Professional Development

Weekly Challenge: Pre-Conflict Perspectives

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With great power comes the chance for great stupidity.

OK it's not exactly the touching saying we all associate with Spider Man, but it's a sad truth.  Power, from the power of physical force to the subtleties of charisma to the abilities granted from knowledge, gives us not just the ability to do things, but the ability to do very stupid things that have incredible impact.

The difference between doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing is often a matter of degree.  You need wisdom to know that degree.

So your exercise this week is to figure out where you may do something very, very stupid.  You know, beyond the other things you've done.

  1. List all the top 3 to 5 things you are good at or have influence in – skills you have, leadership you perform in your fandom, someone's ear you have.
  2. Now for each, ask how you could take those skills too far and cause damage.  Could your leadership at work end up pitting departments against each other if you keep up your rah-rah attitude?  Could your next novel be even better selling if you pandered a bit, but you know that would take you in the direction of being hack.

Think of what you could do – so you know when to stop before a benefit becomes a problem.

– Steven Savage

Weekly Challenge: Review Of Patience

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Do you like waiting?

Trick question of course.  No one likes it; people at best tolerate waiting.  Yet we have to wait all the time, and it usually drives us a bit crazy.

Of course waiting patiently is often part of success.  Farmers of ages past had to wait on rain, flows of rivers, and the seasons.  Investors have to be patient to find the right time to buy or sell.

This week's exercise is a two-parter.

First, I want you to sit down for five minutes and write down all the things you've given up on in your career because you decided not to be patient.  What are the repercussions of these actions in your life and career?

Secondly, pick one thing you were looking forward to doing this week and delay it by at least one day.  Do it just to built a little patience.  Maybe in the weeks and months to come you can play with your impatience and purposefully develop your ability to be patient.

– Steven Savage

The Ethics of Doing What You Like

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Now and then when I talk to people about their careers, there seems to be a strange undercurrent of guilt when they discuss having their ideal career.  They feel that what they truly want to do is useless, that it doesn't benefit people, or that they're being selfish.  I usually encounter this among artists or people interested in video games, but I see it everywhere.

In short, I meet people who think "Doing what I really enjoy doesn't make the world a better place, so I shouldn't do it." 

What they're really saying is "I should do something I hate and would be lousy at in order to attempt to make the world a better place."  It's a strange kind of moral argument.

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