Family, Career, Job…
February 16th, 2008 by HenI’ve been introspecting a bit over the last few months; maybe it’s that ‘preparing to be a new father’ thing.
One of the thoughts was that Family > Career > Job. That is, that family things are the most important, that career is next and that the job comes next. Makes sense right? Probably makes more sense to people with kids as until then the overlap between what’s good for family and what’s good for career is really just clashes with your spouse’s career.
As an aside, it helps me understand one part of 9-5-ism too. As Family increases, so does the desire for 9-5-ism. I don’t have enough time outside of work for what my family need.
An important proviso is that the above is the long term equation. There’s a short term equation for a particular event:
Family * Pain multiplier > Career * Pain multiplier > Job * Pain multiplier
Or something like that. Basically that a really important thing at work outweighs getting home to do a jigsaw. Career is rarely short term, so short term things tend to be about the balance of Job and Family.
More thinking tonight made me want to add a 4th element, and with it a whole bunch of pain. Hobby.
Family > Career > Job > Hobby.
Again, makes sense, both in the long term and short term. And explains why making your hobby your career is so fraught with pain for many; you’re jumping the Job. How do you tell whether an event for that area should be filed under Career or Hobby?
For me, and for many of us, Open Source is increasingly core to both our hobby and our career. In the long term equation, it tends to strengthen career strongly while in the short term it gets pushed down to Hobby. As in many other places, Open Source is a disrupting element that changes how things work.