Compass I use is - what are my needs - have they been met? The answers decide how much work and what type of work.
Its very tricky though for multiple reasons. There is a wide spectrum of Needs so one has to develop a vocabulary or map of what exists before being able to answer the question well. Also Needs change with time and context. So the question has to be asked frequently. In relationships and groups that are important the needs of the other person or group also have to be monitored.
I don't think this is a threat. Jargon and bullshit starts overflowing whenever complexity surpasses what the chimp brain can handle.
There are lots of such situations chimps find themselves in these days, where they have no training or instinct on how to react.
Over analyzing these behaviors and the language used when people are out of their depth takes focus away from the fact there are many issues the chimp troupe has no capacity to solve. Just acknowledging and accepting that reality and refocusing the mind on simpler things is what will reduce the bullshit.
As an extreme example take what happens in the military. If you are in a situation surrounded by all kinds of threats and 5 minutes away from possible death what will an untrained mind say? No one sits around analyzing it. Instead there is training to keep the mind focused on the simplest of things.
These are outdated narratives. Network effects are much more the cause of success of such people ie where they were geographically and who they were surrounded by - https://www.nfx.com/post/your-life-network-effects/
- Politics and certain dynamics within/between teams. I'm getting tired of those.
- Money. I'm close to the ceiling (for my location and role) unless I pivot into management
- I'm a bit disconnected about what delivers real value within the company, I feel I'm just a small piece of a big machinery. It's a bit abstract the work I do
- I can influence but I don't own my career path
What I believe a freelance route could give me:
- I can pivot until finding what I enjoy doing
- More flexible schedule
- Feeling that I'm providing tangible value
- Money ceiling
- My efforts would give me a sense of investing in "my own business"
- Freedom. Choose who to work with or not (ideal scenario of course)
You need to stick those reasons somewhere you see them everyday cause they will be a much more useful compass than whats in demand. Whats in demand is always changing.
The way it worked out for me was contacting someone senior at a startup incubator and telling them I wanted some kind of consulting role (few hours a week) to explore more flexible work. They are always hard up for experienced people. That put me in touch with a bunch of startups and I picked one where they had a small project but no one free to work on. That was the door opener and being in a setting with multiple companies all around, it was easy to make contacts, hear what issues different companies had etc. Whenever it aligned with something I knew or was interested in techwise I would try to get involved or help them out.
If you are not a big networker like me the key is to put yourself in environments where you are constantly bumping into people who are telling you their problems :)
Wasn't NSA involved in finding Osama or Suleimani? Find them, then send In Tom Cruise, drone strike what have you. Israel isnt targeted cuz thats what their response woule be to this type of stuff.
Are Russia or China going to react any different from Iran or Pakistan? They currently think they are untouchable. That needs to change.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if Apple presented a similar big blue button allowing you to install third-party IPAs from the internet. User choice is what matters, right?
But their lifespan is way shorter and their number is way higher; which means way more feedback from darwinistic evolution.
To me it means their 'intelligent' behavior should be much more a function of being hardcoded in the neuron layout at the genetic level than being in a generic intelligent meat processor at an emergent level.
Its very tricky though for multiple reasons. There is a wide spectrum of Needs so one has to develop a vocabulary or map of what exists before being able to answer the question well. Also Needs change with time and context. So the question has to be asked frequently. In relationships and groups that are important the needs of the other person or group also have to be monitored.