Over at his blog, the ever-interesting, never-boring Derek Sivers has compared transitioning between careers with Tarzan, swinging between vines. I wanted to pu

Over at his blog, the ever-interesting, never-boring Derek Sivers has compared transitioning between careers with Tarzan, swinging between vines. I wanted to put that under a bit of pressure. Derek says rather than quitting one career abruptly and moving onto the next, there should be an overlap period. In his own words: Remember how Tarzan swings through the jungle? He doesn't let go of the previous vine until the next vine is supporting his weight. Of course, that is great advice. But, at the same time, I worry the Tarzan image might be might be too limiting; I worry the picture it paints of people's working lives might be too simplistic. In the new online economy, the very concept of the traditional 'career' is possibly dead. In the 1950s, people used to make the vast majority, if not all, of their annual income from a single job. Just like Tarzan in the animation, you would only ever hold onto one vine at any one time. Moments when you holding onto two were exceptions to the norm, exceptions just like when you were transitioning between careers. Is this still true today? Not obviously. These days people are much happier (and able) to juggle different sources of incomes, to wear different hats at different times. Or, put in terms of the Tarzan analogy, people are much happier (and able) to hold onto multiple vines — many, many, many more than two — at any one time. At one point you might be programming, writing and consulting; at another you might just be writing and consulting; at another you might be running a coffee delivery business, consulting for an e-reading start-up while making a few quid from blogging. The Tarzan analogy is limiting because it encourages you to think of careers as those things that you have one of, or, at a stretch, two. When it comes to careers, a better analogy might be a garden, or, even better, a window box. Sources of income are like plants in this window box. At different times, some plants are smaller, some are bigger; some are growing, some are whithering; some flourish in this weather, and others flourish in that. But, how can we make sense of career transitions in this new language? Using this image, transitioning careers is like planting a new seed, alongside all the other plants you have growing, watering that one carefully — but not ignoring the others, maintaining a window box of flourishing flowers that will help you navigate changes in externalities like shifts in the economy and disruptive new technologies. With this new image we can see another important lesson: You must adjust your skills and expertises to the changing, shifting economy; just like you should put different plants in your window box at different times of the year and in different climates and weathers.