Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Invisible Sun's avatar

My experienced advice: Don't delay living the life you want waiting to figure out what career or advocation you want.

My primary goal in growing up was to be married and have children. So I started that journey in my early 20s and it was the best decision I ever made.

As for a career or advocation. First I wanted to be a research engineer. Then I realized that my idea of research was more akin to being a lab tech. I would have been a great lab tech but the pay was less than I desired. So to make money I did commercial software development until the stress of the business (dotcom bubble and crash) turned me off.

I went to night school and got an MBA to give me a path out of the programming grind. In the meantime I took on software contracting assignments and stumbled into a niche where I have considerable project autonomy without the stress of delivery deadlines, and the pay is good and the hours flexible.

So I am still writing software, but on my terms. I justify the MBA as me purchasing an option that I never cashed (I also enjoyed the experience). The engineering education was very helpful in training me how to solve complex problems, and it gave me the introduction to programming that became my advocation.

But Fluid Dynamics and Thermo and Heat Transfer? Nah, I really haven't made use of those courses, except to have an analytical insight on those concepts that most people only possess intuitively.

Lastly, there is a big difference between the abstract notion of the job and the hard realities of what a job actually entails. In my MBA I emphasized entrepreneurship and venture investment. Eventually I figured out my personal risk profile makes me completely unfit for dealing with financial risk. Lacking a trust fund to ensure me a regular income, I never was going to be comfortable pursing opportunities that paid little up front with a chance of a big payout later.

Expand full comment
El Cap's avatar

So true. Economics requires such wonderful talents. Use them well. And especially, aim "to end up as a grandparent.

Expand full comment
15 more comments...

No posts