This post is structured around the three Dharma Seals, as is most of life, it seems.

Impermanence is permanent.

Ten years ago, I was about to start a new job. It was only my fifth new job since the turn of the century. The startup that I had worked for for two years was being shuttered, and I had been hired on at another startup funded by the same fickle billionaire. Working for a fickle billionaire is a good way to learn about impermanence. Every week is a pivot, and then one day the fickle billionaire decides to do something else.

The job I started in 2012 lasted almost two years, before the fickle billionaire once again moved on, and I found myself unemployed for only the fourth time in this century. Jobs are impermanent. Even the ones you like.

In 2015, I started working for the Seattle Public…