Designing Your Life
by jack richard · first published 2022
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Applies design thinking to career and life planning, with practical steps like prototyping options and talking to people in roles that interest you; useful for anyone rethinking their work direction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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What Hacker News says
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I’ve added some movies I love too :) Books ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho ‘Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress’ by Steven Pinker ‘Designing Your Life: Build a Life that Works for You’ by Bill Burnett, Dave Evans ‘Exhalation’ and ‘Stories of Your Life and Others’ by Ted Chiang Movies ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ ‘Dead Poet’s Society’ ‘Everything Everywhere…
on “Ask HN: What are some good inspirational and uplifting books?” ↗I read a great book, "Designing Your Life" by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, that said "A problem you can't change isn't a problem, it's a truth and you have to accept it". I think that mental reframing helps process effectively immutable events.
on “Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety” ↗There's plenty you can do, but you have to figure out what appeals to you, the tradeoffs, path, etc. I found that the book "Designing your life" really helped me. It encourages talking to people who are already in different fields / roles that interest you. When I did this, sometimes I found myself saying, "yes that sounds amazing." Other…
on “Ask HN: How can I move away from engineering?” ↗> any guidance on how to design my career and work life... You might find of interest this recent book on Designing Your Life by two Stanford professors- Here's a podcast interview with the authors, to give you a flavor of what it's about > http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design-th... Also, NY Times review…
on “Ask HN: I quit my job. Need advice” ↗There's a brilliant book on this very subject by two Stanford professors- Designing Your Life Here's a podcast interview with the authors, to give you a flavor of what it's about > http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design-th... Also, NY Times review > https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-thinking-s...
on “Which New Career to Switch?” ↗A great great book that helped me with this: Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (https://designingyour.life/the-book/). I first got exposed to it during a career navigation workshop that showed us this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SemHh0n19LA&ab_channel=TEDxT...…
on “Ask HN: How to think about direction in life/career?” ↗> "For me, I don't derive as much meaning from a career as I thought I would, probably because I put too much expectation that it would provide that." "Designing Your Life" is a book based on a Stanford course on career planning that explored this idea very well. A summary is at [0], and a relevant idea is that focusing on one area of your life is likely not sufficient…
on “How I regained concentration and focus” ↗If anyone's interested, there's a great book called Designing Your Life [1] which delves more deeply into the basic concept from this piece (identify what's most important to you and measure your progress toward those goals). It's based on a Stanford course of a similar name,…
on “Living a Meaningful Life” ↗> what resources I can use to figure out my next steps. Check out Designing Your Life, a book by Stanford professors. Here's a podcast interview with the authors, to give you a flavor of what it's about > http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design-th... Also, NY Times…
on “Ask HN: How to plan getting out of tech?” ↗I found this book really helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Your-Life-Well-Lived-Joyful... Uses Design Thinking to help get a better idea of what you want to do. One thing I took away is that these decisions are rarely a fork/black-white. There are lots of things you…
on “Ask HN: Looking for a career change from IT, where to start?” ↗> I have absolutely no idea where to start... You might find of interest a book-- Designing Your Life based on a course taught by Stanford professors- Here's a podcast interview with the authors, to give you a flavor of what it's about > http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design-th...…
on “Ask HN: Looking for a career change from IT, where to start?” ↗You might find of interest this book on Designing Your Life by two Stanford professors- Here's a podcast interview with the authors, to give you a flavor of what it's about > http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design-th... Also, NY Times review…
on “Ask HN: Change career at age 30 in 2018?” ↗> how do you figure out what your Next Thing is? Good framework figuring out your next thing in the book Designing Your Life by a couple of Stanford professors- Here's a podcast interview with the authors, to give you a flavor of what it's about > http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design-th... Also, NY Times…
on “How do you know it's time to do the next thing?” ↗If book suggestions are helpful, I found “Designing Your Life” by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans to provide a helpful framework on how to think/act/prototype your way to what works for ya. Not sure if it’s everyone’s cup of tea but I found it useful.
on “Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?” ↗Related book to be published soon: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Your-Life-Well-Lived-Joyful...
on “Design Your Way to a Happier Life” ↗