Preserving Optionality: Preparing for the Unknown:
We're often advised to excel at one thing. But as the future gets harder to predict, preserving optionality allows us to pivot when the road ahead crumbles.
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How do we prepare for a world that often changes drastically and rapidly? We can preserve our optionality.
We don't often get the advice to keep our options open. Instead, we're told to specialize by investing huge hours in our passion so we can be successful in a niche.
The problem is, it's bad advice. We live in a world that's constantly changing, and if we can't respond effectively to those changes, we become redundant, frustrated, and useless.
Instead of focusing on becoming great at one thing, there is another, counterintuitive strategy that will get us further: preserving optionality. The more options we have, the better suited we are to deal with unpredictability and uncertainty. We can stay calm when others panic because we have choices.
Optionality refers to the act of keeping as many options open as possible. Preserving optionality means avoiding limiting choices or dependencies. It means staying open to opportunities and always having a backup plan.
[...] Ultimately, preserving optionality means paying attention and looking at life from multiple perspectives. It means building a versatile base of foundational knowledge and allowing for serendipity and unexpected connections. We must seek to expand our comfort zone and circle of competence, and we should take minor risks that have potentially large upsides and limited downsides.
Paradoxically, preserving optionality can mean saying no to a lot of opportunities and avoiding anything that will prove to be restrictive. We need to look at choices through the lens of the optionality they will give us in the future and only say yes to those that create more options.
Preserving your optionality is important because it gives you the flexibility to capitalize on inevitable change. In order to keep your options open, you need diversity. Diversity of perspective, thought, knowledge, and skills. You don't want to find yourself in a position of only being able to sell something that no one wants. Rapid, extraordinary change is the norm. In order to adapt in a way that is useful, keep your options open.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @05:28AM (1 child)
The main problem is that you can only support so many managers on top of one person who actually bothered to learn their shit.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @06:37AM
Don't support them. If you can't do you job properly because of them, screw them.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 04 2020, @05:46AM (10 children)
Take a young man who doesn't really know what he wants to do. He works construction, then joins the military, then drives truck, then returns to construction, then runs his own business for awhile, and ultimately ends up in maintenance in the manufacturing sector.
When management looks at such a person, they don't see a broad background. They only see one or two small "skill sets" that are useful to them.
If management finds some use for this individual, management works overtime ensuring that this person stay within the niche they have assigned him.
I suggest that a person with options represents a threat to all the half-wits who put themselves deeply into debt for a college eduation, which they can't use just anywhere. That person who can understand and operate in half a dozen different positions intimidates the young fools who are still working hard to understand their own jobs.
I'm not arguing the premise of TFA, I'm just pointing out that managers fear such people.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @06:17AM
Take a young man, who runs away in 1956. Never manages to outlive that act of cowardice, and so adopts that as a username in the 21st Century. And then proceeds to spew talking points from his ersatz father: Fox News. Yes, it is pathetic, but surely you must feel some empathy for such a damaged human being. And he fantasizes that people with educations fear him? Shirley, Runaway, if you could spell the Words Popertally and overcum you ingrainalized stupidity and recalcitrant idiocracy with sprinkles on top, Runaway. Black People with guns, and no whites around but you. and you seem to have your pants down around your ankles, and have no excuse, no reason, and no come-back to all of SoylentNews, who just wish you would go away.
Run away, if you would.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday May 04 2020, @06:42AM (1 child)
If you don't present to your manager only the facet they need and understand, while keeping the other options to yourself, you missed learning a fundamental... ummm... option.
"The need to know and only that" works both ways.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @02:27PM
Your manager hired you to work on widgets. The fact that you are capable of working in an argon atmosphere on upside-down bicycles, he doesn't give a rats ass about. He's only the widget manager.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by lentilla on Monday May 04 2020, @06:48AM (3 children)
Times might be a-changing. (Although you are spot-on about managers' propensity to pigeonhole capable staff.) For instance - a few decades ago nobody respectable smoked dope. Then it was "puffed but didn't inhale". Then it was "yep, might have done a bit of that". These days it appears de rigueur to tweet whilst whacked out of your tree.
Look around at your average twenty-something and the gig-economy. By the time these folks retire they will have done dozens of jobs, changed careers a couple of times and probably have been retrenched several times. That's the new normal. The days of finish school, learn a trade, complete an apprenticeship and then retire with a gold watch are gone.
I can't say that an average manager will be ever be able to fully appreciate a broad skill-set, but I can say that managers of the future are likely to look at a narrow career focus - and rather than say "time for a promotion" - they are likely to think "what's wrong with this guy?"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @12:01PM (1 child)
The manager got there either by becoming an institutionalized man (or woman) or winning over some institutionalized man (or woman) with MBA sparkles from Haaaaarvard. So I wouldn't put much hope in the manager hiring someone who is good for the business. Similar to China where you need to get with the program however at least there everyone knows it's all bullshit.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 04 2020, @01:39PM
That is sure a very polite way of saying "ass kisser and suck up". Thumbs up!
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 05 2020, @12:48AM
Only negro jazz musicians and famous tech CEOs coming down off acid in the year 2000, huh? Mebe time to refresh that browser.
If by retire, you mean 'die,' this is correct.
Maybe it depends on the job, but I think most jobs are largely still only going to look for those skills or attributes that are needed and the heck with the rest. This is one part of the gig economy that is contageous, given current directions. Almost no one is going to care if you are a great gardener or crab fisherman if you're hired for C++, maybe even less so for making sub sandwiches, but it's not very different in the only lens that matters to the job market. A variety of skills or interests (outside relating to the complexity of the job itself) is only useful if the workplace is rapidly changing, creative, or liable to suddent pivots.
Amiwrong?
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Monday May 04 2020, @12:17PM
This. This is what I have fallen into time and again. All so I could be a team player. And management love it. I regret some of my decisions now -- doing things for others instead of myself. Not growing in ways I should have grown. I'm not saying helping others is bad. Quite the contrary -- we need plenty of that today. I just wish I had redirected my energies in other ways.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday May 04 2020, @04:28PM (1 child)
I've noticed that the people who think everyone else is stupid and laughably thinks his bosses "fear" him is usually just a mediocre employee that doesn't know nearly as much as he thinks he does.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 04 2020, @05:07PM
That is often the case. You see that especially among people who have never been in a management position. In my case, I'm currently serving as a sort of mentor for a young lady who has been crammed into a junior management position. She's not entirely lost, because she's pretty bright - but she does kind of rely on me.
The first bit of advice I gave her? Don't allow MY BOSS to bully her. And she has put him in his place quite well.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @07:23AM (5 children)
"Paradoxically, preserving optionality can mean saying no to a lot of opportunities..."
Every day my long ago made observation that 90% of men (as in gender) have a woman trapped in their body...
Like, how fucking complicated do thigs have to be and why?
-zug
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @08:26AM (3 children)
U know, bro, "fucking complicated" usually don't beg or supplicate [wiktionary.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @09:13AM (2 children)
great contribution to the context...
as can be expected by a woman...
ps.
the white man, who gave you your freedom, is the worst of all...
i feel such shame to live in the same world as poeple who were diapers thier entire life...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @09:17AM
as i pressed "post", i came to think of the old knowledge: do not shame or anger those who are currently in power, cuz if u are unreachable, the lightning will go somehere else...
i am sorry that i hurt ur shit woman pride...
go fuck up some white dudes life as revenge, and then make arab children!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @10:47PM
Easy fix, bro, go die in a fire
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday May 04 2020, @08:29AM
As complicated as necessary to survive your corporate masters throwing you in the trash heap "because profit".
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday May 04 2020, @08:37AM
options! [smbc-comics.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Interesting) by darkfeline on Monday May 04 2020, @09:22AM (2 children)
Yet another useless word invented, all because some low rate writer, editor, or businessman never heard of phrases like "staying flexible" or "keeping your options open".
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @10:59AM (1 child)
Along with vacays and similar shortenings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @12:37PM
"Prepping".
God I hate that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @01:12PM (2 children)
"We’re often advised to excel at one thing. But as the future gets harder to predict, preserving optionality allows us to pivot when the road ahead crumbles."
Optionality is a cute word that brings in old ideas like be agile, don't paint yourself into a corner, expect the unexpected, the only thing constant is change, etc.
The folks I know that are really good at one thing are also fair at a lot of other things. Being able to apply a deep understanding on one part of a system requires an understanding of how their part fits in, which requires some understanding of the rest. So the job path is not to choose being expert is something you love versus choosing to be a jack of all trades, but rather all of the above for the really good folks.
It is both good and bad that society makes it possible for folks to get along doing just one thing until it doesn't work any more. A steel worker who was expert at moving hot metal, but also could mess with the plc's was ok when the industry changed. One who just knew hot to keep his toes out of the melt was not. Likewise a coder who just knows how to use one toolkit, instead of how and why the toolkit is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @01:44PM (1 child)
Keep your toes out of the melt? Now you tell me? Thanks a lot, bro!
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Monday May 04 2020, @05:36PM
Did you think "steel-toed boots" were a workplace injury?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Monday May 04 2020, @01:19PM (5 children)
As someone who's been repeatedly burned by a strong inclination to keeping my options open, I think it's worth drawing some extra attention to this bit
There are certainly options that both lead to worthwhile accomplishments *and* keep your options open - but they tend to be far more uncommon than those which do one or the other. If you're going to embrace keeping your options open you should be aware that it's a balancing act between that and actually accomplishing something worth having an option at.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @02:17PM (4 children)
It's also scarily easy to "preserve optionality" when the math gets hard. Or whatever it may be that day in class - beveling edges, learning C++, driving stick shift. Yeah, I'm gonna take a rain check on that cuz you never wanna get too specialized and boxed into a niche, you know? Bro?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday May 04 2020, @03:46PM (3 children)
Stick shift and all-manual car are a good way to keep options open because getting good with it ensures a level of redundancy.
But the biggest optionality I can think of is a month-to-month lease. My buddies are all, "buy a house! buy a house!" Then something like this hits and I have no way to pay the mortgage and even with a deferment I'm going to be some kind of fucked unless I can get a new decent-paying job in a timely manner, which may never happen, or I have to get an instant -200 credit hit for having to back out. And that assumes that I bought in a place with reasonable prices, which San Diego isn't.
With a cheap apartment and a month-to-month lease, I am in total control. I can back out of the agreement at any time with zero fucks given provided I didn't trash the place. I can move in anywhere else where the worse case will be having to commit to a 3 or 6 month lease before it goes month-to-month, then I can give zero fucks again when all the Mexicans start cramming all their nasty diseased relatives in next door and playing banda music all night -- though I can have a little fun with them first before I leave.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday May 04 2020, @04:06PM (2 children)
Quite so.
Of course the flip side of all that keeping options open is that after 20 years of paying rent you have absolutely nothing to show for all that money spent, while if you had bought a house/condo you could either live rent free for the rest of your life, or sell it to get most of that money back (minus interest and maintenance), even in the unlikely event that the value has decreased. Of course that assumes you can find a place to buy in the same range you can rent - which can be tricky in some places. It seems like a lot of people buy the most expensive house they can finance, and then they're screwed when hard times hit.
You're paying for a mortgage, property tax, maintenance, insurance, etc. either way - your landlord isn't running a charity. The only question is whether you're buying it for yourself, or for your landlord.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @05:01PM (1 child)
But don't forget that there have been times and places in history where it was most convenient to be able to grab what of your wealth could fit into a suitcase and flee, right then, no waiting for dawn even. Owning land has its advantageous of course, but you can't pick it up and take it with you. Oh, and you only own it as long as the records at the courthouse say you own it. Records can be so easy to change when a regime changes...
Oh, but nothing like that would ever happen here, of course. Of course.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday May 04 2020, @05:53PM
Such scenarios are extremely unusual, though they can admittedly happen anywhere.
And if they do happen, you're in pretty much the same situation whether you rent or own your home, unless you kept a down-payment's worth of cash under your mattress.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Tokolosh on Monday May 04 2020, @03:30PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @04:32PM
I came here looking for this man's name.