Following the Most Interesting Path

I just had the most profound realization.

I realized that the focus shouldn’t be on working in the background on something for years or even decades (like I have) and finally creating something from it that finally provides you with paying work doing something you love.

No. No way. That’s the old way.

Instead it should be about working on something that you love in the foreground for years or even decades, with people who can support you emotionally and even financially (i.e. Patreon), while you work towards understanding what’s emerging from it.

In effect, more than a decade ago I should have created a website that started a conversation on this seeming synchronicity I was beginning to perceive between online communities around video games and how The Future of Work works.

Then over the years, the emergence of that conversation would have lead me to where I am today but potentially even faster with others contributing to the dialogue.

But all said and done, what I’m wishing I would have done then is what I want people to be able to do today.

In effect, I want them to be able to explore a convergence or synchronicity in their own life that they are questioning (as a quest), something that’s liminal and unknown between two domains of knowledge, and to be able to build a community around themselves that helps them in their journey to bring it to a realized clarity, even supporting them financially in the process.

I think this gets to the heart of what Dave Gray mentioned about his School of the Possible recently, about sharing what you’re learning as you’re learning it (which is like a simplified form of teaching it). But it’s about going beyond that and how society by default should have an economic model that supports this type of “adventure” as a natural, self-organizing way of playing, learning, and working, especially within the radically different, rapidly changing world we live in today.

That should be the emphasis. Not spending years to finally figure something out and then “teaching” it to others, since you’re finally an “expert” on it.

No, the adventure, the experience of the journey itself rather than the destination, should be the primary focus. Because in being an “expert” of yourself, you’re trusting yourself and thus are following your Self to see where it leads you.

That’s the leadership we need in this world today. One that originates from our own wild hearts and helps us to step beyond the horizon of who we think we are, helping us to become who we truly are. This is an adaptive, self-transforming way of living.

This is why we must spend as much time as possible working on things we find interesting. It is not an indulgence. It is an essential part of making our work sustainable and thus successful.

This advice runs counter to the typical approach to planning we are taught. We are told to “make a plan” upfront and in detail. Success is then measured by how closely we stick to this plan. Our changing interests and motivations are to be ignored or suppressed if they interfere with the plan.

Tiago Forte, How To Take Smart Notes