Ask HN: What's the best-case and worst-case scenario for your career at the end? - catsarebetter
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fuzzfactor
The end is near.

I could end up having to save my employer, or desperately attempt to preserve
some of their most profitable offerings in case resources continue to decline
into levels considered abnormal. Have already made years of accomplishments to
retard multi-million-dollar declines within this particular organizational
structure. It would have been better if I had been empowered to build a _team_
of hand-picked high-performance highly-trained individuals stationed across
our locations to operate my money-making machines, and was in a position to
bring in millions of dollars of additional work instead.

OTOH I could retire or even start my next company, especially in case the
clients themselves ultimately end up needing better continuity without anyone
being able to exercize my full degree of experience, action & commitment.
Alone, just the demand for training upcoming scientists is stronger than ever
and some clients would also love a taste of that geared toward their operation
without having to be scientists themselves.

I don't know which is worse but wasted effort wil be involved no matter what.

And I've done all of them before.

It would be nice if no disasters had occurred, but I'll still be eligible to
draw on retirement savings tax-free and Medicare will kick in, so no plans to
start drawing the Social Security retirement I earned yet.

It's something of a safety net though, the not-so-Universal not-quite-Basic
hard-earned-Income from Social Security along with the Medicare-for-not-
really-all-yet will give me the breathing room to no longer fully rely on a
full-time employer for the bulk of medical coverage, and no employer at all
for a minimal emergency income, if the situation does eventually come up
again.

This should help me make the most appropriate choices, but inaction is not on
the agenda. Decisions whether to decelerate, hold steady as possible, or
accelerate various scientific & business activities can lead to wildly
different eventual directions & outcomes even at this late stage.

Either way looks like over the short term I'll continue designing & building
new money-making machines, and providing for reliable operation in order to
pay for the research efforts needed to get the most out of the rest of the
ones having past, present, or future potential.

But the end is near.

If you've been there before you can just feel it.

The lifelong pressure for exponential growth can provide some incredible
opportunities, which can only be realized when you are not otherwise
encumbered with risks to the sustainability of your survival activities, or
even more financially challenging disaster recovery.

Best case is where I develop increasingly effective solutions to the energy
crisis, at least take the most promising approaches I've seen over the last
few decades and push them to the max like you don't normally get without using
resources that are out of reach until you have some prosperity behind you. I
can still herd cats too and willing to do it.

In the middle somewhere I could revamp my entire industry, like I was
originally brought in by the international leader to accomplish, and this was
before things like personal computers were adopted. But we could always
communicate around the world using our Teletypes :) All other top executives
now have a lesser background that did not include this transition and it did
not go well, but none of them simply remember why. Nor has it nearly been
completed satisfactorily, and wiser business practices can no longer be
gradually implemented because the dysfunctional systems that were applied have
become the ensconced norm. Needs the same old major disruption I first started
planning in the early 80's when it first become obvious it would take more
than a decade of planning alone before well informed efforts could be wisely
expended worldwide, so I got to work right away and never stopped. As a senior
insider who did not come from a different industry more recently than 40 years
ago, all my vision, overtime, and progress since then could be applied like
nothing else. Oh well.

It's all the same amount of work no matter what, and a lot more opportunity
for breakthroughs than being an oldies musician or something.

Although it's good to rehearse a bit again and internet radio is coming so
stay tuned . . .

So far more musicians are showing interest than others who spent most of their
careers as executives in my industry. It may be a little too late now at this
point, most recent executives don't think they need enough experience building
any one thing for very long, especially not up to its best potential for them
to get really good or develop much appreciation for it anyway.

~~~
catsarebetter
What exactly do you do? Could I have some context?

~~~
fuzzfactor
Cargo measurement & testing, with particular emphasis on developing new &
improved laboratory techniques for international use.

Although I did plan & deploy the first little batery-powered TRS-80 suitcase
computer for measurement use at the docks and on board the vessels, but it was
before IBM PC's appeared and way before the actual PC-compatible laptop. But
it did look like what would later be known as a laptop as you carried it up
the gangway.

The measurement is a very traditional business, and the independent testing
only seriously became a major component starting about 50 years ago.

My first employer in this port had been doing it since the sailing ships, and
I was trained by operators who did it during World War II. An incredible
bureaucracy with core essential elements that can never be eliminated since we
are actual commercial bureaucrats and our primary deliverables are paperwork.
But I sure have invented a lot of apparatus while waiting for my ships to come
in, and had proven performance beforehand so the clients get their money's
worth.

Interestingly, when I was in private laboratory practice for over 20 years it
could almost be considered a small-scale Theranos-style business.

I know it's scary but I have to admit it.

Except my technology really works because I validate it for as many years as
necessary before deployment. But these can be some toxic cargoes so it's best
to keep a low profile, and industrially I'm about the furthest thing from
consumer-facing retail operators.

Plus these are kind of big ships, and for insurance companies there's a lot
more at stake from a cargo sample than for a single sample of blood for
instance, so there is that.

