what new grads should focus on
Friends,
In light of graduation season, this week’s material has been focused on a mix of inspiration and general course of action to what I would characterize as an overarching sense of thriving.
When I’m not yapping about trading or options, much of my writing or curation revolves around learning, motivation, and creativity. These 3 factors are in a continuous conversation with each other. That internal conversation has far-reaching effects because it guides our actions which in turn feed back to this internal conversation. We’re these complicated black boxes hosting billions of hormonal and electrical collisions that mean on some level we’re all the same in that we can be described generally as such a machine, but profoundly different since the infinite combinations of those reactions make us unique as, well, precious snowflakes.
Any perspective that fails to appreciate both how general and specific we are is an incomplete description of our condition. Which brings us to the fundamental tension of advice. It’s tempting to give it because on one level we’re not that different, but on another level it’s impossible for any general advice to be right-sized for any individual.
It is with this uneasy marriage of humility and hubris that I dare to offer a few thoughts for those pulling up to the staging areas of their careers. It is the same answer I give to those insistent enough to figuratively sign a waiver acknowledging all the disclaimers that an honest person would give before proffering advice.
The magical words that indicate such an insistence, an insistence which places earnestness above omniscience, which may be the best we can do in wicked domains, are “what would you tell your kids to do?”
In the face of such an approach, I’m cornered. But since I know that you know my kids are not your kids, I can trust you will be able to adapt the advice to your own or your loved ones’ situation.
What should a new grad pursue?
