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Welcome to edition #18 of The Wake Up Call, this week I write about:

1. A five step framework for navigating your career in a world where the rules keep changing

This newsletter is for anyone who is questioning the endless pursuit of more. Stories exploring the psychology of meaning, technology and how we begin to build a better future together. Each week I write one non-fiction essay for the mind or one fiction story for the soul.

Throughout my writing journey, I’ve been getting a growing number of young people reaching out to me who feel lost and confused about their role in the world.

I also have many friends with teenagers or kids in their early twenties who are increasingly worried about their future. Hope seems to be in short supply and uncertainty/disillusionment seem to be the norm.

In the following essay, I will try to articulate my best advice for those navigating a world where the rules seem to keep changing. This began as a piece for the younger generation but upon completion, I think it is widely applicable to all ages.

If it lands with you I hope you share it with the young people in your life or anyone you think could benefit from reading it.

If you don’t make it any further than this, here is the essence what I’m trying to say:

AI is here. It is not going away. Jobs will disappear. Meaningful work will not. You must find a problem that is worthy of your life and give yourself fully to that problem. Build the skills that make you deserving of solving that problem. Make it known to the world you are committed to that problem. If you do that, you have a change at finding real meaning in your life. And no man or machine can ever take meaning from you. Meaning will become your resilience against the rapid, relentless change.

I’ll try to show you how to do that in the essay below.

for.and.from.the.mind

I first want to be very clear on something: your fears, doubts and confusion about the future are all valid.

We (the generations that came before you) should have done better. Collectively, we have been short-sighted again and again.

The acceleration of technology now threatens traditional, static roles in a way we have never seen before. The safest path in the future is no longer specializing in a static job function as we did, it is becoming an adaptive human being that can find/solve meaningful problems.

Being a young person or trying to reinvent yourself has been difficult across the ages but I have come to believe this is the most destabilizing time in human history. And with that comes a new set of challenges that none of us have navigated before.

I do not know what it is like to be you. But I do know what it feels like to be taught the rules to a game, to be told that if you play by those rules then eventually you will feel happy/fulfilled, then you play by those rules for years, only to find out the promise was not true.

I locked in for fifteen years of my life. I sacrificed much of my early life to chase success. I did not focus on passion, I focused on the quickest path to elevate my financial position and status within society. I climbed to the top of my field in tech and then co-founded a venture capital firm where we raised over one hundred million dollars. I found nothing at the top except for an addiction to more and a broken nervous system.

I pointed all my ambition at money and status. I have since learned that what I was really chasing was meaning. And that meaning is most easily found through contribution and helping others.

A lot of people ask me:

Do you have regrets? What would you do differently?

My answer is I do not regret the path I took, we all have our unique road to travel and this was mine. It brought me here so I would not do anything differently.

But, if you asked me:

Would you have your children or someone you loved walk the same path?

My answer would be no.

In this essay I will outline the advice I would give my future children or to anyone who feels lost, scared or confused about their career as we head into the Acceleration Decade.

I will break it down in five steps that I believe will help you begin to build a career that can weather all of the change/acceleration to come:

1. Reclaim your nervous system

2. Find a big problem that you feel passionate about

3. Aquire the skills needed to have an impact on that problem

4. Make you passion for this problem known

5. Do not wait for permission, start solving the problem now

Unfortunately it’s not quite as simple as it sounds.

1. Reclaim your nervous system and attention

Most of us are no longer in control of our own thoughts. We’re taking in too much outside information and it’s throwing off our internal compass.

I’m not going to tell you anything you don’t know in step one but if you don’t take this one seriously then steps two to five will be useless.

Unlike some people may have you believe, there is no grand conspiracy to keep you sedated, distracted and feeling scared. I feel confident in saying this because I have met many of the founders who are building the next generation of technology. Most are normal(ish) human beings who set out with good intentions. Over time those intentions change to optimize for profits over purpose because that is what capitalism does. That is the system we operate under, without growth, it does not function.

This is important to highlight because I see many people who have become totally disillusioned with the world which has led to hopelessness. But when we blame problems on some invisible force, we give away our agency. And you are going to need all of your personal agency to navigate this new world.

What happens in reality is someone builds a new technology, we unleash it without thinking of the long term consequences, people adopt it with enthusiasm because it promises efficiency/ distraction, our human nature cannot get enough and so the technology accelerates in a way that provides more and more efficiency and distraction.

If you want to go deep on how I think you can prepare against this, you can do so here:

Today we are going to focus on personal agency and how you can operate within the current system as it is. Hopefully if we unlock the new generation’s ambition, they can help us build a better system.

It’s not fair that the onus is on you as the individual to navigate a world that you did not set up but that is the reality of where we are at.

In order to think clearly enough to move on to step two, you must get separation from the distraction machines.

Anything that has an infinite scroll, auto-play, personalized recommendation feeds, push notifications, short-form video loops, streak, likes, reactions or any social validation metrics is not your friend.

But you know this already.

What you might not know, since you grew up with these things being part of everyday life, is how your nervous system/body/mind can feel like without them.

I’m thirty four, and before this last year, I also forgot what it was like to have a normal dopamine baseline and not be completely addicted to a screen. And I happened to grow up before the explosion of smartphones so I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to get some separation when it’s all you have ever known.

I separated myself for an entire year. I’m here to tell you that with separation, everything (including your emotions) get easier to manage and your ability to think both critically and creatively will explode.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration when I say that it’s a matter of life and death that you regain control over your nervous system and attention from devices. The part of you that finds joy in the small things, that can create beauty at will and can navigate all the challenges life throws at you, that part may die, if you don’t fight back.

It almost did for me.

But there is hope, you are not broken. You are not beyond repair. Quite the opposite, you are absolutely teeming with untapped potential just waiting to be released when you stop giving that potential to meaningless mechanisms.

To make this actionable:

1. Have a plan before you engage, unconscious consumption is the enemy. Treat your phone and laptop like it is alcohol. Many young people seem to have a healthier relationship to alcohol than my generation ever did. I don’t drink anymore but there was a time where alcohol had some social benefit in my life, just like technology does. But if you don’t go into the evening with a plan ie. I’m going to have two drinks at the party then it can easily get away from you. Same with your phone/screens. You need to set hard limits.

1. Remember when you engage with distraction technology, you are spending your happiness and motivation chemicals. You only have a finite amount of these brain chemicals each day so ask yourself, is this really where I want to spend them?

1. Build a daily practice that replenishes these motivation and happiness chemicals. Motivation to do hard things is earned, you cannot just will yourself into tackling the challenges in your life. Guard this daily practice with your life, everything else flows from it. Block one hour a day and build a routine that works for you but it must include: stillness, silence, movement, breath and nature. Play around with it until you find one that you look forward to every day.

Be patient with yourself.

Step one is the real game that you must master in life. I spend most of my time thinking about how I can get better at balancing my mind/body/soul so that I feel connected to myself and the world around me. It is an ongoing process that never ends. You will find that when you feel connected, life begins to unfurl in front of you with a lot less effort.

1. Find a big problem that you feel passionate about solving

Now that you have some separation from things that drain your passion. You must begin to pay attention to the things that make you feel most alive. Deep interest creates long-term resilience. Genuine curiosity becomes your advantage over the long-haul.

People who are deeply interested in a problem naturally spend more time thinking about it, learning about it, experimenting with it and connecting with others who care about it.

When I ask most young people what they want to do, most don’t know the answer. They will usually say that they want to make a lot of money as quickly as possible and then stop working.

I get it. I was also under the same delusion for a long time.

But then I will ask, what would you like to do after that now that you have all this free time?

Most do not know how to answer this either. Or if they do, they mention a bunch of distractions that will get old very quickly. And here is where the bigger problem lies.

We know that we want to escape the current system, we know we want a lot of money but we have no idea what to do with our lives once we escape. This is common among all age brackets.

For many years, jobs were looked at as a means to an end. Maybe our parents worked a nine-five job that paid them well enough that they could live meaningful lives outside of their work. They worked so they could live later, either on the weekends or in retirement. This paradigm is actively breaking down.

Jobs, as we have known them in the past, are no longer sources of stability. Most of them also demand our attention almost twenty-four seven since we are now always connected. So increasingly there is no time to do the actual living part.

On top of that, we have unleashed technology that will quickly do more and more of the job functions that were once done by humans, making these jobs even less stable and more demanding. Sounds bleak.

The good news?

Yes, there is a lot of fear around job loss these days but when I look around I see so much work to be done.

We have to reframe how we think about our careers.

Where there is work to be done, problems to be solved, there is an opportunity to make a livelihood. So what kind of work would you like to spend your life doing?

Not as a form of escape, not as a means to just pay your bills but what change would you really like to see in the world?

It goes back to the question, if you had all the money in the world already and you escaped the system, what would you spend your life doing?

That is the thread you should follow. That is where you will find meaning.

There are virtually unlimited problems to be solved, here is a non-exhaustive list to get you thinking:

• The loneliness epidemic

• Digital addiction

• Elder care and a better way to grow old

• Guidance for the next generation

• Cities need to be rebuilt in harmony with nature

• Energy grids need to be rebuilt/rethought

• local communities need to be repaired

• A trades/apprenticeship revival

• Attention restoration

• Protecting children from addictive systems

• Long-form human-thinking platforms

• Preventative healthcare

• Health access inequality

• Clean energy

• Biodiversity preservation

• Heat adaptation infrastructure (global temperatures rising)

• Sustainable cities

• Circular economies

• Affordable housing

• Community-oriented architecture

• AI safety/governance

• Truth infrastructure

• Preservation of human agency

• Better public discourse

• Trustworthy journalism

• Meaningful storytelling

• Modern spiritual communities

• Parenting support systems

• Intergenerational gathering

• Modern friendship/dating infrastructure

• Re-skilling displaced workers

• Financial inclusion

• Ethical capitalism and new systems of commerce

• Meditation accessibility

• Modern philosophy communities

• Translating ancient wisdom for modern life

• Helping people navigate suffering/grief

• Consciousness research

• Soil regeneration

• Planet restoration

• Water infrastructure

• Supply chain resilience

• Cybersecurity

• Disaster preparedness

• Food distribution

I could go on and on, the list is endless. If you picked any one of these and deeply devoted your time/attention to them, I believe you could build a meaningful career that would provide the capital and resources to live a comfortable life.

To make this actionable:

1. Forget about asking yourself What job do I want? and lean into What problem would feel meaningful to dedicate my life to? Now, of course, you can change your mind as you grow and learn more about yourself. But take the time to pick something that you know will interest you for at least the next five years. Learning compounds so switching too often will set you back.

1. Do not get stuck in over-analysis. Picking one problem may lead you to finding out about another one that suits you more (again, try not to jump too often but it’s okay to change your mind). Continually keep yourself educated on the problem you choose and adjacent problems around it. Education is changing, you must fall in love with learning to succeed in the future. Read widely from many different sources. Physical books are your friend.

Much of the advice you will receive about your career, particularly around linear career paths, will come from a good place but it is outdated. The world that our parents grew up in no longer exists.

Step 3: Aquire the skills needed to have an impact on that problem

I like to think that problems want to be solved. They are just waiting there for the right person (or group of people) to come along and figure out a solution for them.

The problem is you are likely unworthy of solving that problem…yet. The problem doesn’t want you to solve it right now because you have not acquired the skills you will need to do so.

This is where you will need some self-awareness.

The self-awareness to do an honest self assessment on the skills you have today and the skills you will need in the future to be capable of solving that problem. And the understanding that skills take time to learn and foster.

What have people told you that you’re naturally good at?

Are you creative? Do you naturally fall into a leadership role? Do you like building systems? Are you good at organizing people? Do you feel more technically skilled than most? Are you a builder? Are you good at selling ideas? Are you good at creating an audience? Can you grasp abstract ideas?

In order for this problem to be solved, it needs people that have all sorts of different skills. You don’t need to learn them all. Understand and lean into your strengths.

Let’s take a random example of a problem: Old people loneliness

This seems like a big, juicy, worthwhile problem to tackle.

This is an over-simplification but In order to effectively solve old people loneliness you would need to understand the problem (critical thinking and empathy), you would need to come up with a potential solution (creative thinking), you would need to build the solution (judgement, taste, technical aptitude), you would need to test the solution (patience, strong communication skills), you would need to market the solution (creativity, writing, marketing knowledge), you want need to sell the solution (sales, presentation and interpersonal skills), you would need to build a team (leadership and recruiting), you would need to motivate and guide that team (people management), you would need to figure out how to make money (financial literacy), you would need to deploy the solution (organizational and problem solving skills) and then you would need to scale that solution (building systems and process).

Just in that one example it requires people that have:

• The ability to critically think

• Empathy

• The ability to creatively think

• Taste

• Judgement

• Technical aptitude

• Patience

• Strong communication

• Creativity

• Writing skills

• Marketing knowledge

• Sales skills

• Presentation skills

• Interpersonal skills

• Leadership ability

• The ability to recruit others

• The ability to manage others

• Financial literacy

• Organizationals skills

• Problem solving skills

• The ability to build systems and process

All of the above are learned skills, learned skills that are very human. Again, you do not need to learn them all but you do need to get really good at four or five of them. Of course depending on the problem you choose, it might require a completely different set of skills.

Yes, you can learn the above skills yourself online via research, newsletters, courses, videos, etc but the best way to learn is by doing them day in and day out. This is where you may have to swallow your pride for a short period of time and go into an environment that may not perfectly map to the problem that you are passionate about. That’s ok. Life is longer than you think, you have time.

Think of this environment as an extension of your schooling/education. You are there to learn skills in order to make yourself into the person that can be an asset to a group that is focused on the real mission you want to serve.

To make it actionable:

1. To the best of your ability, try to map out what skills that are required to solve the problem you have decided to dedicate your time to. Ask the people around you what you are naturally good at. Find the cross section between what you are good at and what skills the problem needs. Highlight four or five and go all in on those.

1. There is plenty of volunteer work out there where you can learn all types of skills. Take control of your own learning, do what you can online but you must also get real world experience to build true skills. A lot of what holds us back is our ego and thinking that we ‘are above’ certain types of work, you must get out of your own way. You do not have to stay in the environment forever, you are there on a mission to try to learn as much as you can.

I want this to be pragmatic advice and it is unrealistic to think that you can spend your life helping to solve meaningful problems before you have any meaningful skills. Skills move forward with you in life so slowing down to properly learn them is never wasted time.

Step 4: Make your passion about this problem known to the world

You now have a clear mind, you have a problem that you want to spend the next portion of your live solving, you’re on your way to acquiring the skills that make you valuable to this problem, now you need to tell the world about your intentions.

For better or worse, we live in a world that is largely driven by the attention economy. The same one that we had to escape in step one in order to see and think clearly.

Here is where we cautiously re-enter that world but now we flip the script. Instead of being a consumer, we begin to create and document our learnings about this problem.

The problem, and the people currently focused on that problem, need to know that you exist. It starts small but you need to make a declaration to the world that for the foreseeable future much of your time/energy will be dedicated to learning all you can about this problem.

Every problem has hundreds, thousands or millions of other people who are also interested in it. Find those people. Start to follow those people. Start to learn from those people. But also start to formulate your own point of view. Then begin to share that point of view.

It could be through your favorite social media platform, it could be by writing highly technical whitepapers, it could be interviewing people on a little podcast or video series, it could be a newsletter, it could be creating a small in-person group in your community, decide what fits your style, you just need to signal to the world that this is your lane.

As you share your point of view with the world, it’s okay to be a beginner. It’s okay to not be an expert yet. What you are doing is leaving behind little beacons for other people that are also interested in this problem to find you.

The world does not owe you anything. It will not be an easy path to making this problem your life’s work. It will take a lot of effort, day in and day out. You will have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. You will have to show up at events for your problem, you will have to show up in online communication about your problem, you will have to try to get the attention of others solving that problem.

Here is what I want you to know:

The people that have been working on this problem for the last ten, fifteen or twenty-five years desperately want to help you. They want nothing more than to know that there is another generation of ambitious, young people who care about this problem. People want to help you.

To make this actionable:

1. Map out your network, your parent’s network, your friend’s network, everyone that you can possibly think of where you have some connectivity. See if there is anyone in that network who is actively working on the problem you are passionate about. Make a list. If there are no names on that list, do research online and come up with twenty names of people who have dedicated their lives to that problem.

1. Once you have the list, send each person a custom email/DM, something like:

“Hi (name) –

I’ve been studying your work around ‘x problem’. It gives me hope that there are people like you that have dedicated their life to a mission like ‘x problem’. I am early in my career and still have much to learn but it is clear to me that I would like to spend this next chapter of my life focusing solely on helping with ‘x problem’. What advice would you have for a young person who wants to get involved? Would you be open to an in-person or digital coffee sometime in the coming weeks? I’ll come prepared.

I’m early in my journey but eager to learn.

(Your name)”

If you send a version of that to twenty people, I would be shocked if at least two or three didn’t respond.

1. Meet them, come prepared, be curious. Tell them about the skills you think are needed to help and validate your assumption with them. Ask for their advice on the best way to build the skills needed to help solve the problem. See if there is any opportunity to volunteer, work or learn from them. If not, see if there is anyone else they think would be valuable for you to meet. Repeat from step one until opportunities start appearing.

Step 5: Start solving the problem

Your attention is flowing where it should, you know what your life’s mission is (at least for now), you are building skills that will help serve that mission, you have made your mission known to the world and you’ve started to build a network around that mission.

Now you must go out and start solving the problem.

Congratulations, you now have a job solving the problem you’re passionate about!

At this point, you’re just missing the earn money part. That’s ok, that can and will come later if you remain patient.

You might not be very good at solving it to begin with but you can solve it in the best way you know how.

Let’s go back to our original example of a problem: old people loneliness

Right now, you don’t need some big, sophisticated solution to solve this. What you could do is go to your local old folk’s home and volunteer to chat or play board games with some elderly people.

As you do that week in and week out, you are going to notice how old folk’s homes operate, what the elderly really need to feel connected, the lack of funding and why this problem has fallen through the cracks. Over time, a better solution may start forming in your head.

Perhaps you realize that you have limited time so you recruit other young people who need volunteer hours to join you on a given afternoon, what if you started sharing your learnings more online, maybe you expand your little volunteer group to another old folks home, you could ask people for donations so you could incentivize more young people to join you and now things are starting to snowball a little. Down the line this gets the attention of some bigger non-profits in the area or a tech founder building an app for grandparents who now both want to talk to you becuase of your hands on experience.

Now, this is just a fictitious scenario but one that I believe is rooted in reality. When you get out into the world and start doing things, the universe reacts. Every action has a reaction. The more action you take, the more reaction comes your way.

Action creates surface area for opportunity.

An important note:

I am aware that we need money in order to live.

This five step process is to set you up for a meaningful life in the long term. This way of living and thinking is similar to that of an artist. An artist gives themselves completely to their art and makes sacrifices in order to do that. To them, their art is their life. It means enough to them that they are willing to forgo certain comforts and pleasures in order to continue doing the thing they love. Same goes with working on a problem that you’re deeply passionate about. It takes time and sacrifice in the short-term. You may need to stay at home longer (if available to you), you may need to work another job that is less aligned as you work towards your mission and you may not be able to afford all of the luxuries you want right away.

But what you are building is resilience. Nobody can take your passion about your problem away from you, nobody can fire you from your problem and your knowledge of this problem will start to compound over time. And, most importantly, you may start to find deep meaning in your work. I promise you, that with enough time, you will find that is more valuable than money.

I also don’t want you to think that I’m telling you to not make money. You can become wildly successful and rich by solving meaningful problems. Money follows problem solvers around. If you get good at solving problems, money will chase you down wherever you go. But make money/success a byproduct of a life spent solving a problem that lights your soul on fire.

That’s the best kind of money there is.

To make it actionable:

1. Ask yourself: What is the smallest action I can take that helps to solve the problem I’m passionate about? Then go do that.

2. Collect data on all of your small actions. Use this data to look for ways that you can make a slightly bigger impact on the problem every few months.

3. As you solve it more and more times, map out who cares about having this problem solved. Who is benefiting from this problem being solved? That is likely where your money will come from.

The big secret is that you do not have to wait for permission to start solving a problem. You can just do it, like right now.

A few footnotes worthy of inclusion:

Learn how AI actually works

There’s no escaping it, use it, understand it. Like every technology cycle, people who understand new tools early gain asymmetric leverage. Do not outsource your thinking to AI but use it to amplify your thinking.

Soft skills matter more than ever

The value of pure intelligence, memory and analysis is going down. Things like judgment, emotional regulation, courage, creativity, discernment, storytelling and adaptability are going up. Focus on the latter.

Distribution matters as much as skill

Even the best problem solvers need to reach the people they are solving the problem for. If you do not build up distribution channels that you own, you will have a much harder time finding success.

Trust is more valuable than ever

Everyone is trying to sell you a shortcut. The cost of shortcuts is usually trust or your future ability/skill. Speed is not the same thing as progress. Protect your personal integrity at all costs.

I have a lot of hope for this next generation. A generation that was raised to consume may just be the generation that finally fights back and creates a better future for all.

The future needs people who can still feel deeply, think clearly, work meaningfully, and help other humans navigate an increasingly artificial world.

I do not have all of the answers. I’m still trying to figure this out myself.

But recently, I have oriented my life around solving meaningful problems because the meaning I derive from my work creates resilience, adaptability, a continuous learning loop and long-term motivation in an unstable world.

Meaning is where I have found my stability.

And that stability is available to all of us, if we commit to searching for it.

latest.podcast.episode

In my latest episode of the Wake Up Call podcast I sit down with one of my dearest friends, a brother, my new business partner and the co-founder of Enfold, Steve Rio.

We go deep on doing hard things, remembering who you are and sharing that gift with the world. You can listen to the whole episode here.

Please support our partners (they are doing incredible work in the world)

Dreamfuel: The leading mental performance coaching platform for technology teams. As a Wake Up Call subscriber, you are eligible for a free 1-1 or team coaching session.

Enfold: Five days can change the course of your life forever. If you mention Wake Up Call, your application will be prioritized.

Thank you for reading until the end.

I hope that this did not come off in anyway as preachy, that was not my intention. This advice comes from a sincere look back at my own life and an earnest reflection into where humanity is currently at.

If this was helpful, please share it so that more people can find it who may need to read it.

And like I mentioned earlier, my generation and the generations before me got us into this strange set of affairs so it’s unlikely we’ll be the ones to have the answers.

But I have hope that you just might.

All love,

Scott Barker

*To try to keep the integrity of this project, I don’t use AI for any copy-writing or proof-reading (only research and debate). I am a human, I write like a human and humans make grammar/spelling mistakes. Writing mistakes might not be around for much longer so I hope you enjoy them while you can 🙂