On completing one year of work
I recently completed one year of work. It was honestly one of the hardest years of my life. But I gained immense clarity in terms of my priorities in life. As you would realise by now, I have a habit of documenting a lot of my thought process publicly. I had originally written this for myself, but I thought maybe this may help others reaffirm certain conundrums in their own heads. I had shared it as a twitter thread, but I thought it makes more sense for this to be documented as a separate blogpost. So here it is - my learning after working as a professional for one year.
Bite sized
I've always been quite influenced by Naval Ravikant's quote, "Only play the games that you care to win. The point of winning the game is to become free of it". It is supremely difficult to be great at your job until that is a game that you care to win.1 Finding a job that you care about is only first part of the puzzle (I have written quite a bit on it here, here and here. But interestingly, it is a question I struggle with immensely!) The second, and harder part is to understand that you win a game so as to become free of it. Desire is the root cause of all sufferings (a great video on Buddhism here). Desiring lofty and abstract goals is a sure way of ensuring suffering. Of course I've always struggled with finding a path where I am motivated to do well without desiring any destination or outcome. But what I have understood is that it is much better to tie your motivation to little day to day things, than to some bigger than life aim.
Take care of the local minima, and that will take care of the global maxima.
I have also come to realise that most people have to make a trade off between either doing something they really care about, or earning money. Either is okay, but it is worth spending a good amount of time to be clear of which one you are choosing, till what time, and why (I had previously detailed on this methodology here). The only way to create leverage at work is to be competent at what you do. Once you prove to others that you can do it well, they will be willing to accommodate you and your demands. The only protection against having a terrible time at your job is to be competent at it.
If you're having a terrible time at your job, it is worth thinking about the fact that it may be so because it is not be the right job for you. It is not worth trying to prove to yourself or others that you can do it well. You won't be able to. It is not a game you care to win. You're going to be spending A LOT of your time at your job. It is worth thinking very deeply about what you want to do, who do you want to do it with, and how long you want to do it for. Naval Ravikant once said that there are three important questions one must ask oneself and spend a lot of time thinking about:
Where do you live.
Who your partner is.
What do you do.
Don't move fast and break things, but also don't get comfortable with stasis.
If you're young, and if it won't substantially alter the course of your life for worse - iterate and experiment. Follow regret minimisation framework. It is exceedingly rare that you will fall onto the perfect job for you the first time. Be bold enough to try new things.
Your colleagues will treat you as you allow them to. If you want to draw boundaries, draw them early on. But remember that it is a privilege that you will get only if you are competent. Competency is your insurance scheme against all unpleasant things at your workplace.
All in all - be clear about what you want. Think often, and think deep. A career is not a thing that happens to you. You have to build it. If you don't, someone else will do it for you.