The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd
- "On the pathless path, the goal is not to find a job, make money, build a business, or achieve any other metric. It's to actively and consciously search for the work that you want to keep doing."
I don't think Millerd means simply finding passion and making that your work. I think he means that we have to find meaning in the work we choose to do, or we will get trapped in the so-called rat race. So, where can we find meaning? Should we find meaning in everything we do? Or does it come naturally to us? Do we find meaning in our current everyday work? I am glad I find meaning in my work as a student; I find learning to be significantly therapeutic and meaningful. But will my education translate into something meaningful later in life? I hope so, and if it doesn't, I hope I am brave enough to accept reality and let go. Right now, a lot of my friends around me are worrying about what to do after university and even for this coming summer. As a reminder to myself and everyone else in my situation, life is long. The one who goes slow and chooses the RIGHT (not any given) path will enjoy the race, and when you finish the race doesn't matter because there is no end to the race anyways.
- Quote of Yuval Harari in the book: "in order to keep up with the world of 2050, you will need not merely to invent new ideas and products, but above all to reinvent yourself again and again."
How do you reinvent yourself? I immediately thought of being open-minded, but that didn't seem to be sufficient. I think Harari and Millerd both had in mind a highly adaptive person. The opportunity to adapt comes from new environments, which is why Millerd suggests living in other countries. As someone who has lived in many countries, I agree that there are far more opportunities to adapt, but a lot of the time, I would look for a culture I am comfortable with. For example, when I moved to Canada, I immediately sought out Korean friends and Korean food. So it's very difficult to reinvent yourself even in completely new environments, and changing your entire skill sets as well seems really hard unless we learn how to best learn new skills.
Summary list from Book:
- Question the default
- Reflect
- Figure out what you have to offer
- Pause and Disconnect
- Go make a friend
- Go make something
- Give generously
- Experiment
- Commit
- Be patient!!!
