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There’s a trend and belief in the FIRE world that the purpose of work is to earn enough to be able to quit and then focus on doing the things you love. Inherent in this belief is the assumption that work is unfulfilling, unlovable and a drudge.
I’ve been in investment banking IT for over two decades now. This is a result of my first job being in a bank, and the rest following the same path.
After 13 years and change, I’ve moved jobs. Same sector and domain, same city, but slightly different sub-domain. Today is when I start.
I’m not sure how to feel about it. On one hand, I’m losing my relationships, credibility and all the credit I have banked in with my previous firm. I knew the culture and how to work within it. On the other hand, the new job means starting off with a clean slate and a nice steep learning curve for the first year or two.
Everywhere, I see young developers looking to work on the newest technologies and paradigms. This is rarely more evident than in the Cloud, Web and Mobile domains, where the rate of change is extreme and frameworks and tools that were leaders three or four years ago have often fallen by the wayside. They chase the new new, and they do so with the zeal of evangelists.
As an old(er) developer, I find the rate of change dizzying and impossible to stay on top of alongside all the other constraints that a busy work and family life brings.
I work in IT, and have been doing so now for two decades. For the last few years, my role has become more and more managerial and consequently, less and less technical. This change didn’t play to my strengths. I found myself stressed and unhappy, in charge of a lot and in control of very little. Some people are suited to this sort of a job and do well in it, but over time I felt like I was drowning in my responsibilities.
I work in India for a US firm. My firm has offices all around the world, and thus, employees from a large number of cultures. The firm is over a century old, with several of the offices also being decades old.
As is usually the case, distinct from these cultures, the firm also has several cultures, a dominant global culture and several region-specific ones. These cultures drive how we work on a day-to-day basis.
I love watching NBA games. Of the teams I’ve watched, I like the style of play the Golden State Warriors have perfected. Lots of ball movement, very little isolation play, an assist-heavy scoreline and two of the best shooters ever.
If you know nothing about them, there are a few facts that can help inform this conversation
They are a superteam. Their entire starting lineup for parts of this season consisted of All-Stars, something that has never occurred before They have 3 of the last four championships and are in the finals of this one The literature around superteams and star-studded teams is unequivocal.
There is no typical day.
There might be typical Sundays or typical Wednesdays, but given that the world measures work in weeks, the ebb and flow of life is along the same lines. A few lucky or unlucky people might have deterministic days, but for the rest of us, the best unit of planning is the week.
I’ve long since had the habit of planning my weeks out on Monday morning.