> Offhand, I can't think of too many people (myself included) who are a) very happy in their jobs and b) planned very diligently to get to that exact space.
> Mostly the opposite, "A lot of random stuff happened, I followed through on some stuff that felt right at the time, and just kind of did that over and over."
IMO, that's because most of the people who plan career paths diligently only look at one metric: "TC" (total compensation). They may say they value autonomy, growth, good teammates or any other number of things, but when it comes down to offer time most young people will reliably pick the highest offer, no matter what.
The more serendipitous career paths involve a lot of networking, identifying who you like working with and what you like working on, reputation building, and eventually flowing into a great position within your network. The pay may come slightly later, but it's a much happier path.
I don't want or expect to progress. I want to be part of a team, without leading it. As far as I know - the progression part of my career is over, thus my career is over. What next steps I could have taken afterwards are plentiful, but irrelevant.
I was thinking it, just not brave enough to say it outright when I typed my response ;)
Can you think of and describe anyone you know who belongs in xor(a, b)?
Among the happy people I see, most have the "randomness" I talk about. Among unhappy people, I see a mix of both.
Also on the front page today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30424181
Offhand, I can't think of too many people (myself included) who are a) very happy in their jobs and b) planned very diligently to get to that exact space.
Mostly the opposite, "A lot of random stuff happened, I followed through on some stuff that felt right at the time, and just kind of did that over and over."