Dealing With Stuff
  • Dealing With Stuff
  • About
  • Contact

Roadmap

9/25/2015

 
Picture
The target audience for this book is young people who are trying to choose a career.  I read it as a 40-year-old, and I definitely think anyone would benefit from exploring it.  In some ways, young people are under less pressure, because they are universally expected to be inexperienced, broke, and undecided.  As the years go by, we are supposed to present this bulwark of competence and have everything all figured out.  Underneath that veneer are the not-up-to-code wiring of Impostor Syndrome, fear of imminent mortality, and overextended financial commitments.  We’ve tried various things, none of which were as fulfilling or interesting as we had hoped, and we’re pretty much convinced that we just have to deal with boredom and frustration for a living.  That’s where Roadmap comes in.

The book is based on a public television series called Roadtrip Nation.  The developers were a group of recent college grads who didn’t know what to do with their lives.  They set out in an RV to interview various people who had created interesting jobs for themselves.  These interviews in themselves were enlightening, because it had never really occurred to me that any of these roles existed.

Roadmap is a workbook.  It has all sorts of exercises to help readers figure out their interests and abilities.  It’s a tool for inspiring divergent thinking, which does not come naturally to everyone.  What naysayers always do, (and it’s every family’s job to naysay young people in this manner), is to quickly stamp out any indication that a young person is engaging in possibility thinking.  The Only Way You Can Ever Be Safe Is To Always Do Exactly The Same As Everyone Else Has Always Done.  If you set out to do something different, YOU WILL BE PROMPTLY DEVOURED BY WILD BEASTS.  It is known.  The tragic thing is that there is no money to be made in any job where the role is to be obedient and follow instructions.  Those responsibilities mean the role can be filled by anyone who will show up.  That includes robots, and if they haven’t shown up yet, they’re on their way.

The real money (power, security, influence, passion) comes from offering something unique.  That makes you irreplaceable.  The FAT WADS OF CASH come from inventing things that never existed, such as the Internet, the smartphone, or Angry Birds.  I heard a comment the other day about how silly it would be to get a degree in poetry.  I said, “Oh, poetry, like Eminem and Ice T.  A kid should be so lucky as to write poetry for a living!”  Naysayers always have a lot of contempt for what in reality can be extremely lucrative.  Underwater basket weaving?  I could sell that show in Vegas.

The trick is in trying to create something from nothing.  When I graduated from high school, there was no World Wide Web.  There was no Google, no Wikipedia, no social media, no texting, no apps, no YouTube, no Amazon, no Netflix, no Redbox, no iRobot, no drones, no GoPro, no Kickstarter or GoFundMe or Etsy or eBay or PayPal.  Entire musical genres exist now that didn’t then.  There was no Zumba and no CrossFit.  There was no Segway or Wii and there were no wheelies or light-up shoes.  Every single one of these things (except, debatably, Wikipedia) has created tons of jobs.  They also appear to be thriving.  It takes a vast amount of confidence and courage to set out and create in the face of naysaying; garden-variety lack of confidence is plenty for most people.  A book like Roadmap could be the catalyst for a lot of people who only need to see a little proof that something new is always possible.


Comments are closed.
    New podcast!
    Clutter of the Day

    Author

    I've been working with chronic disorganization, squalor, and hoarding for over 20 years.  I'm also a marathon runner who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and thyroid disease 17 years ago.

    I have a BA in History.

    I live in Southern California with my husband and our pets, an African Gray parrot and a rat terrier.

    #Questioner
    #ENTP

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies

    Archives

    January 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Categories

    All
    ADHD
    Birdwatching
    Body Image
    Book Reviews
    Books
    Cleaning
    Clutter
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    COVID 19 Chronicles
    Fibromyalgia
    Filks
    Fitness
    Food
    Future Self
    Futurism
    Goals
    Habits
    Humor
    Languages
    Martial Arts
    Mindset
    Minimalism
    Money
    Motivation
    Movie Reviews
    Moving
    Organization
    Past Self
    Pets
    Preparedness
    Procrastination
    Public Speaking
    Quests
    Relationships
    Resolutions
    Running
    Sleep
    Technology
    The Woo Woo
    The-woowoo
    Thyroid Disease
    Timemanagement
    Time Management
    Tiny Houses
    Travel
    Weight
    Work
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Dealing With Stuff
  • About
  • Contact