Many of those I made were on weird dilletante times: I learned English because I wanted to read mangas earlier than their French translations, I learned CS because I just found it so fun I failed every other subjects in my first year of engineering school, I moved to Hong Kong because I fell in love with a girl here when in vacations, I joined an investment bank paying a lot because I had too much fun watching bloomberg and I wanted to understand the whole thing, etc.
None of this was planned or even rational, yet they are the few transformative milestones in my life. So I don't know if there's really an argument we should use time wisely: we should just jump around and do what drags us naturally and as long as we're happy, we'll find a way.
One could look at my progression from random nobody in Normandy to somewhat rich Hong Kong bank employee and think there s a story but in fact it's a disjointed set of irrational opportunities ... which I think is what life should be seen as.
This rings true to me. Most of the best things in my life are the same. No big plan and then engineering the small pieces to build it. I've mostly followed the small pieces that drew me at the time. I'm aware that this approach could just as likely lead you to wasting your life on whimsy and end up with nothing, but I have to say I'm surprised with how well all the parts fit together for a pleasing whole. Looking back it's amazing to see how many decisions were "just in time," even though I never had any kind of prediction about the future. Signal is baked into everything and making localized decisions doesn't have to paint you into a corner in life as it can in engineering.
I got into CS completely by accident because of my fascination with computers as a pre-teen. I would spend most of my free time tinkering with HTML, exploring IRC networks, chatting with strangers on AIM. All of it was idle, wasted time. I never even considered that it was a job option until my twenties. I spent my would-be-college years alternating between working crummy hourly jobs and traveling. Instead of going to school, I went hitchhiking around Europe, backpacking in South America, waiting tables, washing cars, working in a carpet factory, you name it. Again, because I was following some whims. I loved learning languages and exploring foreign cultures. At 23, broke, and desperate to get out of the pizza delivery business for good, I dusted off my old teenage hobby and got a job doing web dev around the same time that other people my age were graduating and doing the same. A few years later the gig economy arrived, and I am glad I exited delivery before that happened.
Sometimes I briefly have anxiety about the future. Am I learning the right skills to remain employable as I get older? What about agism in tech? Did it make any sense for me to move out of the US where career development is best? Is some black swan going to come along and completely obviate my profession? The confident side of me shows up and says "you didn't make a plan to get where you are right now either. Keep following what you enjoy and the future will turn out alright. You've only got a few more decades to avoid disaster anyway."
> No big plan and then engineering the small pieces to build it. I've mostly followed the small pieces that drew me at the time. I'm aware that this approach could just as likely lead you to wasting your life on whimsy and end up with nothing, but I have to say I'm surprised with how well all the parts fit together for a pleasing whole.
In a way you’ve to be lucky that your interests are valued by the time and culture you’re living in, because you can’t control them. That might be the only difference of wasting your time or making it.
None of this was planned or even rational, yet they are the few transformative milestones in my life. So I don't know if there's really an argument we should use time wisely: we should just jump around and do what drags us naturally and as long as we're happy, we'll find a way.
One could look at my progression from random nobody in Normandy to somewhat rich Hong Kong bank employee and think there s a story but in fact it's a disjointed set of irrational opportunities ... which I think is what life should be seen as.