Premature Optimization .... or watz ur Dip

One of the biggest mistakes that you can make in your youth, which can affect the whole of your life, is premature optimization.

The term has its origins Computer Science. It, sort of means, deciding on an option without really knowing what the possible options are. To make a master plan before grokking on whether it is worth doing. Or something like that.

I think it is the best career advice anyone can give you when you are seventeen. To find out, to really understand, what the different options are for you.

Now, this really does not mean you are not going to make any mistakes. Far from it, it can cause you to make more mistakes initially when you tend to dab around a lot. Your parents may get pissed off esp. when you decide you would rather study linguistic history of south asia rather than become a doctor. You would too, when your son does it. They don't get any good return of investment when somebody 'finds himself'.

Your social standing may also drastically go down. Your sister may not grandly proclaim to her friends that her brother is in medical college.

But it will prevent you looking back when you are a portly, balding middle aged man with mouths to feed and mortgages to pay - to what could have been. That you never wanted to be a lawyer or an accountant or a doctor. When you realize that that was a life chosen for you by someone else. Just because you could add and multiply numbers quickly or remember the crazy organic chemistry equations, the system had decided for you about the most precious thing in your world – your life’s work.



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TEENAGER CONTEMPLATING ANGST

Originally uploaded by wildcardpoe

I wish someone had told me this when I was seventeen. Though I am not sure the seventeen year old me would have understood. I most probably won't have liked the guy who told me this. He would have made me very uncomfortable.

Thanks to Seth Godin for writing the two posts ( one posted yesterday and the other a long time ago ) which took me down this train. I highly recommend 'The Dip'. Buy the Audio CD instead of the book as it is much cheaper, contains almost whole of the book and is a great travel companion.