Work - That feels like play.

Those that have the courage to do what feels expanding will be rewarded intrinsically. Selfless ideas spread the furthest. The rest follows.

The myth of a Legend

Life really is generous to those who pursue their Personal Legend.
- Paulo Coelho

An old truth: study the system you want to profit from. Go to school, get good grades, go to uni, and you will be set for life. Yet still, those who create the most value often are drop-outs. It's their hero's journey we tell each other: a call to adventure, a struggle, a final test and the return as a hero.
While our education focuses on conformity, the very nature of human beings is based on (biological) diversity. The sum of our unique experiences makes up our potential for individual thoughts. I have faith in anyone to find their purpose, personal legend, north star, mojo, or however you call it.

A small collection of truths I accepted:

1. Intrinsic creation often is preceded by naive optimism and driven by excessive curiosity
2. The key really is alignment (with self, the environment, the mission,...) and consistency
3. Culture eats strategy and incentives for breakfast
4. Getting "bored" (read: time to think) is under-rated and -valued
5. When you combine two areas that usually are seperate, people tend to listen
6. Acts > Words, e.g. Show, don't tell. And: give without expecting reciprocity
7. Make or contribute to something that people actually want

A game, a struggle, hustle. Or: Naive Optimism.

"Live in the future and build what's missing."
- P. Graham

Naive? That's when you don't know what you don't know. Sometimes its an advantage not to be the expert with all the experience, not to be discouraged by the knowledge of how much energy, pleasure and pain goes into something. It can sometimes be easier to approach a topic with a fresh, first principles approach (see The Mind) instead.

Naive optimism also is great for major life decisions - you feel like you want to know the results before you decide, but the true outcome simply is unknowable.

Naive optimism means you have the irrational confidence of a child learning to walk. You pick what you think is the best part and follow that. It's ok to make mistakes, there is no journey without insecurities of the outcome (otherwise you'd be a time traveler).

You still should put in the dedication and passion in what you chose matters: obsessively study your option, and become an expert in what is your north star.

On Work that feels like playing

"No one can compete with you on being you"
- Naval

"Being You" is the process of becoming your most authentic self. It requires independent and curious thinking, creative expression, self-awareness, and growth and change. In theory, we are born with these qualities.
As we grow up, we are often taught to conform to the expectations of others. We are told to behave a certain way, to think a certain way, and to fit in. This can be a difficult process, and it can sometimes lead us to lose touch with our true selves.

Personally, I had to look hard to find my inner child after I had graduated from our various education systems and jumped into professional life with a "Masters in... Conformity".
I learned - and grew dependent - on what others expect of me. I am acknowledging and celebrating the existence of an inner child in each one of us. My guess? Had we (as a society) preserved our inner kid, and empowered independent thinking, we'd likely live in a more "human" world today.

But: Its being really curious about a niche, that makes it feel like play, that actually gets you to one of the frontiers of knowledge.

At the edge of a knowledge frontier

Knowledge expands fractally, and from a distance its edges look smooth, but once you learn enough to get close to one, they turn out to be full of gaps.
The next step is to notice them. This takes some skill, because your brain wants to ignore such gaps in order to make a simpler model of the world. Many discoveries have come from asking questions about things that everyone else took for granted.
- Paul Graham, 2023 see his Blog

Notice how stand-up comedians often take an everyday situation and make fun of things we just accept? That's what Graham is talking about in this quote. So the stranger the answers seem, the better. Even (or: especially) if people seem uninterested in your outlier ideas, go for it - as long as you have enough expertise to say precisely what they're all overlooking.

What if...?

Surely, if we had preserved the child-like naivety to do what we enjoy doing, the faces in the subway on a Monday morning would look differently. I assume that we could get rid of the 8 hour work days with a gain in productivity. If you do what you enjoy doing, you will intrinsically only want to stop once you really need to do something else. When asked how Silicon Valley top Investor Naval can sustain working long days, he replied; "my work feels like play to me".

Maybe I am too optimistic here, tough to say. Surely, nurturing your inner child became a foreign idea to many people.

It'll feel playful if you approach with curiosity

Competition can be an effective motivator, but don’t let it choose the problem for you; don’t let yourself get drawn into chasing something just because others are. In fact, don’t let competitors make you do anything much more specific than work harder. Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what’s worth paying attention to.
-Paul Graham

This resonates a lot with me. It surely is tempting to look at the competition. It is even more fun to realize they look at you for your originality. Even if they imitate / copy your IP (which surely does not feel great), I'l be a step ahead, already working on the next curios iteration.

Frame failures.

Failure is part of the journey. You can either choose to accept this truth, or punish yourself when you are messing things up. See the positive in that what you have learned.

Life in general is like a video game, and beating the game is about focus on passion to learn from all the times your character failed. It would be boring to reach the final level and end of game without any struggle. And that's why your life feels so rewarding - overcoming obstacles will make you enjoy the success even more.

I'm dedicting a whole other part of this site to my F*ck-ups, my lessons learned - ready soon-ish.

Occasional, playful anarchy.

Challenge the status quo, take a few bold risks. In the words of MIT-educated, ex-NASA YouTuber Mark Rober: "Cause - why not"".

Stay hungry in your dance with curiousity.

One of my favorite things, Paul Graham said about doing great work is the following quote:

"Curiosity is the key to all four steps in doing great work: it will choose the field for you, get you to the frontier, cause you to notice the gaps in it, and drive you to explore them. The whole process is a kind of dance with curiosity."

Are you willing to do great work that feels intrinsically playful or are you not? If you read this far on this page, it means you are at least interested.

The discoveries are out there, waiting to be made. Why not by you?

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