Posts
As I look back at my last post and realize it's been almost two weeks since I've written a blog entry - and as I wonder whether I should postpone writing this one to watch the NBA and NHL playoffs - I find myself pondering the issue of motivation, especially as it applies to hobbies.
For those of you who are still in high school or college, you may wonder what I mean. After all, it's academics that can be tough to find motivation for; extracurricular commitments are the best part of higher education. Especially in an era that calls for a greater variety of skills and experience, what can be better than doing things that are not your primary occupation?
There is something, though, about the post-college life that seems to dampen most people's enthusiasm for hobbies. Whether it's not having enough time, being tired from work, or just a change in mindset, people read, lead, and contribute less than they ever have. You know what's much easier? Sitting on the couch and catching up on the shows clogging up your DVR.
The impact of this, however, seems to be negative overall. After growing up as Renaissance men and women, twenty-somethings suddenly find themselves doing nothing more than going to work, eating dinner, and going to sleep - just to wake up and do it all over again. Weekends consist of doing all the errands that didn't get done all week long and then going out for dinner and a 3D movie, which may or may not be followed by a tame house party. This can be frustrating and mentally grating.
So, is that it? Or can something be done about it?
Glancing at my long-neglected guitar and several other abandoned projects, it would be amiss for me to say that I have found the answer to those questions. However, I can offer a few thoughts on characteristics of hobbies that might make them more appealing in the post-college world:
-Choose a hobby that involves very different physical and/or intellectual actions than what you do at work all day. If you spend all day mired in books, don't take up reading. If your job requires you to be on your feet, try something that allows you to stretch out and relax.
-If at all possible, find something that you can do with someone else. Having a friend or colleague to do something with gives you someone to hold you accountable as well as more of an incentive to do the activity in the first place.
-Try a hobby related to something that you've done before, and also try something absolutely different. Depending on your personality, one or the other might prove more rewarding, and you have nothing to lose by giving both a shot.
All that said, I'm still searching for the key to making extracurricular activities fun again. Any thoughts?
Monday, May 10, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Leave the money and run
A trendy topic in digital media and advertising today is return on investment, or ROI. Given the volume and complexity of data that is available on the web, advertisers want to understand how their buys perform and what kind of benefit they are deriving from them. Whereas in the past, the lion's share of research used to go into understanding the initial investment, there is now a strong focus on the returns that can be produced.
A similar thing can be said for many twenty-somethings' approach to their careers today. If you're going to invest $200,000 dollars for a college education, shouldn't you pick a first job and career that can produce a commensurate return? Or, at the very least, shouldn't you chase an initial high-salaried position so that you can build up your savings before pursuing your passions?
From one perspective, there is little to fault with this approach. The reality is that most first-, second-, and third-year jobs will share many of the same disadvantages of undergraduate-level positions: low visibility, subjectivity to a manager's whims, and lots of "bitch work." If you're going to have to deal with those obstacles in most early-career corporate, government, and non-profit roles, why not get paid lots of money to do it? Dealing with bureaucracy is a little easier when you can drop $500 on a fancy dinner or bar tab later that night.
Nevertheless, there are some who choose to break the mold and travel the less-trodden paths, pursuing careers with high short-term risks or lower long-term salary potential (and often both).
It seems that an increasing number of people have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, although a large proportion of those people choose to pursue entrepreneurial roles at larger, more established firms rather than diving into a true startup. Similarly, while many people state they want to "help the world," most resort to donations and weekend charitable work rather than taking a position with an impact-generating non-profit organization.
What seems to be lost in all the hype around career ROI is that in general - and, of course, there are exceptions - it is never easier to be poor than when you are just out of college. You probably don't have a spouse or family to support; the interest on your student debt has just started to accumulate; you haven't yet developed expensive habits like eating caviar or jetting off to Rome for the weekend. (Again, there are exceptions to this, and having gone to a good college, you probably knew some of them.) If you're going to risk it all, why not risk it when you have the least to lose?
With a good degree, you're likely to bounce back from most failures, and there's always graduate school to bail you out and to raise your earning potential. And, more importantly, by pursuing your passions early on, you can start to better understand your calling in life as well as develop the experience you need to obtain more senior, meaningful roles in your late 20s instead of in your 30s and 40s.
Not everyone is cut out for the less glamorous world of startups, NGOs, and non-profits. But for those who are, an early gamble can have considerable payoffs.
Inspiration for this post came from Ravi Mishra, founder and CEO of Athleague, and Katie Kaplun, Associate for Insights at Teach for America, both based in Boston, Mass.
A similar thing can be said for many twenty-somethings' approach to their careers today. If you're going to invest $200,000 dollars for a college education, shouldn't you pick a first job and career that can produce a commensurate return? Or, at the very least, shouldn't you chase an initial high-salaried position so that you can build up your savings before pursuing your passions?
From one perspective, there is little to fault with this approach. The reality is that most first-, second-, and third-year jobs will share many of the same disadvantages of undergraduate-level positions: low visibility, subjectivity to a manager's whims, and lots of "bitch work." If you're going to have to deal with those obstacles in most early-career corporate, government, and non-profit roles, why not get paid lots of money to do it? Dealing with bureaucracy is a little easier when you can drop $500 on a fancy dinner or bar tab later that night.
Nevertheless, there are some who choose to break the mold and travel the less-trodden paths, pursuing careers with high short-term risks or lower long-term salary potential (and often both).
It seems that an increasing number of people have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, although a large proportion of those people choose to pursue entrepreneurial roles at larger, more established firms rather than diving into a true startup. Similarly, while many people state they want to "help the world," most resort to donations and weekend charitable work rather than taking a position with an impact-generating non-profit organization.
What seems to be lost in all the hype around career ROI is that in general - and, of course, there are exceptions - it is never easier to be poor than when you are just out of college. You probably don't have a spouse or family to support; the interest on your student debt has just started to accumulate; you haven't yet developed expensive habits like eating caviar or jetting off to Rome for the weekend. (Again, there are exceptions to this, and having gone to a good college, you probably knew some of them.) If you're going to risk it all, why not risk it when you have the least to lose?
With a good degree, you're likely to bounce back from most failures, and there's always graduate school to bail you out and to raise your earning potential. And, more importantly, by pursuing your passions early on, you can start to better understand your calling in life as well as develop the experience you need to obtain more senior, meaningful roles in your late 20s instead of in your 30s and 40s.
Not everyone is cut out for the less glamorous world of startups, NGOs, and non-profits. But for those who are, an early gamble can have considerable payoffs.
Inspiration for this post came from Ravi Mishra, founder and CEO of Athleague, and Katie Kaplun, Associate for Insights at Teach for America, both based in Boston, Mass.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Reading for expertise
One of the things most twenty-somethings need to come to terms with is their own cluelessness.
As much as we strive to learn in high school and college, the reality is that we will likely graduate into the real world with little to no knowledge in many areas our jobs and social circles require. Sure, we may be experts in mechanical engineering. But can we have an intelligent conversation about the government's clean energy policy? Or do we have a good understanding of the significance of Stravinsky's music?
In an era where the proliferation of content seems never-ending, we can be excused for not knowing everything. After all, if we are going to compartmentalize and limit our extracurricular learning to certain times of day, it may be impossible to be as cultured and knowledgeable as Renaissance men and women of yore.
So what can we do to compensate for this inherent weakness?
If the proliferation of content is a double-edged sword, the benefit of this proliferation is that it is usually easy to find basic information on any topic. And I don't mean just Wikipedia (although that is often a good place to start); the explosion in niche blogs and news aggregators has led to a steady stream of content relating to just about anything.
If there isn't a book, newspaper, or encyclopedia to answer a question, there is likely a blurb or posting somewhere on the web that can help start your research. A well-curated blogroll or Twitter feed can be a great way to keep track of the latest news in the areas you are most interested in. Combine this broad and up-to-date awareness with in-depth reading from subscriptions to a few choice magazines, and you, too, can sound as intelligent as those square-frame glasses-wearing, satchel-toting, cappuccino-drinking know-it-alls in the movies.
Plus, since you never find time to make it through an entire novel anymore, you might as well as get in snatches of reading on your mobile device of choice. Do it on a 3G iPad, and you can be trendy as well as educated.
Inspiration for this post came from Shekhar Lodha, a serial entrepreneur and scholar of the world from Saratoga, Calif.
As much as we strive to learn in high school and college, the reality is that we will likely graduate into the real world with little to no knowledge in many areas our jobs and social circles require. Sure, we may be experts in mechanical engineering. But can we have an intelligent conversation about the government's clean energy policy? Or do we have a good understanding of the significance of Stravinsky's music?
In an era where the proliferation of content seems never-ending, we can be excused for not knowing everything. After all, if we are going to compartmentalize and limit our extracurricular learning to certain times of day, it may be impossible to be as cultured and knowledgeable as Renaissance men and women of yore.
So what can we do to compensate for this inherent weakness?
If the proliferation of content is a double-edged sword, the benefit of this proliferation is that it is usually easy to find basic information on any topic. And I don't mean just Wikipedia (although that is often a good place to start); the explosion in niche blogs and news aggregators has led to a steady stream of content relating to just about anything.
If there isn't a book, newspaper, or encyclopedia to answer a question, there is likely a blurb or posting somewhere on the web that can help start your research. A well-curated blogroll or Twitter feed can be a great way to keep track of the latest news in the areas you are most interested in. Combine this broad and up-to-date awareness with in-depth reading from subscriptions to a few choice magazines, and you, too, can sound as intelligent as those square-frame glasses-wearing, satchel-toting, cappuccino-drinking know-it-alls in the movies.
Plus, since you never find time to make it through an entire novel anymore, you might as well as get in snatches of reading on your mobile device of choice. Do it on a 3G iPad, and you can be trendy as well as educated.
Inspiration for this post came from Shekhar Lodha, a serial entrepreneur and scholar of the world from Saratoga, Calif.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The art of small talk
Try this experiment.
Pop out those white iPod buds the next time you are on the subway, at Starbucks, or even when you're sitting in your cubicle. Listen to the conversations around you. Don't participate if at all possible; just observe and note. Ideally, do this sometime between 9 AM and noon.
Anything seem strange to you?
What you may notice - if you haven't already - is that people talk an incredible amount about the weather. It's not just, "Oh, isn't it beautiful / miserable outside!" No, not all. Typically, it's an extensive conversation about how the weather will affect their commute, how unseasonable it is (no matter what season it is), and why they should just pick up and move to California / Florida / the Bahamas.
And, as luck would have it, you'll probably hear the same conversation from them... tomorrow.
It's true that especially in a politically correct era, there are few topics as universal and inoffensive as the weather. Everyone is affected by it, and generally, that effect is not shaped by gender, sexual orientation, or race. What is easier to talk about than the weather?
Precisely for that reason, the weather seems to dominate small talk wherever groups of unrelated people gather. Unfortunately, it is just about the most uninteresting and least memorable subject of conversation.
So if you meet someone new and want this person to like you, remember you, or even just not be mind-numbingly bored by you, what can you do to avoid talking about the weather?
It's true that topics like politics are probably good to steer clear of. However, there are plenty of other things two unfamiliar people can talk about. Sports, television shows, current events, emerging technology, this day in history, favorite flavor of coffee, a crazy advertisement they just saw... this partial list is only the beginning. If you want to be considered someone worth talking to, just being spontaneous and different will increase the likelihood of you achieving your goal.
And, if you get really good at the art of small talk, you might even make yourself memorable. But that's a topic for another day.
Pop out those white iPod buds the next time you are on the subway, at Starbucks, or even when you're sitting in your cubicle. Listen to the conversations around you. Don't participate if at all possible; just observe and note. Ideally, do this sometime between 9 AM and noon.
Anything seem strange to you?
What you may notice - if you haven't already - is that people talk an incredible amount about the weather. It's not just, "Oh, isn't it beautiful / miserable outside!" No, not all. Typically, it's an extensive conversation about how the weather will affect their commute, how unseasonable it is (no matter what season it is), and why they should just pick up and move to California / Florida / the Bahamas.
And, as luck would have it, you'll probably hear the same conversation from them... tomorrow.
It's true that especially in a politically correct era, there are few topics as universal and inoffensive as the weather. Everyone is affected by it, and generally, that effect is not shaped by gender, sexual orientation, or race. What is easier to talk about than the weather?
Precisely for that reason, the weather seems to dominate small talk wherever groups of unrelated people gather. Unfortunately, it is just about the most uninteresting and least memorable subject of conversation.
So if you meet someone new and want this person to like you, remember you, or even just not be mind-numbingly bored by you, what can you do to avoid talking about the weather?
It's true that topics like politics are probably good to steer clear of. However, there are plenty of other things two unfamiliar people can talk about. Sports, television shows, current events, emerging technology, this day in history, favorite flavor of coffee, a crazy advertisement they just saw... this partial list is only the beginning. If you want to be considered someone worth talking to, just being spontaneous and different will increase the likelihood of you achieving your goal.
And, if you get really good at the art of small talk, you might even make yourself memorable. But that's a topic for another day.
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