Working Backwards

Short post this time, mainly because I couldn’t fit it into a tweet.

I recently listened to a podcast episode from Naval Ravikant that explained a problem I have with the life arc most people go through. As people get older, they become more like philosophers. After solving the meat of their life’s issues, they focus on big, existential questions that have been nagging them all their life.

My two cents, but waiting until the end of your life to uncover and ask the most important questions makes the other years of your life seem more like guesswork. It’s like pulling your phone out for directions once you think you’ve reached your destination. Or even worse, sitting on your deathbed only to realize that your career wasn’t in accordance with your newfound purpose of life.

What gets dismissed by younger people as woo-woo nonsense is actually a useful lever in determining what path you want to pursue, and who you want to become. By nature of first principles, philosophy is always the starting point. Only from there can you logically continue on your path, confident of where you’re going and how you’ll end up.

And although writing this makes me sound like I have the answers, I’m only just beginning. Very unlikely will I become a formal philosopher, but that doens’t mean I can’t have the toolkit to solve problems in my life.

Don’t wait until the end to solve the big questions in your life.