Advice
Miscellaneous advice
Advice
People early in their career should learn from computer science: meander some in your walk (especially early on), randomly drop yourself into new parts of the terrain, and when you find the highest hill, don’t waste any more time on the current hill no matter how much better the next step up might appear .
Chris Dixon • Climbing the Wrong Hill | Cdixon Blog
fast forward a year from now. your life is the best it's ever been, entirely as a result of your own choices.
what choices did you make now and in the coming months that created that reality for you?
Profound. I'll have to return to this one.
It strikes me a higher-level decomposition of that Naval thread.
Yep, this goes for just about everyone. The CEO of that hot shot new company that everyone loves? He’s probably never run a company before. That director who just started managing other managers? She’s probably only managed individual contributors before. We are all constantly being asked to step up to new challenges and help lead. This is just as ... See more
Makinde Adeagbo • Nobody Knows What They’re Doing
When I discussed quitting Google to do a Phd, my manager, Steve Cheng, gave me the advice of "6 shots": Doing something meaningful usually takes about 5 years and we are productive for roughly 30 years. That gives you 6 attempts. So pick each one carefully and give it your best.
You get ~350k waking hours every year to do things.
You get 8 shots to do big/meaningful things in your life.
Wonderful.
Do It Scared
I believe many young people struggle with the insecurity of being intelligent. They often feel the need to prove their intelligence by overthinking, excessively planning, and acquiring knowledge before taking action. However, this approach is a waste of time. The more you research, the more you realize how little you actually know. In... See more
There has never been a better time in the whole history of the world to invent something. There has never been a better time with more opportunities, more openings, lower barriers, higher benefit/risk ratios, better returns, greater upside, than now. Right now, this minute. This is the time that folks in the future will look back at and say, “Oh to... See more
You Are Not Late
feels even more true today
- The first rule of career planning: Do not plan your career.- The world is an incredibly complex place and everything is changing all the time. You can’t plan your career because you have no idea what’s going to happen in the future. You have no idea what industries you’ll enter, what companies you’ll work for, what roles you’ll have, where you’ll... See more
Marc Andreessen • Pmarchive · Pmarca Guide to Career Planning: Opportunity
It's all obvious in hindsight.
I had a very detailed career plan when I started my first job in oil and gas. In fact, the company encouraged us to make these plans. Then they'd make their own plans for you. It was probably only possibly because the rate of change there continues to reduce… at least with regards to the things that are important for career planning.
5 years later, I don't have a career plan. I feel liberated.
Nailing the basics: How to deliver high-quality work products
open.substack.com