Susan Pinker of The Globe and Mail has a "Dear Susan" column. Yesterday's title for Susan's column was "Satisfaction is a moving target". And while this is not exceedingly germane to my typical 'knowledge notes' topics, it did make me chuckle to compare choosing peanut butter to choosing a career in KM.
A reader, 'Just Me' asks (after a detailed explanation of her hiatus from working due to a number of reasons):
Should I take more college courses in knowledge management? I don't seem to have a passion or can't define one. Where should I go from here? Is it even viable for me to start over?
--Just Me and My Cats
To which Susan Pinker replies:
Dear Just Me,
Your predicament reminds me of shopping for peanut butter in a big supermarket. Should you buy the one you liked as a child? The one without fat, sugar or salt, but perhaps without taste? What about the organic one; it's better for you but you read somewhere that it contains a weird toxic mould. Smooth? Crunchy? The one with the peanut on top or the oil slick on top?
...While I'm not suggesting that choosing a career is as trivial as buying peanut butter, there is a limit to how much your happiness hinges on making the perfect choice.
...To extrapolate to your situation, now that you're healthy and your parents are settled, I don't think it's critical whether you work part-time, full-time, in business, library science, knowledge management or a combination of the above. What is critical is that you get back into the labour market and away from your cats, at least for a few hours a day.
of peanut butter and knowledge management...
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