On a sunny August afternoon, my cousin asked me
Should I stop studying programming and learn a trade instead?
This made me laugh, because I couldn't say "No, you shouldn't". We were talking about how fast artificial intelligence is developing. I can't predict the future, but every time I see a quote from a tradesperson, I consider becoming an electrician...
My cousin just moved from Ukraine to Ireland. He's at the age where he's asking big questions and that got me thinking. If you could talk to your 18 year old self, what would you say? I tried to weasel my way out with "It depends.", but then he asked: "On what?"
Do you remember hearing a child ask their parent why the world works a certain way? You can answer, but they can just ask "why?" in return. Who will have an advantage in this trade war of questions and answers? Dear readers with children, how would you handle this? I don't have kids, but my first instinct is - "Because of entropy, go to your room." Does the concept of rate limiting exist in parenting?
Advice is relative. It depends on personal goals and constraints. You can use them to weigh the choices before you, but how did you come up with the choices? Some questions take a long time to answer - it matters which ones we ask before we start answering.
Let's explore the possibility space
- What kind of activities give me energy?
- What drains my energy?
- What is the nature of the work?
- How do people who are in that profession feel about their job?
- How much do I want to earn?
- How much vacation do you get?
We can keep doing this until we have enough, then rank them to focus on the important ones. I think of this process as wandering around looking for questions.
I remember a conversation with my close childhood friend - Ivaylo Andreev. We were out on a walk in Glasgow, taking photos of this beautiful pedestrian bridge during the golden hour of the sunset. I asked him: "Why do people identify with what they don't do so much?". When I was a teenager I remember caring about what music I didn't listen to more than the kind I liked. We grew up in Bulgaria, I thought that was just a quirk of the culture. He answered:
Nowadays we have access to more information than we can process. It's easier to decide what you don't like, rather than trying everything under the sun to see if you like it.
I paused for a second, took out my phone and told him that I'm writing a note with the title "Ivaylo's book of thoughts". I'll keep adding to it every time we go on a walk and eventually - compile it into a booklet of quotes and cut him in on the profit.
This idea of negative space feels fascinating to me. You're telling me I can paint blobs on a canvas, and eventually, a silhouette will appear? I once saw the portfolio of a visual effects artist. They had made a beautiful, flickering fire. In the breakdown, they showed circle particles animating up and around the center, painted the same color as the background. This created the illusion of a dancing flame!
These memories make me think, we are so busy that we forget to stop and look around. When Ivaylo and I were kids, I was visiting their house and his dad said something I will never forget.
I love going on random walks. You never know what your mind will come up with, if you let it wander with you.