Growing up, every new year or new school year I would come up with a list of resolutions, a set of habit changes or goals for myself. Within a few weeks, or days I proceeded to throw all those ambitions away and proceed with life as usual. I learned to stop creating resolutions and instead accept the reality that habit change is an ideal rather than goalpost.
In 2017 though, I was able to write 11 posts/essays, start missuteki, read 12 more books than in 2016, lead climb indoor 5.12a, run my first two half marathons, learn basic conversational Thai and Italian, develop a regular sketching and journaling practice, meditate daily, and overall develop better productivity habits. Of course, I did have the extra 40 hours a week without a full-time job, but I was worried that I would laze away the time watching movies or falling into the black hole of the internet. …
What is the most important problem in your field/your life and why aren’t you working on it?
Richard Hamming famously asked his colleagues this question. Hamming Questions were first introduced to me at a CFAR workshop I attended in October. Clearly the most important problem was “WTF am I doing with my life?” and going to this workshop was how I was working on it.
I was giving myself a year to work on my existential crisis. The first six months were great. I did a lot of things for myself physically, creatively, and spiritually, and learned a lot. …
What I did and learned in Q2 of funemployment
In my previous piece, I explained that I left my job because I had a compulsion to make big changes in my life to get out of my existential crisis. I quit not having any real direction about how I wanted to define my life. But, I had a plan of attack. I created a focus for each quarter of the year to hone in on what I cared about. In Q1 I worked on health and fitness. For Q2, I announced that I’d work on sharing and creative expression. …
In January, my friend, Ben, launched a personal project, Webtendo, and posted it on Hackernews, but it never got much traction. In February, I started making stuff. I knit a hat, painted some abstract paintings, and drew a lot. Some people even suggested that I start an Etsy shop. I thought it would be a great learning experience to dip my toes into entrepreneurship, so I did. But no one came.
Since we both struggled to attract attention, I started looking into how to start a business and how to sell products. Here’s what I gathered from reading articles, watching videos, and taking online courses about how to start businesses. …
After I quit my job, people would ask, “so what have you been doing?” The question would bubble up latent anxiety about what I was doing with my life. Asking me what I was doing or working on equated to asking me what my life purpose was. It reminded me how deep I still was in existential crisis. I felt pressured to have done something or know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Not only did it have to be cool and hip, but also benefit the world, pay the bills, and energize my life.
What I didn’t realize until recently is that it’s actually easy to find your life purpose. …
During my quarter-life crisis, I would repeatedly come back to the same questions and thoughts. Here are some books, videos, podcasts, and articles that helped me address those recurring thoughts and reduce anxiety about my life trajectory. This is by no means an exhaustive set of resources, but is a selection of the ones I found more helpful.
I should be happy with my life, but…
Deepak Malhotra’s talk puts it well about his own life. Sometimes about quitting, always about learning.
How do I create purpose?
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. …
Why I quit and what I’m doing now
Last year, I was gainfully employed at Lyft, but I faced existential crisis. On a bi-weekly basis I’d freak out and ask myself: “What am I doing with my life?” and “Is this the best way I can contribute to the world?” I love Lyft and could not have asked for a better team, manager, or company to work for, but I still felt like software engineering wasn’t my calling.
In January I quit my job, but I had no idea what I wanted to pursue afterward. Fed up with the daily grind, all I knew was that I wanted to try something new.
With that in mind, I asked on Facebook:
Friends, what things have you done in your life that were life-changing? I’m looking for ways I can nudge my life in interesting directions :)
27 people responded to my question directly. They all had various ways of interpreting the question, and most gave multiple answers. Many of their answers overlap or intersect with one another, but have a different focus or viewpoint that motivated their separation. …
