FWIW I had similar frustrations but as an applicant - when I tried to apply to jobs using the procedure of sending my CV and covering letter in response to job postings, most of the time there was no response at all: no acknowledgement or rejection communication.

Thanks

Thanks for sharing. To me, your algorithm doesn't necessarily seem in contradiction to introspection: maybe your interests are very well calibrated with reference to your values(?)

I tried to imagine myself using this algorithm. Two questions came to my mind:

1. The question "To what end is this all for?" seemed to bother me.

2. Was unsure how I would deal with inevitable "should"s that are not interesting.

Are either of these an issue for you? If so, how do you deal with them?

Thanks. This helps.

Thanks Elo. The intention behind the question was more general (how does one decide how to spend all of their time) than specific (career). The goals list in your post seems like a good checklist to work through while performing steps 2a,b that Raemon mentioned. Both your post as well as Raemon's reply seem to indicate that using your "true" motives / values might be a good compass to select your path. While this seems intuitive, is there an elaboration/explanation on why do it this way and not some way else? ( A "better" method doesn't come to mind though).

Thanks for sharing this. Coincidentally I have started out on steps 1 and 2a, but I haven't done it systematically not have I recorded anything. I will aim to go through the exercise more systematically and will report the outcome back on this thread (likely to take a while). I am a bit sceptical if I will reach a motivational bedrock because I am thinking that probably every motivation / action will have a "because" , which will in turn will have another "because"... irrespective of whether I can identify these or not. However, I will shut up and execute and see where I land.

Novice here. Is there a post somewhere on what algorithm people in this community use to answer "what should I do with my life", with recursive why's for each step of the algorithm?