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

Figuring out who you want to serve is an important element of the pathless path. On the default path, your job often provides recognition and praise. When you are on your own, without a specific job or colleagues, you may miss that kind of support. This is why it’s so important to know what kind of people you want to work with and who you want to s

People like Nat Eliason, Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Pieter Levels, and Tiago Forte have earned status

Andrew Taggart, who writes about our modern relationship to work, describes as “a first-person work‑centric story of progress about an individual’s life course.”⁠

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

My biggest barrier was my inability to imagine an alternative life. My creative experiments were exciting, but they didn’t suggest an obvious next step. It was easier to aim toward another raise or promotion than daring to ask myself deeper questions.

In 2019, Gallup surveyed Americans about success. In response to the question, “How do you personally define success?”, 97% agreed with the following statement: A person is successful if they have followed their own interests and talents to become the best they can be at what they care about most. In response to the question, “How do you think othe

More recently, John Steinbeck channeled this sentiment in a letter to his son, telling him, “If it is right, it happens—The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.”⁠

I believe that the minimum effective dose is at least a month away from work. While this may seem impossible or terrifying, this intervention has a near-universal approval rating and can have a profound effect on your confidence about the future.

My friend Jonny Miller argues that “human existence is an infinitely unfolding process of remembering, forgetting, and remembering again.”