FOLLOW YOUR DREAM VS. GET A JOB

The “follow-your-dream” narrative is a case of information asymmetry.

You start your life without knowing anything and gradually accumulate knowledge. Thus, when you are five, you know more than at three, and at 15, more than when you were ten, and your decisions gradually improve. When in your life, with what knowledge and maturity can you formulate a dream you can follow?

The only person who can decide it is you. And the only parameter will be how relevant it is for you to get the result—the existential importance. There can be no “objective” criteria.

If you feel that the work you do (and yet have not seen any results) is what you must be doing because it is your aspiration, then it is “fight till the end,” “win or die trying,” “burn bridges behind,” and other motivational schticks.

Usually, people around you will not understand you and might not support you. They might consider you a freak. Worry not. People who spend themselves creating something new get this kind of treatment often. Check the biographies of those who ultimately made our world. Misunderstanding is typical for anything new. As Artur Schopenhauer once wrote, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

However, “inventing a bicycle” can happen if you do not know it exists already.

Thus, do not let your dream become a padded cell for your ego—do not insulate yourself. Get data from the outside world: observe and get feedback from people you trust and respect. And, always “make allowance for their doubting too,” since there is no conspiracy not to let you become a star. Any system has inertia, and in the case of social systems (people and groups), inertia is an important defensive mechanism.

{INFORMATION ASYMMETRY, ENDPOINT TIERS, MAP YOUR DREAM, ECPM, CALIBRATE YOUR PERCEPTION, FIGHT TILL THE END? DELAY, SUBJECTIVITY}