How to Outlive Your Bucket List

When you’re young, making a bucket list – things you want to do before you die -- feels like you’re choosing prizes that will arrive in the mail later. I’ll take fl...

Incentives are for losers

OR: you must look at this fish and go insane

The deep satisfaction of doing work that lasts | Psyche Notes to Self

In Studs Terkel’s oral history ‘Working’, some of the people happiest with their work have something in common

There are various things that workers seem to be seeking, and sometimes finding, in Terkel’s book, such as respect, autonomy or a way to be themselves. But the builders and other stories suggest that a big one is the desire to make something that lasts in the world. Perhaps this is an extended form…

Incentives are for losers

OR: you must look at this fish and go insane

critical part of human development—in fact, the most human part of human development—is to acquire a purpose

The Eight Load-Bearing Humans Every Civilization Needs

Every civilization runs on eight irreducible roles. AI is hollowing out the derivative layer on top of them. Which layer does your life actually rest on?

Every society runs on the same small set of irreducible jobs, the people who grow food, heal bodies, build and fix things, move goods, transmit knowledge, defend surplus, settle disputes, and hold communities together.

The Old Grey Thinker (@theoldgreythinker)

Neighbour asked if I'd "found my purpose yet" in retirement. Felt like being asked if I'd located the meaning of existence between Tesco runs. I've spent forty years at sea, fifteen in emergency services, and now apparently need a purpose beyond not dying and keeping the…

Your purpose isn’t something to find, it’s something you form | Psyche Ideas

In my therapy office, I’ve found that to live with greater purpose, we must think differently about where it comes from

Leading a Meaningful Life through Storytelling Skills

People who are rated as good storytellers exhibit a purpose-oriented mindset and big-picture thinking more often than others

Working with Purpose, Forever

Or, how to keep shareholders from ruining your business.

The Purpose Of Life Is Not Happiness: It’s Usefulness

Happiness as an achievable goal is an illusion, but that doesn't mean happiness itself is not attainable.

“What do you do around here?”

There are lots of useful, honest answers. Some might include: I do what I’m told I challenge the status quo I show up on time I solve complicated problems I absorb nonsense and create calm fo…

Urban Dictionary: Bumping the lamp

To go above and beyond expectations when completing a given task/project. A genericized phrase originally used within the animation industry and the film industry as a whole. Based on a scene from the 1988 mixed live-action/animated film 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' in which the…

How to Discover your Why: What I Learned from my Transition from CEO | Link

Mark Twain once said that the two most important days in your life are the day you are born, and the day that you discover why. My goal for writing this article is to share an approach to discover (or in my case, rediscover) your “why”.

How to set smart goals: What science says about getting what you want

A lot of people set goals. A lot of people fail to achieve those goals. That's a shame. Here's what science and research reveal about how to set good goals.

To Find Meaning in Your Work, Change How You Think About It

For most people, purpose at work is built not found. Working with a sense of purpose day-in and day-out is an act of will that takes thoughtfulness and practice. How do you consciously endow your work with purpose? First, connect work to service. Ask yourself, who do I serve?…

You Don’t Find Your Purpose — You Build It

We’re all looking for purpose. Most of us feel that we’ve never found it, we’ve lost it, or in some way we’re falling short. But in the midst of all this angst, we’re also suffering from fundamental misconceptions about purpose. Challenging these misconceptions could help us…

Do Quests Not Goals

South Island, New Zealand, a.k.a. Middle-Earth If you were to make a list of what you want to get done this week, it would mostly consist of things you have to do. Get groceries. Book a hair appointment. Get back to so-and-so. Read that health and safety thing for work. If you…