I've found pg's essays to be a little hit or miss, but I really like his "Keep Your Identity Small"[0]. After reading it I realized that a lot of things that I

I've found pg's essays to be a little hit or miss, but I really like his "Keep Your Identity Small"[0]. After reading it I realized that a lot of things that I had made into my identity were not useful or positive, and only created conflict or stress or anxiety. I like the idea of identity including mostly abstract things. Like, for example, if you donate to charities or spend time volunteering, don't hold "philanthropist" as a part of your identity; instead think of yourself as "generous" or "giving". Instead of a "computer programmer" I think of myself as someone who likes to solve problems or likes to build things. The nice thing about that is it's more flexible, and unlocks creativity and enjoyment in places I don't expect, when I find that I can also solve problems or build things that have nothing to do with computers. And identity should be a frank evaluation; your identity might include some things you consider negative. That's fine; you might be working on those things, or not, or whatever. I'm far from perfect, of course. There are still things I consider part of my identity that maybe I shouldn't, because they constrain me or because they can cause conflict. But that's something to work on another day. [0] https://paulgraham.com/identity.html https://paulgraham.com/identity.html -- though I disagree that discussions about Javascript don't devolve into religious arguments