THE JERK

By Rich Janney

A little more than 2000 years ago, a guy named Zeno thought up a crazy paradox.  Arrogantly, he called it “Zeno’s Paradox.” (Get a load of this guy…)  Zeno’s Paradox states that you can never get from Point A to Point B because, in order to get from here to there, you have to get to the halfway point first.  And if you want to get to the halfway point, you will first have to get halfway to the halfway point—more commonly known as the one-quarter mark.  And if you want to get to the one-quarter mark, you will have to first get to the halfway point between here and the one-quarter mark, which is the one-eighth point.  And, to get to the one-eighth point, you will first have to arrive at the one-sixteenth point.  And if you want to get to the one-sixteenth point…  This goes on and on forever and ever, which means that not only will you not get from Point A to Point B, but you will never even be able to start moving since there are an infinite number of things that have to happen before you can get to any point along the way, let alone to your destination.

To be clear, Zeno was a jerk for coming up with this doozy which has been confounding people for a long, long time.

But even if you’ve never heard of this jerk or his paradox, chances are that you are governed in some way by a similar, cruel logic.  People procrastinate for reasons that aren’t that dissimilar to the problem articulated above:  “There are a million things that have to happen in order for me to do X, and I can’t do a million things right now, so I am going to wait to begin until I have time to do a million things.”  Well, you’ll never have time to do a million things, so you’ll never get started.

As a recruiter, I hear this all the time.  I talk with someone who is psychologically ready to make the move to another firm or corporation, but is paralyzed by what seems to be an infinite number of tasks that need to happen in order to get from Point A to Point B. They put off taking that first step. They put it off, and off, and off.  Until one day, they wake up and realize that they missed their window of opportunity to make a move. 

Don’t let your career choices be governed by the logic of a two thousand year old philosopher.  If you are ready to make a job change (or if you are ready to do anything, for that matter), don’t over think things.  Yes, there is a list of things that have to be done before you can walk into your new office, but there aren’t that many items on the punch list and a recruiter can help clarify the process and guide you along the way.  As Lao-tzu once said, “A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step.” Okay, ignore what I just said about letting your career choices not be governed by a two-thousand year old philosopher.  Just ignore Zeno.