mental models, frameworks and practices talk for https://www.di.univr.it/?ent=seminario&id=5267&lang=en

1. Alex Honchar 2021
Self-employment career in STEM
mental models, frameworks and practices

2. Agenda
Following our professional framework
• Preamble and Main idea
• The “Axioms” and the “Theorems”: high-level concepts
• The “Models”: summarizing tech careers
• Practices and Exercises: to-do actions
• Closing notes and Discussion

3. introduction

4. Preamble
- not a motivational speech
- not a get-rich-quick scheme
- not a lecture, but a discussion

5. My path
14-18 gig period: web code monkey
19-21 salary period: data scientist
22-25 contract period: ML consultant for SMEs and startups
26-… deal period: business owner + personal brand media owner

6. Why I give this talk?
- I like systemizing my experience, using and sharing it
- my company works only with independent contractors, we might
partner up on some projects
- to verify if this topic is interesting for potential commercial
educational activities

7. Why you spend your evening here?
- why we need to do it vs big companies as FAANG / compete
with them
- intermediate steps
- alternatives

8. Today self-employment is the
most impactful social and
financial interaction model
for professionals in STEM
The main idea of this discussion

9. axioms and theorems

10. Capitalism
is good
Evolution
is good
Competition, free markets,
money as the universal
measure of value exchange
Survival of the
fi
ttest, continuous
changes of biological systems
towards complexity
Hierarchy
is natural
Biological species aren’t
designed to born, live and
die as equal individuals

11. Clare Graves, Don Beck
Spiral dynamics
https://thinkingthroughchristianity.com/2019/09/spiraling-toward-the-divine.html

12. Adults development theory
Robert Kegan
https://
libraryofconcepts.wor
dpress.com/
2017/10/29/three-
most-relevant-
stages-of-human-
development-
nowadays-kegan-13/

13. Robert Kiyosaki
Cashflow quadrant
https://youberelentless.com/the-cash
fl
ow-
quadrant-
fi
nancial-quotes-by-robert-kiyosaki/

14. Hierarchy and social mobility
Pitirim Sorokin, Vsevolod Zelenin
• “Army”: acts bravely in crisis times
• “Science”: knows things before others
• “Church”: knows what’s good and bad is
• “Marriage”: builds true relationships
• “Politics”: pulls the hidden strings
• “Sports”: works harder than the others
• “Show”: is more famous than the others
• “Arts”: the closest to the eternal perfection
Illustration from a 1916 advertisement for a
vocational school in the back of a US magazine

15. modeling careers

16. Typical career
Employed vs Self-Employed
• Typical active state:
• Spiral: blue
• Quadrant: employed
• Mobility: sports, marriage
• Typical resources:
• Tech skills from formal education
• Papers / Conferences (mandatory
activities)
• University and employees network
• 40-60 hours of time weekly doing stu
f
• Typical active state:
• Spiral: orange
• Quadrant: self-employed
• Mobility: deeply personal
• Typical resources:
• Skills / knowledge from self-education and
apprenticeship about tech, marketing, etc
• Blog, public speeches, developed social
media
• Business and expert network
• Solution to the client’s problem

17. Typical career
Mathematical modeling
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/
1ksNrEDy61bep9_OW17oBqWZce-8KPU
IedsSYs_auDtk/edit?usp=sharing

18. practices

19. From jobless to employed
Your boss: a direct manager who gives you tasks
• Know yourself
personality traits, growth strategies, strong and weak points
• Know the market
orientation days, your network, media
• Know the skills
university fundamentals + SOTA from tech papers, conferences, media
• Know your manager
your client is always a person with normal human needs
Your product: your time and your technical skills
Your evolution: from red to blue

20. From employed to self-employed
Your bosses: one or several clients
• Know what business owner wants
Big-4 research reports, business conferences, personal interviews
• Know how to package this value
marketing and “pretotyping”
• Know how to deliver this value
Extract best practices and follow the standards
• Know how to access the clients and sell them
Based on your social mobility, choose communication type and channels
Your evolution: from blue to orange
Your product: tangible solutions to their problems

21. From self-employed to business owner
Your bosses: partners, investors, clients, employees
• Know your market, demand and business models in it
• Know your long-term purpose and strategy
• Know how to attract, motivate and manage people
• Know how to build and evolve systems
Your evolution: from orange to green
Your product: a system that serves your bosses

22. closing notes

23. Why today?
Post-industrial economy of information and human services
• Primary sector: raw materials
• Secondary sector: manufacturing
• Tertiary sector: services
• Quaternary sector: information
services
• Quinary sector: human services
https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Clark%27s_sector_model.svg

24. Why today?
Post-industrial society: individuals are leaving organizations
• STEM environment pushed us to be
unique to be successful (scientists
have to narrow down a research
problem)
• Technologies allow individuals to
create full-cycle products (as
opposed to manufacturing 100 years
ago)
• Our society encourages us to
monetize uniqueness and tech
supports it too (Patreon, YouTube,
TikTok, Upwork, Twitch, etc)
https://twitter.com/naval

25. Takeaways
Brief summary
• Self-employment is a 2nd stage of
fi
nancial evolution of the individual
• This is not a way to earn more money
immediately, it’s a way to increase your
upper bound set up by the paradigm of
selling of your time
• STEM professionals are trained to be
here, but frequently stuck on the 1st
stage. Although, we have more than
enough demand from the market and
tools to monetize niche products:
services, media, education, advisory -
businesses that a single person / small
team of friends can do
• It requires deep individual development:
personal traits, professional skills and
connection with your audience
• Personal traits can be analyzed through
social mobility framework / ikigai /
Collins’ hedgehog, professional skills
through market analysis and audience
through the interviews
• When ready with this, go to your
network, demonstrate your o
ff
er publicly
in social media, emphasize unique
proposition and re-iterate those steps
frequently until you cannot treat all the
customers you have by yourself.

26. discussion

27. Typical problems
pure science
- Do you REALLY need a PhD / university job to
publish a scienti
fi
c work? What are the exact
requirements?
- Who funds the research? Does EVERYONE asks for
university or industrial a
ffi
liation / full-time
commitment to pay you for your discoveries?
- Is the REAL IMPACT to the world measured via
Hirsch Index?
- Google who a “gentleman scientist” is and compare
to your current situation and expected decades of
university work
• But I just want to do theoretical research!

28. Typical problems
self-understanding
• How to understand what I am good in? • How to
fi
nd a social mobility
strategy?
How did you get things in
childhood?
How did you get things in
school?

29. Typical problems
packaging your services
• Any doubts that you’re good enough? • I do “unpredictable” research,
how to sell it?
Artifacts of the methodology that
can be bene
fi
cial for the client:
- Research report that unlocks
strategic direction
- Demo-solution that can be shown
to investors and beta-clients
- Set of hypotheses tested faster
and cheaper compared to the
employed stu
f
- Unique technical skills and
system vision of their application
- KYC and commitment for the
business-impactful result
- Congruent marketing and social
elevating mode
- Having a vision and a purpose of
your work and evolution

30. Typical problems
marketing activities
• How to
fi
nd a
fi
rst client? • What content should I post?
Authority Message #1: Tips &
Advice
Authority Message #2: Case
Studies
Authority Message #3: Analysis
of Relevant Current Events
Typically,
fi
rst clients are coming
from the following activities:
- “Spamming” your network
- Expertise demonstration
- “Product pretotyping” and
classic digital marketing
Apply your unique elevator skills!

31. Typical problems
fi
nance and negotiations
• How to charge a client? What’s their perspective?
Added value mode: client may look for a
unique employee for 6 months and pays the
recruiter all this time. You’re available now. This
is a bene
fi
t for the client. Add 100% just for this
fact.
Add 50-100% for the risk of result commitment.
Add 50-100% for bonuses (co-PR, your
network, additional services coverage, etc)
(This one is harder, but builds a unique
defensive moat against your competitors)
Raw value mode: they pay yearly €60’000 for a
full time expert to deliver something.
If you can you do the same for same price, but
in 9 months - it’s a time bene
fi
t for a client.
If you can deliver in solo in a year what usually 3
experts deliver, but for €120’000. It’s a money
bene
fi
t for a client.
(I don’t recommend this approach, because
there will be always someone faster and
cheaper)