This year I have a job that requires two days per week in the office. Purely remote jobs are tougher to get. There’s a lot of competition for them. That’s fine. I like being in the office. It means I get to spend time in the car listening to music. I like all kinds of music from Country to Rap. One of the things I like to do is really listen to the music and figure out what the artist is talking about. Most of the time I get it wrong.

In Jack Harlow’s song First Class, the lyrics go:

This lifestyle don’t got many downsides
’Cept for the lack of time I get ‘round my
Family, makin’ sure they never downsize

I thought he was rapping “Making shit ain’t ever downsized”, but I was wrong. I guess I had “downsized” primed in my head because that’s what happened to me. I thought he was talking about creating and how that is always in demand.

I was thinking if I was creative enough, I would rise above being downsized. I would be above it. Like, sure, lay me off. You’d be crazy to do it, but go ahead.

Imagine laying off Linus Torvalds? Most people don’t know who he is, but he’s like a rock star in his field of OS engineering and open source software. To me, he’s up there with Elvis.

Linus Torvalds wasn’t pursuing money when he created the Linux kernel. He ascended above that. Money wasn’t a motivation. If money is your motivation, you will be just another money making drone. Creating should be the motivation. Advancing the field you’re in should be the motivation.

People who are lucky enough to have ascended past Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs can focus on their life’s work. They should be aiming high with their goals.

I am not at that stage yet. I have some goals that will take a year or two. I am hoping I have time left to achieve those and then start pursuing bigger goals and maybe even advancing the field I have dedicated my life to so that I can contribute something for others to build on.

I think if I was at the end of life and haven’t contributed anything lasting, then that would be something I maybe regretted. Like a lot of people, I’ve spent my life building a career and then building a family and helping them, but I haven’t spent it building a legacy in networking. I haven’t written RFCs. I haven’t applied computer science to networking in a creative way very much. If I do nothing else, I am proud of what I have done even if I haven’t been creative with it. But if I can use some of my time left for that, it will be even better.

Jack Harlow actually hit the nail on the head. I got the lyrics wrong and thought he was talking about himself, but he was talking about his family. That’s what really matters. That’s what I spent my life on most of all, and I have no regrets.