Episode 19

Last updated Jun 5, 2023 Edit Source

Process over outcomes 

• Cultivate an attitude that rewards or chastises yourself for your process rather than your outcomes. 

  • You control your process, while your outcomes have influences you can’t control. 

• Alan Schoonmaker 

  • The Psychology of Poker 

  • https://www.twoplustwo.com/books/poker/psychology-of-poker/ 

• Annie Duke 

  • Thinking in Bets 

  • https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/552885/thinking-in-bets-by-annie-duke/9780735216358/ 

  • Why Uncertainty Isn’t a Barrier to Success 

  • https://www.signature-reads.com/2018/02/why-uncertainty-isnt-a-barrier-to-success/ 

• Background: Poker boom of the 2000s 

• Preface on the morality of gambling 

• Important parable about odds 

• Annie Duke - “Resulting” 

  • Best decision you made last year 

  • Worst decision you made last year 

  • Probably the first was a good outcome and the second was a bad outcome 

• Tom Vanderbilt 

  • Traffic 

  • http://tomvanderbilt.com/books/traffic/ 

  • At-fault accidents usually sit at the tip of a pyramid of bad behaviors which we don’t remember 

• Applying this to career management 

  • Reward yourself for good process 

  • Re-enforce your good processes 

  • Correct your faulty processes 

    • Be brutally honest in your self-assessment 

      • Alan Schoonmaker  - Principle No 1: Your greatest enemy is denial 

    • Examples 

      • Tardiness 

      • Calendar mis-management 

      • Chronic procrastination 

      • Disorganization 

  • Correct, don’t engage in negative self-talk 

  • Seek outside opinions 

  • Reward your good processes even when there are bad outcomes 

    •  Scenario: Didn’t get the job 
      • Asked for coaching during the process 
      • Did a great edit on your resume 
      • Great prep for screening and early hiring-manager interviews 
      • Great mid- and late-process interviews
      • Reward yourself for great process
      • The outcome was ultimately outside of your control
        • It was always about probability, not certainty 
        • Did you do everything your reasonable, ethical power to tip the odds in your favor? 

  • Practice, take notes along the way, self-assess 

Dreaming in Bands 

• “Bands of possibility” 

• “Working at Company X is my dream job.” 

• There’s no single dream position and no singularly wonderful company to work for. 

  • There are lots of great companies out there who share similar ethics, culture, and goals 

  • There are lots of positions rolling out from each of these companies, as they tend to be growing 

  • How should we define a dream job? 

    • Individually, but in characteristics, not specifics 

    • John 

      • Smart people, who think differently than me 

      • Mentorship 

      • Menteeship 

      • Opportunity to advance 

      • Centering around virtualization 

    • Nerd Journey 016: Reasons Not to Pursue a Career Opportunity Part 1/2 Before Applying 

    • Nerd Journey 017 

• SE @ VMware was John’s dream job 

  • But he became one three years ago. What now?! 

  • Get a new dream? Or should the dream have been more expansive to include a band of possibilities and a path 

  • Was it good process for John to fix singularly on a single position in a single region at a single company? 

    • NO! 

    • AWS? GCP? Cisco? Resellers? 

    • SE? Solution Architect? Pure sales? Post-sales consultant? 

    • California, Arizona, Colorado, PNW, Nevada? 

• What’s John’s dream now? 

  • The bands of possibilities 

  • Role, location, even company 

• Why have a dream? 

  • Too out of reach? 

  • Too much fantasy while the reality of our jobs passes us by? 

  • People might dream too far in the future without thinking about the intermediate steps 

  • It’s fine to use the word “goal” as a less lowered word 

  • Have both short, intermediate, and long term goals 

  • The further away the time frame, the more we should think about a band if possibilities 

  • Maybe a dreamer is an expert goal-setter? 

  • Having progression as a goal 

  • Be open to possibilities