HCI commentary

for now I'd like to leave you with a little exercise.

Write down your last five jobs.
Now write down your next five jobs.
Now write down how you are going to get to the next two.

You don't have to hold yourself to these, but thinking about them leads to interesting questions. For example, one participant was CEO of his own small technology company. Asked what his next job was, he shrugged and said "do you mean if my company fails?"

But another participant (who had been CEO of a couple firms before that) clearified the question by asking him if he wanted to stay CEO as his company grew, or would he step aside and become CTO, or be chair, or hire a CEO....

In our world, there is always a next step. Success or failure leads to the next success or failure. It's good to think of what that could be, and prepare for when the future arrives. The future always shows up sooner than expected.

Write your own obituary.