Who You Are Now is Who You'll Be in 10 Years

http://jtame05.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/who-you-are-now-is-who-youll-be-in-10-years/

by jmtame • 17 years ago

10 15 17 years ago

jtame05.wordpress.com

soji• 17 years ago

Not true: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/10/17/...

mdakin• 17 years ago

This idea seems descriptive of someone with an entity (sometimes "fixed") theory of intelligence. I strongly encourage development of a incremental (sometimes "process", sometimes "growth") theory of intelligence instead. With the right growth-oriented mindset you will certainly not be the same person in ten years.

Read up on Carol Dweck's work. And Abraham Maslow's concept of self-actualization (not technically related to Dweck's work but seems somehow related to this discussion).

jraines• 17 years ago

Don't believe anything you read in a div with a horizontal gradient background.

Seriously though, all he's really saying is that people don't change if they're content with where they are. Well, sure, why would they?

Confusion• 17 years ago

That's what he is saying, but it is patently untrue. He says

If you’re not willing to constantly be in a state of pushing yourself to do more and learn more, then you’ve already reached your limit

I'm pretty happy with my current life (job: regular 9-5 software engineering, have done that for 5 years now). That doesn't mean I don't spend a lot of time on reading books in a wide variety of subjects, reading Hacker News, writing my thoughts and opinions here and in another major community I'm part of, thinking about options that would change the pattern of my life and, once in every while, choose for such an option. I don't need to be pushing myself to keep going forward and keep changing.

That 'just happens': I bought a house that needed much manual labour to get it in a proper state, took up my old sports again, switched from commuting by train to travelling by car, have worked out two ideas for (series of) websites to conclude they wouldn't be worth it, keep seriously considering taking up a study, etc. Especially the last thing will have to wait until my girlfriend graduates and finds a job. That is an example of the way your life necessarily keeps changing, without putting any effort into it.

sid• 17 years ago

Thats kind of what i was thinking. Its just stating pretty much the obvious.

After time people will be where they are + experience, if based on their experience they do nothing different then they will be the same as they always were + money/family/debt and whatever else is accumilated over time.

If experience changes them then obviously things will be different based on the changes they make.

brc2• 17 years ago

The best thing I ever did to introduce a punctuated change to my equilibrium was get rid of everything I had and go work in another country for a couple of years. Even 2 years after doing that I was irrevocably changed forever, and for the better. It gives you more confidence, more knowledge, more empathy, more skills, more conversation and more friends. Highly recommended.

tsally• 17 years ago

Feel free to decline, but would you mind sharing a few more details? How'd you go about finding the job? Did living in another country follow the job, or did you decide to go to another country and find whatever job you could? I think this is the sort of thing that everyone dreams about in the back of their mind, even if they never do it.

ido• 17 years ago

I also did something similar - moving to Vienna, Austria a bit more than four years ago (at the age of twenty-one).

In the first four-five months I just took German courses (I started learning it at home but not very intensely).

After that I started looking for a job, which wasn't too hard (programmers can find a job in any city above a certain minimum level of size and wealth). I simply did the same thing I'd do anywhere - searched in internet job boards and quickly enough I found one.

I'm currently in my fourth job here (yeah I know, four jobs in a bit more than four years is quite a lot) and it never took me very long to find a new job after I quit the first one.

I think that if you really want to do it and don't have anything holding you back (like a family that depends on you) you should just give it a try. The worst thing that can happen is that you'll be miserable and come back home after a couple of months.

The only thing you really need to do beforehand is to save enough money so that you aren't stressed out about finding a job right off the bat. I can move somewhere else right now, and other than in prohibitively expensive places like Manhattan or London, I can live for a year before my savings run out. And I don't really earn that much.

brc2• 17 years ago

I've done it three times over the last ten years actually. In two cases I just left, got on the ground and started looking for work. I had a few contacts but no prospects or offers. You just need some cash to tide you over for a month or two, rent some cheap accomodation and work the phones and email all day until you get something. If you're in another country and burning through your cash, you'll find work, and once you've got the job, you can upgrade your accomodation, make some friends, and you're set.

In the other case I organised the job before I left, but that was dotcom days so jobs were plentiful.

I somehow doubt it will stay at three times for me. Once you've experience the total life reboot that doing such a thing gives you, every time you start feeling like you're in a rut, then you start looking at flight details. I met a guy in his 50's who was working overseas, with his three kids and wife in tow. They were all having a ball. Family does not have to equal ball and chain if you have the right attitude.

The thing is : nothings permanent. Buy a return ticket. If it doesn't work, come back home and go 'oh well, was worth a try'.

As I've said to a few people over the years : what's the thing you want to talk to your grandkids about? The quality of furniture you had in your house? The shiny depreciating car you bought? Or that time you flew out to country X and found a job with company Y, and traveled around seeing Z.

octane• 17 years ago

Someone who makes a handsome living through salary but was laid off could very well turn into an entrepreneur through no direct desire of their own.

pg• 17 years ago

Depends which 10 years, but in general what you'll be in 10 years is the same, but more so.

wushupork• 17 years ago

I dont know if I agree with all that necessarily. 10 years ago I was new to the job market and was too busy trying to learn the ropes of the career. Over the years, I've grown curious and wanted more. I've had to grow out of my shell to network and drum up business.

So to respond to the article. 10 years ago, I was not entrepreneurial in any way because I was very green. Now, I would say I'm a bit more, but I am always learning

ivankirigin• 17 years ago

If you're 30 that is almost a certainty. People stop changing as fast after 30. If you're 20 the change in 10 years is much larger.

alex_c• 17 years ago

So my theory is this: unless you change something about yourself now, you’ll never change

Step 1: Apply the theory today, and change something about yourself: you have changed, theory checks out.

Step 2: Now apply the theory to a point one year in the past. You did not change yourself then, therefore you will never change. But you just changed something about yourself in Step 1. Contradiction.

TheAmazingIdiot• 17 years ago

Anybody who practices Buddhism understands why that is false.

Nobody is the same day after day. Small changes around us change us. Eventually, those small changes lead to what we consider maturity and experience. But even when considering from moment to moment, we are not the same.

We know that from the practitioners of the Zen school, who believe in instantaneous enlightenment. They acknowledge that revelations of thought can occur at once. We also know that major happenings can also change somebody drastically.

But if that's what you want to believe, so be it. I'm most certainly not going to stop you.

Who You Are Now is Who You'll Be in 10 Years

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