Comments on: Digging Holes

By: dburney

dburney — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:11:49 +0000

I wish I had as much clarity @ 16. Seventeen years later I’m still searching. Whatever you decide, do it for yourself. Do what you love – what makes you happy. Seems simple, but as you get older it gets increasingly difficult to do. Not impossible – just more difficult. I think you have just opened yourself up to a whole new world of opportunity. Academia is fine, go to college – get a degree, but don’t let that define you, your expectations or your opportunities. But don’t squander the gift of time. You’re young. Enjoy life.

BTW – great blog. I look forward to adding you to my RSS. And thanks for opening an old dude’s eyes.

By: Marian H.

Marian H. — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:12:10 +0000

Michael,
I have been reading your blog for a few weeks now, and I have to say that I look forward to reading what you will post next. Each entry has been thought-provoking, and your photography is inspiring to a P&S user like myself.

I would have added you onto my RSS feed when I first stumbled across your blog, but I decided to take your advice and make sure I would read the updates. Consider your blog added.

I decided to comment on this entry in particular because I just read similar thoughts by John Taylor Gatto. The article is a bit old, but if you haven’t already read it, it is definitely worth a read.

Thank you for being such a dedicated and creative blogger!
God bless,
Marian

By: Dean

Dean — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:48:00 +0000

When I was your age, my folks gave me two choices. The first was go to college/university and start paying a token coin for food and a bed. The second was to find a job and move out. It isn’t that my ‘rents didn’t like/love me– they just new I needed a push to leave the nest. Their job was done and it was time for me to head out on my own. At the time, I resented being given the choice and expected more support (both financial & otherwise) when I finished HS. Like you, I dabbled in plenty of hobbies growing up and enjoyed a wide variety of things. Truthfully, though, giving me that choice was the best thing my folks could have done… friends of mine with more ’supportive’ folks are still living in their rent’s basement; some have kids with women they didn’t end up marring; others married and then divorced; some worked in the Ontario manufacturing sector in dead-end & brain-dead jobs that have now disappeared.

I tried the photography thing for a few months but couldn’t make it work. Then I did some IT work for a small startup that promised to pay real well. Alas, they stiffed me on a month’s salary before locking their doors. After 8 months, I enrolled in some university transfer courses and upgraded my grades. Thankfully, university is nothing like high school. One engineering degree (almost) finished and a few scholarships later, I’m heading to law school in the fall. I certainly would never have guessed my path at 16 and I’m still not exactly certain where my next degree will lead me. I’ve been able to work and travel during the summers and have met some incredible people. I’ve rambled long enough. My only advice is to leave your career options open as much as possible and apply yourself in everything you do.

By: Michael Mistretta

Michael Mistretta — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:13:46 +0000

No, I haven’t, but I’ve heard of it. I’ll add that to my to-read list.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:37:12 +0000

Have you read The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris?

By: Holden Page

Holden Page — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:10:30 +0000

It’s called an entrepreneur.

Not to sound rude.

By: Michael Goonan

Michael Goonan — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:33:38 +0000

The best thing you can do is search on your own time. Sure, school may help provide a glimpse into the type of stuff you like, but you really have to delve into it on your own time in a “fun” sort of way.

By: Christoph Spiegl

Christoph Spiegl — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:09:11 +0000

Hi, Michael.
First of this is everything bot not ‘too long’. It tells in great words how – I think – many people – especially young people – think nowadays.
At least I do too. I’m doing my way through school and not doing it as well as I might could.
The reason is not that I’m to lazy to do my homework but I have to many interests in other things. The question what I want to be? I can’t answer. The question in which area I want to work? I may can specify some areas I want to work in but never just one. And which carrier I want to choose? There is none which fits me.

I completely agree with you.
I wish you luck with your decision.
I have to decide about the same area in 6 / 18 month – that’s not clear till now.

By: Matthew Bischoff

Matthew Bischoff — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:16:19 +0000

Hi, Michael. I used to think about this a lot myself. Recently though I wrote about this topic and came up with something of a personal manifesto, clear goals that I want to achieve in life, work, and play. Maybe defining your own personal “mission statement” or purpose in words, which you’re clearly comfortable with, will give you a little bit more confidence in the decisions to come. Good luck.

By: Bror Bojlen

Bror Bojlen — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:10:28 +0000

This is something I’m currently thinking a lot about, and your post inspired me. It made me realise that this is what I’ve been feeling, but I haven’t really been able to put it into words. So, thanks for this original post!

By: Michael Mistretta

Michael Mistretta — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:52:15 +0000

Chris —

Like I said: “if skimming is your thing, you should probably stop here, as you most likely do not posses the ability to read through a post, much less read into it.”

Now shoo!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:50:52 +0000

This post is TOO long!

By: Nick Humphries

Nick Humphries — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:33:55 +0000

This is exactly how I feel. Spot on.

I know what I love doing, and what I’d love to do, but ask me what kind of job I want (as if I have to choose from a menu) and I’ll tell you that there isn’t one.

Education, jobs… to me, are generic solutions to individual aspirations.

By: D. Huber

D. Huber — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:16:11 +0000

Good post, Michael.

The big thing that I’ve learned (so far) in life is that it is best to learn broadly, and deeply.

That is, if something new interests you, then explore it well. But, don’t succumb to the temptation to give it a cursory glance and move on to the next, interesting thing (akin to skimming a long blog post). Rather learn it well – go deep.

In our information-saturated world, the trend seems to be not towards the narrow/deep paradigm of a few decades ago, but toward the territory of broad/shallow.

If I *had* to choose between those two, I’d choose narrow/deep. Broad/shallow is almost as bad as narrow/shallow – in fact it might be worse.

By: Jorge Quinteros

Jorge Quinteros — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:31:05 +0000

Anyone would attest that education is the quintessential formula that enables us to achieve anything in life and while I hold that to be true, I also firmly believe there’s a select group of people who consume so much information by virtue of their own inquisitiveness, that in return, it provides them with alternate choice in how they can establish a career by other means as oppose to how society expects them.

When you’ve established an online presence as you have, it’s only natural that you feel incline to want to “dig” and explore something different for yourself, especially when you associate yourself and collaborate with other big names in the blogosphere. The opportunities are endless. I can already see the sequel to this post: “How to tell my parents I don’t want to go to college and that I rather do something else.” Any decision that you intent to pursue, I don’t think there’s an qualms as to whether you’ll be exceptional in. Looking forward to final career decisions made for the near future.