Has anyone given up on their plan A in life, and have accepted plan B or C? - Page 2

It's not really fair if we are counting childhood dreams. As far as I can remember them, I had three successive dream carreers as a kid, I'll rank them plans A to C. Plan D failed too. I'd say I am on plan E as well, though I am a bit younger than you.

Oh, and I was a strange kid. My childhood dreams were, I kid you not, plan A - army, plan B - curator in a big museum, plan C - high-ranking civil servant.

My Plan A was to be a Velociraptor...

The only true dream was "rock star," which is a shame, because that seems like the most lucrative and fun of my various plans, lol.

I still revive the professor plan occassionally. A couple of years ago, I looked into finishing my Ph.D. so I could teach in my retirement. The recruiting co-deans were too vexing to deal with

I've got a list of future plans too: vineyard owner, opening an analogue to the VTR, lottery winner.

This might be applicable

I've probably had a 100 curves in the road.

I will say that those I've known that knew exactly what they wanted to do when they were young and then went ahead and did it, have been the most successful in their lives.

In my link, I tell the story of a Rice classmate who "knew what he wanted to do", 40 years ago. He went on to become a major partner at a major Silicon Valley VC firm.

I think the same goes for Drs., lawyers, and Indian Chiefs. If you have a plan when you are young, then you have a much better chance to achieve something.

When I was young all I wanted to do was chase pussy and get high.

I've substituted the "getting high" with helping people. So life changes.

Plan E here: wanted to be a biologist...then a chemist...then in the military...finally, a journalist. My total inaptitude in precise sciences, like math and chemistry, killed my bio-chemical aspirations

Probably Plan C/D, but I look at it as just taking a different path to a destination, which kind of remains the same.

This is so, so very French.

Why the facepalm? This one is actually still pretty feasible, though for a limited time, if I still wanted to.

Well, ignoring childhood stuff, I'm way down the road on plans. . . I'll simplify:

Plan A was university researcher
Plan B was university professor (I didn't want to teach unless forced)
Plan C was private sector researcher

The prereq? A PhD. . .which I don't have

Turns out I couldn't afford to live on the kind of pay science provides.

So I went to Plan D. . . luck and chance

It turns out relying on luck and chance is far more lucrative than being a scientist.

Did you go to the ENA?

In principle, I am opposed to the gratuitous expansion of bureaucratic machinery, especially in a country as centralized as France. That your countrymen seem to think nothing of leaving nearly all matters of public life in government hands never ceases to amaze me.

Its general inefficiency and incompetence, however, does not surprise me much.

Interestingly, I'm not sure I can think of another country where public service is as much an honour as in France.

No, but many of my friends did, and I seriously considered it a few years ago. Theoretically, it is still a carreer option, but increasingly unlikely.

This comment, actually, seems very gratuitous to me. It's also quite revealing. Your facepalm was not, it turns out, really grounded on a deep analysis but rather on a general dislike of the public service. Duly noted.

This is probably true, but I don't consider this a bad thing automatically like you apparently do.

This is an odd dismissal. Firstly, I work in the consular services of a foreign embassy in Paris, so not only do I not have an a priori against government, but I have a good basis for comparison of different systems. Second, as an expatriate in France, I have ample experience with the various government agencies responsible for immigration, residence cards, work permits, drivers' licences, the CAF, the PACS, and so forth. The nature of my work touches on their activities as well. The inconsistency in the application of rules, the arbitrariness of decisions, and the delays of service are astounding from any neutral point of view. Thirdly, I would be surprised if a facepalm has ever been grounded on deep analysis. Il ne faut pas prendre ces choses tellement au sérieux. I consider it part and parcel of a larger statism which characterizes French culture, dating from before the French Revolution. The federal government arrogates power to itself in a highly centralized fashion (for example, the steamrolling of municipal authority as part of the Grand Paris project). Citizens then expect it to solve most, if not all, problems that affect the public well-being. This is an unrealistic expectation no matter what your position on government is, but it leads to a swollen bureaucracy that is elaborated in order to regulate and solve issues that are rarely best dealt with by the state. Many are then enticed to work there by the prestige the government has acquired for itself by being the supreme national arbiter. This is obviously a gloss on a complex situation, but I stand by the gist. Note that there is no French equivalent of the phrase 'public/civil servant' -- you say 'fonctionnaire.' The famous French penchant for self-criticism touches everything the government does, but never its necessity to do something. I would be lying if I said that seeing this general attitude expressed in public discourse didn't perplex me somewhat.

I've always wanted to be a respectable slacker so I'd say I'm pretty much on track with my goals.

Plan A was to be an astronaut and it didn't work out so well. Plan B, to be a well dressed alcoholic, is coming along nicely.