Thinking about what to spend time on is something I have spent a lot of time on. (Notice the irony?)
So over time, post tons of discussions, debates, arguments, I managed a framework for myself that reduces this to what problems I want to solve.
Disclaimer: This is solely my opinion and how I see problems and a lot of it might seem to be from the feels of a problem rather than objective metrics. In my defense, I am still iterating over the thought process and metric representation better.
Over the course of problems I have worked towards (small set though), I have realized that the projects that give me most pleasure or reward are high impact.
high impact is a super subjective term. So, to explain my definition of high impact better - I use the following questions to start with
1. Would Flipkart be high impact if it wasn’t there today? Yes
2. Is AI for Cancer Diagnosis high impact ? Definitely.
3. Is Appdynamics high impact if it wasn’t there today? No
4. Is building a game that reaches 1bn downloads high impact? No
5. Is building IOT for farmers high Impact? Yes
6. Is an app that gives automated feedback while working out high impact? No
7. Is building UPI or Phone Pe high impact? Yes
The above answers gives a loosely bound idea of my definition of high impact but for the lack of a better vocabulary - I call it first order impact. There is tons of second and third order impact by SAAS tools like Appdynamics or mass scale games but somehow that has failed to excite me enough (yet!).
Another observation from above is that problems/projects that change the regular lives of tons of people automatically gets bucketed as high impact. This makes me biased towards India specific problems automatically.
Next metric is ROI.
Since I weigh impact so high for evaluating problems, I also understand impact isn’t just a peak in the time series graph but an area under the curve. So, If its high ROI - be it monetary, networking or up-skill - I do weigh it higher. Monetary, Networking and up-skill returns upgrades your choice of problems in the future and opens a whole new league of future problems to tackle.
Having tons of wealth allows Bill Gates to work towards eradicating malaria - I really cant think of anything more impactful being done by a single human today. Having the right networking or having worked with the right set of people allows you to form a consortium of complimentary skill sets to upgrade the problem set too. And of course, having up-skilled in any domain enables harder problems in the domain.
And lastly least important but non-zero importance is Difficulty. Who doesn’t like challenges and rewards of solving a really hard technical problem. The adrenaline rush, the applause and respect in any domain is definitely enticing and appealing.
TLDR
I decide what to spend time on at macro-level on the basis of the following metrics with which I weigh a problem in order of importance. - First Order Impact - ROI - Monetary - Networking - Skill - Difficulty