Career path and choices
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As much as it surprised me, the winter is already over again. Time is moving forward, and the thoughts of the summer coming close begin to form. This year that also means wrapping up studies, and entering the job market.
Fortunately, there is still an entire career ahead and plenty left to do. So as much as you could worry on the work you do early on, there is plenty of room to make mistakes if you consider how long the total career can be. And that gives a peace of mind, not to worry too much if a project turned out different than you expected. Because there are plenty of projects left to come, and sometimes you only understand their purpose much later.
Essay from the past
To give an example, about five years ago, there was an essay I wrote with a few other people about how the internet changed over time. It is your typical introductory type of writing exercise about a topic that interest you, and with five people there was plenty to discuss and write about. There are some wild conclusions in that essay, which is awesome because it hallucinated way harder than the AI-chatbots that became popular a couple of years later. That makes it feel even more authentic, I am glad to look back on the pure human hallucination and recognize the growth since then.
Reading it back, mentally you can keep track of the accuracy of the statements. So when you read a sentence, you can imagine a score like those computer chess engines give when you do a move and it compares it to the most optimal move. The mistake and blunders that come out of nowhere are fantastic to read.
According to the essay, commercial websites take user accessiblity very seriously because they have to make a profit, and more users means more profit. That is a wild oversimplification, I had a good laugh reading that back. At the same time, there were also themes and topics that can be marked as great. It briefly touches on the idea of decentralization working in its favor, and how online forums have evolved over time. The introduction was based on the assumption that the internet became great because enthousiasts moved mountains to allow their growth, in spite of initial scepticism.
And I hope that will remain the case, that the internet will stay great because enthousiasts continue to put in the effort. So with the career and side projects that I do, let us hope that they contribute to that, as the internet has shown to be so valuable to so many people.