Why quitting your job might be the best decision you’ve ever made

Advice for those who are afraid of leaping into the unknown

Cassie Kozyrkov
6 min readOct 30, 2023

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In my previous blog posts, I told you about how and why I quit my job as Google’s Chief Decision Scientist. This blog post is part 3, where I’ll get into how information asymmetry keeps us from quitting when we should.

A real exit sign with neon dice for luck— how fitting — captured by the author in New York.

It’s not the end of the world

Some of us are conditioned to believe that if we leave a job/relationship without another one lined up, it’s the absolute end of the world. I’m not in that camp myself, but I’ll admit that diving into the void takes courage no matter who you are.

The information asymmetry is real. You won’t find out all your options while you’re trapped in the daily grind.

I’m lucky that my friend, Jepson Taylor, jumped before I did and kept reminding me of the thing we all need to hear when we’re thinking of quitting: the information asymmetry is real. No one will tell you about most of the opportunities out there until you’re truly available to throw yourself into them. As long as you appear committed to your job, you simply won’t get to find out most of your options. When Jepson made his leap, the floodgates…

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Cassie Kozyrkov

Chief Decision Scientist, Google. ❤️ Stats, ML/AI, data, puns, art, theatre, decision science. All views are my own. twitter.com/quaesita