Good Links

Here are two great blog posts that I thought would be worth linking to. I hope you enjoy reading them too.

Seth Godin: "Choosing those that choose you"

Key quote:

"A huge swath of human unhappiness is generated by selecting someone to pick you, only to have that person abuse the power, let you down or otherwise seduce you into pursuing something that's not going to happen. Unchoose those people as choosers.

"The person or organization you're seeking to be chosen by: Do they have a good track record? Do they choose wisely? Coherently? Reliably? Do they abuse their power, seducing you into acting against your interests? Do they make you miserable? Do they have good taste?...

"If you've signed up to be approved by, selected by, promoted by or otherwise chosen by someone who's not going to respond to your efforts, it's not a smart choice.

"And one last thing: The ultimate privilege is to pick ourselves."

Paul Graham: "How To Do What You Love"

The whole article is a thoughtful and fantastic exploration of how to choose a career, but here are two quotes that I thought were especially good:

"You shouldn't worry about prestige. Prestige is the opinion of the rest of the world.... If you do anything well enough, you'll make it prestigious.... Prestige is especially dangerous to the ambitious. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, the way to do it is to bait the hook with prestige."

"Don't decide too soon [on your career]. Kids who know early what they want to do seem impressive, as if they got the answer to some math question before the other kids. They have an answer, certainly, but odds are it's wrong."