Boring or Fancy | Andras Hejj

Ever since I started working on my own topics at NBK Labs, this question has never let me go: do you engage in a topic, and if so, what is your motivation?

As you start your working life, you often have trade-offs:

level of challenge (is this boring?)
level of control (can I steer?)
level of money (does this pay?)

There is probably more, and I may revisit this article later, but for now I have a simple conclusion.

When I was younger, I felt I should chase challenge so I could learn. Once I felt qualified, I wanted control. Then I felt entitled to money.

Nowadays it is different. Maybe because I have put in the work to become good, to feel entitled, and to feel I can pick between boring vs fancy, in control vs controlled. I do not really care in absolute terms. I am happy to do the boring, and I am happy to be controlled as long as it pays handsomely and there is upside (equity).

I can perform best in boring situations where I am just slightly out of my comfort zone.

I recently had this encounter again at a new venture I am building: Motif. At Motif, we are building the first independent wealth advisor, agentic and working only for you. It is very exciting, but there are technology challenges that are really difficult to overcome. You need very bright people to solve them, and many have not been properly solved or documented before, so it feels a lot like R&D.

Even when you solve a hard problem, the dopamine hit is very short-lived, and the next challenge is already around the corner.

On the flip side, I have a tech leadership mandate at a company called MCO (My Compliance Office). Even the name is the definition of boring. Everything about the company is boring by stereotype, and the company does great. Really great. There is no question people are performing there, and it pays handsomely.

After seeing both sides, I still do not have a final conclusion.

Fancy is very exhausting. You often feel lost or alone, and once one big problem is solved, the next one appears. Even if the platform works, it can feel like walking through mud, never fully in flow.

Boring has its own risks. It is easy to slip into rhythm, not push, and not give extra energy.

For now, balancing both sides makes the most sense to me:

when I have energy to push, I work on ventures
when I feel exhausted and want to slow down, I can still perform very well in a boring role