Author: Carl Setzer

A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.

The Value of Mastery

Carl Setzer
close up shot of two people wearing karategi and black belt

James Clear, the author of “Atomic Habits” has a newsletter “3-2-1 Thursday”. Each issue contains:

  • 3 short ideas from James
  • 2 quotes from other people
  • 1 question

Today’s newsletter, titled “On growing fast vs growing slow, the value of mastery, and climbing the right mountain“, resonated with me. The goal of my personal development plan is mastery, and I’m working on mastering what, exactly. Project management? IT? Web development? One of these. But this post drove home a weakness holding me back: my impatience. I want to become a master fast. And, well, that’s the opposite path of mastery. James included this quote, which I appreciated. It drives home the point succinctly.

“Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.”

~ Derk Sivers

Choosing what NOT to study is one of my core challenges right now. I’m interested in SO very much. Choosing to NOT pursue something is rather painful. But I know it’s the right decision. But, man, it’s so hard!

Have you developed mastery in something? How did you go about de-selecting what to study? Was it as hard for you as it is for me?

Ernst & Young, Meta, etc, firing folks for misuing benefits

Carl Setzer
woman organizing her belongings

The past few news cycles have featured employees being fired for misusing benefits. Whether we’re talking about EY letting people go for cheating on required education, Meta letting folks go for misusing meal benefits, companies seem to be more willing (eager?) to let someone go. I think this is related to the calls for a return to office, which some feel are about encouraging staff to resign and, thus, not receive any severance, etc.

So, what I think we’re seeing is companies looking for ANY excuse/reason to let people go. So, I would be cautious, very cautious, about giving them such. Be thoughtful and be wary.

Think I’m on to something? Or am I just paranoid? Let me know what you think.

Some Valuable Advice

Carl Setzer3 Comments

I love this post I found this morning on Instagram:

I’ve often found myself torn between my mind’s competing interests. Recently I figured out that at those moments, THIS is what I need to do: “pursue myself”. Become better, healthier, happier…all those things make for a better life. Much more so than simply getting some promotion or a new job.

Anyway, I wish a happy Friday to you all! May you move closer to your dreams.

Cory Doctrow: You should be using an RSS reader

Carl Setzer
man standing inside library while reading book

I just got to reading Cory’s post from yesterday, Pluralistic: You should be using an RSS reader (16 Oct 2024). I appreciate being reminded of the existence of these tools. I used several over the years, culminating with Google Reader (RIP). After Google killed this app, RSS readers just fell by the wayside.

This article prompted me to Google RSS readers. The first article was the Verge’s “Top 5 RSS Readers“. And the first on that list is Feedly. Well, I remember Feedly, as I set up an account ages ago…and then forgot about it. But I was able to log in and off I went. I have some curating to do, but it’s not really that bad. And I see several sites that I’d stopped tracking in all the mess of email updates. So, that’s a win.

I intend on unsubscribing to gobs of email blog updates, cleaning up my inbox quite a bit. Also, I need to use the “feeds” feature, where I can segment my different feeds.

Do you use an RSS reader? Have a favorite one? Let me know!

Recruiting Weirdness

Carl Setzer2 Comments
hiring text

Though I’m not actively looking for work at the moment, I still have resumes out there. So, recruiters find me and send me opportunities. This is one I got from ZipRecruiter this morning. (There was an employer name where it’s blank, which I opted to redact)

I get many of these sorts of emails every month and I find them puzzling. Ultimately, there’s pretty much NO information here. I had to Google the company, as I had never heard of them. As they’re a staffing agency, I have no idea who the company that I’d be working for is, or if they’re even in Marysville. No salary, no job description (yeah, I could click on the link, but, um, no). If I was looking for work, or, in other words, unemployed, it might be interesting enough to run the risk of a recruitment scam.

Anyway, it’s a first-world problem and I shouldn’t complain. Recruiters ARE reaching out to me, so that’s something.