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It's fine for Leo to talk about how great it is to not have any goals. What he kind of glosses over is the years of hard work and goal setting/achieving that w

by Sukotto 16y ago

It's fine for Leo to talk about how great it is to not have any goals. What he kind of glosses over is the years of hard work and goal setting/achieving that was required for him to get to this point. It's like a highly skilled musician telling you that he never feels the urge to take lessons and practice.... of course not. He already has the strong foundation needed to allow for his new lifestyle.

rfugger 16y ago
That's actually not what he's saying at all. He's saying only do the things you feel the urge to do. He says that for himself it's usually blogging.
- danparsonson 16y ago
  I wonder how he blogs if he never has a goal in mind? I imagine he doesn't just write random words down. If you don't ever set goals then how do you ever create anything that requires more than a few simple steps? Surely you must have an end result in mind. I think the message he really wants to get across is a combination of 'be more spontaneous' and 'don't be afraid to change your plans', which isn't the same thing IMO.
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    Do you set yourself a goal of "Get X amount of karma on Hacker News"? If not, how do you ever comment? Are you just writing random words down? Sometimes, people just do things because they want to do them. You don't need to invoke metacognition on every single element of your day, and in fact it's rather exhausting to do so.
    - danparsonson 16y ago
      No that's not what I meant - let me put it another way. Say you get the sudden urge to build a car. That will probably require weeks or months of work to complete, so it's a goal that you have to keep in mind while you do all the related jobs - sourcing parts, designing and building the bodywork, etc. If you don't set yourself that goal then what should you do instead? Purely following your day-to-day whims can leave you with a string of unfinished projects in your wake - surely just as disheartening as trying and failing at a particular goal, if not more so? "Don't set goals, just do things" is bad advice if you find yourself wanting to create anything bigger than an afternoon's work.

by Sukotto 16y ago

rfugger 16y ago

That's actually not what he's saying at all. He's saying only do the things you feel the urge to do. He says that for himself it's usually blogging.

danparsonson 16y ago
I wonder how he blogs if he never has a goal in mind? I imagine he doesn't just write random words down. If you don't ever set goals then how do you ever create anything that requires more than a few simple steps? Surely you must have an end result in mind. I think the message he really wants to get across is a combination of 'be more spontaneous' and 'don't be afraid to change your plans', which isn't the same thing IMO.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  Do you set yourself a goal of "Get X amount of karma on Hacker News"? If not, how do you ever comment? Are you just writing random words down? Sometimes, people just do things because they want to do them. You don't need to invoke metacognition on every single element of your day, and in fact it's rather exhausting to do so.
  - danparsonson 16y ago
    No that's not what I meant - let me put it another way. Say you get the sudden urge to build a car. That will probably require weeks or months of work to complete, so it's a goal that you have to keep in mind while you do all the related jobs - sourcing parts, designing and building the bodywork, etc. If you don't set yourself that goal then what should you do instead? Purely following your day-to-day whims can leave you with a string of unfinished projects in your wake - surely just as disheartening as trying and failing at a particular goal, if not more so? "Don't set goals, just do things" is bad advice if you find yourself wanting to create anything bigger than an afternoon's work.