…and the direction of the world this week

In an attempt to understand what career I should pursue I began to follow a method suggested by someone on the internet. I began to list down my accomplishments.

As I wrote down my experiences, I realize that I haven’t done enough in my life to even write down 25 experiences as a shortlist. I wonder if now would be too late to create more experiences. I kept doing things that “seemed” right for the longest time. Whatever looked like the correct thing usually that was to do from my mother’s perspective. I think I found this shortcut where I could make things appear to be something even if they really weren’t that thing. Perhaps this is what led to the choices that I made later in life. If I was to correct those things what would they look like?

I think the first thing that comes to mind when I think about looking for a career is money. I realize that money is only a measure of value. However, that measure could be broken and it’s not necessary that every time a job that pays substantially high adds the most value. It is quite likely that what appears to add the most value to society only appears so and is not really the case. Take for example jobs where people are trying to solve societal problems.

Such jobs are usually within non-profit organizations and do I even need to say more? On the other hand, you look at jobs like those in Finance and they are bringing organization based on rules framed to lead a civilized society. However, society and its civility is a fragile fabric that when disturbed slightly does not take long to dissipate. What then happens to those financial roles?

This being said I realize that as I was talking about essential roles in society and I digressed into the question of what role would suit a society whose civil fabric is disappearing. Perhaps then a pertinent question to ask is what state of society am I considering when I’m thinking about a career? Indeed, this is a question that has come up more frequently now that GPT models are changing the way AI and ML are used to do everyday tasks and even eliminating common tasks within organizations.

Many strongly believe that ‘Experiences’ is the way to go. I don’t disagree and it seems what is “real” does become more important when the “artificial” will take over everyday life. In order to provide expertise in this area one would need to be initially familiar with and then later in charge of providing the experience. Many times this would entail experiences in the wild. (in future there will be an article titled ‘Can Outer Space be Wild?‘) Perhaps survival skills that can enable existence in the “wild” is something that becomes somewhat of a niche skill that initially becomes more wanted and ultimately proliferated throughout society.

The fact of the matter is that when I list down the ten instances I consider accomplishments in life, quite a few of them are related to said Experiences. These threads were not initially connected but appear to be such. Whitney, BJJ, the Appalachian trail – they all have a few things in common. While I might be passionate about technology, it doesn’t figure in the top things I consider my accomplishments in life. As technology is disrupting lives, I wonder if the things that bring me the most pleasure in life start to become a foundation for skills that become ultimately the most valuable in society.