Someone I know, someone I consider a mentor, recently called me 'frenetic.' And it was a fair criticism - but one I think that could use a little explaining.
Continuing with the theme of commitments, I wanted to share a story from earlier in my career. In 2007 I launched a website that went viral. It was bigger than I could have imagined, bigger than I'd dreamed, bigger than I'd intended, and demanded more commitment from me than I had prepared to give.
Just a short one this week - rather than listen to me, a recent episode from Adam Grant's WorkLife podcast is worth giving a listen, and considering - especially as it relates back to last week's episode. Adam Grant - How to stop languishing and start finding flow: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3DeedQPdjCahzuIb8ZeOSB?si=b23a8c66841f4d1e
After talking about fears, let's do something about them. Let's make some commitments, and take some steps towards putting them to rest. Maybe all your worst fears about yourself are true - but if they are, taking the right next steps won't keep them true for long.
Recapping the responses to the questionnaire about your fears (What are you afraid of, and how do you manage your fears). The responses were interestingly consistent and I was asking myself why that may be, and how that relates back to what this whole experiment with Increments is all about.
Season "0" was just getting started, helping me iron out kinks and figure this thing out... incrementally. We'll be coming back to the topic of Growth many times throughout, but for now we're pivoting to Season 1 where we'll be talking a bit about fears and vulnerability.
Wrapping up the immediate questions around growth by addressing the questionnaire responses to the questions about feeling stuck.
I've had the pleasure of working with David Semach for a number of years. David's great at capturing and sharing a lot of insight about making a career change, moving into code, and growing as a developer.
Talking about growth is like asking someone if they're saving enough for retirement. It's not without some anxiety and the truth is, too often we look at external factors to drive our growth. But are there better ways to drive our growth through our own internal aspirations? For reference: DropBox Career Framework: https://dropbox.github.io/dbx-career-framework/
What is the difference between a Coder, Developer and Engineer? Do those differences matter?
Increments is a show about coming up for air once a while and evaluating where we are in our tech careers, and being intentional with our professional aspirations.