Life Path Advice

In other words, the hard part isn’t writing, or coding, or speaking.

It’s determining what to write, what to code, and what to say.

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.

-H Thurman

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.”

My generic career advice for young people is that if at all possible, you should aim to work on something that no one has a word for. Spend your energies where we don’t have a name for what you are doing, where it takes a while to explain to your mother what it is you do. When you are ahead of language, that means you are in a spot where it is mor

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This efficient pursuit of predictable value is the quiet dignity of the mass of working people. But if we are to solve the bigger structural, spiritual, and intellectual problems which aren’t addressed by existing institutions, someone needs to be exploring off of the established road, where there is a high probability of failing to accomplish anyt... See more

What man actually needs is not some tension-less state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.

Rather than hoping to create a harmonious union between the pursuit of money and values, we might have better luck trying to combine values with talents. This idea comes courtesy of Aristotle, who is attributed with saying, ‘Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation.’

The desire for fulfilling work — a job that provides a deep sense of purpose, and reflects our values, passions and personality — is a modern invention. … For centuries, most inhabitants of the Western world were too busy struggling to meet their subsistence needs to worry about whether they had an exciting career that used their talents and nurtur... See more

In a lot of ways people can be split into aimless and not-aimless like this. I think humans are at their best when they are reaching towards something. It doesn't have to be practical or noble necessarily, but something about the reaching itself seems to be required for people to flourish.