
Career Calculus (2003) - GoldenMonkey
http://www.ericsink.com/Career_Calculus.html
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wsxcde
Boy, this makes me feel old because I first read this when I was a wee
undergrad.

Great advice and it applies to a lot of things in life besides your career. I
would say even happiness and satisfaction in life are much more dependent on
the d/dt of your current situation than on the absolute values. In other
words, one way to get out of a rut is to work on making each day slightly
better than the previous one. Do this 7 days in a row, and you'll marvel at
what a great week you had.

~~~
groby_b
You were an _undergrad_ when you read this, and _you_ feel old? ;) (I was 15
years into my career when Eric wrote that. I really, really, feel old now)

But I'd love to hear how you make each day slightly better. I'm not kidding.
It's easy when you can still make large changes, at the beginning of any
endeavor - career, friendship, playing an instrument. As you get good at what
you do, this is difficult. I struggle with it.

So, if you've got advice, please do share.

~~~
wsxcde
I started writing a long reply to this and realized I was rambling a little
bit.

I think there are two key insights. Sometimes if you're really good at what
you do, you might get stuck in a local maximum. And the only way to break out
of that is to try something completely different. This involves learning
completely new things and is a little uncomfortable because it could be really
slow going in the beginning.

The second insight is that this slow progress is actually okay. Matt Frazier
who has a popular running blog once wrote that most people overestimate the
progress they can make in a year and underestimate the progress they can make
in a decade.

So that's the perspective I use for a lot of my goals. I'm fine with not
becoming an expert in, say, first order theorem provers by the end of year.
But I would like to make slow progress towards that goal and achieve it
hopefully by the end of decade. And really this is a very very achievable goal
and all I need to do to get there is learn just a little bit more each day.

As a side note, I think a lot of people don't even try new things because they
realize how much work it is to become good at these things. So just trying,
i.e., maintaining a d/dt !=0 gives one a huge advantage over everyone else.

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graycat
If I had it to do over again:

Start and run a business. The two biggest points: (1) In something stable that
will last for your whole career. (2) With a geographical barrier to entry so
that you are not in competition with people more than, say, 100 miles away.

A third point can help: Have the business need 'professional certification'.

Examples: Dentistry. Podiatry. Dermatology. Electrical engineering
consultancy.

Other examples: Electrician. General contracting. Big truck, little truck in,
say, plumbing supplies, electricians supplies.

For more: Have the wife and kids help in the business. Pass the business down
to the kids.

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greenyoda
See also this recent post, which talks about something similar:

"A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8055868](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8055868)

