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I think this is misleading advice. I'm sure it's true that when you have amazing opportunities thrown at you at every turn, it's important to stay true to your

by pontus 6y ago

I think this is misleading advice. I'm sure it's true that when you have amazing opportunities thrown at you at every turn, it's important to stay true to your mission and be deliberate in choosing which ones to pursue. That being said, if you're just starting your career and have limited options and someone gives you an opportunity that is good but perhaps not in perfect alignment with what you ultimately want to achieve / do, you should probably still say yes. In other words, I would say that you should start your career saying yes to everything and end your career saying no to everything with some type of smooth interpolation between the two states.

xibalba 6y ago
I think this article slightly misinterprets Buffett a bit. In the broader context of his values and beliefs, I think this "rule" is about focus. Buffett (and Bill Gates) have cited focus as the single most important factor in their success. See also Buffett's 25/5 rule (he did not give it this name). Basically, Buffett's belief is that by not having extreme focus, you dilute your most important asset, time, to a degree that you are unable to accomplish something meaningful in any one area. His views on time and focus are pretty well captured by the snowball metaphor (with apologies to those who have never lived in colder climates): "Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill." In other words, w.r.t. this discussion, it doesn't work to be changing hills with any frequency.
- pontus 6y ago
  Sure, but if you haven't even started your snowball yet, it may not be in your best interest to deeply scrutinize the length of the hill and the wetness of the snow until you find the perfect setup; it may just be better to get started with a snowball and then iterate as you're rolling it down the hill. I definitely think there's value in the entire "say no to almost everything" philosophy, it's just that I see it regurgitated without much thought all over the place. I'll meet someone who wants to be the next Bill Gates / Steve Jobs / ... / Elon Musk and who deliberately says no to everything been though they have no other options. They're just waiting for that perfect fit which may very well never come.
hinkley 6y ago
I think it's important to note that when a 25 year old talks about their career, it's almost all 'beginning'. Even if they are precocious and got promoted, they have only barely made it into what other people might call the middle of their career, it's still the beginning for them (unless they settle). You talk to a guy who has been working for 50 years and 'most of his career' looks very different than most of your career, even if you follow the same arc. Because all of your career is just the beginning of his. I feel like he is missing the part where if you're a relatively passive person and you keep saying no to everything, you end up alone, bored, and broke. If you are going to say 'no' to people, it's because they are offering you options that might not be the ones you'd choose or make for yourself. So you should demur and work to create your own options. The best way to predict the future is to create it.

by pontus 6y ago

xibalba 6y ago

I think this article slightly misinterprets Buffett a bit. In the broader context of his values and beliefs, I think this "rule" is about focus. Buffett (and Bill Gates) have cited focus as the single most important factor in their success. See also Buffett's 25/5 rule (he did not give it this name). Basically, Buffett's belief is that by not having extreme focus, you dilute your most important asset, time, to a degree that you are unable to accomplish something meaningful in any one area. His views on time and focus are pretty well captured by the snowball metaphor (with apologies to those who have never lived in colder climates): "Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill." In other words, w.r.t. this discussion, it doesn't work to be changing hills with any frequency.

pontus 6y ago
Sure, but if you haven't even started your snowball yet, it may not be in your best interest to deeply scrutinize the length of the hill and the wetness of the snow until you find the perfect setup; it may just be better to get started with a snowball and then iterate as you're rolling it down the hill. I definitely think there's value in the entire "say no to almost everything" philosophy, it's just that I see it regurgitated without much thought all over the place. I'll meet someone who wants to be the next Bill Gates / Steve Jobs / ... / Elon Musk and who deliberately says no to everything been though they have no other options. They're just waiting for that perfect fit which may very well never come.

hinkley 6y ago

I think it's important to note that when a 25 year old talks about their career, it's almost all 'beginning'. Even if they are precocious and got promoted, they have only barely made it into what other people might call the middle of their career, it's still the beginning for them (unless they settle). You talk to a guy who has been working for 50 years and 'most of his career' looks very different than most of your career, even if you follow the same arc. Because all of your career is just the beginning of his. I feel like he is missing the part where if you're a relatively passive person and you keep saying no to everything, you end up alone, bored, and broke. If you are going to say 'no' to people, it's because they are offering you options that might not be the ones you'd choose or make for yourself. So you should demur and work to create your own options. The best way to predict the future is to create it.