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Discussion on: I'm slashing my salary to 1/3 of what I make. Here's why (and ask me anything, ofc):

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Filipe Herculano

How do you accurately measure real life value before experiencing it? I guess maybe the question is, what strong indicators made you realize that it was the right call even though there’s always the uncertainty of getting into a new job?

I know you kinda said those indicators already in your why so what I’m asking is: can you go in a bit more depth towards your process for evaluating those points during this decision?

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Manuele J Sarfatti

The first thing that happened, and this was in the past months, is that I "paused" and started reflecting on what I actually wanted from my life and career, rather than keep auto-piloting based on goals I had set years ago.

More or less at the same time I was approached for this new job, which by the way has teaching at its core. So, considerably different from the "crunching code" I have been doing until now.

I had built (just in my head, nothing super defined or official) a sort of list of new medium-and-long-term goals, as well as a list of things I was missing (one example: "I want a place with more human interactions than my home desk").

If you see where I'm going, this "non-$ value" has mostly to do with what my own specific needs and goals are. This new job (and the organisation, and the people) aligned a lot with what I figured I wanted (both life- and career-wise) - call it luck, coincidence, destiny or serendipity ツ

The only more objective type of value-added is that I also think it will open many doors, possibilities and opportunities in the medium/far future. That's kind of a good thing for most of us I imagine.

And yes there is always a lot of uncertainty, but some workplaces are particularly transparent, and you can get a very good idea of what it will look like working there.