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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Paul Millerd
Started reading
October 25, 2023
“play long‑term games with long‑term people.”
if I continued to share over a long enough period of time, it might radically
improve my life.
This means embracing the pathless path requires grappling with the feeling of being a “bad egg.” This often drives people who leave the default path to eagerly embrace new identities that are still recognizable as legible to the “traditional” economy. They gravitate to titles like a
The pathless path is about ignoring the pull of needing to be a “good egg” and learning what truly enables you to thrive. What this really means is developing an appreciation for discomfort.
The comfort we feel when we do what is expected keeps us from developing the skills we need to face uncertainty.
Rebecca Solnit’s insight about getting lost in A Field Guide To Getting Lost. She says that, “losing things is about the familiar falling away,” but “getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.”122
eventually realize there is wisdom in being lost.
The pathless path is about releasing yourself from this way of seeing the world and realizing that the number of career paths worth following is infinite.
As Thoreau once wrote at Walden Pond, “Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”123
Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t that enough? – Derek Sivers
If we don’t define “enough,” we default to more, which makes it impossible to understand when to say no.
no matter how much money people have, they will go to enormous lengths to avoid any discomfort related to their financial situation. This is what makes quitting full‑time employment seem terrifying and a steady paycheck so addictive.
when we feel we lack something, we tend to obsess over it.
Becker argues that the only way to transcend these existential fears is to live a life that feels heroic. He argues that “if everyone honestly admitted his urge to be a hero it would be a devastating release of truth.”129
What he means by heroic is less about saving the world and closer to the pathless path: a journey of finding yourself, grappling with your insecurities, and daring to seek out a life that is uniquely yours. Becker argues that prescribed paths of the modern world can trap people into conforming to the expectations of others instead of taking steps to create their own unique path.
