some people see 'career growth' as going to seminars and networking with manager types.
some people see 'career growth' as opening up a new technical manual and acquainting themselves with new stuff.
I think it's import to differentiate; networking with managers and going to industry-specific (or even company specific) seminars offers next to zero enticement for me, but I usually always have the time to read about a new language or tech.
In other words: If a growth opportunity arises, i'd rather it be personal growth.
I don't think it matters how you define it. Engineering career growth is almost always going to be about understanding the new technologies, gaining communication skills in navigating an org. etc....
What you're calling personal growth is 100% related to career growth. And you sound like someone who does do things outside the hours of 9 to 5 that intellectually you find interesting, and likely makes you better at what you do 9 to 5...
You're going to show up at that meeting someday, there's going to be a problem to solve, and you're going to have some ideas for things to try that are answers, because you read about that new tech. And someone's going to tap you on the shoulders to lead that or what not....
It's funny, I'm on a Delta flight right now with bad wifi and a few minutes ago I was thinking about how slow internet access completely changes my browsing habits to be more deliberate.
Example from a few seconds ago: I frequently click into HN user's profile pages when I read an interesting comment from them as I scroll past. At home, it loads ~instantly even on 5G. But when it takes 5-7 seconds to load one, you get a lot more thoughtful about navigating your browser.
There's definitely something interesting about intentionally downgrading your own experience in targeted ways.
It definitely downclocks the chip, but it also does some other stuff like capping the frame rate on the display, which (to me, ymmv) goes a long way towards making the phone "feel slower".
My (teenaged) kids frequently let their phones go into low battery and then run in power saving mode for hours, when one of them hands me their phones it's super jarring and feels awful to use coming from my 120hz phone haha.
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