What should I do with my life?

February 8, 2002 5:48 PM

What should I do with my life? "I hit on an incredible wellspring of honest sentiment. Complete strangers opened their homes and their lives up to me, and confessed feelings and events they hadn't revealed to their closest friends. This was at a time when the stock market was falling, our faith in new technology had been lost, and the result of a Florida election left many feeling like they didn't live in a democracy. Everyone was reassessing what mattered to them and what they believed in." Preview page from Po Bronson's next book, still a work in progress.
posted by Calebos (13 comments total)

I have got to buy this when it comes out, I think. For a long, long time I've agonised about whether I'm doing the right things, in the right field, living the right life.

The best thing in this excerpt was the hint that the search for vocation is not always fruitful, and success often unexpected and unlooked-for. A bloke gets tired of inspirational stories of concentration and positive thinking.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:32 PM on February 8, 2002

Thought I'd post because this thread is kinda slow so far.. but.. GREAT LINK. Really enjoyed reading this. Not sure if it's a topic most MeFiers would want to discuss though since posting to MeFi is an exercise in time-wasting anyway. Lucky I'm a professional timewaster I guess.
posted by wackybrit at 9:24 PM on February 8, 2002

A bloke gets tired of inspirational stories of concentration and positive thinking.


Well, Stephen, having a deep distrust of those with souls unsearched--I'm with you on this one.
posted by y2karl at 10:44 PM on February 8, 2002

This book sounds very cool, if it can deliver on all of the author's promises. I'm wary of one thing, though:

. We feel guilty because we think blue-collar don't fret about this, but I found plenty of blue collars who sure the hell care about why they're here and how to live up to their potential. We feel guilty because we think this is only a question for anxiety-prone Americans with too much time on their hands, but I found tons of immigrants who care, and foreigners who care, just as much or more than we tend to. Or we feel guilty because we think everyone else has it all figured out, when the truth is very few do.

Hmmm, this book seems to be targeted at upper middle class non-immigrants -- not entirely inclusive.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 12:22 AM on February 9, 2002

Great link! I have wondered about this same thing. And nothing like economic upheaval, war and unemployment to cause one to think about what life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness means.

Thanks.
posted by black8 at 2:28 AM on February 9, 2002

I see this book is already on the verge of being hailed as the next Mars & Venus, or maybe Parachute. Frankly, it sounds like a wank. The Web page doesn't even make sense; one shudders to imagine the ultimate book.

And good on Po Bronson for jetting off to Hong Kong after all post–September 11. If we don't take lavish, hyper-expensive transpacific airplane flights while researching the career dreams even of "blue-collar" people, the terrorists will have won.
posted by joeclark at 5:31 AM on February 9, 2002

At first it seemed odd that Po Bronson would do a Studs Terkel project like this, but as I thought about it more, it's exactly what he did when he followed the dot-com career wanna-bes around in this great Wired magazine excerpt from Nudist on the Late Shift. He's an interesting writer, though the self-help concept of the book scares me off a bit. If he's not careful he'll end up on Oprah.
posted by rcade at 6:06 AM on February 9, 2002

But if I told you God had a plan and a purpose for every one of us on this planet you would laugh me right off the internet.

Funny how we all have the knowlege of a destiny inside each one of us anyhow.
posted by bunnyfire at 7:02 AM on February 9, 2002

But if I told you God had a plan and a purpose for every one of us on this planet you would laugh me right off the internet.

Funny how we all have the knowlege of a destiny inside each one of us anyhow.
posted by bunnyfire at 7:02 AM on February 9, 2002

nothing! (via ed's weblog :)
posted by kliuless at 9:26 AM on February 9, 2002

I don't have that knowledge, bunnyfire. Destiny exists only in retrospect.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:46 AM on February 9, 2002

I just wonder where he found the "ex-patriots". I suspect expatriates would have been more appropriate. Or maybe he was hanging out in Hong Kong with former NFL players from New England. Then again, he could have meant what he said. I don't know. I can't decide what to do with my life, so how can I interpret his message? Anyone know where I could get a book to help me out?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:41 PM on February 9, 2002

While destiny exists only in retrospect, density exists every moment of every day.
posted by kindall at 1:02 PM on February 9, 2002