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This is a fair illustration of some failure modes for that choice. I took the other road: during my 20s and early 30s I spent a lot of time chasing meaning whi
by wwweston 4y ago
This is a fair illustration of some failure modes for that choice.
I took the other road: during my 20s and early 30s I spent a lot of time chasing meaning while minimizing expenses and the time I put into jobs and other explicitly career-focused choices (although tech-related stuff turned out to be one of my forms of play & exploration, and I did do the startup thing a time or two). Can't say I outright regret this because I do think I exercised a lot of important personal capacities and gained some insights, but at one point I did look around and realize my place in society was effectively "economically marginalized software developer" and that was a weird and probably not optimal tradeoff from both a practical or meaningful standpoint, especially considering I had still had a lot of open questions and anxieties about meaning.
So, this path has potential failure modes too.
At that point I made a pretty deliberate choice to more or less "sell out." Years later the upsides appear to have outweighed the down, and I find myself with the suspicion that meaning is found/made wherever you meet life thoughtfully and intentionally, and that if I'd chosen finance in my 20s (or more comp-rewarding tech roles) I'd have had opportunities that were different but not without their own affordances for meaning (and probably a higher net worth).
Still, I like my work and hobbies, and I never feel there's a shortage of interesting and engaging things to pay attention to in the world. I could continue like this for decades if I'm lucky enough to; my most substantial worries are staving off/prepping for whatever decline in health we all eventually face, and with it capacity to engage the world robustly. Perhaps I didn't do so badly after all.
- tdrgabi 4y agoYour comment made me think and see the usual "high paid, sell out" - "low paid, high meaning" dichotomy in a different light. I'll ponder it a bit more. Thank you and Merry Xmas.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoNot everything has to have meaning. In fact, nothing has to have meaning for life to be worth living. It is a delusion we tell ourselves that something must have meaning to be worthwhile. Having said that, I find value in relationships, not jobs or hobbies or things. Meaning? There is no meaning. Things are as they are. And it’s beautiful.
- lazide 4y agoMerely being good at what one does, when that is useful to others, is often a good definition for meaning.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoI would define that as “helpful” or “useful to society”, not meaningful.
- Godel_unicode 4y agoYou don’t feel being useful to society had meaning? I think you might be putting meaning on quite a pedestal.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoYou can assign meaning to anything. You can assign meaning to a bird passing over your head as you propose to your girlfriend: "it was meant to be." So sure, there can be meaning in being useful to society. But that's not really my point. My point is that meaning does not need to be a goal. If you hang your life's worth on the meaning you find, I am betting you're going to be disappointed a lot of the time. It doesn't need to be that way. Look beyond meaning for worth and value.
- lazide 4y agoIs not being useful to others worthwhile and valuable?
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoIndeed, it is!
- shanebellone 4y ago"Look beyond meaning for worth and value." Well said.
- alar44 4y agoI did the exact same thing. Chased my passion through 30, burnt out, sold out, and am now burnt out on the other side 10 years later. Might sell all my shit and become a carpenter or a framer.
- lazide 4y agoBe aware, burn out is often as much or more about self regulation than it is any specific activity. Being able and willing to say no to mind one’s boundaries being a key skill. Changing careers can help (the novelty provides rewards), but rarely does whatever underlying thing causing the issue disappear.
- alar44 4y agoI've been thinking about that. The IT industry doesn't lend itself to boundaries very well so I think I'd like a career where work stays at work.
- Icathian 4y agoI suspect that no job lends itself to boundaries well, and that a healthy willingness to enforce them is going to be necessary regardless.
- nikau 4y agoSure it does - you work 8 hours a day, if you get more tasks to do than time you prioritize and what gets done gets done. If management want more done they can hire more staff. Sure you need to find the right company and your yearly compensation might be lower, but your hourly rate will still be around the same and you can have quality of life.
- LouisSayers 4y ago> you work 8 hours a day Do you really though? Any problem solving industry is going to have flow over work which is not visible. Even if you're not physically at work, how many ppl are actually mentally checked out when they leave? How much work is done in the office and how much is left over for the subconscious to decode for the following day? It will vary by the types of work you're doing, but being in tech as a whole can be quite mentally draining.
- draw_down 4y ago[dead]
- sdwr 4y agoHow did you sell out, and practically how did it turn out? I'm interested in doing the same thing.
- ZhangSWEFAANG 4y agoyeah exactly, as a man, you should focus on increasing your status in society, and through those activities that increase status, you ultimately find meaning.