Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You from maybe over 10 years now, conveyed that Steve Jobs was using hindsight in recommending you to follow your passion. Don’t be a firefighter, astronaut or ballerina. Just do what let’s you put food on the table. Cal’s later work is on doing reducing distractions and slowing down to meet your aims; less is more. Did Cal end up asking you to focus after all?

There was this recent substack note on purpose and meaning¹ with a quick follow up comment reply that chasing goals is endless².

In this recent Jordan Peterson interview I recall him describing similarly to Dan Koe, that fractured focus makes you less effective, less driven distracted.

But maybe lack of purpose does not imply lack of focus?

What if instead being deliberate and present in the moment, is enough without a 20 year life plan. So you are still going somewhere, but perhaps yes sometimes chasing the wind, because you are “adapting” to reality on the ground.

Maybe you plant seeds and help them grow, and you may just get some successes, but experimenting and being okay with failure along the way.

What would Arthur C. Brooks do?

I know Arhur C. Brooks has written a lot about addressing burnout culture too. I recall him also writing ³ that meaning is useful to satisfaction. Just clocking in and clocking out at work would be too “mercenarial”.

And after all, according to Scott Barry Kaufman and Sam Harris, since we are all super close to being obsolescent compared to super human ai⁴, entangling, binding, our self worth to our outcomes is just super not helpful, not useful.

What would Ali Abdaal do?

I was recently discussing⁵ Ali’s Feel Good Productivity⁶. Ali introdudes CLEAR goals to counter SMART goals. So SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) vs CLEAR (Compatible, Liberating, Energising, Actionable, Reflective), so SMART leans OKR, so outcome/output oriented and CLEAR leans input oriented. The “reflective” part means the goal is squishy and evolves.

Ultimately stoic

Ultimately the urge to be useful is an attempt at cheating finiteness of life then? Just show up, for your curiosity, for your loved ones; do the needful, don’t take yourself too seriously, and yea don’t chase meaning; life isn’t a race it is a journey after all.

a life worth underthinking?

But maybe lack of purpose does not imply lack of focus?

What would Arthur C. Brooks do?

What would Ali Abdaal do?

Ultimately stoic

References

But maybe lack of purpose does not imply lack of focus?#

What would Arthur C. Brooks do?#

What would Ali Abdaal do?#

Ultimately stoic#

References#

But maybe lack of purpose does not imply lack of focus?

What would Arthur C. Brooks do?

What would Ali Abdaal do?

Ultimately stoic

References