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Reverse Engineering My Life

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Alan Tabor
Alan Tabor

This document describes a process for analyzing one's past experiences and projects in order to gain insights and plan for the future. The process involves: 1. Listing major past projects and rating their satisfaction level. 2. Breaking the projects down by factors like teamwork, social impact, and autonomy and rating them on each factor. 3. Analyzing where the factor ratings match or contradict the overall satisfaction ratings, and refining the factors and ratings as needed. 4. Applying a similar process to potential future projects by rating them hypothetically on each factor. The document stresses iterating the process, allowing for imperfect matches with reality, and testing potential future projects in real life to validate the

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Reverse Engineering My Life Using myself as a case history with various asides, details, and instructions
Analyze the Past
First I opened up a spreadsheet and listed most major projects since college. I rated each projects on a satisfaction/happiness/engagement scale. OVERALL Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 Non-profit BoD 9 Startup 7 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 Systems Building 7 List anything that takes up a lot of time, ie jobs, hobbies, volunteer work, etc Try to get a 5-8 examples I hid the OVERALL ratings column.
Next I broke it down by factors. Factors tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money Average Things I've Done Community Organizing 10 4 10 6 0 6.0 Non-profit BoD 10 6 10 10 0 7.2 Startup 7 8 5 8 8 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 5 6 8 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 7 6 4 8 8 6.6 Systems Building 2 6 5 6 8 5.4 Think through the factors that might have provided satisfaction in each different project Add those as column headings Examples: teamwork; social impact; autonomy My preliminary list is below. Rate each project 1-10 on each factor. Average the ratings for each project. contribution to something meaningful; right livelihood street cred, fame, glory, ego boost
Unhide the overall column. Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money Average Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 6.0 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 7.2 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 6.6 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 5.4
Where are the contradictions? OVERALL Average Comments Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 6.0 Non-profit BoD 9 7.2 Startup 7 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 6.6 Systems Building 7 5.4 Does the order shown by the averages pretty much match your overall assessment? Yes, great! Proceed to the future. No - then: Whats missing? Add factors. Rate the new factors. Does that fix it? Iterate Note that the relative order and obvious contradictions are more important than the actual numbers. Should be different but Averages are the same
After going through the process above, I discovered my story didnt correlate. For example, two items with quite different overall ratings ended up with the same average. I had to ask myself why did I like Systems Building and dislike the Biz Exec crap. (Apologies to happy Biz Execs.) This was pretty easy to answer. One involved building things immediately and concretelywhat Ill call Craft or Engineering. The other occasionally bordered into baby-sitting. I liked working with folks to set personal and enterprise goals and trying to make those harmonize. I liked marshaling the resources and setting up the framework to get shit donebut you know, thats pretty close to Engineering if you define Engineering broadly as finding, building, assembling or inventing a collection of elements and then crafting them to create a desired effect. On the other hand, I had very little patience with folks that werent intrinsically motivated and was happy to give maximum slack to those that were. Downside: If someone was having serious problems and didnt tell me, Id notice when their corpse began to smell. OVERALL Average Comments Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 6.0 Non-profit BoD 9 7.2 Startup 7 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 6.6 Systems Building 7 5.4
So I added Engineering. I, also, made some comments where I thought this framework was too narrow or missing factors. Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineering Average Comments Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 made life long friends Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 downside: stress of budgeting Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 good personal growth, too extroverted for the long term Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 Better but still a bit off. More on that to come. Patience is requested.
Project Yourself Forward - Too Simple Version
List things you could do next. Think through how they would likely rate on each factor. Determine the top few and explore them in real life to see if your assessment is accurate. Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineering Average Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 Things I Could Do Role in Startup - Anticipated 10 10 6 9 9 8.8 Role in Startup - Tested 9 8 8 ? 9 8 8.3 Story Social Media - Anticipated 3 6 9 9 9 7.2 Story Social Media - Tested 7 5 6 7 9 10 7.4 Watch TV 1 4 1 1 0 1.4 Play Games 5 9 1 5 0 4.0 Build Games 4 8 5 7 10 6.8
Project Yourself Forward A Better Model
Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineerin g Average Comments Rank OVERLL Rank Average Dif Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 2 5 3 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 1 2 1 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 3 1 2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 5 3 2 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 3 4 1 0 Adding in Weighting - Dropping Out Money 9 mismatch weighting--> 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Community Organizing 8 10.0 4.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 3.0 5.5 2 3 1 Non-profit BoD 9 10.0 6.0 10.0 10.0 0.0 8.0 7.3 1 1 0 Startup 7 7.0 8.0 5.0 8.0 0.0 10.0 6.3 3 2 1 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 4.0 3.8 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7.0 6.0 4.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 5.3 5 4 1 Systems Building 7 2.0 6.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 10.0 4.8 3 5 2 0 I listed the Factors I considered major and by luck they were close enough in relative importance for some patterns to immediately emerge. I did need a few passes to include all the Factors that seemed highly relevant. However, the more Factors, the more likely that some are going to be more important; in the current model theyre all equally weighted. I added weighting and experimented with different weights. What I discovered: Money was not a factor in satisfaction. I dropped it out because I was planning retirement and didnt need it to be a factor. Surprisingly the model got a lot better. Thinking it through, it was really only a factor in how much time I could afford to devote to any project. It was not a source of satisfaction in and of itself. Doubling the weighting had no impact on any factors except Social Utility. Increasing that improved the model OVERALL Average Comments Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 6.0 Non-profit BoD 9 7.2 Startup 7 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 6.6 Systems Building 7 5.4
Add weighting to the factors to allow differences in importance. This tweaks the averages: switch to Rank as your key indicator. Test all factors by first zeroing and then doubling the weight to see what factors are irrelevant and which are key. If necessary, test new factors. Iterate between including or excluding factors and changing weighting to get your story as consistent as possible. It should never match perfectly. Remember reality is always messier than you can effectively model! Heres a template you can copy and use.
Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineering Average Comments Rank OVERLL Rank Average Dif Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 2 5 3 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 1 2 1 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 3 1 2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 5 3 2 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 3 4 1 0 Adding in Weighting - Dropping Out Money 9 mismatch weighting--> 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Community Organizing 8 10.0 4.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 3.0 5.5 2 3 1 Non-profit BoD 9 10.0 6.0 10.0 10.0 0.0 8.0 7.3 1 1 0 Startup 7 7.0 8.0 5.0 8.0 0.0 10.0 6.3 3 2 1 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 4.0 3.8 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7.0 6.0 4.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 5.3 5 4 1 Systems Building 7 2.0 6.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 10.0 4.8 3 5 2 0 5 mismatch 1) Add weighting Template and formulas here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16fLLRcCQw6Fl3w7UBJQUswGGNQumEao5yg0V3cBac2I/edit?usp=sharing 2) And Add Rank. 3) Then dropping out money 4)Improved the model
Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineering Average Comments Rank OVERLL Rank Average Dif Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 2 5 3 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 1 2 1 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 3 1 2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 5 3 2 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 3 4 1 0 Adding in Weighting - Dropping Out Money 9 mismatch weighting--> 1.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Community Organizing 8 10.0 4.0 20.0 6.0 0.0 3.0 7.2 2 2 0 Non-profit BoD 9 10.0 6.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 8.0 9.0 1 1 0 Startup 7 7.0 8.0 10.0 8.0 0.0 10.0 7.2 3 2 1 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4.0 4.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 4.0 4.7 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7.0 6.0 8.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 6.0 5 4 1 Systems Building 7 2.0 6.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 10.0 5.7 3 5 2 0 4 mismatch Template and formulas here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16fLLRcCQw6Fl3w7UBJQUswGGNQumEao5yg0V3cBac2I/edit?usp=sharing 5.Doubling social utility 6. Improved it further
Project Yourself Forward The Messy Reality
Theres a discussion of this slide in the companion Medium article, last section.

More Related Content

Reverse Engineering My Life

  • 1. Reverse Engineering My Life Using myself as a case history with various asides, details, and instructions
  • 3. First I opened up a spreadsheet and listed most major projects since college. I rated each projects on a satisfaction/happiness/engagement scale. OVERALL Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 Non-profit BoD 9 Startup 7 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 Systems Building 7 List anything that takes up a lot of time, ie jobs, hobbies, volunteer work, etc Try to get a 5-8 examples I hid the OVERALL ratings column.
  • 4. Next I broke it down by factors. Factors tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money Average Things I've Done Community Organizing 10 4 10 6 0 6.0 Non-profit BoD 10 6 10 10 0 7.2 Startup 7 8 5 8 8 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 5 6 8 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 7 6 4 8 8 6.6 Systems Building 2 6 5 6 8 5.4 Think through the factors that might have provided satisfaction in each different project Add those as column headings Examples: teamwork; social impact; autonomy My preliminary list is below. Rate each project 1-10 on each factor. Average the ratings for each project. contribution to something meaningful; right livelihood street cred, fame, glory, ego boost
  • 5. Unhide the overall column. Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money Average Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 6.0 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 7.2 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 6.6 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 5.4
  • 6. Where are the contradictions? OVERALL Average Comments Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 6.0 Non-profit BoD 9 7.2 Startup 7 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 6.6 Systems Building 7 5.4 Does the order shown by the averages pretty much match your overall assessment? Yes, great! Proceed to the future. No - then: Whats missing? Add factors. Rate the new factors. Does that fix it? Iterate Note that the relative order and obvious contradictions are more important than the actual numbers. Should be different but Averages are the same
  • 7. After going through the process above, I discovered my story didnt correlate. For example, two items with quite different overall ratings ended up with the same average. I had to ask myself why did I like Systems Building and dislike the Biz Exec crap. (Apologies to happy Biz Execs.) This was pretty easy to answer. One involved building things immediately and concretelywhat Ill call Craft or Engineering. The other occasionally bordered into baby-sitting. I liked working with folks to set personal and enterprise goals and trying to make those harmonize. I liked marshaling the resources and setting up the framework to get shit donebut you know, thats pretty close to Engineering if you define Engineering broadly as finding, building, assembling or inventing a collection of elements and then crafting them to create a desired effect. On the other hand, I had very little patience with folks that werent intrinsically motivated and was happy to give maximum slack to those that were. Downside: If someone was having serious problems and didnt tell me, Id notice when their corpse began to smell. OVERALL Average Comments Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 6.0 Non-profit BoD 9 7.2 Startup 7 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 6.6 Systems Building 7 5.4
  • 8. So I added Engineering. I, also, made some comments where I thought this framework was too narrow or missing factors. Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineering Average Comments Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 made life long friends Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 downside: stress of budgeting Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 good personal growth, too extroverted for the long term Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 Better but still a bit off. More on that to come. Patience is requested.
  • 9. Project Yourself Forward - Too Simple Version
  • 10. List things you could do next. Think through how they would likely rate on each factor. Determine the top few and explore them in real life to see if your assessment is accurate. Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineering Average Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 Things I Could Do Role in Startup - Anticipated 10 10 6 9 9 8.8 Role in Startup - Tested 9 8 8 ? 9 8 8.3 Story Social Media - Anticipated 3 6 9 9 9 7.2 Story Social Media - Tested 7 5 6 7 9 10 7.4 Watch TV 1 4 1 1 0 1.4 Play Games 5 9 1 5 0 4.0 Build Games 4 8 5 7 10 6.8
  • 11. Project Yourself Forward A Better Model
  • 12. Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineerin g Average Comments Rank OVERLL Rank Average Dif Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 2 5 3 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 1 2 1 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 3 1 2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 5 3 2 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 3 4 1 0 Adding in Weighting - Dropping Out Money 9 mismatch weighting--> 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Community Organizing 8 10.0 4.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 3.0 5.5 2 3 1 Non-profit BoD 9 10.0 6.0 10.0 10.0 0.0 8.0 7.3 1 1 0 Startup 7 7.0 8.0 5.0 8.0 0.0 10.0 6.3 3 2 1 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 4.0 3.8 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7.0 6.0 4.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 5.3 5 4 1 Systems Building 7 2.0 6.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 10.0 4.8 3 5 2 0 I listed the Factors I considered major and by luck they were close enough in relative importance for some patterns to immediately emerge. I did need a few passes to include all the Factors that seemed highly relevant. However, the more Factors, the more likely that some are going to be more important; in the current model theyre all equally weighted. I added weighting and experimented with different weights. What I discovered: Money was not a factor in satisfaction. I dropped it out because I was planning retirement and didnt need it to be a factor. Surprisingly the model got a lot better. Thinking it through, it was really only a factor in how much time I could afford to devote to any project. It was not a source of satisfaction in and of itself. Doubling the weighting had no impact on any factors except Social Utility. Increasing that improved the model OVERALL Average Comments Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 6.0 Non-profit BoD 9 7.2 Startup 7 7.2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 5.4 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 6.6 Systems Building 7 5.4
  • 13. Add weighting to the factors to allow differences in importance. This tweaks the averages: switch to Rank as your key indicator. Test all factors by first zeroing and then doubling the weight to see what factors are irrelevant and which are key. If necessary, test new factors. Iterate between including or excluding factors and changing weighting to get your story as consistent as possible. It should never match perfectly. Remember reality is always messier than you can effectively model! Heres a template you can copy and use.
  • 14. Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineering Average Comments Rank OVERLL Rank Average Dif Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 2 5 3 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 1 2 1 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 3 1 2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 5 3 2 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 3 4 1 0 Adding in Weighting - Dropping Out Money 9 mismatch weighting--> 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Community Organizing 8 10.0 4.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 3.0 5.5 2 3 1 Non-profit BoD 9 10.0 6.0 10.0 10.0 0.0 8.0 7.3 1 1 0 Startup 7 7.0 8.0 5.0 8.0 0.0 10.0 6.3 3 2 1 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 4.0 3.8 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7.0 6.0 4.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 5.3 5 4 1 Systems Building 7 2.0 6.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 10.0 4.8 3 5 2 0 5 mismatch 1) Add weighting Template and formulas here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16fLLRcCQw6Fl3w7UBJQUswGGNQumEao5yg0V3cBac2I/edit?usp=sharing 2) And Add Rank. 3) Then dropping out money 4)Improved the model
  • 15. Factors OVERALL tribe / teamwork fun social utility legend money craft / engineering Average Comments Rank OVERLL Rank Average Dif Things I've Done Community Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 2 5 3 Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 1 2 1 Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 3 1 2 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 5 3 2 Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2 3 4 1 0 Adding in Weighting - Dropping Out Money 9 mismatch weighting--> 1.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Community Organizing 8 10.0 4.0 20.0 6.0 0.0 3.0 7.2 2 2 0 Non-profit BoD 9 10.0 6.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 8.0 9.0 1 1 0 Startup 7 7.0 8.0 10.0 8.0 0.0 10.0 7.2 3 2 1 Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4.0 4.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 4.0 4.7 6 6 0 Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7.0 6.0 8.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 6.0 5 4 1 Systems Building 7 2.0 6.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 10.0 5.7 3 5 2 0 4 mismatch Template and formulas here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16fLLRcCQw6Fl3w7UBJQUswGGNQumEao5yg0V3cBac2I/edit?usp=sharing 5.Doubling social utility 6. Improved it further
  • 16. Project Yourself Forward The Messy Reality
  • 17. Theres a discussion of this slide in the companion Medium article, last section.