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> Your job at Google used to impress people. Now, when people ask about your work, you awkwardly tell them, “Um, it’s a website where you type a food, and it te

> Your job at Google used to impress people. Now, when people ask about your work, you awkwardly tell them, “Um, it’s a website where you type a food, and it tells you whether it’s keto…” Shouldn’t you do something that sounds more impressive? This is a very real doubt that I think about constantly.

j45 8y ago
A piece of valuable advice I recieved - ignore what others think of you. Instead, focus on becoming strong in what you believe, and why. Firmly held beliefs that are easily changed is a benchmark of innovation. I don't care what anyone thinks except my customers. No one with an opinion of my job title that I do or don't impress pays my bills. I pay my bills. Embracing freedom in insignificance of a less than glamourized idea can free a person to explore more than they could ever have. The secret is once we can lower our ego, or insecurity to let ourselves work hard to solve small problems, they naturally lead to conversations about larger problems. Talent has to work hard, not make it look easy. Having talent doesn't mean it should be or look easy. Hard work and learning Discipline is never optional for anyone. A simple idea often needs a lot of hard work that no one understands until they try it themselves.
- brobdingnagians 8y ago
  > A simple idea often needs a lot of hard work that no one understands until they try it themselves. This is so true. I become more and more impressed by people who can release _anything_ half decent by themselves. There is so much involved in all the little details, and each of those takes time to develop. Even just trying to provide a nice generic UX experience takes thought and effort. e.g. does pressing enter take the default action, how do I utilize screen real estate to not be cluttered but convey information adequately to new users, how to design multi-user logins for accounts, etc. Lots of skillsets to either have or develop. There are all good ways of doing them, but takes some foresight and insight about how your future users are going to use the product and to look beyond your own assumptions and knowledge of how the system works. But it is so liberating and you can learn so much more by doing it than by living the unexamined life.
  - chrshawkes 8y ago
    You have to care what others think... family, friends, spouse, kids, boss, dog etc... etc... to not would not be human.
Aqua 8y ago
It comes down to whether your ambition is to do something you like/interests you or something that you're doing solely to impress people that ask about what you do for a living.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- chosenbreed37 8y ago
  Yeah...if I recall correctly Jeff Bezos quit a pretty good job to launch Amazon. Look at him now...:-)
- munificent 8y ago
  I think your sentence works better without "solely". The reality is that we make choices to simultaneously maximize a variety of internal and external incentives. Personal interests are one, so is money, and social prestige is one too. Left-brained tech nerd folks tend to look down on the last one because it isn't "rational" or something, but prestige is an important part of life. One, for most people, it makes them feel good. Ultimately, that's a major goal of life. Two, prestige can directly translate to social capital, which can materially affect you. If you make a stronger impression on someone because you "work at Google" and that leads to them remembering you better and thinking of you later when an opportunity comes up, that actually matters. There's nothing wrong with having the social side of your identity be part of the goals of your life. The risk is when you over-focus on it to the expense of everything else, because then you lose agency. We don't control which things are considered prestigious, so if we aim too much for prestige then we're basically letting the crowd make our decisions for us.
onekorg 8y ago
He still gets street cred by saying he quit a 6 or 7 figure job to pursue his dreams.
- js4 8y ago
  Yeah this is like saying you are a Sanford PHD dropout. Im most situations it tells the same story (you are smart and qualified) as if you were to stay and finish the PhD.
  - cableshaft 8y ago
    Hell, I've had conversations with people that were impressed that I even got approached and flown out to have an interview at Google. Being an ex-Googler should certainly impress people still.
p0nce 8y ago
When you are a small brand noone is impressed whatever you do. That's why "brands" work.
gtowey 8y ago
> This is a very real doubt that I think about constantly. I have a two-step solution for you. 1. Develop interests outside of work that are more appealing than working. 2. Move to a non-tech town and watch people's eyes glaze over as you attempt to impress them with your Google job; realize it doesn't matter.

j45 8y ago

A piece of valuable advice I recieved - ignore what others think of you. Instead, focus on becoming strong in what you believe, and why. Firmly held beliefs that are easily changed is a benchmark of innovation. I don't care what anyone thinks except my customers. No one with an opinion of my job title that I do or don't impress pays my bills. I pay my bills. Embracing freedom in insignificance of a less than glamourized idea can free a person to explore more than they could ever have. The secret is once we can lower our ego, or insecurity to let ourselves work hard to solve small problems, they naturally lead to conversations about larger problems. Talent has to work hard, not make it look easy. Having talent doesn't mean it should be or look easy. Hard work and learning Discipline is never optional for anyone. A simple idea often needs a lot of hard work that no one understands until they try it themselves.

brobdingnagians 8y ago
> A simple idea often needs a lot of hard work that no one understands until they try it themselves. This is so true. I become more and more impressed by people who can release _anything_ half decent by themselves. There is so much involved in all the little details, and each of those takes time to develop. Even just trying to provide a nice generic UX experience takes thought and effort. e.g. does pressing enter take the default action, how do I utilize screen real estate to not be cluttered but convey information adequately to new users, how to design multi-user logins for accounts, etc. Lots of skillsets to either have or develop. There are all good ways of doing them, but takes some foresight and insight about how your future users are going to use the product and to look beyond your own assumptions and knowledge of how the system works. But it is so liberating and you can learn so much more by doing it than by living the unexamined life.
- chrshawkes 8y ago
  You have to care what others think... family, friends, spouse, kids, boss, dog etc... etc... to not would not be human.

Aqua 8y ago

It comes down to whether your ambition is to do something you like/interests you or something that you're doing solely to impress people that ask about what you do for a living.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
chosenbreed37 8y ago
Yeah...if I recall correctly Jeff Bezos quit a pretty good job to launch Amazon. Look at him now...:-)
munificent 8y ago
I think your sentence works better without "solely". The reality is that we make choices to simultaneously maximize a variety of internal and external incentives. Personal interests are one, so is money, and social prestige is one too. Left-brained tech nerd folks tend to look down on the last one because it isn't "rational" or something, but prestige is an important part of life. One, for most people, it makes them feel good. Ultimately, that's a major goal of life. Two, prestige can directly translate to social capital, which can materially affect you. If you make a stronger impression on someone because you "work at Google" and that leads to them remembering you better and thinking of you later when an opportunity comes up, that actually matters. There's nothing wrong with having the social side of your identity be part of the goals of your life. The risk is when you over-focus on it to the expense of everything else, because then you lose agency. We don't control which things are considered prestigious, so if we aim too much for prestige then we're basically letting the crowd make our decisions for us.

onekorg 8y ago

He still gets street cred by saying he quit a 6 or 7 figure job to pursue his dreams.

js4 8y ago
Yeah this is like saying you are a Sanford PHD dropout. Im most situations it tells the same story (you are smart and qualified) as if you were to stay and finish the PhD.
- cableshaft 8y ago
  Hell, I've had conversations with people that were impressed that I even got approached and flown out to have an interview at Google. Being an ex-Googler should certainly impress people still.

p0nce 8y ago

When you are a small brand noone is impressed whatever you do. That's why "brands" work.

gtowey 8y ago

> This is a very real doubt that I think about constantly. I have a two-step solution for you. 1. Develop interests outside of work that are more appealing than working. 2. Move to a non-tech town and watch people's eyes glaze over as you attempt to impress them with your Google job; realize it doesn't matter.