Tag: continuous learning

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Slow-burning questions

Questions guide your attention toward a destination. Imagine you could look at a map depicting every important decision you’ve made. You would see that at every fork in the road you had faced a question. Your answer to that question determined your next step, which determined your path forward. 

Questions are tools for self-reflection that can shift your mindset and reframe your thinking. Just as Michelangelo carved his masterpiece David from a single block of stone, cutting away pieces of marble to reveal an awe-inspiring image, use questions to chip away your assumptions and motivations to reveal your fears and desires. 

Make a list of important questions, but don’t try to answer them right away. Let them stew in the back of your mind as you gather new experiences and additional information. Every time you learn something new, take note of that new knowledge and test to see whether it applies to any of your questions. 

Here are some questions I added into in my note tacking app. Whenever I learn something that applies to a question, I add a quick note so I don’t forget it.  

The question effect

Can asking a question really be that powerful in shaping your life? Let’s explore this one: “How much money do you want to earn?” Have you thought deeply about this question? Do you want $100K, $500K, $1M, $10M, or $50M? Before you say, “the more the better,” invest the time to think through the benefits and tradeoffs of your choice. 

There’s not a right or wrong answer, but your response will impact where you live, how much free time you have, the quality of your relationships with friends and family, your health, what type of house you buy, and who you marry. Your answer maps to your aspirations, abilities, values, and interests. And your answer will likely change and evolve over time. 

There are many perks and benefits to earning lots of money. But earning more money also comes with tradeoffs. Before you set your sights on earning $50M, recognize that your primary relationship will be your career. You will need to work many nights and weekends, and 12- to 14-hour work days will be standard. You will shoulder immense responsibility and stress. 

You won’t likely have the time to watch your kids play sports, perform in a play, or teach them how to ride a bike. You won’t have free time to pursue hobbies or spend much quality time with your partner.  Envy and expectations may strain relationships with friends and family. It may be harder to make new friends because in the back of your mind you will be wondering whether someone wants to be your friend just because of your money.

Your family may face security threats. Criminals target wealthy people for robbery, kidnapping, extortion. Criminals buy airline flight manifests and target wealthy people when they travel, which explains why many of them will use a different name when traveling out of the U.S.

Earning more money may bring increased status but only marginal utility after you have acquired enough to be comfortable and take care of your family. The entertainment you consume, trips you take, health care you receive, food you eat, or technology you use will not be significantly better at $50M compared to $1M.

Your answer to the question of how much money you want ripples throughout your life. Important life decisions start with good questions. Make a list of important questions. Let them burn slowly in the back of your mind, and beware of your initial answers.

Use questions as a tool to guide your decisions and ensure you are heading toward your desired destination.

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How to beat robots and build wealth

Career decisions determine where you invest the majority of your time. These important life decisions have a huge impact on your well-being and quality of life—and your risk of being replaced by a robot.

In the industrialized economy of the 20th century, most people learned a skill and then worked the majority of their careers at one or two companies. That industrialized economy required scale and specialization, so large companies were organized around manufacturing and office jobs. Hierarchies were created to manage large groups of people while creating incentives for advancement.

The information economy of the 21st century is decentralized and global. Widespread access to personal computers and the internet has democratized knowledge so that anyone in the world with an internet connection and a desire to learn can build skills and contribute value to the global economy. The advancement of new technology will require workers to continuously learn new skills. Working as an independent contractor and / or working for many different employers is becoming the norm.

Skills needed in the job market are changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation is accelerating and will replace most jobs that are repetitive or don’t require creativity. Many doctors, lawyers, investment advisors, taxi and truck drivers, accountants, cashiers and most service workers will be replaced by robots and software. Any job that is not creative or complicated is at risk.

However, I’m not yet convinced that our main problem will be robots and software taking jobs from humans. Historically, we do a poor job of imagining the jobs of the future because we are blind to the new industries, technologies, and services that will be created. In a very short period of time, we have seen personal computers, the internet, cable tv, mobile phones, and cloud computing go from science projects to mainstream, essential infrastructure. The largest tech companies in the world, including Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Alibaba, did not even exist when I was born. And I’m not that old!

Our main problem is that our educational system was not designed for a global information economy, and our broken system is not equipped to handle the massive retraining effort needed. Most colleges today don’t prepare graduates with the necessary skills for our current economy. As highlighted in this article in The Atlantic, companies have been complaining for years about the lack of skilled workers, even though millions of people are unemployed or looking for full-time work in the U.S. New models of education are needed.

Although our current system is not yet designed to address the scale of the problem, access to knowledge and training has never been more available to anyone who is self-motivated enough to pursue it. Also, low-cost computing power and the internet provide a path to go around the traditional gatekeepers in many industries, such as media, music, art, publishing, and technology. Here are a few ways to build wealth while pursuing the career you want and ensuring robots will never replace you.

Constructing Your Future

Follow your interests. Build specific knowledge around your interests and find something you love to do. You will gain unfair competitive advantage because your passion will push you to work harder than other people and spur you to be creative and innovative in your field.

Pursue highly technical or creative work. Creative work equals job security. Anything not creative can be replicated and replaced by AI. Specific technical knowledge cannot easily be duplicated.

Invest in continuous learning. Technology advancement will impact every industry. If you are not constantly learning, you will be left behind. Seek out roles and opportunities that accelerate learning. Gain an advantage by building a personalized learning system that keeps you on the cutting edge of knowledge in your field.

Get equity to ensure financial freedom. You will not gain wealth by getting a paycheck. Start your own business or get stock options or restrictive stock units in the company you join.

Move to a hub where your industry is centered. Leverage network effects by building relationships and living in a location where your industry ecosystem is strongest. For example, if you are in tech, move to San Francisco. New York is the best place if you’re interested in fashion or finance. If you want to pursue acting or music, go to Los Angeles.

Seek leverage and compounding value. The information economy has dropped the cost of entry to almost zero. Software and the internet provide a multitude of opportunities to help you make money while you sleep. Find ways to contribute value to the world that do not require you to work by the hour.

Work for people who will help you grow. You work for a person not a company, and your boss will likely determine your growth and satisfaction. Don’t work for people who are not invested in helping you grow, even if the company is great.

Create a decision-making process. Career decisions require identifying and weighting decision criteria. List up to five criteria to evaluate and test potential scenarios. Weight the decision criteria based on importance. For example, if I were evaluating new job opportunities, I would use the following five criteria.

After writing down your decision criteria, assign weights to each criteria on a 0–100 scale based on importance. Maybe the most important is interest level and you assign 30 points, while the least important is location that gets 10. The sum total of the weights should equal 100. After establishing your weighted decision-making criteria, apply a score between -10 to 10 to each criteria for each job. For example, if one job opportunity had a short 20-minute commute I would give it a score of 8. Compared to another job that a  one hour commute I would give a score of -9. This process will help you determine a total score for each job, but don’t get caught up in being too precise. Remember, it’s a tool to help you grapple with tradeoffs and think better.

We live in an unprecedented time of opportunity and prosperity. However, you need to work hard and make smart decisions if you want to participate in this abundance. No one is going to look out for your interests or care about your future more than you do. Find something you love to do that is creative or highly technical and then invest lots of time learning to be the best in the field. Prioritize learning over short term financial gain and find ways to create leverage and compounding value over time. Use criteria and a structured decision-making process for important career decisions to ensure you are on the path to financial freedom. Build specific knowledge in highly technical or creative work and you will not be replaced by a robot.