--- title: How to Have a Bad Career | David Patterson | Talks at Google description: David Patterson shares career advice accumulated over 40 years as a Berkeley professor, using reverse psychology to highlight common mistakes. Key themes... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-have-a-bad-career-david-patterson-talks-at-google-5eymy0yn3 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How to Have a Bad Career | David Patterson | Talks at Google | daily.dev og:description: David Patterson shares career advice accumulated over 40 years as a Berkeley professor, using reverse psychology to highlight common mistakes. Key themes... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-have-a-bad-career-david-patterson-talks-at-google-5eymy0yn3 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/5eYMY0YN3.png og:image:alt: How to Have a Bad Career | David Patterson | Talks at Google og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How to Have a Bad Career | David Patterson | Talks at Google **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 58 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary David Patterson shares career advice accumulated over 40 years as a Berkeley professor, using reverse psychology to highlight common mistakes. Key themes include: work on important problems others care about, keep solutions simple, seek constant feedback, finish projects to develop taste, communicate effectively through practice, collaborate in teams rather than working alone, and transfer technology through evangelism. He emphasizes quantitative evaluation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the importance of space design for spontaneous interaction. Patterson illustrates principles with examples from RISC, RAID, and other successful projects, stressing that impact matters more than publication count. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A Survival Guide to a PhD](https://daily.dev/posts/a-survival-guide-to-a-phd-kz0ubqdhi) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [20 Lessons From 20\+ Years in Tech](https://daily.dev/posts/20-lessons-from-20-years-in-tech-zoxewprcw) · Tech World With Milan · 19 upvotes · 3 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-have-a-bad-career-david-patterson-talks-at-google-5eymy0yn3) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How to Have a Bad Career | David Patterson | Talks at Google","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-have-a-bad-career-david-patterson-talks-at-google-5eymy0yn3","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-have-a-bad-career-david-patterson-talks-at-google-5eymy0yn3"},"datePublished":"2026-02-13T09:37:04.324Z","dateModified":"2026-02-13T09:37:26.977Z","description":"David Patterson shares career advice accumulated over 40 years as a Berkeley professor, using reverse psychology to highlight common mistakes. 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