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Help With Career Decision

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I was googling today to find out a place where I can discuss career related topics with people , kind of like an online careers forum, and one of the links that google returned was this website. Specifically, it returned this link:

http://forum.ObjectivismOnline.com/index.php?showtopic=2261

and so here i am, wondering if anyone can help me, or guide me through your expertise I should say, in taking the right path towards a fruitful career.

Thanks!

Edited by CaRNaGe
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Easy! Choose something that you enjoy, that is also moral; and, if possible, do it in a way that can earn you a lot of money!

Seriously though, Objectivism is a philosophy and will not help you with the specifics of career advice. There are many moral, enjoyable and productive careers possible to people.

If you like, search through the forum for other threads on "career" and "purpose". Here are some that I found:

Central Purpose in Life

How to Pick a Career

Career in the IT industry

Career in Physics

All the best with your decision.

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Easy! Choose something that you enjoy, that is also moral; and, if possible, do it in a way that can earn you a lot of money!

Seriously though, Objectivism is a philosophy and will not help you with the specifics of career advice. There are many moral, enjoyable and productive careers possible to people.

If you like, search through the forum for other threads on "career" and "purpose". Here are some that I found:

Central Purpose in Life

How to Pick a Career

Career in the IT industry

Career in Physics

All the best with your decision.

Thanks a bunch for those links! they helped out a lot. I'm interested in becoming a professor at a university, however, i would aslo like to help out people all over the world, but is that possible with a professor's salary? in that article it said that one should try to get to the highest possible area with their abilities (not exactly word for word), and so that's what i plan on doing, but what is the highest a professor can get paid? maybe i'm googling the wrong thing? any help?

Edited by CaRNaGe
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Spinnach, was that sarcasm I sensed?  :lol:

LOL. Not at all. I really mean that. I love history. My grandfather is a really big history buff and when I was little, he would teach me. My only problem (which was why I chose EE over History), was that I didn't know what I could do with a degree in History. I still don't. So it's just a hobby of mine.

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Because history intrigues me, ...
Actually, "studentOfObjectivism" asked "why?" about a different thing that you said: why you wanted to "help out people all over the world".

History is a lot of fun, though I will admit that when I was in school (decades ago) I did not think so.

If you had to choose, would you want to teach history, write about it, go on archeological digs? If you visualize yourself in the "coolest career possible" in history, what would you be doing?

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Because history intrigues me, and the same can be said about Geography and Geology as well. and if you're headed towards a career you love, then you won't hate your job in the future.

Spinnach, was that sarcasm I sensed?  :lol:

No, I didn't mean "Why do you want to be involved in a career that involves history?" I meant why do you feel the need to help others?

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OH, LOL sorry guys. well, to answer your question (and thank you softwareNerd for clarifying it for me), I feel a great desire to help the poor and the needy that I see not only in far off places, but around me too. I mean the homeless in the downtowns across America, too (although its hard to see how a person in America of all places ended up being homeless what with all the opportunity here). I feel this way because the idea of me having a roof over my head and my belly full with food and knowing that others don't have at least this much makes me want to give them what you and I are blessed with.

softwareNerd, you know, its really hard to say, but i think that being somewhere like a classroom full of minds that are eager to learn and be inspired is a more & has more appeal to me. I'd want to teach them how for the most part, we human beings haven't learned a thing from history! it might make a little bit of difference in this world of ours. but like I said, I do have a great desire to help out third world nations, etc. and to be able to do that effectively, and I hate to say it, but you need money. I pray that I am given a chance to provide others with at least the basics of life that we take for granted.

Spinnach, you're not wrong in your thought of not being able to find something you'd be able to do in a degree in history. :thumbsup:

Edited by CaRNaGe
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Carnage, The quandary you pose is how to help people like those in Africa and still pursue a career in history.

Helping people in Africa is a pretty conventional idea, and there are two conventional ways to approach that goal. The first way is to be part of the operational aid (e.g. peace corp, or various NGOs). It is difficult to see how one could weave a career in history directly into this; though, if you are interested in African history, you might be able to work something out. The second way is to finance people like the NGOs. As you said, this would take money. (Wealth, to be distributed, must first be created.) Folks like Gates do more for such charities than the kids who join the peace corp. It isn't impossible to weave a career in history into a money making enterprise -- books and other publications come to mind -- but, I'm short of ideas here.

Then, one should consider unconventional ways to help. You said that people do not learn from history. That is often true. Just see how much western money has been poured into Africa -- it's in the billions of dollars -- with little to show for it. Just last month, the west -- for the umpteenth time -- was working on a plan to forgive some debt of African countries. What was the African reaction? They were up in arms saying that all the debt should be forgiven, not just some.

The solution to Africa's poverty will only come when African countries change politically. Perhaps as a historian you can research and teach about cycles of dependency, about what really works, about why the west is really rich and prosperous and why Africa is poor.

All countries in Africa are not the same. Perhaps you can write the history of some African countries and what they did right, and why they were prosperous. Perhaps you could study what happened when Idi Amin expropriated businesses run by non-blacks, and gave those businesses to sundry thugs, saying that they needed a start. (A majority of the new "owners" ate the capital till it was all gone.) Perhaps you could study the history of South Africa, and why it grew to be one of the wealthiest African nations.

The Africans have much to learn. The Asians seem to have got the message, The middle east might. Africa will come of age sometime -- maybe you can play a role in dragging them more quickly toward rationality.

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