Q4 Goals - What should I do with my life?

 

What do I want to be when I grow up? When we hear this question as kids, we say things like "become an astronaut," "become a pro athlete," "become a firefighter," etc…

When I hear this question as an adult, I realize that it’s not binary. It’s a question I have to keep asking myself. It’s not a question of becoming but of reinvention. 

I’ve become a Scientist. Now, what do I want to be next year? In five years? Ten years? Even kids who achieved their dreams of becoming a pro athlete. What’s next? 

During the past quarter, I toyed with many options, such as starting my own consulting company, building my own product, getting promoted, going back to school, or becoming an athlete. 

There are pros/cons to all of them:

  • Starting a consulting company would give me full control over my work. But I’d be basically doing the same thing as my job, but with less pay and more hustle.

  • Getting promoted would give me a big boost in pay and responsibilities. Getting promoted faster would require more effort.

  • Building my own product is the most fun. But I’d have to be okay with less pay.

  • Becoming a high-level athlete also seems fun. But would it be at the cost of career growth?

Tradeoffs matter. Starting a company would mean I’d have to give up my athletic pursuits, and pursuing athletics may mean my career won’t grow as fast. It’s possible to do both, but just not at the same time.

If I made infinite money, what would I do? If I had infinite money, I’d spend the money to enable the activities that fulfill me: surfing, snowboarding, long treks, coaching others, and learning languages. I want to be able to do this until I’m old.

I’m lucky. I have a great job at Netflix that pays well. I can work from home from (almost) any location. I enjoy my work. Netflix’s culture gives me a ton of freedom. My job can support all the activities that fulfill me. 

The Path Forward

The path forward is two-pronged:

  1. Continue to grow at Netflix: I’m motivated by progression. I can’t rest and vest. If my skills aren’t growing, I disengage. I’m confident that continuing to grow my skills will open the door for future promotions and $$$ increases.

  2. Pursue High-Level Athletics: Outside of work, I pursue athletics at a high level. I’m 32. My athletic prime is closing and I’m not going to get it back.

When picking the path forward, it’s just as important to identify what I’m giving up:

  • I’m giving up my entrepreneurial goals for now. Entrepreneurship isn’t age-dependent.

  • I’m choosing income over status. I could join an earlier-stage startup to get a better-sounding title, or I could go back to Spotify to get a higher-up role. However, I’m choosing to get paid more rather than have a cooler-sounding title.

Netflix Growth

There are explicit and implicit expectations for getting promoted at any company. If you directly ask your manager, “What do I need to do to get promoted?”, he will tell you the explicit expectations. In most tech roles, it’s basically “make more impact, with more scope, without my help.”

I call this the skillset loop. First, you need to execute well (technical skills). This builds trust. You then spend some of the trust to influence your stakeholders and team (influence). This opens up new opportunities (more scope). Repeat.

At junior levels, all you need to focus on is executing this loop well. At more senior levels, you’re also required to execute this loop well…..but opportunities are finite. This means, there could be three very qualified candidates for a single role. Or the org doesn’t have the scope to support that position.

So despite meeting the explicit expectation, there’s the implicit expectation that you need to shine in some way, relative to the rest of the team/org. And on top of that, the opportunity needs to be there.

If your technical skills are levels above your team, it’s going to be easier to get promoted. If you know the business better than anyone on your team or org, it’s going to be easier to get promoted. Luckily, Netflix doesn’t have a competitive culture. You’re valued for being helpful to others. The stronger your skillset, the more you can be helpful, which is how you shine.

Netflix hires the best in the industry, so it’s much harder to stand out. To grow in position and salary, it’s a given that I must execute the skillset loop well…..but I need to clearly shine in some sort of way. And even then, promotion isn’t guaranteed.

The highest-leverage items will be to execute the skill loop as effectively as possible. 

  1. Influencing via Written and Verbal Communication: Netflix has a heavy written communication culture via memos and messaging. Well-written memos are how people influence at scale. A well-written memo for a data scientist requires three skills: strong writing, business acumen, and technical ability.

  2. Advanced Forecasting Skillset: My core area of focus is forecasting. While other topics such as optimization or causal inference are important, I’ll want to double down on forecasting before venturing into a new area. At some point in the future, I’ll want to solidify my expertise by teaching a class on forecasting.

Focusing on these two topics could take at least another six months. But for this next quarter, I’ll be taking two courses that focus on each area. Once I finish these courses, I’ll focus on applying them to my skillset. 

For written communication, the form of deliberate practice will involve providing feedback and rewriting past pieces of communication using what I’ve learned. This can be a Slack message, memo, email, or discussion topic.

The amount of time I can dedicate to skill development will depend on the skill I focus on. It will also vary depending on how much work I have and whether I can spend work hours on skill development.

Athletic Pursuits

If I want to continue growing in my career AND performing as a high-level athlete, I need to work on a sport that requires very little willpower. 

The sports I enjoy the most tend to have most, if not all of these qualities:

  • High Cardio or minimum Zone 2 cardio

  • Adrenaline

  • Suffering

  • Social/Community

  • Adventure/Outdoors

  • Progression

  • Little intellectual effort

  • Competition

  • Easy to do

Potential sports that fit (while I’m in NYC):

  • Hyrox

  • Running/Trail Running

  • Road biking

  • Ski Touring/Splitboarding (limited accessibility)

  • Surfing  (limited accessibility)

Surfing hits all five buckets for me. It’s great cardio. I get an adrenaline rush. I can do it socially. I get to explore new places around the world. I never have to force myself to surf. However, surfing isn’t regularly accessible living in NYC.

I love snowboarding, but I’m questioning whether it’s worth it to pursue park progression. I’m not looking to become a pro and hitting my head against comes with long-term risks. 

This winter, I signed up to become a Level 1 AIASSA Snowboard Instructor. This gives me a great, concrete goal to strive for this winter without needing to grind on park. When I live in a location that enables me to surf, I’ll also aim to get my Level 1 Surf Instructor certification.

Given my current living situation in NYC, my top two options are:

  • Hyrox: I loved BJJ for the competition and workout intensity. The problem is it required too much mental commitment. It required me to study complex movements. And me leaving every winter to snowboard would throw a wrench in my training. Hyrox gives me a similar level of workout intensity, without the mental effort.

  • Road Biking: Cycling seems like a great complement to surfing. It primarily focuses on legs, it’s excellent zone 2 cardio and can be great v02 max workouts. It’s also an adventure, allowing me to see a lot more of my area and it should fit seamlessly into the longevity workout program. There is adrenaline on the downhill.

Luckily, both of these slot naturally in the longevity workout structure.

  • 5 hours of Zone 2 Cardio (3 hours minimum) ~ Road Biking/Running

  • 3 to 4x strength 

  • 1 to 2x V02 Max Workout ~ Hyrox, Road Biking

  • 10 to 20 minutes of mobility before each workout.

Since surfing will be my long-term sport, a sport that works on opposing muscles or introduces a different type of cardio will be an excellent complement.

Goals for Q4

The last few pages really helped me clarify the goals for Q4:

  1. Implementation of learnings from the Communications Course & Forecasting Course

  2. Explore Hyrox and Cycling as potential long-term sports. There are races for both which adds some level of progression.

  3. Build a plan for my relationship future.