Thoughts on Range (by David Epstein)
So I’ve been rereading this book called Range (by David Epstein), and I’ve come across some interesting ideas that didn’t really stick with me on my first reading. For example, one concept I’m finding intriguing is the idea of “match quality”, which is basically a measure of fit between a person and their job/occupation.
The idea presented in the book is essentially that improving match quality only comes through exploration – you don’t figure out who you are by locking yourself in a room and thinking about it, but by trying out different things.
The idea is that it can be helpful to treat making career choices like dating, and try different things out before settling later. There’s quite a bit of research about sampling periods improving the likelihood of match quality .
This is interesting and all, but as someone who has been doing the “sampling” thing for a while now it does make you very difficult to hire, because what on earth is going on with your résumé?? (Which, to the author’s credit, is acknowledged in the book.)
I just find it very ironic that while trying a bunch of different jobs makes it more likely that you’ll find the right one, it also makes it less likely that you’ll find a job in the first place.
Anyway I was previously not the biggest fan of microeconomics, but maybe there are interesting ideas there I could investigate here.