Live data from Hacker News

80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

docs.google.com

11–20 of 65 posts

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#11
post #3

I can't help but feel career plans, even inherently flexible ones such as the 80000 hour plan, discourage serendipity and encourage sunk-cost thinking. I'm not saying this is a bad idea, just that for the specific HackerNews demographic it may be a bit of an anti-pattern.

In my experience as one who tends towards spirituality, intuition etc over science - this type of path is jut the balance I need to keep moving towards my life's goals. I overly focus on serendipity and synchronicity to where I often don't accomplish much practical

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#12
If you're looking for a more holistic plan, one that doesn't just focus on career, check out Self Authoring (http://www.selfauthoring.com/) and specifically the Future Authoring course. It was put together by clinical and research psychologists, and has been administered to University students with pretty profound results.

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#13
post #7

When I was 25 years old I made the plan to move to SF, find a technical cofounder and start a fast growth company. 5 years later I achieved that goal. My plan was nowhere near the detail of this but there were steps along the way. Things changed a lot, and not everything was done in the order I originally planned. With that said, having a clear vision of where I wanted to be and loosely how I was going to get there m…

"having a clear vision of where I wanted to be and loosely how I was going to get there meant that I could turn down opportunities that may have led me astray"

absolutely crucial advice right dere. distractions can be dream destroying(or enlightening or both)

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#14
I like this because it provides structure and some more concrete (yet still general) advice. Too much career how-to is wishy-washy cliche: crap like "do what you love" and "follow your passion" and "never stop learning". That's fine if you're looking for spirituality. Not so much if you're looking for a solid step-by-step structure to follow.

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#15
Not to down play the usefulness of this, but be careful not to follow others ideas that your ultimate goal in life is X career plan. I have more of a "life plan" than a "career plan" since money and hacks/resourcefulness is pretty easy to the HN crowd relative to many other groups. Especially in the west, it takes talent to starve here.

A work/life balance is what some people enjoy, while others want a work/work or life/life balance.

For example, I am not interested in being worth X millions when I'm 60 at the cost of skipping >50% of life. Even money doesn't help with certain objectives (especially when you must trade time).

You have to balance what you want to have accomplished in life vs what you want while living life.

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#16
post #4
post #3

I can't help but feel career plans, even inherently flexible ones such as the 80000 hour plan, discourage serendipity and encourage sunk-cost thinking. I'm not saying this is a bad idea, just that for the specific HackerNews demographic it may be a bit of an anti-pattern.

Yeh, I'd also like to know whether the HN demographic really has a hard time at finding work?

It's not super hard to imagine. It's not like awesome jobs grow on trees, or that they're giving them away at the airport. If you're one of the few people in the world who can simply point to their ideal company, declare "I shall work there!" and then [poof] you're there, then congratulations on your good fortune. For the rest of us, finding the next rung on the ladder is an endless struggle, and there are not a lot of practical "how to" resources out there.

I'm 40, have been working in technology for close to 20 years, and have had the great fortune to have stayed employed for most of those years, but for the entirety of this I've considered myself "underemployed". I've woken up each day thinking "boy I could be doing so much more if only I wasn't limited by [ ROLE | COMPANY | GEOGRAPHY | BOSS | ETC ]. Don't get me wrong--I feel grateful that tech is one of those careers where you at least have a chance to improve where you are, but these opportunities are still few, far between, and you have to pound the pavement to find them. You do need to plan and you need to ask the right questions of yourself. I like this article because it provides some structure for your plan and helps you to think about the good questions to ask yourself.

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#17

Not to down play the usefulness of this, but be careful not to follow others ideas that your ultimate goal in life is X career plan. I have more of a "life plan" than a "career plan" since money and hacks/resourcefulness is pretty easy to the HN crowd relative to many other groups. Especially in the west, it takes talent to starve here. A work/life balance is what some people enjoy, while others want a work/work or l…

> You have to balance what you want to have accomplished in life vs what you want while living life.

This is a great phrase, I find it very insightful. I've never thought about it like that, but I can tell this is a phrase that will alter how I think about my future/life. Thanks for that.

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#18

Not to down play the usefulness of this, but be careful not to follow others ideas that your ultimate goal in life is X career plan. I have more of a "life plan" than a "career plan" since money and hacks/resourcefulness is pretty easy to the HN crowd relative to many other groups. Especially in the west, it takes talent to starve here. A work/life balance is what some people enjoy, while others want a work/work or l…

You should know that this worksheet is just one small sheet of a fairly comprehensive guide system they have in place at 8000 hours. [1] This part is a little limited in scope, but the full guide is well-balanced. It really encourages useful introspection in an area of life that many people decide by inertia. Their guide is definitely not aimed at getting you to being worth X millions, it definitely is about finding a path that you find fulfilling on several levels and on how to have a job that's a positive impact on the world. I'm consistently impressed with 80000 Hours's output.

[1] https://80000hours.org/career-guide/

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#19
post #7

When I was 25 years old I made the plan to move to SF, find a technical cofounder and start a fast growth company. 5 years later I achieved that goal. My plan was nowhere near the detail of this but there were steps along the way. Things changed a lot, and not everything was done in the order I originally planned. With that said, having a clear vision of where I wanted to be and loosely how I was going to get there m…

Care to share some details about how your business is doing today? Are you profitable?

From his profile on twitter (his handle is on his HN profile) http://neddwyer.com/

I'm assuming he was referring to

> My last startup was Elto, a marketplace to connect small business owners to freelance web designers. Elto was acquired by GoDaddy in 2015.

Re: 80,000 Hours career plan worksheet

#20
> What are your best medium-term options (3-15 years)?

> 1. What global problems do you think are most pressing?

The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets w/ statistical indicators, AKA GlobalGoals, are for the whole world through 2030.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals

http://www.globalgoals.org

Post reply on HN