Interesting short book about career/life. Very similar concepts to Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
The author has a very simple, “back of paper napkin” concept of a 2×2 grid of ability and enjoyment. He argues that the highest career/life satisfaction comes in Q2 and one should try to stay in that quadrant as long as possible.
“Any job that you have ever had, have, or ever will have has a Doom Loop associated with it so long as the job and the requisite tasks regarding that job do not change over time. ”
Strategies to maximize time in Q2:
- Learn new skills / look for new opportunities.
- Do not make a lateral move to a new job with more compensation if it is in Q3. He argues that after a 4-month get-acquainted time you will be right back in Q3 – frustrated and bored. He calls this “the anesthetic value of compensation.”
- Time compression tactic – do the same work in a shorter amount of time.
Here is the author explaining the concept in a short video.