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Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

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Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#241

Post by Silverback_VII »

Retric wrote: post #202
Silverback_VII wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If you can’t afford to change, that answers the question. In my personal experience the greatest challenge is always oneself and not external factors. So your advice to drop all self-help is wrong in my opinion. There are people who made it against all odds and their mindset may crave the necesseary pathways in your brain as well. I would even say that the more the odds are stacked against you the more you should tr…

I personally suspect more people are harmed by self help books etc than helped. Which circles back to the kind of advice I would give someone. It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming reading advice is inherently beneficial but it needs to result in some net positive behaviors or it’s just wasting time, money, and mental effort.

>more people are harmed by self help books etc than helped

It is certainly a business but I assume that most of these self-help gurus truly want to help. They are promoting different methods(more or less rational) but the core message is often very similar and amounts to "take action". If all roads lead to Rome you may very well get there.

I think by listening to these books you are in fact priming your brain to find a way to improve your situation.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#242

Post by tomthumb »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #86

In my admittedly still short life, I have started to notice something: you can broadly divide the world into two groups - those who do things and those who keep wondering if they should have done things. So for what’s worth, here is my advice to you: drop Gladwell and self-help books, if you want to and can switch to a new job, do it. Should it work or fail, you will have experienced trying. If you don’t feel like it…

Words of wisdom! I have tweeted your first paragraph. Hope you don’t mind..

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#243

Post by jmchuster »

Specifically for software development, you have the example of Coding Bootcamps. It's not a guarantee, but the better your Bootcamp brand-name, the better your region's job prospects, the more time you spend hobby coding before applying for the Bootcamp, there's a very high likelihood of a successful transition into the software industry. And all in the period of 6 months to a year.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#244

Post by influx »

ghost-towels wrote: post #160
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh. You can be as confident as you like, if people won't take on staff as "juniors" who are older, then the whole process of retraining - wrt career change - has been a waste of time. I've never been involved in corporate HR, I'd want advice. Similarly, if I was doing a bungee jump for the first time I'd ask someone to check my harness ... (to spell it out, you seem to be berating someone for doing a reality check,…

This is pretty much where I’m at. I’m mid 40s and been working in the marine industry for almost 30 years (yes I started that young). I’m going for a career change but I have zero experience in a corporate/modern office setting. I am also self taught. It will be a huge change, and I’m concerned that I may not be hireable. All that being said I’m still going for it as I’d like the rest of my working days actually help…

Security/osint is very laid back. Folks coming from a different career usually have some interesting perspectives on problem solving that can be really useful. Just wanted to say, keep going, if I was a hiring manager and you showed technical chops, and a willingness to learn, be wrong, and correct yourself, I would completely hire you.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#245

Post by TrevorJ »

One thing I find helpful is to inventory your meta-skills. There are a lot of jobs that require meta-skills which can be super useful in completely different domains. Jobs that require you to learn things on the fly, jobs that require you to interact with people and navigate complex situations with multiple stakeholders, etc. You may find that there are a ton of things you are good at which will transfer readily to the new path you want to step out into.

And even if not, it's probably worth a shot anyway if you are interested in it.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#246

Post by Art9681 »

nsxwolf wrote: post #229
Art9681 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The culture of dad having a mid life crisis being frowned upon and only seen as a means to provide for the family by placing their desires above his own could be why soccer son often ends up beng raised by single mom. Dad needs help and soccer is the most irrelevant thing in the world right now.

I find the notion incredibly selfish. My family is accustomed to their lifestyle. There are certain realities that can occur that would require a reduction in that lifestyle, but I should not deliberately cause them to happen. Sometimes the right thing to do is to sacrifice your dreams for others.

I absolutely agree. All I am pointing out is that mentality should be shared by the family and although it is honorable to be selfless, it is difficult to help others when one's mental state is in shambles. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#247

Post by balaji1 »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #86

In my admittedly still short life, I have started to notice something: you can broadly divide the world into two groups - those who do things and those who keep wondering if they should have done things. So for what’s worth, here is my advice to you: drop Gladwell and self-help books, if you want to and can switch to a new job, do it. Should it work or fail, you will have experienced trying. If you don’t feel like it…

it is a good point to suggest to take more action. But to make significant progress, requires thinking thru the next 5-10 moves and committing to them and putting in consistent effort -- do any books discuss that?

A change shouldn't be just hoping that you "end up at the right place at the right time" this time. That is rare.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#248

Post by SevenNation »

Do you know the difference between an expert and a non-expert? An expert knows more than you about something.

Well, it's not quite that simple of course. But the point stands. You can do a lot of good well before that 10,000 hour mark. Think about dedicating just 1 hour to something. How much more will you know about it than your peers?

I think it's a mistake to divide the world into pre-10,000 hours and post-10,000 hours. Mastery does take time. But you can do a lot for yourself by first becoming more knowledgeable and then becoming more practiced at something. You don't need to be a master before your life improves noticeably.

> Any advice?

What were you put on this planet to do? If you've already done it, then great. No need to change course. If not and it doesn't sit right, why wouldn't you change course? Time is always "running out" and it won't be any better at 53.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#249

Post by ghaff »

xyzwave wrote: post #176
ghaff wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Leverage what skills you've already gained to switch into a career where they are a big advantage. Absolutely. In many cases, there are often a wide range of related/adjacent jobs that are significantly different in various ways but can nonetheless be a fairly natural transition. (Though key word can . I've seen examples that worked and examples that didn't.) On the other hand, I'll go back to school and get a Maste…

Harder, how so? And even if harder, wouldn’t it still be a productive means towards the end of moving into that field?

If I go from product management into software development into some sort of technical marketing or sales role or even to certain types of consulting, there's a fair bit of overlap in the IT industry related to general knowledge of the market, practices, etc. I've changed jobs substantially twice and significant training to transition was never needed at all.

And, sure, if you want to change to a completely different area with much less overlap, that's not to say you shouldn't do so. But I certainly couldn't walk right into an unrelated engineering job at this point even if it were related to undergraduate coursework. In fact, it would be probably be easier for me to do a software job today even though I did essentially no programming in school.

Re: Ask HN: 10k hours rule to master anything. Could I switch career when I am 43?

#250

Post by Retric »

Silverback_VII wrote: post #241
Retric wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally suspect more people are harmed by self help books etc than helped. Which circles back to the kind of advice I would give someone. It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming reading advice is inherently beneficial but it needs to result in some net positive behaviors or it’s just wasting time, money, and mental effort.

>more people are harmed by self help books etc than helped It is certainly a business but I assume that most of these self-help gurus truly want to help. They are promoting different methods(more or less rational) but the core message is often very similar and amounts to "take action". If all roads lead to Rome you may very well get there. I think by listening to these books you are in fact priming your brain to find…

My personal observation is people are generally soothing their brain into into inactivity rather than priming it for something. There is a reason get rich quick scams are so effective and so much home exercise equipment sits unused, the first step is usually the easiest.
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