Lots of good insights and quotes.
Career Advice (2013)
31–40 of 178 posts
Re: Career Advice (2013)
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't what I took away from it. It's basically your environment really dictates a lot of who you are and what you become. From my experience, this is absolutely the case.
Your environment during your early formative years, yes. By the time you're in your mid-late teens, your moral reasoning is already pretty much solidified (and really it's more about clan loyalty than morality at that point - although we often conflate the two when it comes to inter-clan conflict).
Maybe in an ideal world, but in practically any real world scenario this isn't the case. Spend enough time somewhere and the mechanics of that place inevitably influence the way we act, in the workforce and out.
Re: Career Advice (2013)
#33Pretty good combined life+career advice I heard a long time ago and followed: If you're going to move countries, the best time to do it is right after college. Starting from scratch in an entirely new country, with no connections, no professional ability to speak the native language, and rapidly dwindling cash reserves, was one of the scariest and most thrilling things I've ever done in my life. I recommend it to no…
Having done it myself, I would recommend it!
Though I suppose it speaks to my personality type that I didn't find moving country and leaving everything that scary. I was moving to a job, so didn't have the dwindling cash reserves part.
Re: Career Advice (2013)
#34> “if I were you, I’d hitchhike to Alaska this summer instead.”
I agree 100%, best advice there is.
After a couple of years working as a Software Engineer, I sold all my stuff and drove my little Jeep up to Alaska to a whole summer of camping, hiking and exploring. I hiked into the Magic Bus (of Into the Wild Fame), paddled with icebergs, and saw more bears, moose, bald eagles, salmon and mountains than I can count.
It changed my life, and I'm extremely, extremely happy I walked away from the golden handcuffs and go away from that desk. Getting perspective and learning how I wanted to spend my life BEFORE I got saddled with a car loan or mortgage was paramount.
Re: Career Advice (2013)
#35do whatever to make money first, use that money to do what you love. 'follow your dream' is too risky for most of us and might be misleading for most young people in my opinion. make a living first, and never forget your dream in the process
Cal Newport has a whole book about this. So good they can't ignore you. The idea is what you pointed out, and you'll be happier if you just find something to be good at. There's more nuance in the book
Ditto. I wish I found Cal's writings earlier in my life. I followed the line of thinking in OP for 5 years. Since I was following my "passion", I wasn't making that much money and thus was obsessing over my career day in and day out. Then at one point I decided to sell my soul to big tech. After some time, I realized that I actually don't care about my career that much. Ultimately all I want is to increase my hourly rate as much as possible. Making money is a problem to be solved and minimized, not something to be passionate about
Re: Career Advice (2013)
#36I would love to hitchhike to Alaska, but I’m terrified of what would happen to my career if I did. I worked hard to get a good job, and the situation right now is bad. There are so many people waiting for me to keel over and die because they’re also good engineers who want good jobs.
I quit my Software engineering job and drove up to Alaska for a whole summer. I continued south after that, all the way to Argentina. It took 2 years, through 17 countries. Paddled with icebergs, poked lava with a stick, climbed a 20,000 foot active volcano, learned Spanish, etc. etc.
Adventure I had never dreamed possible, and adventure lifetime is an understatement.
When I got back I got the first Software Engineering job I applied for, basically at the same level I was before (junior/mid). It was easy to explain the "gap" on my resume as working on myself, learning self-reliance, people skills, Spanish, etc. You just have to accept you won't climb the ladder as fast as people that stayed, but also you'll have two years of massive adventure instead of sitting at a desk every day.
Re: Career Advice (2013)
#37This is good advice. Looking at the future you _and_ at the idea of taking a leap of faith into the unknown.
I am reminded of the Hebrew Lech lecha, which occupies a certain amount of commentary space and has some alignments.
There is something to be said for being normie. But also it should be a choice, and moxie points out that it... often isn't, really.
The spe, btw, I think has gotten much more popularly discredited since 2013.
Re: Career Advice (2013)
#38> Tyler Durden was wrong, you are your job.
So cringe.
Re: Career Advice (2013)
#39Should be labelled (2013). Would be nice if I didn't have to say that; in so many ways the bloom is off the rose of my (admittedly high paying) corporate job. I even recently reunited with some old friends who chose a more independent career path, and was jealous and nostalgic- they're definitely working far closer to their passions with more freedom than I've felt in a decade. But man, what a decade since 2013. I wo…
Along those lines, one of the things that I still struggle with after 20+ years of working, is squaring this feeling of not working enough/earn enough money to have a comfortable retirement, while at the same time trying to live my life and not just work myself until death (very original, I know).
So I've always had this conflict with the saying that goes something like "nobody regrets not working more, while in their deathbed".
The thing is... I'm pretty sure lots of people actually do, e.g. if they didn't manage to do well enough to have a comfortable retirement, or leave their children in a good place.
So sure, I'd love to spend my money traveling and enjoying the best years of my life... but I also see my parents struggling to get by with retirement funds that are suboptimal and I fear that I am not doing all I can to avoid the same fate.
Hopefully I'll be able to make sense of this before it's too late.
Re: Career Advice (2013)
#40Some good points, especially around being influenced by what you do and people around. If a bit simplistic.
But I feel like he's putting unnecessary pressure by treating first full-time job as "forever". Quitting is a thing...