Monday, January 3, 2011

50 questions that will free your mind

Continuing to answer 50 Questions:

Question #7: Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?

An interesting question because I'm not sure my line of work is something you can believe in. I'm a semiconductor engineer and my work goes into helping make computer chips. I suppose some of them could end up in military hardware, but who is more evil, the gun maker or the gun user?

I guess I could interpret the question as to whether I'm happy with my job and I'd say yes and no. I like the type of work I do, but the environment where I do it could use some improvement. I think we're working on it, but who knows what will really happen because the industry is consolidating and it's difficult to predict in which direction it'll head. Electronics have almost gotten too cheap so profit margins are quite small. If you don't sell a large volume, you're screwed, which is what happened at my previous job.

I could also interpret the question as to whether I'm happy with my type of job. As I mentioned in the previous 50 questions post, I like to make stuff. As long as I get to make stuff, I'm happy.

I don't believe in settling though. Our goal should be to maximize our happiness without minimizing others'. The last part is the tricky one. If resources are finite, does me owning something mean someone else can't have one? Should I feel bad or guilty?

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