Archive for the 'Career' Category

The T Model: A framework for learning, work, personal growth and non-linear career progression

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

The T Model is a framework I made to describe how to most effectively approach learning, work, and non-linear career progression.
In the T Model you alternate between a broad, horizontal phase and a deep, vertical phase, (though it’s actually an upside-down T because starting with the horizontal phase is a must) . In the broad, [...]

Passion Is An Epiphenomenon

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

This blog post started as a comment on Ben Casnocha’s post on passion and voice. Most of my blog posts recently have come as a result of something provocative coming into my environment, a conversation, an idea, a quote, and unplanned, I end up writing. I’m not allocating much time to write these days, but [...]

When Exposing Yourself To New Interesting Things, Make It Closely Related To Your Core Skills

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Spend 80% of your time on your passions, improving your core skills. There are plenty of things you can find that simply meet the “interesting” criteria.
The argument that colleges expose you to things you wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to is not that compelling a value proposition because it is not very hard to find new [...]

A Remarkable Life Requires Exhibiting Courage and THEN Putting in Effort

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

I started to write a comment on Cal Newport’s provocative post on whether a remarkable life requires courage or effort?…and while I tried to formulate my opinion on the matter while brushing my teeth enough thoughts broke through my conflicted un-opinionated state  to warrant the comment stand-alone status:
The process that I have seen work is:
1) [...]

Upward Market Pressure on Creativity

Friday, August 21st, 2009

I recently followed a link to this article on Wired profiling the first scientific discovery made by a machine with no human intervention.
This doesn’t signal the end of the role human scientists. Instead it puts increasing upward pressure on scientists developing their creative faculties. And this trend is not prevalent just in science. Everything that [...]

Don’t Let Academia Advise You On Your Future

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

I find the constant worry about grades quite pathetic, as if your future was dependent on their outcome. Okay they kind of are if you are planning to build your life around the perks of the educational system. But if you’re willing to put in the effort you might consider redirecting that same effort out [...]

Thrashing Duck Syndrome

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Most people like to create the perception of having it all figured out. Most people have duck syndrome.
These are people who look calm on the surface but are paddling furiously just to stay afloat.
It’s important to be able to present yourself well, but I find the paddling much more interesting. How do you brush the [...]

Getting Excited Is Just The First Step

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

So many people write about the solutions they’ve found and the things they’ve discovered. I rarely see people write about they problems they are confronting, the different factors they are weighing, the sacrifices they are making and ultimately how they decide. We hear success stories all the time, that follow a traditional story arc: at [...]

Update: Are Happiness and Innovation at Odds?

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

See the original post here.
What motivates people is something that interests me. I do not think reactivity is the core of innovation, but I do think it plays a notable role. All areas of life bleed into one another and shade them accordingly. Sectors of life don’t exist in isolation. In rereading my post I [...]

Are Happiness and Innovation at Odds?

Friday, February 13th, 2009

See update to this post.
It seems many people’s innovative drive come from a reactive desire to prove themselves. They try to prove, often to the opposite sex, that they are someone worth knowing by showing they are extremely competent in some unrelated discipline like science or technology. It pains me to see people with such a distorted sense of reality. [...]