How to Build a Terrible Technical Career

Most of these career talks are all the same.

Your Optimal Career Is As Simple As

• Find your passion!
• Network!
• Learn new technologies!
• Consider new opportunities!
• Etc!

Sure, these points are good.
But are they useful?

Survivorship Bias?

• This advice is overly optimistic since failure is ignored
• The failures may have been smart and determined, but unlucky or discriminated against
• "Be smart and work hard, and you'll be Steve Jobs!" isn't helpful. Lots of people are smart and work hard

What if we inverted the problem?

You can uncover significant, subtle truths by flipping a problem on its head.

You do this in math all the time

• Solve Ax = b, where A is an n by n matrix
• The easy solution is to invert A, so x = A^-1b
• "Invert, always invert" - Jacobi

Consider Investing

• Major problem with survivorship bias. Maybe the winners are just lucky?
• Frequent trading is a loser's game due to transaction costs

What if you inverted that?

• Rather than try to make the most money, try to lose the least
• You at least prevent catastrophes that way
• Hmm, has anyone succeeded with that?

This Guy Swears By It

It Works for Immortality too

• You could figure out the secret to eternal life, which sounds hard
• OR you could figure out where you're going to die and just never go there

And Office Behavior!

What about technical careers?

Be incurious

Be Exclusive

Be Pedantic

Be Indifferent

Be Stagnant

Be Scattered

Be Afraid

Be Lazy

Be an ass

Let's summarize

• You build a terrible technical career by being an incurious, exclusive, pedantic, indifferent, stagnant, scattered, afraid, lazy ass.

So Don't Do That!