a single father to two little kids. The way I describe it is that I am hungry. I didn't expect it to…
Similar situation (though not Cancer, in my case a life a potentially life altering spinal condition and a separate unrelated but equality serious stomach condition) and similar response, I suddenly started going for jobs I wouldn't have dared before and both getting them and doing them well. I also bought a motorbike and will be upgrading that to a faster one next year, both medical conditions are under control and…
> cave or say "fuck you" to the universe and carry on
Props to you! That's a great attitude to have.
Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
#39> How has this affected me? I’ve mentally atrophied. I now feel like I can’t talk about any subject with more than a centimeter of depth. A half a decade ago, I could dive with you to the penetralia of convergence theorems of hypergeometric series, but now I cannot. Even my programming has taken a toll even though I do it every day. I find myself abstaining from studying advanced topics in programming and computer sc…
I think there's a simple solution, but it's certainly not easy. You set aside time for this intellectual stimulation. Don't let the work drain you off energy, your focus should be elsewhere. Of course it's only really possible for very few people. But even a little bit might help. Personally we moved away from the city and to a small community. I started working remote and I've been working 60% or 80% for about a yea…
This guy's two hour commute each way seemed to me to easily be his largest issue.
Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)
#40My advice would be: rigorously eliminate everything from your life which doesn't fit inside your top X critical priorities. Where X is as small as possible, and seek to cull it further by combining equivalents and trying to identify why some 'important' things might actually be utter wastes of time in the first place. The world generally uses a ratchet approach to conquer your attention. Use a ratchet to take it back…
This is excellent advice which has even been echoed by Warren Buffet [0]. Time is a finite resource and therefore everything we do is a trade-off between depth and breadth. In a given day, you could spend 1 hour learning 24 subjects, or 24 hours learning 1 subject. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but it's a constraint we all operate around. Learning 24 subjects may be interesting and fulfilling to some, but from a professional standpoint those that tend to be most influential in their respective fields are those that devote the most time towards their subjects. There are exceptions of course, but this is the general advice for the general population.
Recently, I've started to adopt a similar perspective by rigorously evaluating everything with a simple question: "20 years from now, will my kids be proud that I did this?" If the answer is no, I stop it. So far, I've stopped playing video games and using social media, and I've noticed that I've gotten an extra 10-15 hours per week to spend on things that will make me a better person in the long term, like reading, working out, and spending time with my friends and family.
The same approach could be used with any endeavor: "In X years, will I be better at if I continue to do Y?"