Additional Life Philosophies

In college a friend enlightened me to three approaches to life. The methods in question included Don't Care, Be Autonomous, and Acknowledge That Everyone's a Critic. These ideas formed a good foundation for me. I've applied them to numerous situations and found them helping me navigate through them on my terms. Over the years, I've encountered three additional ideas to handling challenges over the years. I'll share them now.

First, seek your place and don’t be afraid to adjust unconventionally until you find it. When a career in public education became unworkable, I launched headfirst into trying to become an archivist. When it became clear that the positions required nepotism and academic groupthink, I rerouted into a medical records career. Will I stay in this path ten years from now? I'm not sure. I sense a number of unconventional adjustments over my life.

Next, if something seems wrong, it is; fix the problem before it gets worse. When I worked as a contractor I was under the impression that my company would help me grow professionally. When it became clear they only viewed me as spare parts, I thought I could work my way out. Instead, my issues there reached a boiling point, and I was let go. In those circumstances, I should have walked out on them, opting for a hard reroute. Instead, I overstayed my welcome in an attempt to make my situation winnable. We're not always like Captain Kirk taking the Kobayashi Maru. Many obstacles are insurmountable, becoming completely unwinnable.

Finally, don’t let the haters get in your way and stop you; use their criticism to your advantage and reset when necessary. This is a further extension of acknowledging that everyone's a critic. It's very easy to become embittered from people lying to you and screwing you over. The corporate sector values profit over employee well-being. The academic sector values ego over productive work. If the system doesn't work for you, leave that system. Adjusting is like rolling up a new character in D&D. It's a struggle to get up to your group's level, but succeeding in controlling your own destiny makes it worthwhile.

I hope these philosophies help you out. At the very least, I hope it sparks new ideas. We've all been stuck in ruts. These are just some small ideas for escaping those ruts. Life is a struggle, and we're all in this together.

- Andy Out

Constantly Moving Never Really Appealed to Me

In school our instructors informed us that we would need to move constantly to advance our careers in the LIS field. Despite applying to most jobs near my experience level, I never got my foot in the door. I uprooted myself to CO Springs to be with Heather. In the process, I discovered the challenges of establishing myself in a new environment.

Making an entire new group of connections and friends out of nothing is very difficult. At university it proved much easier because we all had the common goal of attending school. In the office everyone focused more on their own families and careers than building lasting social connections. Feeling that isolated brought negative effects on my physical and emotional health. Despite finding people to talk with, I never felt like I belonged.

The nature of the library profession revolves around uprooting oneself to better positions all the time. Corporate stability is one thing, despite being nonexistent today. Geographic stability is even more critical than finding new work. This transience proved very bad for me. I'm not sure how my former colleagues handle it. Advancement and instability in a profession that eats its young is not a worthwhile endeavor.

- Andy out

Here's Why I'm Not Currently Looking For Work - a 2019 Update

Yesterday I realized I hadn't updated my professional references in a while. Despite not actively looking for work, I updated them just in case. This got me thinking about the many broken promises higher education gave me about employment. My professors operated under the notion that a degree could get you any entry level job. Those positions dried up in the recession. Companies want to put in as little effort as possible to train new employees. By not caring about the people who carry out their operations, they've made people like me cynical about corporate management.

I went into interviews believing companies cared about helping me develop when I helped them meet their goals. Instead, they only planned to use me until I became irrelevant. While profitability & standards are important, screwing people over to meet them doesn't incur long-term loyalty. Despite having a functional environment, I'm wary about the future.

Recently I started watching videos about people who expatriated to find work and escape student debt. One of the big lessons I learned from living in Colorado was that I can't simply work any job. My disability closed more doors than I can imagine. I'm like the workforce equivalent of an endangered rainforest animal that can't survive in another ecosystem. I don't have debt, but working abroad might cause problems related to my neurological condition to emerge. Uncertainty is the new name of the game going forward.

- Andy Out