Career Calculus (2003)

http://www.ericsink.com/Career_Calculus.html

by GoldenMonkey • 12 years ago

12 5 12 years ago

wsxcde2• 12 years ago

Boy, this makes me feel old because I first read this when I was a wee undergrad.

Great advice and it applies to a lot of things in life besides your career. I would say even happiness and satisfaction in life are much more dependent on the d/dt of your current situation than on the absolute values. In other words, one way to get out of a rut is to work on making each day slightly better than the previous one. Do this 7 days in a row, and you'll marvel at what a great week you had.

groby_b• 12 years ago

You were an undergrad when you read this, and you feel old? ;) (I was 15 years into my career when Eric wrote that. I really, really, feel old now)

But I'd love to hear how you make each day slightly better. I'm not kidding. It's easy when you can still make large changes, at the beginning of any endeavor - career, friendship, playing an instrument. As you get good at what you do, this is difficult. I struggle with it.

So, if you've got advice, please do share.

wsxcde2• 12 years ago

I started writing a long reply to this and realized I was rambling a little bit.

I think there are two key insights. Sometimes if you're really good at what you do, you might get stuck in a local maximum. And the only way to break out of that is to try something completely different. This involves learning completely new things and is a little uncomfortable because it could be really slow going in the beginning.

The second insight is that this slow progress is actually okay. Matt Frazier who has a popular running blog once wrote that most people overestimate the progress they can make in a year and underestimate the progress they can make in a decade.

So that's the perspective I use for a lot of my goals. I'm fine with not becoming an expert in, say, first order theorem provers by the end of year. But I would like to make slow progress towards that goal and achieve it hopefully by the end of decade. And really this is a very very achievable goal and all I need to do to get there is learn just a little bit more each day.

As a side note, I think a lot of people don't even try new things because they realize how much work it is to become good at these things. So just trying, i.e., maintaining a d/dt !=0 gives one a huge advantage over everyone else.

graycat• 12 years ago

If I had it to do over again:

Start and run a business. The two biggest points: (1) In something stable that will last for your whole career. (2) With a geographical barrier to entry so that you are not in competition with people more than, say, 100 miles away.

A third point can help: Have the business need 'professional certification'.

Examples: Dentistry. Podiatry. Dermatology. Electrical engineering consultancy.

Other examples: Electrician. General contracting. Big truck, little truck in, say, plumbing supplies, electricians supplies.

For more: Have the wife and kids help in the business. Pass the business down to the kids.

greenyoda• 12 years ago

See also this recent post, which talks about something similar:

"A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8055868

Career Calculus (2003)

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