What I'm trying to do

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2021-06-08 16:30:07

There are currently three big things I'd like to do with my career. I'm describing them here so that I can connect with more people who are interested in the same things. I'll continually revise this document as my progress and goals change and as I get better at communicating my ideas. If you're interested in any of this, send me a link to your blog/newsletter/Twitter account so I can follow you: hello@jacobobryant.com.

I spent some time in college doing undergrad research. After I graduated I spent a year as an employee (software engineer), and as of writing this I've been an entrepreneur for 2.5 years. In each case I've concluded that the role is fundamentally misaligned with my motivations.

There's plenty of overlap: both research and business can and often do involve building new things. But in these domains, invention is a second-class citizen. If a researcher builds something interesting but doesn't produce any novel insights, they've failed. If an entrepreneur builds something useful but doesn't figure out how to monetize it, they've failed. Moreover, you can be a successful researcher or entrepreneur without doing significant invention.

I think the field of software would progress faster if there was a dedicated career path for invention, so those who wanted to could focus on building valuable things without hard research or business constraints.