[HN Gopher] Knitting Your Parachute
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Knitting Your Parachute
Author : 1123581321
Score : 39 points
Date : 2025-02-22 12:42 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.macsparky.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.macsparky.com)
| jp57 wrote:
| It took me into my forties to realize that I needed to stop
| thinking about what I want to _be_ and focus on what I want to
| _do_. Only then did I have enough perspective to understand that
| when I tried to make career decisions based on expectations about
| what it means to be in a role, it always steered me wrong.
|
| OTOH, when I focused on _doing_ what I wanted to do or enjoyed
| doing, I generally ended up both happy and successful. It has,
| however, led me into roles where I have a hard time explaining to
| people what I am, exactly.
| LoganDark wrote:
| > It has, however, led me into roles where I have a hard time
| explaining to people what I am, exactly.
|
| what about "doing what you love"? "I am doing what I love,
| which is X"
| hnuser123456 wrote:
| The roles that are hard to define are the most interesting,
| often to others as well. Just practice a few different
| responses to "so what do you do?" that come from a few
| different contexts. The definition of self is fully embedded in
| your answers.
| vkou wrote:
| Honest answer? I make rich people richer.
|
| Probably best to not look at the self too much, down that way
| lie essays about alienation of labor.
| alabastervlog wrote:
| What's awesome about tech is that the vast majority of what
| I'm paid to do _loses_ rich people money. I can often even
| tell in advance that 's what'll happen. After 20 years in
| this career I'm honestly not sure if the realized value of
| my work product is even in the black, LOL.
|
| "I make rich people poorer" is kinda a fun reframing of "I
| make stuff that gets thrown away without ever doing any
| good."
| ryandrake wrote:
| Wow, talk about life goals! Now I'm curious! I'd love to
| know any specifics that you feel like sharing. As someone
| in the usual "make shareholders even richer" industry, I
| can't think of a more noble goal than actually taking the
| rich down a few rungs.
| stevenfoster wrote:
| I met David Sparks back at WWDC in 2018. One of the real ones.
| Definitely one of those internet people who inspired me make the
| jump out of Silicon Valley to do my own thing a few years ago.
| Meeting him made it real. Glad he's writing about it.
| blairbeckwith wrote:
| I listen to a lot of this world - David Sparks, the Relay
| podcast network, MacStories, etc.
|
| I have been varying levels of Apple Fanboy over the years, but
| even when I haven't been all-in on Apple fanaticism, I've
| always enjoyed listening. I think it's because they're just
| people who are excited about technology in the way that I was
| when I was a teenager, before startup and VC culture got to me.
|
| David Sparks captures all of this so well. The guy just loves
| technology while being kind, unassuming, and generous while
| capturing enough value to make a career out of it. It's the
| best, and I should find more people outside of this small niche
| to restore my hope.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| What was it about that world? It seems totally lost now
|
| People used to care about things. Like, actually care about
| things for the sake of it. There was still tons of money
| involved back then. But it seemed like there was some kind of
| wall between us and it that doesn't exist now. Every
| conversation or meeting is a fraught power struggle between
| people striving to remain relevant to maintain their five
| figure mortgages and private preschools. It's impossible for
| anything to be fun anymore.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| It's a scary thought I think many of us are facing now. I know
| that my only future is in software, but _what_ that is going to
| look like now has me terrified. The next ten years of our
| industry is going to look absolutely nothing like the last ten,
| and I don 't know if I'll be able to make the jump. Maybe none of
| us will, and software work ends up as just a highly paid small
| niche for a few super geniuses running and tweaking the AI for us
| all. I just don't know anymore, and that's the hardest part.
| hoyd wrote:
| On the side, from the title I was picturing actual knitted
| parachutes, which isn't the first time. At work, we had a student
| cansat team who did just that. To everyone's surprise, it worked
| better than regular ones. Here is a video where she explains it.
|
| https://www.esero.no/prosjekter/cansat/
| https://vimeo.com/866239028
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