6 ms·

"Do what you love" is a common phrase, but I've found an opposite technique. Find the things that bugs you most (that you talk about, focus on, debate about) an

by jadbox 8y ago

"Do what you love" is a common phrase, but I've found an opposite technique. Find the things that bugs you most (that you talk about, focus on, debate about) and allow yourself to become a solution. I've found that the problems I tended to be naturally be bothered by ended up making great career choice(s) for me.

ransom1538 8y ago
I printed this comment out and will frame it (once the frame is delivered).
- jadbox 8y ago
  Can't tell if you're joking, but if you do, post a picture! heh
colordrops 8y ago
What problems have you made career choices out of if you don't mind me asking?
- lucb1e 8y ago
  Same question here. It sounds like it could be good advice, but a few sentences is rather vague. An example would be very interesting.
  - jadbox 8y ago
    Will do edit: see my reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18839530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18839530
- jadbox 8y ago
  No problem. I started my career in CS with zero knowledge of what I really wanted to do out of college. However back in early 2000s, I was extremely frustrated of how difficult/buggy online banking portals were for managing my finances, so I decided to get into Fintech for a couple years. Eventually that led me to designing a nationally awarded banking portal that was ahead of its time in relation to its online features. Then I became a gamer as a young adult, and decided to get into social/mobile gaming as I couldn't find any games on those platforms that really catered to a traditional gamer. I ended up building a few real-time action-rpgs and strategy games that ran within the browser and on mobile. Then I got really technical in driving better gaming/interactivity in the browser, because I was hitting so many annoying limitations. So I joined the Adobe's Flash and open standards team to push these boundaries. We managed to add 3D gpu rendering to Flash, and while making progress with browser standards for better native multimedia-related features. Now for last few years I've started to expand outside software and dive really into academic political philosophy, and I became really concerned with the current polarization in the US, and it's total lack of real genuine communication between people of differencing views. So (plug) I'm creating a self-funded startup that's a live debate platform called https://DinnerTable.Chat https://DinnerTable.Chat that hopefully provides a helpful communication medium for authentically discussing viewpoint differences (as it is, after all, an emotional journey to change one's mind). I don't know if this will work, but I've always trusted my intuition of following the desire to solve things that bug me.
  - dogcomplex 8y ago
    Hat's off to you and your career path! Very cool.
    - jadbox 8y ago
      Thanks, appreciated!
dstick 8y ago
I wouldn’t call it opposite, more alternative technique. The things that bug you -are- the things you care about. Some people care way too much about things they shouldn’t but that’s a whole other discussion all together ;-)

by jadbox 8y ago

ransom1538 8y ago

I printed this comment out and will frame it (once the frame is delivered).

jadbox 8y ago
Can't tell if you're joking, but if you do, post a picture! heh

colordrops 8y ago

What problems have you made career choices out of if you don't mind me asking?

lucb1e 8y ago
Same question here. It sounds like it could be good advice, but a few sentences is rather vague. An example would be very interesting.
- jadbox 8y ago
  Will do edit: see my reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18839530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18839530
jadbox 8y ago
No problem. I started my career in CS with zero knowledge of what I really wanted to do out of college. However back in early 2000s, I was extremely frustrated of how difficult/buggy online banking portals were for managing my finances, so I decided to get into Fintech for a couple years. Eventually that led me to designing a nationally awarded banking portal that was ahead of its time in relation to its online features. Then I became a gamer as a young adult, and decided to get into social/mobile gaming as I couldn't find any games on those platforms that really catered to a traditional gamer. I ended up building a few real-time action-rpgs and strategy games that ran within the browser and on mobile. Then I got really technical in driving better gaming/interactivity in the browser, because I was hitting so many annoying limitations. So I joined the Adobe's Flash and open standards team to push these boundaries. We managed to add 3D gpu rendering to Flash, and while making progress with browser standards for better native multimedia-related features. Now for last few years I've started to expand outside software and dive really into academic political philosophy, and I became really concerned with the current polarization in the US, and it's total lack of real genuine communication between people of differencing views. So (plug) I'm creating a self-funded startup that's a live debate platform called https://DinnerTable.Chat https://DinnerTable.Chat that hopefully provides a helpful communication medium for authentically discussing viewpoint differences (as it is, after all, an emotional journey to change one's mind). I don't know if this will work, but I've always trusted my intuition of following the desire to solve things that bug me.
- dogcomplex 8y ago
  Hat's off to you and your career path! Very cool.
  - jadbox 8y ago
    Thanks, appreciated!

dstick 8y ago

I wouldn’t call it opposite, more alternative technique. The things that bug you -are- the things you care about. Some people care way too much about things they shouldn’t but that’s a whole other discussion all together ;-)