Hacker News 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.

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...

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, and is an excellent read.

1. https://smile.amazon.com/Designing-Your-Life-Well-Lived-Joyf...

> 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...

Also, NY Times review > https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-thinking-s...

And - Goodreads reviews here > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26046333-designing-your-l...

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 times I found myself saying, "ugh that's not what I thought it was at all."
Eventually I decided that the best move for me was to sales engineering. It's engineering-adjacent so I can make use of my years of experience, but it's people-oriented and has tons of variety. You'll probably have a different final answer, but I highly recommend the techniques in the book.
You may even find yourself a job you're excited about through the process of talking to people about what they do. https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Your-Life-Well-Lived-Joyful...

Reminds me of this book called "Designing your life" it's about career, here's what you do.
Talk to people in field by buying them a coffee and you spit in it

I am reading a book right now, "Designing your life". It brought one good point that we don't know what we will want in 5 years or even what we want in 5 minutes.

Instead think in terms of a project where you will design multiple prototypes. You need to choose one of the prototype and move forward. Let market (your internal state) decide if choice was correct or not. And if it wasn't, design more prototypes while you are still selling the current one.

> 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 review > https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-thinking-s...

> 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 > https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-thinking-s...

And - Goodreads reviews here > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26046333-designing-your-l...

> 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 review > https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-thinking-s...

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 > https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-thinking-s...

And - Goodreads reviews here > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26046333-designing-your-l...