Take an hour over the holidays and build the list of specific people you'd want to work with someday.
There are two reasons why this is important.
1. If you have the list, you can take active steps towards turning these people into colleagues. And it really does happen sometimes.
2. The very act of creating the list will force you to think "who in my field do I consider world-class?" which in turn will help you define world-class for yourself. Of course the list will probably include a bunch of folks who don't do exactly what you do as well.
3 examples from my list, which is currently ~12 people:
Benedict Evans for the clarity of his research
John Burn-Murdoch because I struggle with chart envy when I read his work
Harriet Johnston because she seems to derive such a sense of fun from the day to day
I feel like founders often have these sorts of lists in their heads even if they aren't written down - but they can be as beneficial (or even more so) for us regular employees 😁
Who's on your list?
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