Transition from Exploration to Exploitation

I realize that I spend the majority of time on consuming what others produce. Reading, watching, and listening to materials created by others.

It makes sense to do so when I was young and in the exploration stage of my life. I needed a lot of advice and information from others when I was uncertain about what to do for my career, who to live for the rest of my life together, where to settle and live, and so on

However, now I entered into the exploitation stage – I’ve developed my expertise in my career, data science. I married love of my life and had our children together. My family moved to a place where we’d like to live for generation. I need to start to focus on producing.

It’s not to say that I’ve already figured out everything and I don’t need to learn anymore. It’s opposite. It’s time to learn new things about how to produce best by utilizing what I’ve learned in the past.

Studies on the secretary problem state that the optimal stopping point of exploration is 37%. e.g. If you’re recruiting a secretary next 100 days, it’s optimal to pass all candidates during the first 37 days to learn about the total distribution of candidates, and then to hire the first person who is better than all candidates who you interview in the first 37 days.

I spent little over 37% of my life so far, by assuming 100 years of life expectancy by 2080. From now on, I will focus on exploitation, execution, and production.