The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life

Maria Popova,

Imagine it’s 1980. You are 22 years old, freshly graduated from college. You take a job at General Motors, one of the biggest companies in the world. On your first day, you walk into your office and see a flat metal desk with an electronic typewriter, a rotary phone, and a physical inbox with two slots, one for incoming memos and the other for outg

search for the work that you want to keep doing. This is one of the most important secrets of the pathless path. With this approach, it doesn’t make sense to chase any financial opportunity if you can’t be sure that you will like the work. What does make sense is experimenting with different kinds of work, and once you find something worth doing, w

encourage everyone to write a description of the person you don’t want to be, then brainstorm actions that might create that outcome.

“real work of your life” is searching for the things you want to commit to and that make your life meaningful. Once you find them, you can dedicate your

By a virtuous cycle, I mean being able to do work that you enjoy that naturally leads to opportunities and people that help make your life better.

we’re definitely tired of hearing from every friend, relative and co-worker who thinks they’re just an iPhone recording away from creating the next ‘Serial.’”

Ask them how they got started, what motivates them, and how they think about navigating their life.

where I consistently earn at least $200 a month.