[marssaxman]

I am really confused by this idea, because the author seems to assume that it is so normal to have goals of a sort for which this service or technique might be useful that it is not necessary to explain what those goals might be or why they might matter so much.

I can think of literally nothing in my life for which this strategy would be relevant: nothing significant enough to be classified as a primary goal in life, such that it would be worth making a special effort to schedule my time around it, which is still somehow trivial enough that routine daily action would provide meaningful progress toward achieving it. The things I imagine as goals for my life aren't generally things one can measure in the first place, much less count as having definitively achieved or not achieved.

[true_religion]

If it's not too personal, I'm curious what your goals might be?

[marssaxman]

Happiness, generally. Being part of a mutually-supporting community. Remaining open to new things so that life can continue to surprise me. Learning everything that can possibly be learned about everything there is to know. Understanding myself, understanding the people close to me. Using my (reliably!) good luck and high tolerance for risk not just to entertain myself, but to help blaze a trail so that people who have more to lose can still make it up to the frontier and help build an awesome future.

Career-wise, it would feel good to have contributed significantly to some piece of systems infrastructure that serves to distribute power over information away from big industry or government organizations and toward individual people. Pursuing this goal has generally conflicted with the goal of living a happy life, and I don't know whether that is merely happenstance or due to some intrinsic conflict in these goals. Perhaps I simply haven't found my moment yet; perhaps I never will. I'm going to keep my eyes open for opportunities in this direction but I don't know whether I will ever be able to realize this goal. It isn't really about me, it's about the world around me and whether other people want to do what I think we'd all be happier doing.