Jack Cheng: http://jackcheng.com/maxing-out-your-triangle
abartelby
· 1 year ago
What a perfect way to describe / visualize a situation that we've all faced at one point or another (and, obviously, what perfect advice). Awesome post!
ChaitanyaSai
· 1 year ago
_____
JinalShah
· 1 year ago
love it! brilliant lens to evaluate career steps and missteps!
Gracie
· 1 year ago
thanks for this. I'm at this evaluative place in my life and blogs like this are invaluable and inspiring.
Chris Murphy
· 1 year ago
Utterly brilliant!
Peter
· 1 year ago
I just realized that I'm doing very well in the triangle, and it's only my first job. Nice.
eh
· 1 year ago
genius! i'll just quit my job now because there are so many open positions available that i qualify for that a million other people aren't fighting for because they are one of hundreds of thousands who just got laid off! i have so many options! i'm going to get off the internet and fill my triangle right now!
Jack Cheng
· 1 year ago
Hey, that's basically what I did and I'm having a blast! Actually it's a great time to be a freelancer/contractor right now - nobody's hiring full-time yet everyone still has work to do...
Jerry Brito
· 1 year ago
If you can make the thing you love pay, wonderful. But in your final triangle, the area that reaches towards the cash point is arbitrary. What if the thing you love to do doesn't pay well or the market is crowded and you'd have to bust your chops a long while before you were good enough to command sufficient cash to make it a career option. Meanwhile, maybe you're great at something that you like but don't love. What does that triangle look like?
Jack Cheng
· 1 year ago
I imagine it'd probably look like the second to last image - the overlay of the two triangles, except with the bottom right triangle slightly bigger.
I think a lot of people are in the situation you described - good job with a few interesting hobbies or side projects. That's where I was before I left my job and I feel fortunate to have reached that point. There's nothing wrong with it... but for me it felt like something was missing. The diagram was just one way of identifying the missing chunks.
And even if you have to bust your chops a long while before you were good enough to make something you love into something that also pays your rent, why not start taking the steps?
cai griffith
· 1 year ago
great stuff
PaulM
· 1 year ago
Hmm looks like the Wii Sports triangle. Triangles are coming up in everything at the moment... Search for Barry007 or Barry 3 to see what I mean.
Jack Cheng
· 1 year ago
You're right! The Wii sports radar chart was looming in the back of my head when I wrote it
Andrew B.
· 1 year ago
It's not clear to me that the area metaphor is right. Could you explain it more, other than noting "a certain joy"? For example, if one person is getting paid to do something they love, while another person gets a monthly stipend (regardless of what they do) and chooses to spend their time on the activity they love. Are you claiming that the first person will be happier since the money and love are coming from the same activity?
Jack Cheng
· 1 year ago
I'm saying it's a different kind of happiness. When money and love come from the same activities, you have feelings that you wouldn't have otherwise. Like the feeling that you're making the most out of every minute of your time and not spending it doing what you don't want to be doing.
Reminds me of the old saying 'Price, Quality, Timeliness you can only pick two.'
Thijs
· 1 year ago
It is a nice utopian way of looking at finding a job that suits you best. Like all models its scope isn't wide enough for reality. A lot of people love Elvis. They surely cannot all make a living based on their affection. On the other hand a wish to learn something by doing it might come in handy when you are cleaning the streets but it is not really an advantage when applying for a job that demands more abstract thinking. I think a more constructive way to look at finding the right occupation could be: will this job create value for me (as an individual) and for my employer (the market) now and in the future. Some people value money, others value everyday activities. It's up to you to decide what's important.
Neil
· 1 year ago
Where is the triangle for where you are doing what you love but your clients indecision and lack of vision gets in the way?
Robin
· 1 year ago
I think i find myself in that position a lot while doing the job that i love. Although i'm not sure which triangle this would fit in, i think we need to fight to keep doing things we love and never let that kind of distraction holding our way.
Dave
· 1 year ago
awesome work!
Leroy Fernandes
· 1 year ago
Hi Jack, It's so simple what you have said here. I don't think some of the comments reflect what you are saying. What I understood is that you are giving 3 parameters by which we need to evaluate everything we do in life(or whatever much we want to). And these parameters are not anything complicated, but simple understandable and quantifiable. Use the process, see if they work for you, then if you like what you see at the end of the process decide whether you want to put into practice. If anytime you think its not going to work, you have a free choice.
Thanks Jack.
Leo
· 1 year ago
Certainly, i can say that doing something that you don't really like can be good, for the time you are earning enough to make you happy, paying the bills, buying things... but i think there will be someday you will look for something new. Many times we need to do things we don't like to get the things we like. right?
Tess
· 1 year ago
Jack, I think it is completely fab and keep it up. Inspirational, soulstrengthening, for those looking.
@ the critics: please venture a close look at your life. Which area (of the triangle, if you will) seems so utopian or naive to you? What would your utopia look like? What is it you want so badly but fear you may never have? Why not take little steps to move it closer - today. Of course, you'd have to risk failure or disappointment. Calculate - a little risk is good!
Maybe today could turn out a little more adventurous than yesterday- and wouldnt that just be fun?
... as for me, I put in a few cold calls this week - that took me some guts... one of them turned out a real dud, and I felt stupid for a coupla hours. the other two, very promising though! now, I feel more alive!
I think this is an awesome visualization tool for your life/career. Would be great to see how this develops.
Fleagle
· 1 year ago
I'm unhappy no matter what I do, so the triangle is irrelevant for me.
Colin Mathews
· 1 year ago
Love the analogy; I work as a software contractor to fund my other business of creating apps. I'm a big believer that the American workplace is broken and this is definitely the right attitude towards fixing it.
Fredatrus
· 1 year ago
Exellent, easy to understand, to use and to create our own goals. If you want a complementary way, I think the Maslow's hierarchy of needs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarc...) is really interesting but not so simple to applicate.
Hoot
· 1 year ago
Very well done. Now, if only I could get that job in this economy . . .
pablo renato
· 1 year ago
Love the way you packaged this..
To be honest the concept behind your idea isn't anything spectacular but the way you packaged / presented it is awesome and thought provoking
Cheers
Vu Nguyen
· 1 year ago
This is super awesome. I am linking to you from my blog :)
somebody sane
· 1 year ago
THE MOST STUPID THING I HAVE EVER READED
Brasilian Girl
· 1 year ago
That's true. You should make a triangule to figure out the measure of your foolness.
Jose Paul Martin
· 12 months ago
Love the illustration! Great thought, hope to see more such articles from you.
DT
· 11 months ago
Damn good. Very simple and very powerful. I have a sketch book full of triangles and this is probably the best I've seen.
ME
· 11 months ago
It isn't so much that this is utopian, it is just the same old argument that the BETTER your JOB, the BETTER PERSON you are. "That highway flagger must lead an unfulfilled, joyless life, because her job sucks." I suspect you are a young arrogant man, who hasn't learned much about the world.
Michael Mahoney
· 11 months ago
Every step of this model is idiotic. This is what happens when 25oyo state-schooled art grads who are unemployed start trying to philosophize. Sadder still, are these people calling this garbage "brilliant." They just saw pictures and thought, "Science!" The 2-D area of the triangle means nothing! If anything, you might consider 'volumes' of some model based on three dimensions. Even then you would hybridize the volumes of each activity based on a three variable equation that takes into account the relationship between the three variables. But that would be retarded.
Apartment1d
· 11 months ago
This is a really great portrayal of what a lot of us are struggling with. right now my blog writing hobby is what fulfills my heart part of the triangle, and my crappy job fills the money part. I read books to fill in the rest. How do I get to that full pyramid?
Steve McReeves
· 9 months ago
wow!, absolute thanks... Now I'm starting to evaluate myself, with my job...
darlene matthews
· 8 months ago
i think this also is connected to the irony why agnostics and atheists tend to be more involved in jesus teachings of what is humanity than many the very christian religious.
THIS IS IT.MAKE NO MISTAKE WERE YOU ARE.( AS THE SONG GOES)
This is your chance to make a mark and shine.
Hmmm
· 8 months ago
I would say brilliant, but you're not the first person to say this. You just repeated what I've heard for many years.
Skeptical
· 7 months ago
Am I the only one that sees the flaw in the 3rd diagram?
are you kidding me?
· 1 year ago
This sounds like some bullshit that a 25 year old with no life experience comes up with.
If you manage to get that magic triangle, great, striving for it is a good idea. Telling people to quit what they're doing if they haven't found the triangle is wrongheaded and irresponsible.
Daniel
· 1 year ago
Surely this method is a good way of identifying ways in which a 25 year-old could expand their life experience? And to spend less time on bullshit?
All Comments
I think a lot of people are in the situation you described - good job with a few interesting hobbies or side projects. That's where I was before I left my job and I feel fortunate to have reached that point. There's nothing wrong with it... but for me it felt like something was missing. The diagram was just one way of identifying the missing chunks.
And even if you have to bust your chops a long while before you were good enough to make something you love into something that also pays your rent, why not start taking the steps?
http://flickr.com/photos/livlab/3056792734/
I think a more constructive way to look at finding the right occupation could be: will this job create value for me (as an individual) and for my employer (the market) now and in the future. Some people value money, others value everyday activities. It's up to you to decide what's important.
Use the process, see if they work for you, then if you like what you see at the end of the process decide whether you want to put into practice. If anytime you think its not going to work, you have a free choice.
Thanks Jack.
Inspirational, soulstrengthening, for those looking.
@ the critics: please venture a close look at your life.
Which area (of the triangle, if you will) seems so utopian or naive to you?
What would your utopia look like?
What is it you want so badly but fear you may never have?
Why not take little steps to move it closer - today.
Of course, you'd have to risk failure or disappointment.
Calculate - a little risk is good!
Maybe today could turn out a little more adventurous than yesterday-
and wouldnt that just be fun?
... as for me, I put in a few cold calls this week - that took me some guts...
one of them turned out a real dud, and I felt stupid for a coupla hours.
the other two, very promising though!
now, I feel more alive!
enjoy your tries,
Cheers,
Corey
To be honest the concept behind your idea isn't anything spectacular
but the way you packaged / presented it is awesome and thought provoking
Cheers
the measure of your foolness.
THIS IS IT.MAKE NO MISTAKE WERE YOU ARE.( AS THE SONG GOES)
This is your chance to make a mark and shine.
If you manage to get that magic triangle, great, striving for it is a good idea. Telling people to quit what they're doing if they haven't found the triangle is wrongheaded and irresponsible.