Optimizing your career for happiness

For me career happiness translates to these:

time freedom: as an employed guy I know I'm exchanging time for value. But I also get time during the weekends and a few hours outside work. These allow me to think about things outside work, like dabble in learning new things, work on side projects, read a book, do non-career related stuff etc. This is the most basic, and I'd do everything in my power to avoid getting in a situation where I absolutely have no/minimal time freedom. Got bitten by this in the recent past: I simply said yes to people close to me; committing to doing certain things ("I'll build you a shopify store") and then realizing I'd put myself into a hole. Never again family person.

maximizing every chance to be useful to others at work: It's a great feeling when I could help someone and them thanking me for the help. It's silly, I don't need validation to do the work for which I get paid. But when a big part of the work you do goes unnoticed, your ears perk up when the occasional praise comes your way. So that's why I try to teach my juniors some coding trivia at least once a day.

close the week without any debt: Even if there's enough time for a task next week, if I could find the time to do the core work needed for the task this week, then I'd do it. Even if it meant spending an hour or so on the weekend. I just don't like work piling up for the next week.

extract more out of the transaction: yes I get paid for the work I do at my job. But if I choose to, I can get more out of the work. Things I learned at the project, access to specific tech/hardware that'd be difficult to get all by myself etc. Translate these bits into things that can help you. Make them as blog/linkedin posts, learn some new tech with your laptop etc.

I would also add to this.

Aligning your personal goals with your company's mission can be a game-changer in achieving both professional success and personal fulfillment. When your values and objectives resonate with those of your employer, every project becomes more meaningful, and motivation naturally increases.

Your personal goals become much easier to achieve, and you have more fun achieving the company goals because they're also helping you.

> Studies indicate that hospitals led by doctors, sports teams by star players, and universities by researchers outperform those led by non-experts

This is a bold point with only a vague reference to studies. I’m more familiar with sports teams than the other domains but star players who manage successful teams is an exception, not a rule. A few famous examples are Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter - both were legends playing their sports and have yet to participate in building successful teams at the management level.

I'd rather work for a leader with a strong product vision. Their job is to know where we are going. How we get there is what I'm being paid for.

Happiness and fulfillment are great, but I can't wrap my head around making those things a priority. If or when I manage to support myself fully and achieve financial stability, then I would need to be concerned about doing the same for those who helped me get there (including family and friends). For most people, these things are not within reach, yet we must pursue them as a priority.

Fulfillment and happiness should be added benefits or side effects. That is, if one is fortunate enough.

I, personally, I don't work for the sake of happiness but for the paycheck. Not to imply that I am unhappy or joyless in my work, it just isn't the goal. I'd rather be unhappy and well paid so I can take care of myself and others.

Money can't make you happy directly but it can buy you time and space to pursue happiness if you so desire. Jobs and careers are means to gain such money. We should work to obtain those things money can buy.

work 4 days not 5 as money allows

Then work 3 days not 4 as money allows

Then work 2 days not 3 as money allows

….

Then retire

Easier said then done, which is weird because you would think everyone is on board with optimizing for happiness?