This is a good starting point. I suspect some of the disagreements in this comment section stem from the difference in mindset between people for whom classwork either directly applies to or closely resembles their intended career path, and others for whom a lot of classwork (like my statistics courses) appear simply as a rigid gate to gaining access to their best career.

Perhaps a solution to the problem is better societal acceptance of trade schools, but at least in my area a university degree is a surer shot. Even if the degree is just a tool to then go do something completely different.

I also reject the idea that everyone has the same ability. They don't. Everyone is different.

I find when doing a collaborative project, partnering with someone just like me won't work. I need to find someone with complementary skills. Someone strong in the areas I'm weak in, and vice versa.

Agree! In fact I quit a previous job because I felt I was part of a clone army. I'm just not convinced that academic performance is as a strong predictor of ability as our reliance on this indicator suggests.

You might add a fourth circle for “what the world needs” (or, a more relaxed standard, “what is not actively harmful/promoting negative sum games”):

https://themindfool.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Ikigai_do...

My thoughts exactly, I was wondering, is this not just ikigai?

I was very confused by the "Vacation" overlap, but it turns out that's a typo and should be "Vocation".

I’d argue that this sort of career choice intersection is actually not helpful for most.

Here’s why. For most people, there are plenty of things in this world that they’ve never tried that they’d enjoy the hell out of — especially if they get past an initial learning curve. There are plenty of things that they’ve never committed to long enough to know they have a serious aptitude for it (for example, it took me 5+ years of learning music to realise I’m a brilliant improviser, just because most early music training doesn’t even touch on it).

In my opinion, if someone isn’t sure what career to choose, the solution actually is: go out and try more stuff. A lot more stuff. Do something long enough that you get past the initial learning curve.

Once you’ve collected enough real world experience and data, then you can make an intersection of “what you’re good at”, “what you enjoy” and “what pays” — but you probably won’t even need to, since this is a trivial exercise compared to actually gaining that data in the first place.

No one has time to try all the things. A broad education - which would give everyone experiences and not just academic theory - would offer that, but we don't give people broad educations.

The only people who can afford to explore and dabble are the very rich. Everyone else is on a treadmill from middle school onwards.

Sounds good in theory. For many, though, there won't be any intersection (which has any representation in job offerings).

Only persistence and perseverance through failures builds the necessary skills and the right attitude for the thing you need to do. "Career" can be a secondary thing.

Hah! When I took the first steps on my career path I wasn’t good at anything, had no idea what I really liked because I hadn’t had the opportunity to try most stuff and the top paying jobs of today didn’t even exist.

I know you are a smart person, but this advice will hold young people back.

Try stuff. Don’t sweat it. You’ll fail and you’ll succeed and you won’t know which is which until years later when you tell a story about your life and force it into a narrative.

Every child knows what things they like and are good at. It might not map exactly to a career path but it's not like career skills live in some sort of magical vacuum that you can never see until you try them.

How many children are aware that they would enjoy actuarial finance? How many are aware that they would be good at arguing patent law?

Do they enjoy math? Are they good at persuading others to side with them in arguments? Those aren’t non-transferable skills.

So if they enjoy math, they are as likely to enjoy actuarial finance as they are to like research into category theory or machine learning? If they are good at persuading others to side with them in arguments, they are as likely to enjoy patent law, criminal law, marketing, or politics?

There are some common skills, but all of these professions are extraordinarily different and require completely different aspects of those skills, and entirely different additional skills.

Liking dinosaurs and Jurassic park is not the same as liking archeology, especially as a job. Most children have no idea what they’d be getting into, and if they like something, it probably has little to nothing to do with the actual work/job/goals.

This is why the 'bring your child to work' days can be so great, they can get a sense of what a real workplace is like, other than some abstract place you go to when you finish education.

The problem starts when things you enjoy/do well don't fall into "pay well"

They don't pay well because everyone else enjoys them too.

Yes, it is hard to have a career eating ice cream.

This is highly dependent on upbringing.

I grew up with extremely religious and controlling parents. I spent most of my childhood believing I’d go to hell if I didn’t dedicate my life to the god the church worshipped.

This had a huge impact on what I believed about myself at that age, and I’m still actively working against the indoctrination in my 30s through therapy.

I still wonder how things might have gone if I pursued some form of research. I have evidence now to believe I might have been good at it, but haven’t convinced myself the cost to pivot makes sense at this stage of my life.

My story is not unique, and church/religion are just one implementation of a form of parenting that works hard against your claim.

I grew up loving engineering-related activities without knowing that "engineering" was a word, or even a profession

That's true - to draw a circle around what you enjoy, what you're good at, and what you get paid for, you have to actually try it for a while first

There are a lot of people who select a major only to discover upon graduation that the pay for it is minimum wage.

Everybody has activities that they enjoy.

That information is a simple Google search away though.

There are also lots of opportunities to pivot besides the default job in your field. Eg, gardening doesn’t sound promising, but call it “landscaping”, run it as a business, and you can earn more than a doctor.

Very often, 1. and 3. overlap well.

On the top of my head, the only thing for where there is almost no overlap for me is playing piano.

unfortunately for me that's an empty set

Problem is these circles are dynamic and often unknown.

What you’re good at depends on how much you know, practice, and inherent talent. First two changes over time, third one is an unknown variable. You also don’t know when you should give up. Should Einstein have given up science after he couldn’t get a faculty job and had to work in the patent office?

Things that pay well depends on economic situations that can change dramatically. See the cryptocurrency world.

Things you enjoy doing also change. Many stories here show that making a career doing things you enjoy can suck the enjoyment out of it.

I don’t really enjoy coding, software engineering, or the bullshit work dynamics around it.

But they keep paying me hundreds of thousands of dollars (sometimes more) every year - so I do it anyway.

But doctor, I'm not good at anything!

same - also good to keep in mind that you don't have much control over category 2, but you can make decisions that'll improve your options on both both 1 and 3.