Jovan Cicmil's Blog

How to Find Meaningful Work

How to Find Meaningful Work
What is meaningful work? The answer to this question changes from age to age and from society to society, but only on the surface. The essence remains the same because it comes from the very core of our humanity. “Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky Philosophy is no match for evolution For hu...

How To Adopt Radical Open-Mindedness

How To Adopt Radical Open-Mindedness
I recently read Ray Dalio’s book, Principles. Dalio is one of the most successful investors in history, and a person of remarkable breadth and vision. In this book, he outlines the principles that he built over a long and rich career, and that we can use to guide our life and work. Out of all the concepts in the book, possibly the most important (and certainly the most widely applicable) is r...

What Web Development Agencies Get Wrong

What Web Development Agencies Get Wrong
If somebody wants to pay you to build a wooden cottage for them, what do you do? Do you: Name a price for building a wooden cottage. Offer to build them a mansion with a swimming pool, solar panels, garage, alarm system, and an exotic garden, then try to bill them for that. Common sense says that everyone should choose the former option. Yet, web development agencies routinely choose th...

How to Choose a 21st Century Career

How to Choose a 21st Century Career
How many times have you heard a sentence that started with the words “I wish I had…”? College graduates wish they had understood how the world works before they chose their majors (or, indeed, whether to attend university at all). Middle-aged men and women wish they had chosen this industry over that. Everybody has 20/20 hindsight, but peering into the future is a completely different ani...

Six Ways to Monetize Your Upwork Profile

Six Ways to Monetize Your Upwork Profile
I’ve been a freelancer for 9 years. Upwork has provided me with the sort of work that I never thought possible before that. The sort of work that you can enjoy doing and make good money while you’re at it — all on your own schedule. But, that’s not the whole story. Contrary to popular belief, there is great value to be found in a successful Upwork profile beyond the obvious “do a proj...

Applying Lessons From Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” to Your Business

Applying Lessons From Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” to Your Business
One doesn’t need to be a literary expert to understand one thing — if a literary work survives for millennia, there is value in it that is intrinsic and timeless. There are messages within that have found application to the lives of people across centuries and continents. Thus, such works must not be ignored by anyone seeking to educate themselves. The Art of War isn’t merely a collection...

How To Upsell to Clients as a Freelancer

How To Upsell to Clients as a Freelancer
If I have learned something in ten years of freelancing, it is that the best kind of client is a repeat client. The overhead of searching for new projects, applying, interviewing, vetting clients and acquainting yourself with the project is immense. This is why it’s very important to regularly search for opportunities to extend your relationship with your existing clients. The trick is doing it ...

Price’s Law Is Going to Kill Your Company

Price’s Law Is Going to Kill Your Company
Have you noticed how, in every group, team or organization, a small number of people seem to be dragging everyone else forward? Whether you’re in a group chat organizing a trip or in an office building a startup, do you sometimes feel that a few people are pulling more than their fair share of the weight? Well, there’s a name for that. Physicist and historian of science Derek John de Solla ...

How I Made Over $150k on Upwork

How I Made Over $150k on Upwork
Just so we’re all clear that I’m not making this up, you can visit my Upwork profile here. Once there, you will find out two things: I am not making anything up. I did not make that money by writing. Most of the earnings came from software development projects, with a bit of consulting here and there. But, I do invite writers and marketers to go through the points below — most of ...

How I Built, Promoted, and Sold a Product with No Investments and No Marketing Budget

How I Built, Promoted, and Sold a Product with No Investments and No Marketing Budget
It doesn’t even involve a special kind of product, but it does entirely hinge on your relationship to the product. Eight years ago, I was a beginner programmer with little technical experience and no business acumen whatsoever. I had built no interactive websites, published no viral apps and written no recondite articles on software architecture. What I had was a desire to play fantasy football ...

The Declining Value of a University Education

The Declining Value of a University Education
How many people do you know that went off to university with admirable academic goals and returned disillusioned, broke and scandalously unprepared to contribute anything productive to the economy? This has become the norm rather than the exception, but why? In theory, we go to university to acquire knowledge which allows us to join the ranks of our desired profession. In practice, we stumble a...

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