I cringe every time I hear the common saying in tech that people want to work on “hard problems”. But how about “meaningful hard problems with impact on the social and physical world”? Those are the hardest but most rewarding problems to solve of all.
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Decades from now, historians will likely look back on the beginning of the 21st century as a period when the smartest minds in the world’s richest country sank their talent, time, and capital into a narrow band of human endeavor — digital technology. Their efforts have given us frictionless access to media, information, consumer goods, and chauffeurs. But software has hardly remade the physical world. We were promised an industrial revolution. What we got was a revolution in consumer convenience.”
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My friends offered helpful questions they’ve asked themselves:What world do you want to live in and what are the barriers between that world and today’s world? Which of those barriers do you want to help break down?What are you pretty sure you’ll still care about in the next 50 years?
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The best investment you can make is buying someone a cup of coffee or tea.
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Learn about the person and their background before you meet them.Explain why you’re interested, what you have in common, what you’re looking for.Ask them about what the day-to-day work looks like. This will help you understand if it’s a good fit. A lot of jobs sound really appealing because of the outcome (e.g. develop cutting edge technology) but the work itself is what you’ll experience every day.Ask what they would recommend to anyone trying to enter the field (e.g. books to read, skills to acquire, people to follow, areas to look into).Ask if there’s anyone else they’d recommend you talk to, and if they could make an intro.SEND A THANK YOU AFTER
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- [note::Tips for cold networking]