2/
My grandad told me this wild story about the birth of the #NORAD #SantaTracker once. I didn't believe him but most of it checks out - you can look it up. I think I've got the dates right. Scared me a little when I was a kid. Just... weird stuff. Details... THREAD BEGINS 1/
2/
3/
4/
Not much to do in Colorado as a teen except sneak out with your Dad's hooch, grab a blanket & stare up at the stars. Skies so clear you can count constellations...
5/
6/
8/
9/
Then, December of 1955, something insane happens. And I swear this is true. Again, you can look it up...
10/
11/
12/
But that's where it gets weird. Grandad swore up and down he wrote the right number down; he was a 21 y o kid, hungry for work; mistakes like that cost papers money and kids like him their jobs. Someone GAVE him that number
13/
14/
15/
16/
17/
18/
19/
20/
The stories and songs are WARNINGS
Grandad laughed.
Bet you didn't know he wasn't always chubby...
21/
The warnings are for a Santa you don't know...
22/
23/
Think of the songs, son, he said, then he looked at me & his eyes turned pale
24/
You better not cry
Better not pout
Then...
He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake...
Stay in your bed, he said, because you're being hunted by SOMETHING WE CAN'T STOP
25/
25/
26/
Whatever it is, I’m not sure milk and cookies are gonna protect either of us from what comes down the chimney....
27/
I have some... presents left to wrap, he said, and I know you don’t wanna spoil the surprise.
I went to bed that night, but I didn't sleep.
In the morning, grandad was gone.
Fishing, my Dad said...
28/
29/
I could still smell the gun powder in the air.
30/
More from Life
- Forget what you don't have, make your strength bold
- Pick one work experience and explain what you did in detail w/ bullet points
- Write it towards the role you apply
- Give social proof
/thread
"But I got no work experience..."
Make a open source lib, make a small side project for yourself, do freelance work, ask friends to work with them, no friends? Find friends on Github, and Twitter.
Bonus points:
- Show you care about the company: I used the company's brand font and gradient for in the resume for my name and "Thank You" note.
- Don't list 15 things and libraries you worked with, pick the most related ones to the role you're applying.
-🙅♂️"copy cover letter"
"I got no firends, no work"
One practical way is to reach out to conferences and offer to make their website for free. But make sure to do it good. You'll get:
- a project for portfolio
- new friends
- work experience
- learnt new stuff
- new thing for Twitter bio
If you don't even have the skills yet, why not try your chance for @LambdaSchool? No? @freeCodeCamp. Still not? Pick something from here and learn https://t.co/7NPS1zbLTi
You'll feel very overwhelmed, no escape, just acknowledge it and keep pushing.
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
I'm increasingly interested in the idea of "personal moats" in the context of careers.
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
Moats should be:
- Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you)
- Skills that are rare and valuable
- Legible
- Compounding over time
- Unique to your own talents & interests https://t.co/bB3k1YcH5b
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
People talk about \u201cpassive income\u201d a lot but not about \u201cpassive social capital\u201d or \u201cpassive networking\u201d or \u201cpassive knowledge gaining\u201d but that\u2019s what you can architect if you have a thing and it grows over time without intensive constant effort to sustain it
— Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) November 22, 2018
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
Things that look like moats but likely aren\u2019t or may fade:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
- Proprietary networks
- Being something other than one of the best at any tournament style-game
- Many "awards"
- Twitter followers or general reach without "respect"
- Anything that depends on information asymmetry https://t.co/abjxesVIh9
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.