366 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
366 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
[1]Test Double The Test Double logo
|
||
|
||
Menu
|
||
|
||
(BUTTON) Menu Menu An icon that displays an illustration of a website
|
||
menu
|
||
* [2]Home
|
||
* [3]Agency
|
||
* [4]Services
|
||
* [5]Careers
|
||
* [6]Blog
|
||
* [7]Contact
|
||
|
||
[8]Blog [9]Posts
|
||
|
||
Only you can give meaning to your career
|
||
|
||
How to mark moments that matter by planting a flag
|
||
|
||
An icon of a clock Publish Date
|
||
January 2, 2024
|
||
|
||
An icon of a human figure Authors
|
||
[10]Justin Searls
|
||
|
||
I have, for whatever reason, live-blogged my career. Posting technical
|
||
tips I’ve learned. Complaining about bugs I’ve uncovered. Elaborating
|
||
on struggles my teams have faced. Mixed in with the substantive stuff
|
||
has been plenty of vain ephemera that many would rightly describe as
|
||
“over-sharing.” My brother sent me [11]this last week and I felt
|
||
personally attacked:
|
||
|
||
Everyone is fighting a battle you don’t know about. Except for me. I
|
||
am complaining loudly about my battle. Everybody knows about it.
|
||
|
||
So if you’ve borne witness to how much of my life I have spewed
|
||
indiscriminately onto the Internet: first, I’m sorry. And second,
|
||
please know that my vocation as a limelight enthusiast is emphatically
|
||
not what I’m encouraging when I say this: I really wish more people
|
||
took the time to reflect on the moments that mattered most in their
|
||
careers and did more to memorialize them.
|
||
|
||
Ask yourself: what experience in the Spring of 2019 had the greatest
|
||
impact on how you go about your work today? Or 2017… what was 2017 all
|
||
about? Think about the project you’re focused on right now. What will
|
||
you remember about it a decade from now? In what ways are you reaching
|
||
(or being stretched) beyond your comfort zone? If Walter Isaacson were
|
||
writing a bullshit hagiography about your life instead of some
|
||
[12]other schmuck, what would he have to say about you in your current
|
||
chapter?
|
||
|
||
How does it feel to be asked these questions?
|
||
|
||
Early in my career, being asked those questions would have felt like a
|
||
personal attack. But why? I had the tremendous privilege to have a job
|
||
that paid me to use my mind instead of my hands, that afforded me the
|
||
comfort of working behind a desk instead of out in a field, and that
|
||
saw value in my continued growth instead of viewing me as a resource to
|
||
be extracted and consumed. Those relative luxuries signaled that (by
|
||
some definitions) I had “made it,” but nevertheless there I was:
|
||
working overtime and shedding hair to deliver projects that meant
|
||
nothing to me. As the years passed, I knew I was accomplishing
|
||
something and growing somehow, but I found myself totally unable to
|
||
articulate what or how.
|
||
|
||
Not unrelatedly, I grew to hate answering “what do you do?” at parties.
|
||
|
||
People tend to spend about a third of their lifespan at work, and
|
||
that’s assuming they’re fortunate enough to retire at some point.
|
||
That’s a big chunk of life to be rendered meaningless! So I decided to
|
||
be someone whose work mattered—to myself, if no one else.
|
||
|
||
Deciding to take ownership over the meaning of my work has
|
||
unquestionably changed my life for the better. This post is the first
|
||
time I’ve shared my process publicly, and my hope is that others will
|
||
benefit from reading it. Given how dissatisfied most people seem to be
|
||
with their careers, maybe that’s you.
|
||
|
||
[13]Periodically plant a flag
|
||
|
||
Despite the fact that I live in Florida and I’m typing this sentence
|
||
poolside in shorts and a t-shirt in mid-December, I conceptualize time
|
||
with the passage of seasons. There are seasons when my life demands a
|
||
lot from me and my career is forced to take a back seat. There are
|
||
seasons when my work is particularly engaging and my life falls into a
|
||
pleasant-but-unremarkable routine. There are, of course, seasons when
|
||
both are challenging simultaneously, but hopefully not too many.
|
||
Whatever the case, I find myself pausing every three or four months and
|
||
pondering, “what from the last season of my life is worth remembering?”
|
||
|
||
It’s not like I have a reminder scheduled or anything. I don’t gather
|
||
my colleagues and family for a standing meeting to review my
|
||
achievements from the prior quarter. It’s more like an itch I’ve
|
||
trained my brain to scratch whenever I go more than a few months
|
||
without examining where my time has gone and what I have to show for
|
||
it.
|
||
|
||
I often refer to this regular act of reflection as “planting a flag” to
|
||
symbolize whatever I want to stand out when I look back on a period of
|
||
my life. In my case, these flags usually take the form of creative work
|
||
like a blog post, a conference talk, or an open source library, but
|
||
however you choose to imbue meaning into your experiences is entirely
|
||
up to you. The most important thing is that you sit with them long
|
||
enough to associate your memories of those experiences with why they
|
||
mattered. When useful artifacts shake out of my process that can help
|
||
others along in their own journeys, that’s a happy accident as far as
|
||
I’m concerned.
|
||
|
||
[14]How to plant a flag
|
||
|
||
So, how does one actually assign meaning to a heretofore meaningless
|
||
experience? This is the process I’ve settled into over the years to
|
||
identify and commemorate my life’s watershed moments:
|
||
1. Reflect: spend some unstructured time—maybe on a walk or with a
|
||
notebook—and let your mind wander through the previous season of
|
||
your life. A lesson you learned. Feedback that encouraged you. An
|
||
interaction that left an impact. A moment that inspired you. I’m
|
||
especially drawn to memories where emotions ran high—maybe I was
|
||
really worried before a hard conversation or relieved after a
|
||
colleague helped me solve a hard problem. If I draw a blank, I scan
|
||
my e-mail and calendar to jog my memory. If, nothing stands out
|
||
after all that, I don’t force it; I’ll give the exercise a rest and
|
||
come back to it a few days later
|
||
2. Collect: considering the experiences that came to mind when
|
||
reflecting, which ones were distinct and new to you? Anything new
|
||
you learned is, by definition, novel, and would obviously qualify.
|
||
It’s naturally harder to identify familiar-seeming experiences as
|
||
novel, but perhaps there was something unique and interesting
|
||
hiding in the otherwise banal UI control you shipped last month.
|
||
Why do this? Because by filtering out everything you’ve seen and
|
||
done before, whatever flag you plant will stand taller, and you
|
||
won’t risk mistaking this moment and its meaning for another. If
|
||
this step filters everything out because nothing seems sufficiently
|
||
novel, widen the aperture a bit—surely something interesting
|
||
happened in the last few months. And, try as you might, if you go
|
||
long enough with nothing to show for it, the meaning you’re
|
||
searching for may be that it’s time to make a change
|
||
3. Connect: for each of the experiences you’ve collected, try to
|
||
understand how they might connect to future situations. A new tool
|
||
or technique might empower you to do something you couldn’t
|
||
accomplish otherwise. A painful mistake might warn your future self
|
||
to avoid try a different approach next time. Since I can’t see the
|
||
future, I imagine what impact each such insight might have had if
|
||
applied to experiences from my past. “If I’d had learned this years
|
||
ago, how would it have changed other events in my life?” If I can
|
||
think of several moments in my life that would have played out
|
||
differently, that’s as good of evidence as any that it has the
|
||
potential to make an impact on you going forward
|
||
4. Protect: memory is fleeting, and the work you do to identify
|
||
moments that matter will quickly fade away if you don’t do
|
||
something to mark the occasion. Memories thrive in novelty and
|
||
wither in predictability, so the only wrong answer would be to
|
||
enshrine every life lesson in the exact same way. Because creative
|
||
endeavors necessarily result in the creation of something new,
|
||
they’re a great way to clarify meaning and cement memories. My
|
||
go-to creative outlets are essays, videos, and code, but yours
|
||
might be songs, recipes, or [15]Etch A Sketch portraiture
|
||
|
||
That’s it! Reflect, collect, connect, and protect.
|
||
|
||
(See what I did there? How all the steps rhyme. That’s the kind of
|
||
thing you’ll be able to pull off with a decade of practice doing this.)
|
||
|
||
[16]This all happens in hindsight
|
||
|
||
If you’ve ever had a job that encouraged you to make quarterly or
|
||
annual goals for yourself, you may have noticed that a lot of those
|
||
goals go unfinished. By the time performance reviews roll around,
|
||
people often feel forced to justify why they didn’t achieve this or
|
||
that goal. Regardless of the reason—maybe learning some skill was no
|
||
longer relevant or the business’s strategic priorities shifted—the
|
||
failure to meet a goal is often rooted in a failure to predict the
|
||
future. I’m sure managers hope people will feel inspired and
|
||
accountable to pursue their goals creatively, but in my experience they
|
||
more often instill procrastination and anxiety. If there’s any
|
||
creativity exhibited in annual goal rituals, it’s usually when people
|
||
feel forced to weave a narrative that kinda-sorta connects a stated
|
||
objective to whatever mostly-unrelated work they actually did.
|
||
|
||
To wit, I’ve never accomplished anything I felt proud of by setting a
|
||
goal. In fact, the surest way to ensure I don’t do something is to set
|
||
a goal. When asked to set goals for myself, I’ve found that expressing
|
||
the goal (as opposed to achieving it) becomes my overriding objective.
|
||
The moment a manager approved my list of goals, I felt that I had
|
||
completed the work asked of me and I would instantly lose all
|
||
motivation to pursue the goals themselves.
|
||
|
||
This explains why planting flags can succeed where goal-setting fails.
|
||
If what I’m searching for is meaning in my work, setting a goal creates
|
||
an expectation of where, when, and how my future self should find that
|
||
meaning. High pressure. Focusing on doing my job well and reflecting on
|
||
whatever I did in retrospect, however, has allowed me to sift through
|
||
my experiences, identify patterns, and give meaning to them. Low
|
||
pressure.
|
||
|
||
Instead of studying something you think you might need in the future,
|
||
wait for the need to arise and then immerse yourself in learning it.
|
||
Instead of feeling stressed and distracted by the fear that you’ll run
|
||
out of time before hitting an annual goal, do your work diligently and
|
||
look forward to the next opportunity to reflect on the things you’ll
|
||
achieve. Instead of reducing your existence at work into a series of
|
||
boxes to check in a prescribed career plan, focus on being truly
|
||
present and intentional at work and open to wherever that might lead
|
||
you.
|
||
|
||
[17]Who, me? Yes, you!
|
||
|
||
There’s just one last thing to talk about: you, and why you don’t
|
||
already do this.
|
||
|
||
It’s not like this retrospective process of imbuing meaning into one’s
|
||
work is particularly clever or insightful. I don’t think I’m a genius
|
||
for arriving at the following three-step formula to having a deeply
|
||
meaningful career and leaving a memorable legacy:
|
||
1. Work really damn hard
|
||
2. Occasionally gather highlights
|
||
3. Commemorate them somehow
|
||
|
||
But if it’s so obvious, why don’t more people do this?
|
||
|
||
I wonder if it’s because everything above might seem like the exclusive
|
||
domain of the Thoughtleader™ class. “I don’t have (or necessarily want)
|
||
an audience to read my blog posts or watch me speak, so this ain’t for
|
||
me!” you might be thinking.
|
||
|
||
This line of thinking is reasonable, but it’s based on an assumption
|
||
that doesn’t always hold.
|
||
|
||
It’s true: if you believe the purpose of creating something borne out
|
||
of your career experience is for other people to see and appreciate it,
|
||
then maybe it makes no sense for you to bother. Not everyone craves
|
||
attention. Building a following inevitably attracts a certain number of
|
||
trolls. And if you build it, odds are people won’t come. I can’t
|
||
guarantee anyone will run your code, read your blog, or watch your
|
||
talk.
|
||
|
||
But here’s the thing: I create these things for me and me alone. When a
|
||
bunch of people read something I wrote or show up to one of my talks,
|
||
do I find it encouraging and validating? Sure. But it’s not what drives
|
||
me. I started creating things to punctuate my life’s sentences long
|
||
before anybody took an interest in me and I wouldn’t stop even if
|
||
everyone loses interest in me.
|
||
|
||
What’s more, a lot of (ugh) content creators are the same way. In the
|
||
course of my travels, I’ve gotten to meet many of my heroes, and while
|
||
a few have disappointed me spectacularly (don’t meet your heroes!),
|
||
I’ve found that a surprising number of them got into the
|
||
thought-leading racket for the same selfish reason I did. They create
|
||
stuff to scratch their own intrinsic creative itches and to give
|
||
meaning to their careers. If other people’s attention factors in at
|
||
all, it’s usually to justify the time they spend making stuff.
|
||
|
||
[18]Justin Searls
|
||
|
||
An icon of a human figure Status
|
||
Double Agent
|
||
|
||
An icon of a hash sign Code Name
|
||
Agent 002
|
||
|
||
An icon of a map marker Location
|
||
Orlando, FL
|
||
|
||
[19]Twitter [20]Mastodon [21]Github [22]LinkedIn [23]Website
|
||
|
||
Related posts:
|
||
|
||
[24]16 things you believe about software
|
||
|
||
Over 6 years ago, I made up an unscientific personality quiz as a
|
||
joke…and people can't help themselves—they're still filling it out!
|
||
Here's what they think
|
||
|
||
An icon of a clock Publish Date
|
||
October 10, 2023
|
||
|
||
An icon of a human figure Authors
|
||
[25]Justin Searls
|
||
|
||
An icon of a paper organzier Categories
|
||
[26]Community
|
||
|
||
[27]Shared values can make the difference for your engineering team
|
||
|
||
Ever feel challenged in how to level up your engineering team's
|
||
effectiveness? Apply values in day-to-day work. That's how you build
|
||
great software and great teams. Here's how Test Double does that.
|
||
|
||
An icon of a clock Publish Date
|
||
February 20, 2023
|
||
|
||
An icon of a human figure Authors
|
||
[28]Cathy Colliver
|
||
|
||
An icon of a paper organzier Categories
|
||
[29]Leadership
|
||
[30]Teams
|
||
[31]Our Company
|
||
|
||
Looking for developers? Work with people who care about what you care about.
|
||
|
||
We level up teams striving to ship great code.
|
||
|
||
[32]Let's talk
|
||
|
||
[33]Home [34]Agency [35]Services [36]Careers [37]Blog [38]Contact
|
||
|
||
|
||
[39]Mastodon [40]GitHub [41]LinkedIn [42]Twitter
|
||
|
||
[43]614.349.4279
|
||
[44]hello@testdouble.com
|
||
[45]Privacy Policy
|
||
Founded in Columbus, OH
|
||
|
||
[46]Test Double
|
||
|
||
References
|
||
|
||
1. https://testdouble.com/
|
||
2. https://testdouble.com/
|
||
3. https://testdouble.com/agency
|
||
4. https://testdouble.com/services
|
||
5. https://testdouble.com/careers
|
||
6. https://blog.testdouble.com/
|
||
7. https://testdouble.com/contact
|
||
8. https://blog.testdouble.com/
|
||
9. https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/
|
||
10. https://blog.testdouble.com/authors/justin-searls/
|
||
11. https://x.com/TheAndrewNadeau/status/1647622603698257921
|
||
12. https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1982181281
|
||
13. https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2024-01-02-plant-your-flag-career-advice/#periodically-plant-a-flag
|
||
14. https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2024-01-02-plant-your-flag-career-advice/#how-to-plant-a-flag
|
||
15. https://www.etsy.com/shop/PrincessEtch
|
||
16. https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2024-01-02-plant-your-flag-career-advice/#this-all-happens-in-hindsight
|
||
17. https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2024-01-02-plant-your-flag-career-advice/#who-me-yes-you
|
||
18. https://blog.testdouble.com/authors/justin-searls/
|
||
19. https://twitter.com/searls
|
||
20. https://mastodon.social/@searls
|
||
21. https://github.com/searls
|
||
22. https://linkedin.com/in/searls
|
||
23. https://justin.searls.co/
|
||
24. https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2023-10-10-16-things-you-believe-about-software/
|
||
25. https://blog.testdouble.com/authors/justin-searls/
|
||
26. https://blog.testdouble.com/categories/community
|
||
27. https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2023-02-20-shared-values-make-the-difference/
|
||
28. https://blog.testdouble.com/authors/cathy-colliver/
|
||
29. https://blog.testdouble.com/categories/leadership
|
||
30. https://blog.testdouble.com/categories/teams
|
||
31. https://blog.testdouble.com/categories/our-company
|
||
32. https://link.testdouble.com/blog-cta-sales
|
||
33. https://testdouble.com/
|
||
34. https://testdouble.com/agency
|
||
35. https://testdouble.com/services
|
||
36. https://testdouble.com/careers
|
||
37. https://blog.testdouble.com/
|
||
38. https://testdouble.com/contact
|
||
39. https://mastodon.social/@testdouble
|
||
40. https://github.com/testdouble
|
||
41. https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdouble
|
||
42. https://twitter.com/testdouble
|
||
43. tel:+16143494279
|
||
44. mailto:hello@testdouble.com
|
||
45. https://testdouble.com/privacy-policy
|
||
46. https://testdouble.com/
|