For today's discussion, as you read Ch. 13, leave feedback to three of the following questions. Then leave an addition three comments on the feedback of your peers.
Here are the questions to consider -
1. How does choosing a mission for your career before you have relevant career capital built up lead to eventual failure? Can you think of any examples?
2. What is a mission you feel "called to" related to your major or passion? What career capital should you build up before pursuing this mission?
3. What is the adjacent possible (in your own words)? Bonus if you can offer an example from your life or experience.
4. How does Newport relate Johnson's concept of "the adjacent possible" to his theories on work and skill?
5. Pardi Sabeti states, "I think you do need passion to be happy . . . It's just that we don't know what that passion is." What are you thoughts on this? What is the best way to discover your passions?
6. How is Sabeti and example of both career capital and small bets?
3. The adjacent possible is a glimpse of the future. It’s how the present time could be reinvented in the future.
ReplyDelete4. He relates the “adjacent possible” to the conference he attended. Four researchers talked about the same problem with the same technique. This Technique redefined the cutting edge in his corner of the academic world and the adjacent possible.
5. I think we do need to be passionate about something in order to be happy. That something doesn’t necessarily have to be your career, but you need something in life that you are passionate about. I think the best way to find passion is to try new things. Once you find something you like then you need to keep at it and that passion will follow.
I completely agree with your answer for number five. We need passion to be happy whether it's within a career or not.
DeleteI agree with what you said about finding passions. Trying new things is exactly what you need to do to find things that you might not even know you like!
DeleteI completely agree with trying new things is the best way to find passion. Trying new things is the key to finding something that could turn into passion. Passion is so tricky when it comes to careers, though. You want something that seems realistic, and when you do find something, you have to really think if it is a good idea for a career. It is so difficult (at least for me it is). But, trying new things is a fantastic way to finding things that could evolve into passion. If you don't try new things, you aren't going to find much success. I found this out the hard way; I hated trying new things, and I ended up stuck. Once I decided to try new things, things got better. I found new interests and new friends, and I seem much happier. I was so fickle about change, but once I changed this and got out of my comfort zone, things around me improved. Same applies to finding out what career path to take. Trying new things will help you greatly when finding an interest that could turn into a fulfilling career.
DeleteTrying new things is the best way to find your passion. Everyone should remember that having passion helps you enjoy life, and if trying new things is the best way to discover that passion, they should by all means do it.
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ReplyDelete1. How does choosing a mission for your career before you have relevant career capital built up lead to eventual failure? Can you think of any examples?
ReplyDeleteChoosing a mission before you have career capital is kind of like getting on a bike without knowing how to ride it. You could do really well and go far, or fall off within a few feet. Life can change so quickly and your interests can too. You never know what’s going to happen in the future, and trying to come up with a plan that is set in stone 9/10 times doesn’t work out. Another example of this is choosing a college major. Most kids change it 2-3 times.
3. What is the adjacent possible (in your own words)? Bonus if you can offer an example from your life or experience.
The adjacent possible is the space just outside of your normal thinking and creating of ideas. It’s where new innovations and ideas come from, and it’s always just slightly out of reach. This makes it harder to find, and it only happens once. Then the ‘normal’ expands and you have to go further to find the adjacent possible.
5. Pardi Sabeti states, "I think you do need passion to be happy . . . It's just that we don't know what that passion is." What are you thoughts on this? What is the best way to discover your passions?
I think this is partially correct. You need to like your career to some level to keep going back and working at getting better. Otherwise you would look at it as pointless find every way to miss a day here and there. The best way to find your passion is to continuously try new things. Force yourself outside of your comfort zone constantly and like Mr. Reynolds likes to say; always say yes.
Natalie, I love your example of choosing a mission before you have career capital is like getting on a bike without any knowledge of riding it! It is so true; you need to have some kind of rare and valuable skills BEFORE you enter your career path because it could end badly if you don't. I connect this to my own journey of finding out my career path/major. I took an internship with the local newspaper because I thought it would be a good choice for a career. I decided to do the internship to deepen my experience and to increase my knowledge before I jump in it as a major. I am building up my own career capital.
DeleteFor number one, I guess adding to your bike analogy, before we can just get on and ride it, we have to use training wheels. . .training wheels being internships, or anything that will help you understand more about your career before you blindly step into it.
Delete1. I think choosing a mission before you have any career capital ends in failure because you don't have any of the skills that are relevant towards the mission you chose; You don't really know what you are in for because you didn't built up your career capital beforehand. You need the skills necessary before you chose your path because if you end up not liking it, you are stuck in it.
ReplyDelete5. I think this statement Sabeti said is so true. I am going through something similar. There are things that I like, but don't necessarily have a passion. This is blocking me from trying to decide a career path or major I want to go into. I know a lot of people struggle through similar issues because some of us don't know what our passions are when we enter college. Not knowing what your passion is and having to chose a career path is extremely difficult. I think this is why people are failing at finding their passion in their job; They think that the passion should be there before you have any career capital or experience to have it turn into passion. We just automatically expect it.
6.She built up fro career capital by following her unique interests to discover the job she loves: evolutionary biology. She built up her career capital by attending different prestigious universities, studying topics that interested her. She used examples of small bets because she didn't follow through with any of her interests into careers. She could have just gotten her degree in biology from MIT and that would be that. She continued her educational journey until she didn't have any doubts that she found the right job.
5. I definitely am in the same boat as you when it comes to choosing a major for college. I have tons of things that I like, but not necessarily something I would like to do for the rest of my life.
DeleteI think your personal story with number five is very actuate. I think most people are struggling to find their career, and like you said they are automatically just expecting to find it.
DeleteI agree that a lot of people don't exactly have a plan for themselves. I guess the adjacent path hasn't crossed for some college bound students.
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ReplyDelete2.) A mission I feel called to as a Mechanical Engineer is to design, test, and manufacture performance parts for performance vehicles. I have always had a passion for them, and a need for speed and power. The career capital that I should acquire for my field of interest is deep domain knowledge.
3.) The adjacent possible is another aspect of the career that can help you with your main goal. Possibly being untapped potential that you did not know you had. An example of this is when I tried a new position in football, which I was better at than my current position.
5.) I really do not think you need passion to be happy. Everyone is different as afar what makes them happy. I think that you can like and enjoy your job, but still not have passion for it like you maybe would for a hobby. I think the best way to discover your passion is to try new things. See what you like, and if you like something go more into depth on it.
I think that is a great mission for a mechanical engineer! I have also always had a need for speed! I like your idea of "untapped potential" and how you related it to football.
DeleteI liked how you connected football with the adjacent possible. I didn't even think of it this way! Way to go!
Delete3. I really like your own example of the adjacent possible. 'Untapped potential' is a great way of putting it.
DeleteI think you are very lucky to know what you are passionate for. Don't be afraid to fail because failure is a learning process which will help make you great.
DeleteYou're right about not having to need a passion to be happy. I believe that some passions aren't meant to be made into careers, instead just a hobby.
DeleteI completely agree that some people don't need passion to be happy. I personally do, but I know others who don't. Some are perfectly content working a job they can't stand because they get to come home to their family. Family makes them happy, not a passion for what they do.
Delete1. If you choose a mission before you have enough career capital, you're going to fall flat on your face. It's basically like learning to swim. If you've never done it before, you're not going to dive in right away. No, you're going to slowly dip your toes in and continue to go deeper as you feel more comfortable. "If you identify a mission for your working life, you must first get to the cutting edge- the only place where these missions become visible.
ReplyDelete5. I think you need a passion to be happy. You may think you know what your passion is, but once you get into it, you may realize it's something completely different than you expected. If you want to enjoy your job and be happy doing it, I feel you need to develop a passion for it over time or else you're going to be miserable and not enjoy yourself.
6. She's an example of career capital because she's knowledgeable about her career. She doesn't go all in right away. She places small bets and builds on them over time. And when she has enough career capital, she uses that to become unique and very successful in her field.
I agree that in most cases you it won't work out for you if you go into a mission without any career capital. It won't end well. I agree that you need a passion in life to be truly happy.
DeleteI agree with what you said about choosing a mission before you are ready. It was a great idea linking it to swimming!
DeleteAfter reading this book, I've begun to worry that I've chosen a mission and am doomed for a life of unsatisfactory jobs. I think I'll take your swimming analogy and try to apply it to my life.
DeleteI agree with your number six. She is definitely unique and paced her self well. By doing this she became very successful.
DeleteI like your swimming analogy, when I was three my cousin pushed me in a pool, and I didn't know how to swim. So when you get into something you know nothing about you're gonna feel like I did: Stressed, overwhelmed, terrified, etc, and if you don't get out you'll drown, meaning, go on a downward spiral like the monk in the beginning of the book.
Delete1. If you choose a mission for your career before you have enough career capital built up, you are most likely to fail. The reason for this is because you are simply not ready for that next step in your career. If this happens, you may wind up hating a job that you could possibly love, if you give it more time and build more career capital. An example of this is if someone took a promotion, in which they were not ready for, and ended up completely hating the job. They could have gained some more career capital before accepting the promotion, and they might have actually liked it.
ReplyDelete3. The adjacent possible is a look into the future of what could be. It is the birthplace of all great ideas.
5. I agree that you need passion to be happy, but I do not agree 100% that we don’t know what it is. We may develop a passion after doing something for a while, but we all have passions. That passion does not have to be your career, it could be watching football or playing an instrument. Your passion does not always need to tie into your job because you can have multiple passions. The best way to discover your passion is to try different things.
I completely agree that your passion does not have to connect with your career. It can be anything. We just need that passion to stay happy.
DeleteI agree with number five, we all do have passions and yes, it could develop later in life; whether it's with in your career or a passion outside your career that you might bring bits and pieces into your career.
DeleteI agree that career capital is important before choosing your mission. Having the career capital prepares you for your future career, and can help you decide if the career is truly right for you.
DeleteI agree that career capital is important before choosing your mission. Having the career capital prepares you for your future career, and can help you decide if the career is truly right for you.
DeleteI like how you said that the adjacent possible is the birth place of all ideas. Linchpin words!
DeleteYou made a great point in number one. You mentioned that not having the career capital for a job could make you hate one that you have the potential to love. I've seen this in dance before. Girls go in head first expecting to make the highest jazz level, when it takes years to gain the technique, so they're disappointed after placement and hate the class. They have to realize that if they work for it, they'll get where they want to be and will probably start to enjoy it.
Delete1. You need career capital, rare and valuable skills, before you can successfully chose a mission that you want to achieve. Without having rare and valuable skills it wouldn’t make sense to chose a mission. You don’t know what your career capital will consist of, which would make it hard to succeed. An example could be learning to swim, without knowing what career capital you have, you are either going to sink or swim. Most likely if you have never swam before, as a kid, you’re going to sink. So in order to achieve your mission of being able to swim you have to build up your career capital.
ReplyDelete2. I think as an educator my mission is going to be to help kids strive to be the best they can be. Help them learn and set them up, to the best of my ability, to be successful in life. In order to allow me to successful at this mission I will need to build up some career capital with communicating with my students and being able to handle different situations depending on the student.
5.I think what she said makes sense. In order to love what you do, I think you do need passion to be happy. Whether you have the passion for your career right away or you gain it in the future I think it is important to have passion. Overall, it will make your happier. I think the best way to discover your passion is to explore what interests you have and see if it leads down a new path that you never thought of.
1. I agree with your comments. And I really like your example of sinking or swimming and it's very relevant to that situation.
DeleteI agree with you: passion is very important when it comes to your career. If you don't have passion, then why are you doing it. Sadly, I know a lot of people who fell into careers without any passion. They are always angry when Monday rolls around and can't wait for Fridays. I find this so sad; they are not completely happy with their lives.
DeleteI agree, as passion helps you love what you do. Exploring your interests and finding the one you are best at will help you find that passion.
DeleteI like the idea that I have maybe not even found my passion. It's comforting for someone that is on the doorstep of real life.
DeleteI think it's really cool you want to be a teacher, and In my perspective you have great communication skills but I think the hardest part of teaching would be patience and being able to put yourself into their shoes to make learning easier for them.
Delete3.) The adjacent possible is when you develop new insights on unexplored ideas. It is like thinking outside of the box. The adjacent possible is where new ideas and innovations can be found.
ReplyDelete4.) Newport related this to a conference he attended in California. He was shocked when four researchers had been doing research on the same subject. They were using the same technique while discovering the subject, which helped them all get to the cutting edge.
5.) We do need passion to be happy. However, most go about it in the wrong way. I don't think blindly pursuing your passion is good for you. The best thing to do is to find something you have an interest in, and also a knack for. After a lot of deliberate practice, you will become one of the best. Passion will surely follow.
I don't like to think that we don't need passion to be happy. I want the utopian job where every day is like christmas. But, from what we have read, I'm starting to think that this isn't a realistic goal anymore. Shoot...
DeleteI agree especially with your last one. blindly pursuing passion is like living in a dream world where you think everything is going to fall into place if you just do what you love. . .Kind of like Max's Utopian job lol
DeleteI agree that passion and skills, or having a knack for something, go hand in hand. I especially like that you said having a knack for something, because that's usually a skill that you enjoy performing. Passion is sure to come from a knack for something.
DeleteI agree with your tactics for finding what your passionate about, it links with the book nicely and makes a lot of sense. People just aren't always willing to put work into things and miss out on big opportunities.
DeleteI like how you described the way that we should be finding passion.
Delete#2: At the moment I feel called to making a camera system that can pick up infrared light. I want to design it, build it, and all of that has to be cheapish. In order to accomplish that, I have to read some textbooks I have and probably learn all I can online.
ReplyDelete#3: I think that my adjacent possible is in my video game design class. We are all creating basically the same game and have all of the same resources, but everyone has the opportunity to make something really cool, say a health system, to it.
#4: Newport relates this to his ideas by saying that everyone is part of a large group of like minded individuals. In order to be better than all of those people that are pretty much like you, you need to work harder than them. If you do accomplish the task that all of those people had the opportunity to accomplish, you probably are met at the top by a few more that also put in the time to make that accomplishment.
5. I think that finding your passion will lead to happiness and that is extremely important. The tricky part is that we all don't know what we are passionate for. I believe that best way to find out is know what your interests are and go from there. This way is will lead to many different career paths, you just need to get experienced with each job you take to know exactly what makes you the most happy.
ReplyDelete3. The adjacent possible is when you combine things that you have stumbled upon or take the ideas we have inherited and form them into something new. I can related to this right now in my art class. We were all allowed to choose what we wanted to recreate. We take an image that is ‘normal’ but change it a little to make it our own, unique creation.
6. Pardi Sabeti was able to build up her career by recognizing what her rare and valuable skills were and applying them to her life. She continued to follow her lead on what she loved until she found the career that best fit her.
1. Choosing a mission to develop before developing a career capital can lead you in the wrong direction. Career capital has a great amount of importance when it comes to the outcome. Choosing a mission hones in on one path making you hyperaware of faults on the path. If career capital is developed first, it creates a direction full of different branches of opportunities. For me personally, when choosing a major I reflected on the skills I enjoy performing. Once I figured that out, I chose business as a major because I know within business there are many different branches that I will be able to choose from when I’m ready.
ReplyDelete2. One mission that I would like to pursue right now in my life is becoming a business manager, but I know that will require me to work up the latter. The skills I know I will need to zone in on are people and communication skills, problem solving, and work ethic. All of which, I believe, are ones that I believe I already obtain the basics for that just need to be developed with experience and learning.
3. The adjacent possible is the collection of possible combinations of ideas that may have never been thought of before. This adjacent possible is only visible to those who have their eyes open to that possibility.
I like how you explained question number one. It hit spot on on how to develop career capital and than develop a mission once in a position.
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ReplyDelete1. How does choosing a mission for your career before you have relevant career capital built up lead to eventual failure? Can you think of any examples?
You can’t just go to medical school without doing some internships in the medical field first. . .you may find out that you’re really not smart enough or have enough drive to get through it. . .or maybe you’re afraid of blood. . . uncle wanted to be a major league baseball player, but he’s fat and can’t run! not to mention never stepped foot on a baseball field. . . So of course when he tried out for teams he made a complete fool of himself. . . You have to know what you’re getting into.
2. What is a mission you feel "called to" related to your major or passion? What career capital should you build up before pursuing this mission?
Design. . .duhhh. . .I gotta spend a lot of time on programs like photoshop, indesign, illustrator, etc. I follow a lot of tutorials made by different designers because they help me learn new techniques or different ways to use tools of effects. I also need to work on my drawing skills. . .I don’t need to draw like Van Gogh but I will need to draw quick sketches to scan and manipulate.
5. Pardi Sabeti states, "I think you do need passion to be happy . . . It's just that we don't know what that passion is." What are you thoughts on this? What is the best way to discover your passions?
I agree, especially that a lot of people don’t know what passion is. . .every book we read related passion to our careers, but I’m passionate about a lot of things that will never help me make money, but make me happy. I mean, I understand why they talk about careers because that’s what we’ll spend most of our lives doing so we gotta make it good, but having a great job that you love, and having a crappy home life probably won’t make you happy. I think you gotta focus on some of the little things too. (For me it’s painting my nails, buying posters online, watching movies with my cat, and other really trivial things that won’t put food on the table) . . However, I think the trivial things help you find jobs that have potential passion. When I was younger, I used the paint program every day (even more so we had dial-up internet. . .). Scribbling on paint won’t get you a job, but from paint, I discovered Gimp, and from Gimp I found Adobe designs. . .
I couldn't agree more with your statement about being passionate about a lot of things that will never help you make money. For me, it really is about the little things too which aren't career or profit related.
DeleteThat's great that you want to do Graphic Design, of course I already knew that but I think it's cool and very smart that you look at other people's work and use it to hone your skills!
Delete1.) Choosing a mission before your career is bad because it forces you to think too big, and when you think too big it's easy to fail. For example, lets say I told myself that I was meant to cure cancer. Well, that's probably not going to happen because I haven't acquired enough skills or knowledge to achieve that. Therefore, I'm basically setting myself up for failure.
ReplyDelete2,) Funny thing, I believe my "mission" is to cure deadly diseases. Before I can do that I will need to gain proper knowledge, learn to read people's symptoms, and cooperate under LOTS of pressure.
5.) I think Sabeti is more than right because passion is what's going to make you happy and give you an adrenaline rush. BUT! People are clueless about it because they don't even know what they truly love, their minds aren't even developed or experienced enough to know what true passion is. The best way to discover your passion is to EXPOSE yourself to new things and whatever sticks and makes you crazy happy is what you're destined to do.
2. – The mission I am compelled to is bringing health of the mind, body, and spirit to multiple people. The career capital I need to pursue this is the knowledge of what it takes to create a healthy life of each of these aspects.
ReplyDelete5. – I kind of agree of Sabeti, in that we all do have an underlying passion, even if we haven’t discovered what it is. I really do believe that we have a reason and a purpose to do something beneficial in our lives. The best way to discover our passions is to try new things and continue to learn.
6. – Sabeti takes small bets on the different types of things she is pursuing in her life. The decisions she makes regarding her career capital are all small bets on a bigger road. She is constantly continuing her career capital in what she will eventually end up doing, but these are all small bets along the way.