Career Planning

Viewpoint

Selling your labor isn't just trading time for money—it should aim to exchange value in a sustainable, high-leverage way, while avoiding self-depletion.

Logic Chain

In a career, every effort drains energy, skills, and opportunity costs. A sensible way to "sell" yourself means directing your labor toward directions that build accumulation—experience, portfolio, relationships—rather than purely repetitive, depleting work.

Failure Condition

Under short-term survival pressure, you might have to accept repetitive work with no accumulation. In that case, you must first secure basic income before upgrading.

Related Areas

Career development, personal growth

Viewpoint: The importance of computer technology is unprecedented, yet a computer science major is no longer the top recommendation for young people, because purely functional programming skills will continue to depreciate. Logical chain: The deepening penetration of technology makes programming a foundational skill; the maturity of AI and toolchains has dramatically increased the supply of people who can "write code," reducing the scarcity of skills that simply implement functions; if higher education continues to focus primarily on cultivating entry-level programming abilities, graduates will become less competitive, and the overall return on such majors will be dragged down. Invalidation conditions: This judgment would fail if universities can quickly pivot to cultivating irreplaceable higher-order abilities such as system architecture, algorithmic innovation, and cross-domain application—or if industry demand for basic functional implementation continues to outpace supply. Related fields: Education and learning, technology and engineering, personal growth.

Viewpoint: In an individual's "business model," personal ability is the only stock factor with a positive flywheel effect. Therefore, before age 35, one should focus on investing in capability growth.

Logic Chain: The stronger your abilities, the better your outcomes and opportunities, which in turn accelerates further capability building—forming a positive feedback loop. Physical strength and capital, by contrast, can depreciate or hit ceilings; only ability compounds over the long term.

Failure Condition: If the core skills of your industry are at risk of rapid obsolescence, you need to switch capability tracks in time.

Related Fields: Career development, personal growth

Viewpoint: If you hope to join a loosely structured, high-performing elite team, you must first sharpen your professional skills to meet the matching threshold.

Logic chain: Outstanding teams have the power of choice and will not accommodate members whose abilities are out of step. Only when you possess sufficiently strong skills or resources can you become a mutually beneficial part of such a team.

Failure conditions: If the window of opportunity is extremely short and scarce, over-preparation may cause you to miss the chance; interpersonal connections or unique domain knowledge may bypass hard-skill barriers.

Related fields: Career development, personal growth

Viewpoint: Individuals should, from a self-interested perspective, seek to maximize their overall income across both the present and the future, rather than focusing solely on current income. To achieve this, they must sometimes sacrifice short-term benefits.

Logic Chain: Fixating only on the highest immediate income may undermine future earning potential (e.g., neglecting skill accumulation, trust relationships). Temporarily forgoing short-term gains in exchange for long-term capital—skills, opportunities, interpersonal connections—can maximize total returns.

Failure Conditions: If an individual faces an extremely high discount rate (urgent need for money) or the future is highly uncertain, prioritizing the short term may be more rational.

Related Fields: Personal growth, career development

Viewpoint: Young people should not blindly follow the "everyone has a side hustle" trend promoted on social media; instead, they should decide rationally whether to pursue one based on their own career planning.

Logic chain: Social media amplifies side-hustle anxiety, yet everyone's career stage, energy levels, and abilities differ. Blindly taking on a side hustle can drain focus and undermine growth in one's primary career. Sound career planning should first assess the prospects of the primary career before considering a side hustle as a supplement or a path for transition.

When this judgment fails: If the primary career has no room for growth, or a proven, profitable side-hustle model already exists, a side hustle can become the priority. Alternatively, if one has abundant energy and the side hustle can create synergy with the primary career, the two can be pursued in parallel.

Related fields: Career development, personal growth, side-hustle economy.

Opinion

Regularly assess whether you are capable of moving to a better position, and use this as a regulating valve for your current work state: when you are capable, moderate "slacking off" is acceptable; when you are not, focus on accumulating experience until the assessment result changes.

Logic Chain

By asking yourself each year, "Am I capable of moving to a better place?", you use external market value as an objective measure of your competitiveness. If the answer is yes, it means your current value output is sufficient and you can maintain the status quo; if the answer is no, you need to invest in growth at work, and repeat the cycle.

Invalidation Conditions

Self-assessment may misjudge real market demand, leading to overestimation or underestimation of job-hopping ability; even with adequate ability, opportunities may be scarce during an overall market downturn; prolonged "slacking off" may cause risks to accumulate in your current position, leading to sudden layoffs.

Related Fields

Career development, personal growth.

Viewpoint Choosing an industry is the most critical step in career decision-making. The characteristics of different industries directly determine practitioners' lifestyle, income level, and how hard they have to work.

Logic Chain Industries can be categorized as sunrise, stable, or sunset—and they also vary in how competitive they are and in the number of opportunities they offer. Even two programmers working in different industries may lead completely different lives. Industry dividends are a macro variable that individual effort alone cannot replace.

Limitations A very small number of people can arbitrage across industries or change their industry affiliation through entrepreneurship. In addition, personal values may place interest or mission above industry dividends.

Related Fields Career development, industry choice

Viewpoint: If your expected career is relatively short (e.g., you plan to work for others for at most 10 years before starting your own business), short-term financial returns should take priority, and industry background or job seniority matter less. If you intend to be a long-term employee, slow-burn accumulations (such as industry background) should be weighted more heavily, while immediate financial returns become less important.

Logic chain: Across different time horizons, the compounding effects and monetization opportunities of various accumulations differ greatly. You must align your investments with your exit timeline, avoiding the trap of “using a long-term player’s strategy while living a sprinter’s life.”

Failure conditions: If your personal plan is forced to change midway (e.g., entrepreneurship fails and you return to the workforce), or the industry as a whole undergoes disruption, the “slow-burn” accumulations that once held long-term value may depreciate rapidly.

Related fields: Career development

【Viewpoint】Without a fixed career orientation, a successful career plan is to become an “all-rounder,” seizing every opportunity to work with unfamiliar tasks.

【Logic Chain】The essence of career development lies in the comprehensiveness and transferability of abilities; refusing the comfort zone means continuously learning in new fields. Clinging to a so-called career orientation and rejecting opportunities that step outside the comfort zone will limit long-term competitiveness. The author himself made such a mistake in his early years.

【Failure Conditions】If one blindly pursues breadth at the expense of core depth, one may fall into the trap of “knowing a little of everything and nothing well.” In certain highly specialized fields, deep scarcity may matter more than versatility.

【Related Fields】Workplace development, personal growth.

Viewpoint: Freedom and making money are often in a trade-off relationship. Pursuing freedom may mean sacrificing a stable income, while pursuing a stable income requires giving up some freedom.

Logic chain: If an individual wants stable cash flow, they must continuously invest time—for example, running a store every day—and continuous investment means losing the freedom to “come and go as they please.” Conversely, if they choose freedom, their income fluctuates unpredictably and they cannot accumulate assets.

When this no longer holds: When individuals have passive income systems or have already accumulated capital, freedom and making money can coexist; or when they find a model that allows both remote management and stable customer acquisition, this trade-off weakens.

Related fields: Career choice, entrepreneurial decision-making, time management.

Viewpoint: Highly educated, passive talent needs to design a structure—such as a podcast, consulting practice, or private advisory board—so that high-quality information, connections, and opportunities converge automatically, rather than through inefficient networking.

Logic chain: Sisi observed that Eileen craves the stimulation of high-quality information but lacks access channels. Sisi herself, by contrast, is like “a general sitting in the cage”—through her podcast she connects influential figures with users, uses consulting to gather needs, and uses private advisory boards to test products, creating a virtuous cycle of information, monetization, and product validation. This system makes information flow in like water, while simultaneously addressing the combined needs of earning money, learning, and family empowerment.

Failure conditions: If continuous content output or relationship maintenance is lacking, the system may stagnate; if the wrong collaborators are chosen, time may be wasted.

Related fields: Personal brand building, information management, entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Viewpoint: For those who want to return to the UK and achieve work-life balance, the optimal strategy is to join a good company to build credentials, take on high-value online consulting, and reduce bootcamp frequency, using consulting as the core mechanism for screening suppliers.

Logic chain: Joining a large company can raise your market value and expose you to best practices, supporting high consulting fees. Consulting can capture business-side demand and, in turn, help you choose good companies. Bootcamps continue but with shorter cycles, and are used to screen young talent as suppliers. The three form a closed loop: corporate work provides endorsement and balance, consulting brings high income and uncovers opportunities, and bootcamps provide a talent reserve.

Failure conditions: If you cannot find a company that supports work-life balance, or if consulting pricing cannot sustain the model, the approach may not hold.

Related areas: Career planning, personal IP, business strategy.

Viewpoint: Offering paid consulting or interviews to high-income professionals can help you efficiently learn about industry trends, company situations, and working methods while earning money.

Logic chain: On the one hand, let potential clients pay you for consulting, and learn about the industry by solving their problems. On the other hand, proactively contact brand marketing professionals earning over 50,000 yuan a month, pay them a cash incentive for a one-hour interview, and obtain intelligence about their companies and industries. This allows you to earn money while quickly familiarizing yourself with the market and identifying suitable opportunities.

Failure condition: If your personal credentials are not strong enough to get high-income professionals to accept interviews or pay for your consulting, this method may fail.

Related fields: Career planning, market research, business intelligence

Viewpoint: Because it can help clients achieve an annual income increase of hundreds of thousands or even over a million through career choices, the consulting fee is only a small fraction of the added value, so a high price is justified.

Logic chain: A client faces multiple job offers → a consultant provides a judgment based on industry insight → the client chooses the optimal path → annual salary may rise from 500,000 to 800,000 → a consulting fee of 5K accounts for only a tiny proportion of the increase.

Failure conditions: The consultant’s judgment is insufficient, or the client’s industry is highly volatile and the outcome of the choice is highly uncertain.

Related fields: Pricing strategy, career planning, sales.

Viewpoint

Three reasons lie behind this confusion: failing to keep a clear picture of yourself (your abilities and preferences), failing to understand what the market actually requires and rewards in a role, and subconsciously wanting high pay, passion, and ease all at once—while your abilities cannot match the payoff of 'having it all'.

Logic chain

You chose a new-energy job that pays 18,000 yuan a month. It gives you financial security, but you find it tiring and boring. You long for the creative freedom of working on a major IP, but that kind of work may pay only a few thousand yuan at first and is extremely demanding. Your rational side chose money, while your emotional side keeps resisting, causing inner friction. You cannot have it all unless your abilities clearly exceed the demands. You need to recognize what you should protect more at this stage and accept the imperfections that come with your choice.

Failure condition

When your abilities grow enough to cover multiple needs, 'having it all' may become possible, but at the early stage you need to face reality.

Related fields

Career planning, decision psychology.

Viewpoint: Reaching a senior executive role at a Big Tech company yields both salary and stock (the first monetization) and allows the title itself to be used as an IP asset to monetize topics (the second monetization), maximizing the value of what you have achieved.

Logic chain: A Big Tech VP sees through the promotion game. After securing high compensation, they can still leverage the “former VP” identity to share content on topics such as surviving and getting promoted at Big Tech companies, build a personal IP, and sell related products like courses and communities. The title becomes a portable credential—utilitarian but efficient.

Failure condition: If the title carries no public influence or quickly loses relevance after departure, the second monetization effect will be limited.

Related fields: Career planning, personal IP, compound interest mindset.

Viewpoint: Keep your main job stable, and use spare time to develop an online part-time side business. This can both train your sales ability and bring you information, skills, and income, and may lead to internal referrals or a career transition in the future.

Logic chain: If your main job leaves spare time, the side business can be high-leverage IP-based work (such as an assistant role), where the product comes with its own traffic and you do not need to acquire customers yourself. The side business provides free training, a network, and information input, while helping you accumulate case endorsements, so you can build capabilities and resources more reliably.

Failure conditions: The main job takes up too much time to allow part-time work; or the side business cannot provide meaningful growth returns; or the main job is high risk and requires full commitment.

Related fields: Career planning, side business, risk control.

Viewpoint If a person’s life is full of "stable cards"—a stingy father who won’t provide much money, a husband whose current income is low, a main job that barely covers basic needs, and a side business that still requires ongoing investment—then their overall sense of security will be very low. The problem is not a lack of focus but a lack of high-margin income sources.

Logic chain A sense of security comes from strong return expectations. The four existing cards are all "stable cards" that can only be monetized over the long term, so they cannot resolve short-term desires for money and a better life. Therefore, the portfolio needs to be adjusted to include a business that can quickly generate cash flow (a high-margin card). Otherwise, focusing on any current card will have limited effect.

Invalidation conditions If a person’s desires are far below their current income, or if they are extremely risk-averse and seek extreme stability, then an all-stable-card portfolio may be viable.

Related fields Career planning, side business design, personal business model