This is just sooo awesome Dave!! I love it! When I came across Ikigai I loved it cos I immediately knew what business I wanted to create: become a scientific illustrator. And I did, its super specialized. However, I am a generalist at heart, love to paint, write, can do technical editing, learned about entrepreneurship, love to teach & guide people etc. So I am currently re-thinking my whole career path into sth else. While having several legs already, I love your octopus analogy & will now sleep over it & see what my subconscious comes up with 🥰
Hi Daria, awesome, glad to meet a fellow Octopus! Sometimes it’s good to have a specialist career, and it’s cool that you figured out what you wanted that to be. Scientific Illustrator sounds like an interesting job!
Glad you found the octopus approach thought provoking, it will hopefully give you more freedom to pursue some of your other tentacles. Let me know if you have any questions!
"If you actually delve into the research on the inefficiencies of multi-tasking, you will find that nearly all of the studies are done on simple tasks like adding/subtracting numbers, naming colors, typing out emails, and classifying geometric objects."
You're touching on the very important matter of "external validity" Dave. That is, how well does the experimental set-up map onto the real world situation you're really interested in. Many (most?) social science studies are done in a way that is convenient, not necessarily externally valid. So we need to read "science" articles very critically, like you are! 👏
Thanks Baird. For a long time I took the "Multi-tasking is inefficient" message as gospel. But then I read some of the actual studies, and found they don't have much at all to do with higher order knowledge work. One of them was something along the lines of "add or subtract 3 from a number we'll show you". I don't see how we can take those results and now say, "stop exploring multiple creative interests because it's inefficient".
hmm this is really intriguing. I've been in the contemplation stage for another part time job for awhile now. I work remote now and am considering something else in-person.
this concepts seems similar to my need to have simultaneous projects going on, and seeing where/how I can generate money from (some of) them.
Hi Mia, thanks for reading and glad you find this interesting. A single, 9-5, full time job working for one company is still the most common setup, but I believe that is starting to erode, as more people opt for fluid setups. Just the fact that you work remotely is one good step in this direction (I've been working remotely for 20 years). If you have time and interest, and it does not interfere with your other job, there's no reason why you couldn't take a second part time job doing something perhaps more interesting, to feed your need for variety and to have multiple things going on at a time. I wish you the best and let me know if you have any questions, glad to share what I've learned so far, as it's still a bit of an experiment for me too.
Thanks for explaining your rules, Dave! I will have to sit down and see what I can come up with. Right now I’m solely focused on writing, but there are so many other things I could be doing / producing.
Thanks Rick, I refined the criteria a bit since you first asked, but this is roughly how I'll approach it, at least for the next quarter or two, then I'll see how things are going and revisit.
Sure thing, glad it’s thought provoking. I also took a career break this past year and do marketing consulting, so we have some life parallels. I am curious to see where the next season of life takes you!
Cool! Your food tours sound amazing, and are definitely "active income". With your experience in the food industry you could do all kinds of passive things, like write digital downloadable "mini guide PDFs" about the food industry and sell them on Gumroad. Or record an educational webinar series and sell access to it. I'm sure there are food entrepreneurs who could benefit from your expertise, e.g. how to launch a food company, how to get it into retail, how to name/brand it, how to market it, how to win a food contest, etc. You have some unique expertise in food that I'm sure people would pay to access.
Hey! That’s so generous of you to make some suggestions- thank you! I’ve been thinking about some city guides to bakeries … but these are also excellent ideas!
in a huge city like London you could definitely sell a map or city guide to foodie hotspots for tourists. When I was there the city was so huge I didn’t know where to start to find good food. And I don’t always trust Yelp. I like the concept of “insider local guide to X”, I would trust that more than random internet reviews.
This is just sooo awesome Dave!! I love it! When I came across Ikigai I loved it cos I immediately knew what business I wanted to create: become a scientific illustrator. And I did, its super specialized. However, I am a generalist at heart, love to paint, write, can do technical editing, learned about entrepreneurship, love to teach & guide people etc. So I am currently re-thinking my whole career path into sth else. While having several legs already, I love your octopus analogy & will now sleep over it & see what my subconscious comes up with 🥰
Hi Daria, awesome, glad to meet a fellow Octopus! Sometimes it’s good to have a specialist career, and it’s cool that you figured out what you wanted that to be. Scientific Illustrator sounds like an interesting job!
Glad you found the octopus approach thought provoking, it will hopefully give you more freedom to pursue some of your other tentacles. Let me know if you have any questions!
"If you actually delve into the research on the inefficiencies of multi-tasking, you will find that nearly all of the studies are done on simple tasks like adding/subtracting numbers, naming colors, typing out emails, and classifying geometric objects."
You're touching on the very important matter of "external validity" Dave. That is, how well does the experimental set-up map onto the real world situation you're really interested in. Many (most?) social science studies are done in a way that is convenient, not necessarily externally valid. So we need to read "science" articles very critically, like you are! 👏
Thanks Baird. For a long time I took the "Multi-tasking is inefficient" message as gospel. But then I read some of the actual studies, and found they don't have much at all to do with higher order knowledge work. One of them was something along the lines of "add or subtract 3 from a number we'll show you". I don't see how we can take those results and now say, "stop exploring multiple creative interests because it's inefficient".
hmm this is really intriguing. I've been in the contemplation stage for another part time job for awhile now. I work remote now and am considering something else in-person.
this concepts seems similar to my need to have simultaneous projects going on, and seeing where/how I can generate money from (some of) them.
lots to ponder here!! thank you for sharing
Hi Mia, thanks for reading and glad you find this interesting. A single, 9-5, full time job working for one company is still the most common setup, but I believe that is starting to erode, as more people opt for fluid setups. Just the fact that you work remotely is one good step in this direction (I've been working remotely for 20 years). If you have time and interest, and it does not interfere with your other job, there's no reason why you couldn't take a second part time job doing something perhaps more interesting, to feed your need for variety and to have multiple things going on at a time. I wish you the best and let me know if you have any questions, glad to share what I've learned so far, as it's still a bit of an experiment for me too.
Thanks for explaining your rules, Dave! I will have to sit down and see what I can come up with. Right now I’m solely focused on writing, but there are so many other things I could be doing / producing.
One of my tentacle is bouldering. Probably the 0% income. •‿•
sounds like a fun tentacle, plus you get the side benefit of improving your health!
Thanks for expanding on my question, Dave! Your logic makes sense and excited to follow your journey.
Thanks Rick, I refined the criteria a bit since you first asked, but this is roughly how I'll approach it, at least for the next quarter or two, then I'll see how things are going and revisit.
Thanks for sharing your octopus journey! It's inspiring.
Sure thing, glad it’s thought provoking. I also took a career break this past year and do marketing consulting, so we have some life parallels. I am curious to see where the next season of life takes you!
Thanks for reminding me to consider new tentacles! I should really consider some “passive” options…
Cool! Your food tours sound amazing, and are definitely "active income". With your experience in the food industry you could do all kinds of passive things, like write digital downloadable "mini guide PDFs" about the food industry and sell them on Gumroad. Or record an educational webinar series and sell access to it. I'm sure there are food entrepreneurs who could benefit from your expertise, e.g. how to launch a food company, how to get it into retail, how to name/brand it, how to market it, how to win a food contest, etc. You have some unique expertise in food that I'm sure people would pay to access.
Hey! That’s so generous of you to make some suggestions- thank you! I’ve been thinking about some city guides to bakeries … but these are also excellent ideas!
in a huge city like London you could definitely sell a map or city guide to foodie hotspots for tourists. When I was there the city was so huge I didn’t know where to start to find good food. And I don’t always trust Yelp. I like the concept of “insider local guide to X”, I would trust that more than random internet reviews.