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by dezeiner
1401 days ago
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I appreciate your positive framing. I definitely do have hidden or not-so-hidden strengths, but they are all fairly abstract and rooted in emotionality. For example, I've often been told I have a strong ability to empathize, to understand the emotional journey of a UX, identify moments of friction & delight. But I lack the structure to self-catalyze. I've tried for a year now to build something on my own and inevitably flounder due to an ignorant and scatterbrained approach to priorities, process, decision-making, etc, despite attempts to self-teach. |
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The rational decision here would be to focus on the first no matter what, as that's what most people do in the career world. Those careers exist and pay money today. You can't bank on skills that don't exist, so if you go and call yourself a real-world builder and try to improvise there, you can count on lots of headwinds just due to basic career logic.
However it's a big clue that the two points of view also form two very clear dichotomies: Real - Abstract & Emotion - Logic. This usually means you will need to find a point of reconciliation before you can feel less locked up. It probably feels like your hands are tied right now due to lack of execution.
This is all wrapped in a clear ability to keep your discussion focused on subjective factors. IMO you may not like the idea, but self-analysis is a likely learning path that would accomplish all the goals you have written.
I would also hesitate to share the path with others until you have made meaningful progress, as there will be a tendency to suck all the vitality out of the room, so emotive is your gift, and so likely strong your desire to be demonstrative here.
You may even inadvertently frame meet-ups with others as your test, or as a time to demonstrate to them what you've become. In fact this will probably get you the opposite outcome from what you want, in terms of influencing people. We could describe your life as WTF Land rn, and most people do not want friends or family to have very strong memories of this time in their life. ;-)
So, it may be that you insist on Being the Builder who Builds Real Things, and that's that, and you develop a bunch of interesting coping habits along the way like people in these shoes do. Or you find a more creative way that syncs with your clear strengths and integrates the "duh" perspective that outsiders have shared with you.
Regardless I think it ought to be an interesting journey!