We like to see the world through a ‘literal’ lens. We worry about the specifics, missing the bigger picture, the high-level view. This article looks at how an abstract world-view can lead to a deeply fulfilling life.
Fulfilling Careers
Most of us are going to be spending a good chunk of our life working to sustain ourselves, hence it is easy to see how a deeply fulfilling life necessitates deeply fulfilling career(s).
Prior to entering college, everyone has wondered how important a branch, or a major is. Looking at it through a literal lens, if one wants to build a career in a specific field, majoring in that field would be the obvious choice. Most of us, however, lack conviction towards a particular profession. Those who do, generally, are shrouded in a cloud of naïveté, or they pick a vaguely defined profession. Well, hey, we all have a specific passion and we should just find it, right?
It turns out that passion is generated, not found. Passion is a choice. Having a deeply fulfilling career is more complex than simply identifying a pre-existing passion and following it. As the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), popular among cognitive circles, states, passion is generated at the intersection of the three circles of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Sports performance science has established theories on Deliberate Practice, practice which incorporates deliberately stretching your abilities past the comfort zone then receiving ruthless feedback on it. These results have been extended to knowledge work to help produce value. You are passionate when you have value you can add to a cause you believe in.
You can lead a deeply fulfilling career if you let go of the literal lens, which leads to anxiety and confusion about picking the right branch. Embrace the abstract lens, which liberates you and focuses you towards the traits that generate passion in any branch, universally. Focus on surrounding yourself with smart and motivated people.
College, from an abstract view, can be seen as a boot camp to prepare students for the real world. Imbibing how to learn is more important than what to learn. Unbearable course loads prepare us for unreasonable bosses. Every difficult math course helps us deal with unrelated, difficult ideas. Notice how as time passes on, these abstractions become more important, whereas the literal subjects fade into oblivion.
The abstract lens also reveals why there is more value in intangibles such as research, innovation and design rather than tangible commodities. These require heavy mental work, creativity and are rarer. It reveals why an architect is more valued than a bricklayer, why western service based economies are richer than manufacturing based eastern counterparts, et cetera.
Fulfilling Relationships
Everything we do in our lives, from a high-level perspective, involves person-to-person interaction. Even a software programmer needs clients to sell services to. Therefore, it follows that a deeply fulfilling life involves a web of deeply fulfilling relationships.
In the context of romantic relationships, it is easy to see through the literal lens and come to the conclusion that specific physical attributes and certain common interests are prerequisites for a successful relationship. However, the importance of the above mentioned are vastly overstated when compared to the traits that the abstract lens reveals. Research shows that fulfilling relationships are built on a solid foundation of trust, respect and honesty. This reveals how the concept of ‘The One’ is broken and a fulfilling relationship is possible with anyone, provided a small threshold of compatibility. The details can be random, be it blonde or black hair, but the ideas of trust, respect and honesty are common to all fulfilling relationships. These ideas can then be further extended to accommodate all general relationships.
These various components of a deeply fulfilling life underline a powerful narrative: looking at the world through the abstract lens shows the big ideas at work, the bars of steel holding the building together. The literal details are mostly inconsequential, the allegorical wallpaper.
Abstraction Rocket 