Agree, this could be a trap, e.g. people feel Github is a required resume item now. I think the strong indicator variable here is whether the thing you’re doing is the generally socially acceptable thing (possibly a trap) vs something differentiated.
I personally got into the ML wave before it was cool and everyone in the world wants to be a Data Scientist. Back then it was called “Data Mining” and I decided to do it because I saw being a SWE was intellectually a dead end and wanted to do more mathy things in my job. The generalizable part of this is following your curiosity towards things make sense but are not yet another step on the treadmill.
It may be tough to know what the next stepping stone is, in the sense of investing in skills that will be important in the future but aren’t super hyped today. And also skills that will be relevant for a long time. I have a Generation X friend who essentially has this problem—despite having over a decade of ogramming experience, he essentially has to start over from scratch if he wants to be competitive in the job market again. While financially stable I’m sure he’s still looking for something that is intellectually stimulating and fulfilling. But he also believes (rightly in my opinion) that he’s earned a lot of Slack over the many years of his career. Therefore he’s basically forced into Maya’s situation, but at a serious disadvantage due to where he’s invested his Slack already (like having a family).
Agree, this could be a trap, e.g. people feel Github is a required resume item now. I think the strong indicator variable here is whether the thing you’re doing is the generally socially acceptable thing (possibly a trap) vs something differentiated.
I personally got into the ML wave before it was cool and everyone in the world wants to be a Data Scientist. Back then it was called “Data Mining” and I decided to do it because I saw being a SWE was intellectually a dead end and wanted to do more mathy things in my job. The generalizable part of this is following your curiosity towards things make sense but are not yet another step on the treadmill.
It may be tough to know what the next stepping stone is, in the sense of investing in skills that will be important in the future but aren’t super hyped today. And also skills that will be relevant for a long time. I have a Generation X friend who essentially has this problem—despite having over a decade of ogramming experience, he essentially has to start over from scratch if he wants to be competitive in the job market again. While financially stable I’m sure he’s still looking for something that is intellectually stimulating and fulfilling. But he also believes (rightly in my opinion) that he’s earned a lot of Slack over the many years of his career. Therefore he’s basically forced into Maya’s situation, but at a serious disadvantage due to where he’s invested his Slack already (like having a family).