This post makes a few detours, but the section about their own work is always interesting to me. I've always been a "pull on the threads and then pattern match"-kinda worker, rather than a "productivity-chaser" or "advice-seeker". I just pull on the threads that interest me, and over time these threads always have a way of coming back together. It's the difference between being goal oriented and process oriented. This is a much slower, much longer arc to building your taste, skills, and reaching some semblance of your abstract goals, but the other way just wasn't fun to me.
When I was in undergrad I remember reading a lot of blogs and hoping to live up to their idealistic views (shoutout pg), because I hadn't quite yet identified what career I wanted to lead. I dropped out, and then around 24/25 the desire for those goals really shattered. I pursued a very self-directed path that has thankfully worked out (so far-still ample time for it to falter). As this post points out, the only advice that is universal on the internet is that there is no universal advice. Find what rings true to you and lean into it.
The author touches something that are probably better described as burnout triggers.
Accumulate enough expectation metrics and targets and then completely miss them. The mismatch of expectations and reality will give anyone a pause.
The solution isn't chasing more metrics and new far off targets with silver bullets on how to reach them. But that's what "thought leaders" and management think loves doing.
The lower the "loss" between your prediction for your future state and the actual state, the more content you'll be and the easier things will likely progress. Spending more time on maxing out predictions will just make the loss larger.
When I was in undergrad I remember reading a lot of blogs and hoping to live up to their idealistic views (shoutout pg), because I hadn't quite yet identified what career I wanted to lead. I dropped out, and then around 24/25 the desire for those goals really shattered. I pursued a very self-directed path that has thankfully worked out (so far-still ample time for it to falter). As this post points out, the only advice that is universal on the internet is that there is no universal advice. Find what rings true to you and lean into it.