Early Career Advice

How to Be Lucky¶

You make your own luck. There's a great experiment that I can't cite, but it has stuck in my mind since I was a child. They identified people as lucky and unlucky, and asked them to count the number of photographs in a newspaper. The unlucky people took a long time to count the photographs, while the lucky people took a very short... See more

When I was at Google, my very first promotion from Eng 1 to Eng 2 got rejected after 2 years in the role. The feedback from the promo committee was “work on more impactful projects”. I was disappointed, but I also learned that “I’ll just do what I’m told and I’ll get promoted” is simply not true. I needed to rethink my approach.

The feedback from... See more

Maintain a diversity of pursuits — you want to ensure that, no matter how engrossed you become in one, you never forget that the others exist.

Advice for those in their 20s: “ten years from now, you need to be able to say that this is the life you chose, not one you settled for.” A future that is created intentionally is more pleasant than one that is scrapped together by avoidance-driven choices.

Make sure your job has clear price signals for success and failure. Be suspicious of roles that compensate you with status or non-financial rewards.