POLARIS
Unfortunately, discovering the path which will lead them to the right life’s work is seldom straightforward, and the process is too often hampered by institutions which promise clarity and direction only to deliver a narrow list of sanitised options within which work is primarily justified as preparation for eventual real, impactful work, to be taken on later, elsewhere. Even for those individuals who resist the dampening pressures the world throws on the ambitious and the weird, transforming fuzzy aspirations into concrete action on one’s own is a painful process prone to failure because the expression of talent is fundamentally social. The right peers hold you accountable, egg you on, raise your aspirations, and ultimately enable you to progress. But forming such a peer group is rare and difficult, even when embedded within institutions which gather the world’s smartest and most ambitious people. History is proof of the fact that these peer groups matter immensely. The most interesti
Few things matter more than what the world’s most talented individuals do with their lives. Unfortunately, discovering the path which will lead them to the right life’s work is seldom straightforward, and the process is too often hampered by institutions which promise clarity and direction only to deliver a narrow list of sanitised options within which work is primarily justified as preparation for eventual real, impactful work, to be taken on later, elsewhere. Even for those individuals who resist the dampening pressures the world throws on the ambitious and the weird, transforming fuzzy…
saved by
related reading
- i wish we’d grown up on the same advice - by vincent huangmindslice.substack.com
- How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You) — Wait But Whywaitbutwhy.com
- What's stopping you?gleech.org
- sparkly people and how to find them - by Anson Yuanson.substack.com
- How to Do Great Workpaulgraham.com
- escaping flatland: career advice for CS undergradsspace.ong.ac
- How to Do Great Workpaulgraham.com
- How to Do Great Workpaulgraham.com
- sparkly people and how to find them - by Anson Yuanson.substack.com
- you can just do stuffalicemaz.substack.com
- First we shape our social graph; then it shapes usescapingflatland.substack.com
- Paul Graham on Ambition, Art, and Evaluating Talent (Ep. 186) | Conversations with Tylerconversationswithtyler.com