What do I want
I’ve always liked ideas and people. I like to surround myself with smart kids who think deeply. I particularly like creative, courageous, contrarian geeks. My main aim is to meet those people, and there are some industries who attract them – quant HFs and tech startups. I want my future job to involve working or servicing them. I want to be in the US/UK and then maybe Asia after. I want to work in building new things
I realised that I have a strong appetite for taking risk. I also learned that I love multiple domains and can come up with original ideas. I love adrenaline, and I love being on the edge. A great life to me would be work that is like skiing and holidays that is like onsen. I get obsessively curious at times, but there are very few ideas that can get my blood boiling for months. AI is one of them. Macro is another. Once it happens, I can’t help but be relentlessly resourceful. The only thing that would stop me is failing at it. So far, I’ve only failed once.
It is hard
Frankly, I care about the AI stuff, working with smart people and being competent. I always believe in choosing the right boat first and just say yes. I am also sure I don’t want to do sales, because it’s time to *thrive* in a new skill. I think it suits the generalist, polymathic nature of myself. I’m always interested in a broad range of things –rene girard, history, geopolitics, maths, philosophy, science and hence my obsession with macro. But being competent is important, and you must deliver value. Profit is an important discipline for new ideas. I see myself in a BD/Finance role with ML skills, not just a pure ML.
I think the age of AI is great for people with high agency and polymaths. Not going to lie, the job market is intense. I’m 100% confident that this is the right decision in the long term for me, but oh boy, I am about to stomach a lot of pain. I literally thought about entering a swap contract with the people I love.
T: Hey can I sleep in your sofa (or extra room) for one month if everything fails in the next 3 years? On the other hand, if I have X amount after 35 years old and no debt, how about a 1k USD cash gift or hotel voucher as an appreciation <3 ?
Frankly I thought it was a great idea, because I’m motivated to give back to my mentors and friends (you know who you are ), and they always see the upside in me. Alternatively, protecting my liquidity and downside is important in this unpredictable, volatile environment.
Entry-level jobs have already vanished. We can talk for 3 hours about what this means for the future - more dissent, less peace, increasingly winners take all. I am determined to win. I am also vulnerable, nervous and excited.