👾 Transitioning Your Skillset 🩺

#ai #productivity #career

Maybe there is more than the tech echo chamber I feel stuck in. It's impossible to stay up to date with the latest tooling. While there is lots of doom or gloom around the topic of AI, that's not what I'm here for today. It's unproductive. Instead, I'd like to offer a new perspective on a topic that has always existed, but I believe it's been reshaped. Applying your skillset to your second favourite hobby/passion.

Now, obviously this isn't new. Everyone knows you have to pair software with another problem in order to solve something meaningful. The issue I've seen is that all the new problems being solved are "SAVE TIME WITH insert AI tool here", or "10x YOUR WORKFLOW WITH insert other AI tool". It feels impossible to get out of this bubble when everything online is barely escaping tech in any meaningful way. It's just large companies stealing public data and selling it to you in a new format, over, and over, and over again wow! No new ideas, no creativity, just productivity hunting.. but to be productive at WHAT? Being more productive? Let's take a step outside of the tech world, theres more fresh air there haha.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the healthcare world. Knowing people who work in hospitals or nursing homes, their systems are ENTIRELY different. Lots are still using paper charting, old pagers, etc. solutions that software COULD solve but hasn't yet. And the weirdest part for me, they're having med students build software applications/prototypes! It hurts a little inside that I'm not working on those cool projects, but imagine if I were to switch disciplines. If I were in their shoes, working in another discipline, my current skillset of software knowledge would be invaluable! It wouldn't be a lost skillset, but I would be able to find so many new problems to solve.

The thing is, right now I feel like any time spent away from tech I am "falling behind". I want to spend more time on my other hobbies and passions, I would love to pivot away and work in healthcare, in the food industry, or in something more random, while keeping my skillset close.

I think what I crave right now is the real world connection that seems to be fleeting. I don't want an email with instructions, I want a discussion with a real person. I want to be working WITH another individual, not just pass around independent code with slack message updates. What it really comes to is feeling like just another tool, instead of a team member. The restaurant example provides the clearest picture for me. All in one close room depending on each other face to face. That's real teamwork.