I don’t like playing politics, I don’t like having bosses and being told what to do, I don’t like competition, I have no desire to manage other people, so I’ve instinctively avoided or quickly left any places that were even remotely maze-like. I guess I’m the exact opposite of the target audience of this post. :)
But suppose someone likes (or thinks they like) or has a comparative advantage in some of these things, and their career plan was to climb the corporate ladder. What would you suggest they go into instead?
Also, it seems a lot harder to take the kind of risks you’re talking about if you’re already in a maze and you have kids and a mortgage. Do you have any advice for people in that situation?
My explicit advice above was that if you find yourself in that situation, down-scaling your lifestyle is prohibitive (e.g. it would break up your family) then you should seek to become a loser in the Rao sense. E.g. don’t quit or outright rebel, but stop trying to advance further, do the minimum to not have anything disastrous happen, and make this clear to all parties at work, while trying to save as much as possible and plan a second act if you want one after that eventually fails to hold up.
If it’s just ‘you have comparative advantage doing this’ then that’s one of the big reasons I invested so much on the super-perfect competition concept—even if you do have this advantage, unless it is freaking impossibly huge, you are still better off not doing it because your edge won’t be that big and you’ll be facing far more competition than is justified by the prize. E.g. even if you really are so talented you ‘deserve’ to be a rock star, you still have to contend with all the people who try anyway, so only do it if you also can’t do anything else, and here our edge over those fools who don’t have such advantages is going to be much, much smalller, beyond those without the necessary minimum being ruled out, which my model says the system is at least good at.
If it’s that you actively like this sort of thing, again I’d ask you to balance against the competition level and the fact that you get sick of anything if you get paid to do it enough for long enough, but I’d also wonder about what values/morality this question implied you already have. If I have ever been friends with such a person, I did not realize it. It seems like the less-murder-heavy version of Barry before he has a change of heart—TV hitman who claims it’s what they’re good at and that they somehow only kill bad people.
What are some specific alternative career paths to consider, for (1) someone who is already in the maze and wants a “second act”, and (2) someone who thinks climbing the corporate ladder is their comparative advantage, but hasn’t started yet?
In both cases, I think ‘start one’s own business’ should be at the top of the list. This can be a start-up designed to make a lot of money—and that’s by far the highest EV play if you can take a real shot and afford to fail. But it does not need to be something so risky. If you have a trade where you can open a store, or put yourself and perhaps a small number of others out for hire, or even become a consultant of some kind, consider doing one of those before anything else.
Doctor → private practice. Lawyer → small law firm as possible. Programmer → own projects, short term gigs, employee number 1.
Similarly, the easiest way to avoid a large business is to work for a small business. Especially good is of course to be employee #1 and get equity, but even employee #5 with nominal equity upside is pretty good.
I’d also encourage people not to think in terms of fixed career paths, but rather in terms of developing skills, doing real things, seeing what opportunities present themselves, etc. But my situation was always very unique, and I took paths most people can’t, so I don’t claim to be any kind of expert in all this. This comment is likely quick / half baked.
I don’t like playing politics, I don’t like having bosses and being told what to do, I don’t like competition, I have no desire to manage other people, so I’ve instinctively avoided or quickly left any places that were even remotely maze-like. I guess I’m the exact opposite of the target audience of this post. :)
But suppose someone likes (or thinks they like) or has a comparative advantage in some of these things, and their career plan was to climb the corporate ladder. What would you suggest they go into instead?
Also, it seems a lot harder to take the kind of risks you’re talking about if you’re already in a maze and you have kids and a mortgage. Do you have any advice for people in that situation?
My explicit advice above was that if you find yourself in that situation, down-scaling your lifestyle is prohibitive (e.g. it would break up your family) then you should seek to become a loser in the Rao sense. E.g. don’t quit or outright rebel, but stop trying to advance further, do the minimum to not have anything disastrous happen, and make this clear to all parties at work, while trying to save as much as possible and plan a second act if you want one after that eventually fails to hold up.
If it’s just ‘you have comparative advantage doing this’ then that’s one of the big reasons I invested so much on the super-perfect competition concept—even if you do have this advantage, unless it is freaking impossibly huge, you are still better off not doing it because your edge won’t be that big and you’ll be facing far more competition than is justified by the prize. E.g. even if you really are so talented you ‘deserve’ to be a rock star, you still have to contend with all the people who try anyway, so only do it if you also can’t do anything else, and here our edge over those fools who don’t have such advantages is going to be much, much smalller, beyond those without the necessary minimum being ruled out, which my model says the system is at least good at.
If it’s that you actively like this sort of thing, again I’d ask you to balance against the competition level and the fact that you get sick of anything if you get paid to do it enough for long enough, but I’d also wonder about what values/morality this question implied you already have. If I have ever been friends with such a person, I did not realize it. It seems like the less-murder-heavy version of Barry before he has a change of heart—TV hitman who claims it’s what they’re good at and that they somehow only kill bad people.
What are some specific alternative career paths to consider, for (1) someone who is already in the maze and wants a “second act”, and (2) someone who thinks climbing the corporate ladder is their comparative advantage, but hasn’t started yet?
In both cases, I think ‘start one’s own business’ should be at the top of the list. This can be a start-up designed to make a lot of money—and that’s by far the highest EV play if you can take a real shot and afford to fail. But it does not need to be something so risky. If you have a trade where you can open a store, or put yourself and perhaps a small number of others out for hire, or even become a consultant of some kind, consider doing one of those before anything else.
Doctor → private practice. Lawyer → small law firm as possible. Programmer → own projects, short term gigs, employee number 1.
Similarly, the easiest way to avoid a large business is to work for a small business. Especially good is of course to be employee #1 and get equity, but even employee #5 with nominal equity upside is pretty good.
I’d also encourage people not to think in terms of fixed career paths, but rather in terms of developing skills, doing real things, seeing what opportunities present themselves, etc. But my situation was always very unique, and I took paths most people can’t, so I don’t claim to be any kind of expert in all this. This comment is likely quick / half baked.