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Follow your dream is actually terrible advice because dreams change over time. It leads to people overcommitting to their current self in a fairly destructive
by TimPC 5y ago
Follow your dream is actually terrible advice because dreams change over time. It leads to people overcommitting to their current self in a fairly destructive way. It essentially maximizes career happiness at the expense of all other life goals.
Figure out your life goals. Find jobs that meet them where you would be happy (or at least not unhappy). Pick from among those to maximize your life goals and happiness is a much better algorithm.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- swader999 5y agoYour life goals can change as much as your dreams do.
- alexpetralia 5y agoThis is what I refer to as "the postmodern critique." Nothing is unimpeachable, static, or objectively true: your dreams, goals, beliefs and so on. Everything changes, everything is relative. I agree with this critique. This view however suffers from what I call "the postmodern trap." If everything is relative - if there is no objective function to maximize - then how do you actually do anything? There exists no optimal decision - no rationally justifiable decision at all - because there is no direction upon which you can orient for any reasonable period of time. And so postmodernism, while logically sound, leads to abject paralysis. This is the trap of an entirely deconstructive and equally self-deconstructive philosophy. What remains then, in my opinion, is a more pragmatic outlook. You need to believe in some arbitrary, "objective" axis upon which you can orient your life, be it career, knowledge, family, health, and so on. This gives your life purpose, for now. But none of these rational purposes are truly unimpeachable - nothing is (see Gödel). And so, over time, things will change - life happens. You simply re-orient when it does, without being seduced by the false allure of "objective" goals, nor falling into the postmodernism abyss of nihilism.
- swader999 5y agoBeing just worthy of your peers is often enough if a higher purpose eludes.
- kwhitefoot 5y agoBeing worthy is a much higher goal than many. Reminds me of Pratchett's character Mr Nutt in Unseen Academicals.
- swader999 5y agoPro tip, don't Google for this.
- godfreyantonell 5y agoHaha.
- alexpetralia 5y agoYes, a philosophy of "good enough" is one I very much subscribe to, since pure absolutism or pure relativism are inoperative in practice (though too much intellectualizing can often lead one to believe exclusively in just one).
- andreilys 5y agoAs long as you don’t postulate that your “objective” axis is the Ultimate Truth then we’re in agreement. The problem is when people decide that X is the thing every human should optimize for. Even though pursuing X is often as meaningless as pursuing Y.
- user05202021 5y ago>Follow your dream is actually terrible advice "Figure out your life goals" sounds like the same thing.
- TimPC 5y agoFollow your dream is generally meant as ‘get a dream career’. Figure out life goals might mean working a job of average happiness because the money is important for you in raising your family. I think there is a big difference.