Life purpose exercise
Which three people that you know personally do you admire most, and why?
This has helped people work out what they find interesting.
Personally know:
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And, which three people that you don’t know, do you admire most, and why?
Don’t personally know:
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What seems like work to other people that doesn’t seem like work to you?
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Excerpt from Poor Charlie’s Almanack, by Charlie Munger (p. 450)
“Another thing that I have found is that intense interest in any subject is indispensable if you’re really going to excel in it. I could force myself to be fairly good in a lot of things, but I couldn’t excel in anything in which I didn’t have an intense interest. So to some extent you’re going to have to do as I did. If at all feasible, you want to maneuver yourself into doing something in which you have an intense interest.”
What are you most interested in? (i.e. what do you find yourself doing in your spare time that might seem to some like work)
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What problem do you wish a new company would solve?
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How would you spend your time if tomorrow you inherited one hundred million dollars?
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How do you wish the world was, relative to how it currently is?
For example: I wish people acted far more rationally, that media had far less sway on people’s opinions, that the political system was far more long term oriented, etc.
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1. What can I do (well), and maintain/improve my ability to perform at over the coming years?
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2. Then: From that, what is valuable (to the world), and going to remain valuable over the next 10+ years?
Do this twice.
First, use valuable in the sense of, it would be good/useful for the world, even if it’s not something that people actually buy (i.e. what do people need)
Then, use valuable in the sense of ‘something that people/enterprises currently spend money on,’ thus indicating that they find it valuable (i.e. what do people want)
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3. Then: From that, what are other people not working on, and not going to start working on very soon?
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What lies at the intersection of your three answers? In other words, what is important/ interesting to you, valuable to the world, and something that you are/could be good at?
In my opinion, this is the most important question to think about.
These are the Thiel questions.
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