you've done the career audit.

named the discomfort. asked "is this it?"

here's what you haven't done. the actual fucking math.

80,000 hours. that's your entire career. every working hour from age 22 to retirement.

guess what? i lied.

here's where i lied. you don't have 80,000 hours anymore. ai is eating the timeline from both ends. ai just stole 20,000 of your hours.

entry level work? automated.

mid level analysis? ai does it better. the 40 year career is becoming a 25 year career.

so call it 60,000 hours. maybe 50,000. the game got shorter while you weren't looking.

the math is unforgiving.

every hour spent unconsciously is an hour you can't get back.

how many hours do you have left?

your age minus 22. multiply by 2,000. that's how many career hours you've already spent. minus that by 80K.

no stress though. i built you a calculator.

open it, enter your age, hit submit.

the tragedy isn't where you spend these hours. you can build empires inside google. you can have the most fulfilling career never leaving one company.

i know a product manager who's been at microsoft twelve years. same company. but she's had five different careers within it. consumer products to enterprise. hardware to software. ic to leadership. each transition deliberate.

i know another pm who's switched companies six times in twelve years. new logo on the email signature. same exact job. same exact problems. same exact skills.

time × intention = impact.

when intention is zero, impact is zero.

doesn't matter if you're at a startup or microsoft. doesn't matter if it's your vision or satya's.

if you're not conscious about what you're building with your hours, you're just burning them. here's the framework that actually matters:

**1. know your number

use the calculator. get the number.** that's your constraint. everything else is negotiable.

2. audit your build

capabilities: what can you do now? problems solved: what specific challenges can you handle? impact created: what exists because of your hours?

3. calculate your burn rate

learning hours: time spent acquiring new capabilities execution hours: time spent applying existing capabilities waste hours: time spent neither learning nor creating impact

if your waste hours are over 30%, you're unconscious. if they're over 50%, you're sleepwalking.

4. design your next 10,000

not your next job. your next 10,000 hours. what capabilities will you build? what problems will you solve? what impact will you create?

last week, i met the CEO of starbucks india to shoot the GrowthX podcast. 25 with tata and starbucks. 25 years with the same company. i asked him how that happens without losing his mind.

"every three years, i found or created a completely new role. new problems. new scale. new team. it was like switching companies without switching companies."

twenty five years. 50,000 hours. zero waste.

the question isn't whether you should quit your job. the question is whether you know what you're building with the hours you're spending. can you name the capabilities you've developed? the problems you've learned to solve? the impact you've created?

some of you are exactly where you should be, building exactly what you intended. the math just confirms you're on track. keep going. but now you know the actual constraint.

others just realized they've been sleepwalking through thousands of hours. busy without building. moving without progressing.

most of you will do this calculation and feel sick. like you just discovered you've been playing poker with your retirement fund.

that discomfort? that's clarity arriving.

that panic about wasted time? that's your brain finally understanding the actual game you're playing.

what now? nothing. today, you just sit with it. today you just need to know your number. because until you understand the constraint, every career decision you make is based on a delusion. the delusion that that you can afford another five years in the wrong place or in the wrong mindset in your current org.

but tonight, sit with your number. feel the weight of hours already spent.

tomorrow, we'll figure out what the fuck to do about it.