Posted on 05/17/2026 5:52:12 PM PDT by libh8er
FOR DECADES, THE FORMULA for career success was simple: go to school, get a job, climb the ladder. But the ladder is now collapsing before our eyes. And honestly, good riddance. The career ladder isn’t just an outdated metaphor — it actively blocks people from finding more fulfilling work.
Think about it this way: In school, there are clear markers for success. The goal is to get good grades. This continues into entry-level roles, where workers strive for raises and promotions. Tracked careers like law and consulting are attractive, at least in part, because they offer legible paths for advancement. Rather than having to grapple with what you personally value, you can always reach for the next rung
I call this “ladder logic.” Ladder logic is the belief that higher is always better — and that progress only counts if other people can see it. Ladder logic creates what William Deresiewicz, a professor of English at Yale University, calls “world-class hoop jumpers.” In a now-famous commencement speech, Deresiewicz observed that his students could memorize any formula, ace any test, and “climb the greasy pole of whatever hierarchy they decide to attach themselves to.” In other words, they are excellent sheep.
Ladder logic promises certainty: If I follow the rules and get good grades in the school of life, I will be successful. But ladder logic has costs. Eventually, you can find that you’re playing a game you’re not actually interested in winning, and yet, after tethering so much of your self-worth to your career, choosing to step off the ladder would mean foreclosing part of your identity.
Thankfully, the 2020s all but killed traditional notions of the linear career. The combination of a global pandemic that shifted workers’ perspectives on work, mass layoffs that undermined the promise of employer loyalty, and the rise of AI has rendered the ladder metaphor nearly obsolete. Instead, we’ve entered the era of the nonlinear career.
A nonlinear career is one that doesn’t follow a predetermined, step-by-step progression within a single field or organization. Nonlinear careers might involve lateral moves, industry switches, or professional reinvention. Instead of a series of rungs on a ladder, they look more like a series of lily pads, each hop a new opportunity for growth. The ability to reinvent your professional identity — once mistaken for a lack of focus — may be the defining career competency of the coming decade.
For many, this is great news: Our professional interests were never meant to fit neatly into lines on a resume. But the transition to nonlinearity requires more than just a new metaphor; it requires the capacity to not know exactly where you’re going and to be OK with that. Call it uncertainty tolerance.
I just published a book called How to Not Know, in which I spoke with philosophers, psychologists, and economists about how to get better at navigating uncertainty. Here are five tips for developing more uncertainty tolerance in your career — and life:
Find your anchors. When we are certain about some aspects of our lives, it becomes easier to hold uncertainty in others. For example, getting clear on your values or a commitment to live in a certain place might make it easier to hold uncertainty in your career or relationships. Your anchors are what keep you steady when the winds change. Ask yourself which aspects of your life will remain constant no matter what the future holds.
Shrink your planning horizon. Most people try to map out the next five or 10 years, then feel destabilized when reality diverges from the plan. Practicing shorter planning cycles — what do I need from the next six months? — builds tolerance for ambiguity over time. This has only become more important in the age of AI, as 10-year plans quickly become outdated. Rather than stay fixed to a rigid plan, treat the future of your career like a hypothesis that’s open to revision.
Diversify your identity. A lot of anxiety about uncertainty comes from tying your sense of self to a specific job title, company, or career trajectory. This is a lesson many learned the hard way during the pandemic, when hundreds of thousands of loyal employees were unceremoniously laid off. Much like an investor benefits from diversifying the stocks in their portfolio, we benefit from diversifying the sources of meaning and identity in our lives. Doing so means you can remain standing even if one pillar of your identity crumbles.
Make small bets. Uncertainty tolerance isn’t built in the abstract — it’s built through repeated exposure to low-stakes unknowns. By exposing yourself to uncertain situations where you’ll be forced to learn, you expand your capacity for the unknown. As best-selling author James Clear writes, “The ultimate form of preparation is not planning for a specific scenario, but a mindset that can handle uncertainty.”
Choose curiosity over fear. Part of what makes uncertainty so uncomfortable is our brain’s tendency to catastrophize. It’s easy to always frame uncertainty as a threat, but uncertainty can also be the birthplace of possibility. Nearly every scientific discovery, world-changing business, and mind-expanding piece of art began with someone’s willingness to persist through the fog of uncertainty. Curiosity has the power to reveal the opportunities that fear obscures.
The greatest benefit of a nontraditional path is that you have to figure out what you care about. Rather than an employer telling you what to value, you have to do the work of deciding for yourself. But the result is greater alignment between your working life and your values. A strong internal compass is more useful than anyone else’s map.
When a bean counter runs the company then it is in its death throes.
"If I were giving a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life, I would say to him, pick out a good father and mother, and begin life in Ohio." -Wilbur Wright, 1910.
(This quote was from the 5/13/2026 Cryptogram here on FR.)
My big company was very good to me. I learned how to hate management but stuck with them for 30 years. We had a retirement program, SSI, and a 401k. Took advantage of all 3. Retirement’s very good.
To someone starting out-god help them.
In IT, being a straight white male puts you at a significant disadvantage for advancement opportunities. That is a fact, not perception.
Or they will lead it to their death throes.
I completely agree with you and times of optimism and prosperity, such as the 1949s-1950s, were times of relative equality where the average person was paid fairly for their work.
Copilot AI:
Fake Rockefeller quote — There is no historical record, speech transcript, letter, or biography that contains the line “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.”
Researchers have traced it to modern internet conspiracy circles, not to Rockefeller.
Misleading education claim — Rockefeller did not “create” or “found” the U.S. general education system. Public schooling existed long before him. He did fund the General Education Board (1902), but its purpose was to expand access to schooling, not to suppress critical thinking.
Fabricated aphorism — This line also has no documented source. It appears in motivational quote websites with no citations.
Fake Rockefeller quote — There is no historical record, speech transcript, letter, or biography that contains the line “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.” Researchers have traced it to modern internet conspiracy circles, not to Rockefeller.
The quote is attributed to John D. Rockefeller, from “John D. Rockefeller on Making Money: Advice and Words of Wisdom on Building and Sharing Wealth”, p.7, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. 2015 as per AZ Quotes
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/607052
How is this a nontraditional path? Since I was a child, people said: "Find a career you like and you will never have to work a day of your life." This clown is simply trying to find a new word for a concept that's been around for centuries.
It was always possible to chart your own path, so this article is nearly about nothing.
However (thanks to DEI and H1B and a host of other reasons) to the extent that the ladder is destroyed it *forces* people to some alternate path.
Problem is “choose your own adventure” is usually incompatible with other normal goals like financial independence, family, owning one’s own house, etc.
Unless you’re able to work for yourself (whether tradeskill or entrepreneur) or have a bunch of connections to exploit to get contract work that can support you, this article amounts to a “get used to being pooched repeatedly and like it” advice column.
Almost any job is rewarding. Stuff needs to be made, get done, etc. There is an intrinsic worth in any effort.
There is also the worth mentioned in the above statement. Getting up every day and providing for your family is huuuuuge. No job is perfect. You may not "make it difference" to thousands, but your family, safe, sound, is no small thing.
For younger people, if you don't already have a specific vocation in mind, you can try different jobs. You will find out about the world of work either way. You will have bosses who take you under their wing, and other bosses who do not.
If you do have a specific type of work, career, interest, but cannot just snap your fingers and have it, take a job, any job, while you keep your goal in mind. Along the way you will find other things you never knew existed. That may change your perspective, your desires. Keep moving forward. Whatever you do, get the BLEEP up every day and get out there.
The cite is legit, and besides Skyhorse Press, an edition of the same book was published by Simon and Schuster. The problem is, I cannot find a cite of him saying it before 2000. It might be out there somewhere, and Rockefeller is a bad dude (despite being a distant relative by marriage). But these things sometimes get a life of their own.
100 percent true.
Goes double if the company is a hyper politically correct European one.
I’ll throw in conservative as well.
White Bernie bots lived good at my old corporate IT department.
The bot preferred rewarding the known slacker who blatantly knew very little about his job for years and making life miserable for the competent and capable person.
May that job be a revolving door of mediocre incompetents.
Ladder logic makes more sense than this article...work hard achieve more. Be the best if you want to succeed.
Or you can be a liberal....
Publicly traded corporations tend to make decisions based on a quarterly timeline, despite the happy talk about 'strategic plans'. And then you get to middle management, where its rare to have a manager who has the best interests of the business in mind. Some of the worst cases in that 'mucky middle' are those who make grandiose promises to senior management (aka your mouth writing checks your a** can't cash) , gambling that they'll be on to their next position before the consequences catch up.
In those large, publicly traded corporations its my opinion that more often than not the Pareto Principle is applicable.
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