I definitely take life a little easier than most of my colleagues. The more they doubt their own skill the more they revert to scheming and try to make themselves irreplaceable — they do things purely because they think these things will fly, never because it is just the thing they'd like to do.
I always wondered if — maybe — it is me that is too playful, too improvised, too spontaneous: what if they are right and I am wrong? I have always been intrinsically driven by a broad range of topics. This arguably served me more over the years than any moat plan of any of my colleagues. I could more or less pick what to do next, while they were in their most and more or less stuck there, often complaining about the size, shape and color of the moat.
Moats are there to protect you from the outside, but they also stop you from being able to surf the waves and go with the flow.
My first real job/career out of college was a direct result of my taking a pure-interest-no-future-prospect-of-employment type class for three semesters.
This mindset is also the product of a privileged life. With some exceptions, you need an abundance mentality to be able to operate without dear of losing your daily source of income.
Not at all, I think, these two traits are orthogonal.
I share this mindset without making much money at all (I'm a graduate student and an adjunct lecturer at a college). If you don't focus on your personal gain, but instead do something for the people around you, sharing your knowledge and skill, you also become valued and in some sense irreplaceable, without being protective about keeping your advantage. (Your moat is that you don't have a moat.)
Did you grow up in a household where your basic necessities were provided for? Did you have caring parents who you trusted were looking out for your best interests?
If you answered yes to either of those, you're not exactly who I'm talking about, even if you aren't affluent today. You've internalized that there is "enough" in this world for everybody to be happy, including yourself. It's a great mindset to have, and one that I share, but it's not one everybody is fortunate enough to inhabit.
I always wondered if — maybe — it is me that is too playful, too improvised, too spontaneous: what if they are right and I am wrong? I have always been intrinsically driven by a broad range of topics. This arguably served me more over the years than any moat plan of any of my colleagues. I could more or less pick what to do next, while they were in their most and more or less stuck there, often complaining about the size, shape and color of the moat.
Moats are there to protect you from the outside, but they also stop you from being able to surf the waves and go with the flow.