There’s an important connection between your points on optimizing the measurable + story telling…
Happiness, love, meaning, etc. are all subjective experiences. Improving the quality of those stories is far more valuable to your overall life’s experience than optimizing objective measures.
But, but, but: "you don't manage what you don't measure!" Yeah, that's the problem.
I do think there are degrees of how well we measure (knowing of course it's imperfect, because of present mood biasing how we look at the past). Greater awareness of our emotional state is a start!
I particularly liked #16: about asking “In what scenario is this <opinion / suggestion / advice> true?”
I'm intrigued by #23 on increasing your personal experimentation. What have been the personal experiments you've tried that have yielded the most surprising (or useful) results?
Thanks for sharing! It is enlightening and many resonates with my own experience. I too, wish I have read a list like this when I was 20 :)
#27 especially for the current state of my career. Looking.for a breakthrough even if that means slowing down climbing the ladders; I want to keep learning/stretching myself but it has slowed down as I become 'successful' in the traditional sense .....
So many favourites in this post @Julie Zhuo but this one takes the prize:
“You can only optimize what you can measure. This explains both why it’s impossible to optimize for happiness (not measurable), and why we so often optimize for things that don’t actually make us happy (money, social media likes, how much you can deadlift, etc—all easy to measure!)”
This is such a great list. I love how they are split in categories like self-awareness, compassion, learning, empathy. I’m going to keep coming back to this because every time I read each bullet point I get a little more from it.
* I don't think they necessarily need to be reconciled. It is natural for the rate of learning in a domain to decrease as you gain expertise. But if you keep expanding new domains to learn, there will be *something* that you see a steeper learning slope in.
* On 38 - I feel the key thing that makes work exceptional is that it stands out from most people's expectations. So if you think like most people, it's going to be hard to do exceptional work. If you do try to do this type of work and tell folks about it ahead of time, they'll probably tell you "oh that's weird" and maybe say you're wasting your time. So it's really important to find people who share similar outlier tastes to you, who will not just tolerate but encourage your outlier perspectives.
An amazing list, and written so clearly 🙏🏼 Thank you for sharing
There’s an important connection between your points on optimizing the measurable + story telling…
Happiness, love, meaning, etc. are all subjective experiences. Improving the quality of those stories is far more valuable to your overall life’s experience than optimizing objective measures.
But, but, but: "you don't manage what you don't measure!" Yeah, that's the problem.
I do think there are degrees of how well we measure (knowing of course it's imperfect, because of present mood biasing how we look at the past). Greater awareness of our emotional state is a start!
I enjoyed this list! You’re insightful for age 40 😄
Love!
❤️❤️ thank you for sharing!
thank you for these gems.
Turning 40 isn’t just about aging—it’s about stepping into clarity, confidence, and self-acceptance. A refreshing perspective on this milestone!
So beautiful
This is a great list!
I particularly liked #16: about asking “In what scenario is this <opinion / suggestion / advice> true?”
I'm intrigued by #23 on increasing your personal experimentation. What have been the personal experiments you've tried that have yielded the most surprising (or useful) results?
Insightful gems! Thankyou for sharing!
Step 1: Exposure to knowledge✅
Onto Step 2 & 3 🙂
Thanks for sharing! It is enlightening and many resonates with my own experience. I too, wish I have read a list like this when I was 20 :)
#27 especially for the current state of my career. Looking.for a breakthrough even if that means slowing down climbing the ladders; I want to keep learning/stretching myself but it has slowed down as I become 'successful' in the traditional sense .....
So many favourites in this post @Julie Zhuo but this one takes the prize:
“You can only optimize what you can measure. This explains both why it’s impossible to optimize for happiness (not measurable), and why we so often optimize for things that don’t actually make us happy (money, social media likes, how much you can deadlift, etc—all easy to measure!)”
This is such a great list. I love how they are split in categories like self-awareness, compassion, learning, empathy. I’m going to keep coming back to this because every time I read each bullet point I get a little more from it.
Dear Julie,
Thank you for sharing your insights.
21-25 resonate.
With profound humility, two questions:
- How do you reconcile 23 and 25?
- Could you say more about 38?
With gratitude,
🙏
How do you reconcile 23 + 25?
* I don't think they necessarily need to be reconciled. It is natural for the rate of learning in a domain to decrease as you gain expertise. But if you keep expanding new domains to learn, there will be *something* that you see a steeper learning slope in.
* On 38 - I feel the key thing that makes work exceptional is that it stands out from most people's expectations. So if you think like most people, it's going to be hard to do exceptional work. If you do try to do this type of work and tell folks about it ahead of time, they'll probably tell you "oh that's weird" and maybe say you're wasting your time. So it's really important to find people who share similar outlier tastes to you, who will not just tolerate but encourage your outlier perspectives.
Thank you Julie,
Grateful for your generosity
🙏