As a writer: influencing other people, building consensus on what the problems are, building a network of people that are aligned.
As a researcher: coming up with highly-specific policy solutions to an important problem. Ideally, this would be a small, non-controversial provision that someone could slip into a bill unnoticed.
So for example, I have written a lot about the problems with NEPA and permitting, and I think there’s been a consensus developed among a big chunk of the political spectrum that it’s a real problem and we need to fix it. At the same time, I have been trying to push a specific fix for geothermal permitting, which is to give it the same categorical exclusion that oil and gas has.
Two different kinds of change, and I try to do both, but succeeding at the latter is rare and extremely valuable such that if you do it only a few times in your life that is a successful career.
On career switching: I would advise people to look less at creating a coherent career, where there is a logical progression from one step to the next, and to instead just find a job that interests and inspires you to do your very best work. My own career has been pretty haphazard: I was going to be a professor, then no just kidding I’m going to do nonprofit policy research, then oh no I am going to work at a startup, then back to policy research. None of this was part of a deliberate plan.
One heuristic that I think works well:
1. What do you think is the single most interesting thing going on right now? 2. How can you put yourself at the center of that thing?
As a writer: influencing other people, building consensus on what the problems are, building a network of people that are aligned.
As a researcher: coming up with highly-specific policy solutions to an important problem. Ideally, this would be a small, non-controversial provision that someone could slip into a bill unnoticed.
So for example, I have written a lot about the problems with NEPA and permitting, and I think there’s been a consensus developed among a big chunk of the political spectrum that it’s a real problem and we need to fix it. At the same time, I have been trying to push a specific fix for geothermal permitting, which is to give it the same categorical exclusion that oil and gas has.
Two different kinds of change, and I try to do both, but succeeding at the latter is rare and extremely valuable such that if you do it only a few times in your life that is a successful career.
On career switching: I would advise people to look less at creating a coherent career, where there is a logical progression from one step to the next, and to instead just find a job that interests and inspires you to do your very best work. My own career has been pretty haphazard: I was going to be a professor, then no just kidding I’m going to do nonprofit policy research, then oh no I am going to work at a startup, then back to policy research. None of this was part of a deliberate plan.
One heuristic that I think works well:
1. What do you think is the single most interesting thing going on right now?
2. How can you put yourself at the center of that thing?