I had this question: How to be less wrong in my career? To answer that question, I reflected on what I have done so far in my career and read the books below. The following are my notes from the books.

Note from the syntopical reading of the following books

  • How to read a book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren
  • Seven habits of highly effective by Stephen Covey
  • Smartphone, dumbphone by Allen Carr
  • The easy way to mindfulness by Allen Carr
  • Good sugar, bad sugar by Allen Carr
  • Atomic habits by James Clear
  • The subtle art of not giving a fuck by Mark Manson
  • So good they can’t ignore you by Cal Newport
  • Ikigai by Hector García
  • The art of learning by Josh Waitzkin

The advice to follow your passion is an addiction. What could it do to us?

  1. Lead us on a path of constantly changing jobs without stopping to learn.
  2. Focus our attention on getting things done, instead of taking the time to learning, getting better and better, gaining enough career capital to have more control and a mission.
  3. Feel constantly anxious of missing out on a “dream job”.

In turn let actions lead the way, feelings will follow, and have fun and smile along the way. This means get really good at something and the passion for it will come. Skill first, passion second. All the authors agree on this.

At the beginning of a change, it is going to be straining. However, this strain for change and improvement, and focusing of the craftsman mindset of becoming better and better will at one thing will benefit us in the long run.

This is because we could have more freedom to choose what we do and when. Furthermore, we could have the option to pick a mission of our liking, if our skill is good enough.

“Work hard” or “work smart” are too simplistic of advices. Instead, we should work so that we create a rare and valuable skillset by doing our current tasks to the highest quality possible, and aggressively seek for feedback to this work. Sounds like Ikigai. For this, start with the end in mind. The end in mind is becoming 1% better each day.

Focus on how to get better. If people are not willing to pay for our skill even if we will work less hours and have more control, that means our skill is not rare and valuable enough, yet. Then, we need to continue to improve. Only pursue a project or business if people are willing to pay, already. In other words, validate our ideas.

Focus on control of our work: what, when, how and where we want to do it and still get paid. Control requires skill. Skill requires patience for developing it, along with deliberate practice.

Get better by solving a difficult problem, or use a difficult concept to apply, in our field. Do it for a week, a month, or stay at it. Ask for support of those that already have done it or are more skilled than us. Use the Feynman technique for learning and teaching.

Journal about our daily experiences for a short time per day to answer: what is the most important question on what I’m working on right on?, say for 10 to 15 minutes.

Make a list of activities that you will do for fun, outside of a screen, junk food, worrying, alcohol or any drugs, and do those things once a day: calling friends or family, going for a walk, making love, dancing, reading a physical book, writing with pencil and paper, hiking, playing a sport.

Include breaks for having fun and relax along the day in your agenda.