Work is the vehicle, not the destination

Felix Sebastian is Head of Operations at a four-person, pre-revenue startup, the anchor role in a portfolio career. After a brief stint as a civil engineer and a detour teaching in a school, he spent most of his career as an academic editor in the language services industry, growing into management roles in Mumbai, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where he has lived for nearly ten years. These days he'd rather be out hiking than chasing a C-suite title.

Put distance between yourself and AI when you're solving a new problem. Felix sketches it out with pen and paper first, then uses AI to structure his notes and point him in directions he hadn't considered.

Ask a future manager what they do outside of work. It's one of the first questions Felix asks at the end of an interview, because people with full lives understand that you have one too.

Use a crisis to write down exactly what you want, then judge every opportunity against that list. After a long time out of work the urge is to take the first job offered, which pays the bills but doesn't fix the underlying problem.

Put your energy into what you can touch, not what you scroll. Going "default offline" means swapping doomscrolling for local things you can actually change, like getting involved in your community or going for a hike.