The LinkedIn Envy and the Impact Lie

0:00 So now we are going to go through each of these ways that we fool ourselves. All right, starting with LinkedIn envy. Right? So, look, here's the deal. A lot of people make unrigorous, inauthentic career decisions because of LinkedIn. I have done it myself. And here's how it happens. See, every once in a while, we'll see a post on Twitter or LinkedIn, usually LinkedIn, and it's someone It's about someone we worked with before, maybe somebody we went to college with. Let's call this person Bob, okay?

0:33 So, Bob just got a fancy new CPO job somewhere. And of course, Bob does the obligatory LinkedIn post saying, "Bob is I am humbled and excited." And then TechCrunch covered this hire, or maybe Paul Graham talked about it, or something. And the CEO of the company wrote a post talking about how excited they are to hire Bob. Anybody who uses LinkedIn would have seen something like this.

1:03 Okay? So, when we see this when we see this, we think to ourselves, "Wow. I wish my career were as great as Bob's." Right? And we know Bob. Like I said, we we were colleagues with Bob. We went to maybe college. Maybe Bob used to copy your assignments in college. Right? And we Well, it's like, "Why is this Bob? If Bob can do it, I can do it. But Bob's a CPO. I'm not a CPO."

1:36 Right? And so, your decision is, "I want to be CPO next. So, I want to leave my senior director role at Google, and I'm going to go look for CPO roles." And we think we're doing the right thing, but we are actually making this important decision without truly understanding the the Who's the user here? Yeah, we're doing this without truly understanding ourselves. We are so impressed. We are so impressed with Bob's LinkedIn profile that we never bother to understand if Bob actually has a happy life.

2:22 We never ask, "What is Bob sacrificing for this amazing LinkedIn profile?" "How much does Bob feel like an impostor late in the evenings or early in the mornings?" You see, our problem is that we want Bob's LinkedIn, but with our life. But that is not how it actually works in real life.

2:54 Okay? So, just be aware of LinkedIn envy. And try to not make LinkedIn envy the source of your career decisions. And again, we are all very smart. We are very intelligent. So, what do intelligent people do to feel intelligent? We make a completely irrational, like downright stupid decision driven by LinkedIn envy, and then we justify it with logic. "Ooh, I want to be CPO because I want more ownership." Some nonsense.

3:28 So, of course you can The smarter the person, the better the excuse. So, we generate some amazing explanation for why CPO is the right next thing for us. Okay. Next, the impact life. This is a fun one. So, now this one is really going to be jarring some folks, some of you. Okay? When I ask people whether it's at startups or in career coaching startup interviews or like in some career coaching conversations or even in larger company interviews, "So, what are you looking for in the next role?" What is the most common reply?

4:09 "What are you looking for in your next role?" What is the What is the most common reply? By far, this is the most common. "Yes, I want to I just want to make an impact, Shreyas." That's it. I want to make an impact. Right? What wonderful words. I want to make an impact. That's the most There are other responses, too. This is by far the most common. Three out of four. It's I want to make an impact. Here's the thing. So, we'll talk about impact a little more afterwards, but let's assume this is impact on the world, right?

4:44 Make a dent in the universe. Make the world a better place. Here's the deal. The thing is, if you wanted to make an impact on the world, why are you talking to this stupid startup? Cuz the odds of making an impact on the world by joining this stupid startup, like when it has 25 employees or even 100 employees, are next to zero. If you are smart, you should know this. If you think you are very good at math, you should know this.

5:11 Everybody likes to think they're very good at math. At least everybody likes to project they're very good at math. Right? Cuz our workplace forces us to. So, if you're good at math, you should know that the odds of you doing the thing you say you'd want to do are like literally like close to zero, close to zero. You should just join Google. Or some other company, right? Like SpaceX or whatever. If you want to make an impact on humanity, right? Cuz the odds in those roles, even in a tiny role, you'll make a much greater impact and dent on the universe, right?

5:50 So, here's the deal. Here's what I want you to understand. I want you to understand that the reason people actually believe that they just want to make an impact is because that's what you're supposed to say in interviews. So, actually don't fault that you're saying it in interviews. Cuz you are like it's a stupid, but that's what you're supposed to say. You can't say I want to make money. You think you'll get hired if you say I'm interested in this role because I think I'm interested in this role at OpenAI because it is my path to becoming a millionaire.

6:26 Do you think, yes or no, do you think they'll give you the job at OpenAI if you say that? What does the founder of OpenAI say about why he's doing OpenAI? Or like what is not his goal? Well, what does he say? What does the founder of OpenAI say is not his goal? Not his goal. Yes, he says he doesn't want to make money. That is not his goal. So, you think now you will get a job at OpenAI if you say you that is your cleanest path to becoming a millionaire?

6:56 Come on. This is the level of Do you see how the bar is so low? This is the level of critical thinking that goes on in companies. So, this is why when people say I want to make an impact, actually they're doing the right thing. But what happens when you repeat the same thing over and over again? What happens? What happens to people when you repeat the same lie over and over again? You start believing it. Yes, that is what is happening to you.

7:27 For those of you who are feeling a little uncomfortable right now, "No, no, Shreyas, but I really want to make an impact." You've basically been brainwashed since you were a kid. You had to write some nonsense college essay where you said something you started a stupid nonprofit, made it sound like 3,000 times bigger than it is, and like you shared your love for making an impact, impacting society, all that nonsense. And then over time it just kept adding on. The garbage kept adding on. So now you believe this thing truly. You It almost feels like it's part of your core. It's not.

7:57 Right? So again, later on we'll talk about a little more about the role of impact in your overall decision. But just remember for now we overestimate impact as the driver of our next move. Because we feel like that's the right thing to say. That's the virtuous thing to say.