Talent redux \ stacker news ~mostly

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7432 sats \ 21 comments \ @elvismercury 28 Oct mostly_harmless

A week ago I read this article on talent and decided I had to quit my job.

Quitting was an idea I had noodled on for ... years, I guess. But I was so entangled with the place, even as it poisoned me. It would be like seceding from your family, or your religion. Or pulling a full-grown tree out of the ground, the roots that aren't torn off still clinging to the dirt.

But I read the article and was like: I have to go. I have to. I gave notice the next day. Two days after that it was over. It's been weird hearing the inside of my head again.

Then I thought: didn't I share that article on SN? I had a hazy memory of having done so. I hadn't been to SN in months, for reasons related to work. But I'm free now, I thought. I should share it if I haven't.

Turns out I was right, I had already posted about the article 18 months ago. I'd forgotten the rest of what I wrote in that post. Re-reading it hits like a brick to the face.

Time to see if of all this struggle has meant anything.

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53 sats \ 1 reply \ @gmd 5h

Nice read... any plans right now? As someone stuck in the "golden handcuffs" I will be eagerly rooting for your success...

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 2h

Gold is a soft metal but can feel nigh unbreakable when rendered in handcuff form :(

195 sats \ 4 replies \ @billytheked 15h

Thanks for sharing and well done. I hope this means you'll be 'around' a little more.

I haven't yet read the piece yet, but what you shared already resonated with me.

I left a position in August, a dying enterprise. Besides, the work had started to feel morally compromising which was the main reason I'd walked away. I had nothing else lined up so the next few weeks I took to myself as I looked elsewhere. Now I've found something I enjoy doing more and the pay is actually better.

Not sure how that works. Maybe there is something bigger at play.

@remindme in 8 hours to finish reading

11 sats \ 3 replies \ @elvismercury OP 15h

Did you do anything special in those weeks off? Approach it differently than in the past?

53 sats \ 2 replies \ @billytheked 5h

Yes. I lined it up so I quit right before a vacation (I don't recommend doing this, but I made it work) so I got to spend the first 10 or so days on a tranquil lake in the Appalachians. I woke up early and worked on short fiction every day, spent a lot of time around my loved ones and spent a little more than I could afford (I am still catching up). I am trying not to dwell too much on the last thing, because this was the first time for a long time that I let go of some of my inhibitions. Coming back to reality, I have had to work a little harder, but I think I appreciate that work twice as much now.

I think, like your (ex?) CEO, that playing to your strengths is generally a good bet, even though you might not be in the right place at the right time. (@SimpleStacker's post from earlier today is worth the read and related. Environment and peers can be either silent killers or really raise you up while you might be performing optimally.

Do you have some idea of what you'll do next?

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury OP 1h

No real idea. I'm v serious about trying to pay attention to what moves me, though, and move toward the smell of apple pie.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @billytheked 1h

I hope you are able to recognize a good thing when you've got it!

285 sats \ 1 reply \ @justin_shocknet 23h

Congrats, a similar epiphany changed my course 7-8 years ago, highly recommended.

Naval was a big nudge factor, he has a way of making things pretty succint:

“I’m always ‘working.’ It looks like work to others, but it feels like play to me. And that’s how I know no one can compete with me on it. Because I’m just playing, for sixteen hours a day. If others want to compete with me, they’re going to work, and they’re going to lose because they’re not going to do it for sixteen hours a day, seven days a week.” ― Naval Ravikant

220 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 15h

Funny, I had run into the tweet you linked back in the day and wrote down a note: "if they can train you, they can train someone else." It seemed extremely wise and was exactly what I was observing at the time: people who did big things carved it out of the universe; there was no playbook, nothing that scaled, just finding a niche and learning how to occupy it, and what ensued seemed less like work than an expression of who and what they were.

That seems about as good as it gets: be whatever you are, and have the universe bend around you in a way that you like. Although I suppose there is some tailoring of what you are to what the universe will reward. Few people can ignore that half of the feedback loop.

242 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 28 Oct

I'm fascinated and inspired by these two posts. You must have had a pretty high position if you were riding the private jet of a CEO whose call foreign dignitaries take. And yet you left it behind to pursue your passions?

I'm curious, what did you used to do and what is it you'll be doing now?

121 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury OP 15h

I was a little worried that post would come across as more impressive than it was.

If you find any big company (and some even not so big) there will be some hotshot execs / CEO who put on a similar show; and they are, by definition, at the center of a bunch of money and influence, which means you'd be surprised at who they know and who they're talking to. They will in turn surround themselves with special-purpose tools they can call on, the way you might call a plumber. I was a plumber, that's all. Not trying to be mysterious, but don't want to dox myself worse.

Not sure what's next. Trying to be less stupid than in the past and see what unfolds from paying attention and trying stuff.

27 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 11h

They will in turn surround themselves with special-purpose tools they can call on, the way you might call a plumber. I was a plumber, that's all.

This is something Jason Statham would say... 👀

174 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 23h

So, what comes naturally?

167 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 15h

The work of the current moment is to find that out.

122 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 12h

I'm so excited for you and I have no doubt you'll put your talents to good meaningful use.

I just hope you'll keep us posted on how you're thinking your way through this new situation.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 12h

You got it, amigo :)

122 sats \ 2 replies \ @siggy47 14h

Best of luck to you on the transition. We'll all benefit from it if it means you will be around more.

That Stocker article hits very close to the bone for me. Maybe it's more common to relate to than I had imagined. I seem to recall you being ambivalent about your job for a while. Taking the plunge is really an act of courage.

I spent twenty years in a business I was competent enough at but that I despised. I felt I had no choice but to push through the drudgery for family financial reasons.

I don't regret it, but I'm now in a position where the time flies by while I play at learning things that I do not have an aptitude for, but I'm enjoying myself.

Best of luck.

36 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury OP 13h

Thanks for the kind words.

the time flies by while I play at learning things that I do not have an aptitude for

What are the successful strategies for this kind of play? Any tips? I'm already feeling the tug that I need some bigger purpose, and (perhaps most acutely) a community to go along with it.

Which is dangerous, when you try to satisfy those instincts through the mechanism of "work". I think a lot of what we talk about when we talk about work is a masquerade for these deeper things; it's just there's no culturally-compatible concept to draw from. "Work" is the closest approximation that people can compute.

27 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 13h

Very true. Simplified by the old cliche. I'm still wondering who came up with it first:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/09/02/job-love/

27 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 19h

This is a great way to get us to read the article!

40 sats \ 0 replies \ @OneOneSeven 11h

Elvis has left the building folks.