It's metaphor about how to manage your career, nothing more. The point of the metaphor is to not depend upon your current employer to manage your career for y

It's metaphor about how to manage your career, nothing more. The point of the metaphor is to not depend upon your current employer to manage your career for you. If you do, they will inevitably manage your career to suit their own interests, not yours. I follow the parent poster's advice in part because I have kids. I manage my career to serve my personal success so that I can care for those who depend upon me. Not all of life is one big spreadsheet of assets and liabilities; just those things that are relevant to my career growth.