The Rest Of Your Life
September 20th, 2006
I just finished reading The Monk and the Riddle
It was a surprisingly fast read. Enjoyable and inspirational. But let me summarize it in one sentence:
The two most recurring themes in the book are roughly “the journey is the reward,” and “how can you change your current work so you’d be willing to do it for the rest of your life?” He describes a malady that many of us are probably familiar with: the “deferred life plan.” This is the rationalization of present unhappiness as a mere means to an end. We’ll work for 40 years at a job we hate just so we can pursue our passion later in life.
Great food for thought, and especially pertinent in the wake of my recent article about the indie life. I tried to examine my own circumstances using these criteria, and it boils down to four basic desires. I want a job where I build cool apps, blog, exercise, and make music. Whenever inspiration strikes me. A tall order, I know. I’m not quite there, but am hopefully moving in the right direction.
What do you want to do for the rest of your life? Are you suffering under the deferred life plan?
September 20th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
A similar message to that of Steve Jobs at the Stanford Commencement last year http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505
September 20th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
In a similar vein I found Steve Job’s speech to Stanford extremely inspiring (and rather humbling) on google video
I know Steve is our glorious leader and all and we’re supposed to worship the ground he walks on, but I think I would have reacted to the speech the same way if anyone had given it. The speech is a variation of the “live every day as if it was your last”.
September 20th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Next time I’ll read the other comments before posting my own. ;-)
September 20th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
I’d find such messages a bit more convincing if they didn’t come from independently wealthy people who don’t really need to work at all.
:^/
September 20th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Jon: point taken. But maybe there’s a reason they became independently wealthy? In this case (I assume you’re referring to Jobs and Komisar), neither one started out particularly wealthy. Maybe it was the realization that they should follow their dreams that led to that inevitable fate.
September 20th, 2006 at 8:16 pm
“What do you want to do for the rest of your life?”
1) Raise a family,
2) Help make electric cars practical as anyone’s primary and only vehicle,
3) Work on clean energy and whatever else for the rest of my life.
“Are you suffering under the deferred life plan?”
Yes. But only because I’m in school, and it’s the only way to get to where I want to be. So I suppose technically I’m not, but it sometimes feels that way.
September 21st, 2006 at 3:25 pm
People do not become independently wealthy just because they stopped wasting their time working on things they don”™t love. I’d say the two are orthogonal, except usually people become -broke- working only on the things they love. We don’t call them starving artists because they hate creating art.
People become -happier-, not wealthier, when they can work less on what they hate. And it isn’t all or nothing. I bring my iBook to work because it’s perks me up to NOT be surrounded by Windows and Linux. (Oh, and because my 1GB Windows system thrashes so badly I frequently need a second machine to get work done.)
Happiness is far more important than wealth (to me). We need money to be happy in this society, but it doesn’t have to be “wealth.” So if your indie work doesn’t make you Steve Jobs, Jr., be happy if it pays the rent, food, and iTunes fees.