I work in career advising at a community college. When I present to students, I draw a Venn diagram with three circles: what I like, what I'm good at, world of work. What I like: interests, values, enjoyment. What I'm good at: strengths, skills, aptitude. World of work: employment trends, pay, realities of "typical day," industry culture, etc. I tell them to find where these three intersect.
I thoroughly agree with this advice - but the challenge comes when our leadership (civic and corporate) is infected with narcissism and psychopathic personalities (or at a minimum people who are disingenuous and self-serving - I am no longer convinced bad policy is all down to stupidity) - and what that means is that is makes it harder for the rest of us to live according to your wise advice. I’m all for doing what you love, but the monetary distortions of our unequal system require one (or more than before) to think first about money; young people literally cannot support themselves doing what they love if what they love doesn’t earn enough (this is a new phenomenon - modest incomes used to provide a decent standard of living). (There is also the student debt issue which should never have gotten to where it is - another failure of the system IMO but one that could be attributed to stupidity rather than malice). The two razors are sound advice for each of us in our day to day encounters, but when dealing with the personality disorders like narcissism and psychopathic behaviour - types research has show are disproportionately present in top leadership - we have a problem. And I think the Western World has this problem. Not sure how to fix it, but as in most things, recognising the problem exists is the first step to correcting it I guess.
One of the traps that I see young people falling into is to incur massive amounts of student loan debt before they have any idea what the purpose of their education really is, lulled into complacency by the conventional wisdom that student loan debt is "good debt" because it is an "investment in themselves". The moment debt is taken on for education, the question of likely lifetime earnings becomes critical. Student loan debt incurred in a line of work that cannot possibly repay it without financial distress is actually the worst kind of debt since it is difficult to impossible to discharge it in bankruptcy.
I agree with your observations on power and sociopaths/narcissists but I am not sure this is anything new. I think that such people have always been attracted to power. In the past, politicians felt the need to hide their worst personality traits but now they are less restrained. If I'm going to try to look on the bright side, I'd say that the people at least can see many politicians for what they are since our standards have declined to the point where it is obvious.
I don't want to divert too far into politics but I'm thinking of writing about how political debate has degraded over the past 60 years. The contrast between the Kennedy/Nixon debates in 1960 vs. what we have today is glaring. The degradation was gradual and over a period of decades so most people don't even realize how elevated debate was in the past vs. what we have now.
I think your observation on student debt is spot on. And add to that the pervading opinion that college is ‘the best way’ to get ahead. It’s an easier ‘mistake’ to find oneself on the ‘wrong’ career path when college tuition is 3,500 euro (I live in Ireland but am an American), however. I recently lamented to my youngest sons, 19 yr old twins, that I should have encouraged them to go into a trade (of course they were appalled at the idea). I said you boys are smart, would be capable of running your own business, would have a skill which a computer cannot replace, could earn upward of 6 figures, would never face the ‘squeeze out’ middle management 50 somethings confront in the corporate sector, you’d never be out of work if you’re good at what you do regardless of the vagaries of the economy (getting a competent tradesperson is tough in Ireland they are so busy), and you’d have the joy of both working with your hands AND making someone happy every day of the week. Dignity in work regardless of blue or white collar is important.
Good point about the sociopaths/narcissists always being attracted to power. Was thinking about your comment today and two considerations to add - the corporate world is more concentrated today (almost monopolistic) than in yesteryear meaning corporate power is stronger (we’ve all seen the charts of the 100s of brands owned ultimately by 5 companies worldwide!) and the passing of Citizens United which has allowed companies to much influence in policy making (IMO) so the government is less ‘of the people and for the people’.
Allied to the above is the slow degradation of ‘doing things one just didn’t do’ We used to have boundaries on behaviour - in the same way we had boundaries as to what we showed on TV or in our entertainment (this is not advocating for censorship, it’s a request to pull back on the shock/provocation element of our entertainment). I’m no prude and I love a good dirty joke - but the full-on, in your face, lack of manners and sex/sexualisation, anything goes tears at our social fabric, especially when done by ‘influencers’ whether politicians or TV/movies.
I’m sure many would be interested in a study on the decline in political debate. I’m sure so many aren’t even familiar with how things used to work.
To end on a positive note, like Rudy Havenstein has said himself, I am encouraged by many of the young people I meet.
Thanks for sharing personal observations, Ravi. Inspires me to write some in my own substack. Appreciate your willingness to share on all kinds of levels. " Investing is a subset of worldly wisdom." Best wishes, as always!
Great piece! Knowing what to do and actually being able to do it hard work. However, being able to pull it off can be rewarding to our mental health. Thanks for the reminders!
I love the Nixon quote - coming from an international relations perspective, it’s so fascinating!
I work in career advising at a community college. When I present to students, I draw a Venn diagram with three circles: what I like, what I'm good at, world of work. What I like: interests, values, enjoyment. What I'm good at: strengths, skills, aptitude. World of work: employment trends, pay, realities of "typical day," industry culture, etc. I tell them to find where these three intersect.
I thoroughly agree with this advice - but the challenge comes when our leadership (civic and corporate) is infected with narcissism and psychopathic personalities (or at a minimum people who are disingenuous and self-serving - I am no longer convinced bad policy is all down to stupidity) - and what that means is that is makes it harder for the rest of us to live according to your wise advice. I’m all for doing what you love, but the monetary distortions of our unequal system require one (or more than before) to think first about money; young people literally cannot support themselves doing what they love if what they love doesn’t earn enough (this is a new phenomenon - modest incomes used to provide a decent standard of living). (There is also the student debt issue which should never have gotten to where it is - another failure of the system IMO but one that could be attributed to stupidity rather than malice). The two razors are sound advice for each of us in our day to day encounters, but when dealing with the personality disorders like narcissism and psychopathic behaviour - types research has show are disproportionately present in top leadership - we have a problem. And I think the Western World has this problem. Not sure how to fix it, but as in most things, recognising the problem exists is the first step to correcting it I guess.
One of the traps that I see young people falling into is to incur massive amounts of student loan debt before they have any idea what the purpose of their education really is, lulled into complacency by the conventional wisdom that student loan debt is "good debt" because it is an "investment in themselves". The moment debt is taken on for education, the question of likely lifetime earnings becomes critical. Student loan debt incurred in a line of work that cannot possibly repay it without financial distress is actually the worst kind of debt since it is difficult to impossible to discharge it in bankruptcy.
I agree with your observations on power and sociopaths/narcissists but I am not sure this is anything new. I think that such people have always been attracted to power. In the past, politicians felt the need to hide their worst personality traits but now they are less restrained. If I'm going to try to look on the bright side, I'd say that the people at least can see many politicians for what they are since our standards have declined to the point where it is obvious.
I don't want to divert too far into politics but I'm thinking of writing about how political debate has degraded over the past 60 years. The contrast between the Kennedy/Nixon debates in 1960 vs. what we have today is glaring. The degradation was gradual and over a period of decades so most people don't even realize how elevated debate was in the past vs. what we have now.
Thanks for your comments.
I think your observation on student debt is spot on. And add to that the pervading opinion that college is ‘the best way’ to get ahead. It’s an easier ‘mistake’ to find oneself on the ‘wrong’ career path when college tuition is 3,500 euro (I live in Ireland but am an American), however. I recently lamented to my youngest sons, 19 yr old twins, that I should have encouraged them to go into a trade (of course they were appalled at the idea). I said you boys are smart, would be capable of running your own business, would have a skill which a computer cannot replace, could earn upward of 6 figures, would never face the ‘squeeze out’ middle management 50 somethings confront in the corporate sector, you’d never be out of work if you’re good at what you do regardless of the vagaries of the economy (getting a competent tradesperson is tough in Ireland they are so busy), and you’d have the joy of both working with your hands AND making someone happy every day of the week. Dignity in work regardless of blue or white collar is important.
Good point about the sociopaths/narcissists always being attracted to power. Was thinking about your comment today and two considerations to add - the corporate world is more concentrated today (almost monopolistic) than in yesteryear meaning corporate power is stronger (we’ve all seen the charts of the 100s of brands owned ultimately by 5 companies worldwide!) and the passing of Citizens United which has allowed companies to much influence in policy making (IMO) so the government is less ‘of the people and for the people’.
Allied to the above is the slow degradation of ‘doing things one just didn’t do’ We used to have boundaries on behaviour - in the same way we had boundaries as to what we showed on TV or in our entertainment (this is not advocating for censorship, it’s a request to pull back on the shock/provocation element of our entertainment). I’m no prude and I love a good dirty joke - but the full-on, in your face, lack of manners and sex/sexualisation, anything goes tears at our social fabric, especially when done by ‘influencers’ whether politicians or TV/movies.
I’m sure many would be interested in a study on the decline in political debate. I’m sure so many aren’t even familiar with how things used to work.
To end on a positive note, like Rudy Havenstein has said himself, I am encouraged by many of the young people I meet.
Thanks for sharing personal observations, Ravi. Inspires me to write some in my own substack. Appreciate your willingness to share on all kinds of levels. " Investing is a subset of worldly wisdom." Best wishes, as always!
Great piece! Knowing what to do and actually being able to do it hard work. However, being able to pull it off can be rewarding to our mental health. Thanks for the reminders!
Wise words, thank you for writing.