After 9 years in software, I switched to still being in software but for a noble purpose (mobile money in Africa), and then to nebulous indirectly-x-risk-related research work. My guess is my experience will not say much about yours.
When I made the change, I didn’t particularly feel like I was trusting myself more. My first reason is “the research on M-PESA in Kenya is too strong to argue with”, although the part where I’d read that research for ~fun and trusted my interpretation maybe counts as trust in myself. But also: I wasn’t happy at my old job and would have been leaving anyway, my new job had a much better set up for me even before mission considerations, everyone I knew supported the change (and my later move to independent work).
The move did improve my sense of how valuable I was and how much I was allowed to invest in myself. I think it’s good that that happened but it would have been better if I hadn’t needed a mission to justify it.
You’ve talked about “becoming an adult” and “trusting yourself (to make world-improving plans)” as almost synonyms, and I think that’s a mistake. If I was going to make a road map to impactful and responsible adulthood it would be as follows (hastily written, undoubtably missing stuff, etc):
be stable and functional: take care of your health, your finances, and your housing. Be capable of showing up on time and keeping comittments. Have enough savings to weather emergencies and transitions without worry.
Be able to be a decent friend, family member, and possibly neighbor (which includes creating enough slack in your life you have capacity to help people). Don’t be a parasite on any system.
Work on other people’s projects
Develop valuable skills, if you haven’t done that for #1
Develop the skill of being useful to a boss, who may make decisions you disagree with and won’t justify them to you.
This includes knowing when and how to ask questions, push back on bad ideas, shut up and do work you disagree with, and refuse when necessary.
Develop your sense of taste so you can figure out who is worth deferring to and who isn’t
Develop your ability to coordinate with peers, without the boss/teacher managing the process.
Develop your ability to work with people even when they are very annoying.
Twice in short succession I had a big dispute with someone w/i X-risk community, and we went away thinking very poorly of each other. Not a big deal, there was no reason to think we’d ever have to work together. @Raemon (also the author of Earn-To-Save) told me that my complaints were legitimate but both people had valuable skills, and saving the world necessarily involved dealing with people at least that annoying.
So I did mediation with both. One went great, we are now friendly and have a lot of respect for each other. The other was a less smashing success but was good enough that when it looked like our projects would intersect I felt annoyed but not doomed.
Gradually expand your sense of taste and ability to work autonomously. Any good boss wants to give you work off their plate, they will be delighted if you gradually work your way up to being an independent agent they can give vague instructions to do
Eventually you have the choice to your found your own thing (with or without co-founders) or work for someone, and the wisdom to know which will best accomplish your goals.
After 9 years in software, I switched to still being in software but for a noble purpose (mobile money in Africa), and then to nebulous indirectly-x-risk-related research work. My guess is my experience will not say much about yours.
When I made the change, I didn’t particularly feel like I was trusting myself more. My first reason is “the research on M-PESA in Kenya is too strong to argue with”, although the part where I’d read that research for ~fun and trusted my interpretation maybe counts as trust in myself. But also: I wasn’t happy at my old job and would have been leaving anyway, my new job had a much better set up for me even before mission considerations, everyone I knew supported the change (and my later move to independent work).
The move did improve my sense of how valuable I was and how much I was allowed to invest in myself. I think it’s good that that happened but it would have been better if I hadn’t needed a mission to justify it.
You’ve talked about “becoming an adult” and “trusting yourself (to make world-improving plans)” as almost synonyms, and I think that’s a mistake. If I was going to make a road map to impactful and responsible adulthood it would be as follows (hastily written, undoubtably missing stuff, etc):
be stable and functional: take care of your health, your finances, and your housing. Be capable of showing up on time and keeping comittments. Have enough savings to weather emergencies and transitions without worry.
Be able to be a decent friend, family member, and possibly neighbor (which includes creating enough slack in your life you have capacity to help people). Don’t be a parasite on any system.
Work on other people’s projects
Develop valuable skills, if you haven’t done that for #1
Develop the skill of being useful to a boss, who may make decisions you disagree with and won’t justify them to you.
This includes knowing when and how to ask questions, push back on bad ideas, shut up and do work you disagree with, and refuse when necessary.
Develop your sense of taste so you can figure out who is worth deferring to and who isn’t
Develop your ability to coordinate with peers, without the boss/teacher managing the process.
Develop your ability to work with people even when they are very annoying.
Twice in short succession I had a big dispute with someone w/i X-risk community, and we went away thinking very poorly of each other. Not a big deal, there was no reason to think we’d ever have to work together. @Raemon (also the author of Earn-To-Save) told me that my complaints were legitimate but both people had valuable skills, and saving the world necessarily involved dealing with people at least that annoying.
So I did mediation with both. One went great, we are now friendly and have a lot of respect for each other. The other was a less smashing success but was good enough that when it looked like our projects would intersect I felt annoyed but not doomed.
Gradually expand your sense of taste and ability to work autonomously. Any good boss wants to give you work off their plate, they will be delighted if you gradually work your way up to being an independent agent they can give vague instructions to do
Eventually you have the choice to your found your own thing (with or without co-founders) or work for someone, and the wisdom to know which will best accomplish your goals.