Optionality
When I was six, my parents told me to study hard so that I could attend college one day. I dreamed of becoming a scientist back then though I had no idea what that meant. I did make it to college. I got a Ph.D. After my Ph.D. graduation, I spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher. You may imagine that I would seek another academic job to become a scientist. But it is not. After finishing my postdoc, I began to think about where I should be going. Since then, I have started to reflect on what went wrong with my life. I spent twenty years on a single option - becoming an academic. This option is not for me because I don't particularly appreciate playing the status game: publishing more papers without merits in so-called premier venues. I hate to acquire stamps of approval from peers. I spent twenty years chasing a dream that turned out undesirable for me. And I missed a ton of opportunities along the way.
My experience also echoes a finding that human beings rarely know what they will desire in the future. I paid an enormous price for accumulating and preparing for a single option. I could've done much better had I understood the essence of optionality: accumulating diverse options with caped downside and unlimited upside. Getting various options can mean a lot. It means reading books or blogs that may change your perspectives. It can be investing in a startup, meeting people from different backgrounds, learning an uncommon language, understanding an exotic culture, or getting a job in a new industry. It doesn't matter which option you take as long as the cost of failure is constrained. You do not have to predict the future world. All you need to do is experiment with it, discard the bad and keep the good.