How to own your career: All in and commit before certain
What Caught My Eye This Week - #12
Each week, I'll bring you the most relevant and insightful tech stories, saving you time and keeping you informed.
How to own your career: All in and commit before certain
In today's fast-moving world, it's easy to treat jobs like temporary stops. We keep our options open, always looking for the next best thing, and maybe don't fully dive in unless everything feels perfect.
Many people are waiting for big incentives or guaranteed success before they really give their all.
In real world, a guaranteed success is very rare to happen.
But here’s a thought: what if truly committing to your current situation—even with its imperfections—is the actual secret to unlocking a more rewarding career?
What Does "Being Committed" Even Mean?
It's not about blindly staying in one place forever. It means:
Choosing to Engage even it's not clear: You decide to bring your best, even if the project isn't glamorous or you're not sure where it leads. You make the first move.
Sticking Through Challenges: Every job has tough days or boring stretches. Commitment means pushing through, learning, and growing, rather than immediately looking for an exit.
You could learn more about this idea from
Why committing?
You Stand Out: In a sea of people just "doing the minimum," someone who genuinely cares and invests their effort gets noticed. This builds your reputation.
You Actually Achieve More (and Learn More): When you're committed, you dig deeper. You solve harder problems. This is where real skill development and impactful results happen. Luck, as Foerster found in his own career, often needs commitment to be realized.
It’s More Fulfilling: Going beyond just ticking boxes and connecting with your work on a deeper level feels good. It provides a sense of purpose that a paycheck alone can't buy.
Real Rewards Often Follow Real Effort: While it might take time, significant opportunities and recognition tend to come to those who have consistently shown they're "all in," not to those who are always asking "what's in it for me?" first.
How to start?
Decide to Go First: Don't wait for the "perfect" assignment or for your boss to inspire you every day. Choose to bring your A-game now.
Lean into Problems: When things get tough, see it as a chance to contribute and make a difference, rather than a signal to update your resume.
Your level of engagement is a choice, but you can own your choice which will be your own career.
The Broader Canvas: Commitment in All Facets of Life
In the end you will find that you can, and perhaps must, find something to commit to beyond your professional lives:
Relationships: The deepest human connections—marriage, family, profound friendships—are built not on convenience, but on steadfast commitment through thick and thin.
Personal Mastery: Learning a language, mastering a musical instrument, achieving a significant fitness goal—these demand sustained dedication long after initial enthusiasm fades.
Vocations and Causes: Committing to a spiritual path, a community initiative, or a societal cause provides a sense of purpose that transcends the self. It’s about dedicating to something larger.
What I read this week...
The behavior of LLMs in hiring decisions: Systemic biases in candidate selection (davidrozado.substack.com)
Ditching Obsidian and building my own (amberwilliams.io)
Google IO this week(https://alwa.info/google-io-2025.html)
New Products…
Stitch(https://stitch.withgoogle.com)
Stitch by Google Labs is a new AI experiment that turns prompts & images into UI designs & frontend code. Leverages Gemini 2.5 Pro, exports to Figma & code.
