What Should I Do With My Life? - Po Bronson
(found at bookstore, looked intriguing)
The subtitle of the book is "The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question," which may beg the question, is "What Should I Do WIth My Life?" really the ultimate question? But after reading Bronson's book, it does have some ring of truth to it. He tells a lot of stories of people who (as the book jacket says) "broke away from the chorus to find their own voice," that is, they weren't afraid to make unconventional choices, and chose to really discover who they were rather than what society told them they should be. It's a fascinating read, looking at the decisions other people have made, and it raises some challenging questions and inspires you to think about them. Some questions that I have for myself now: How much does location matter? Am I my own obstacle? What's my big picture? Some other ideas from the book that I found interesting: the Lockbox Fantasy, the benefit of being around like-minded people, and the idea that most people only have a glimmer, not an epiphany. As somebody who has been asked repeatedly in the past few months, "So, what do you do?" I've been struggling with the fact that society tries to define who you are in terms of what you do. At one point, Bronson makes the observation that perhaps one person hated that question because she really didn't like her own answer; so maybe I need to search for a better answer.
Fed to jhliu's brain | January 31, 2003
