Why does anyone do anything?

What is your PURPOSE? This is a common theme in sentimental discussions in life planning, career coaching, and brand management. Much of it hews towards spiritual masturbation, as folks evade the difficulties of empirical data, and veer off into realms beyond.

Well, why does anyone DO ANYTHING? That's more concrete, and it brings us towards the mode of behavioural economics, petty psychology, and realpolitik : and here we find the money, predatory traders, strategy consultants, venture capitalists, and investment bankers.

The identification of a GOAL, describes the structure of a system. Everything else becomes subsidiary to that orientation. So the interesting discussions in life are never about how to get things done - we denigrate it as "ops" - but rather, about WHAT THE HELL we want done - we idolise it as "strategy". 

To understand what a COLLECTIVE wants done, one must thoroughly comprehend what its INDIVIDUALS want done. And talent management has this in common with software engineering : both are about software, and both are about talent : it is the same discipline : because humans and machines are both fundamentally information systems, designed to chase goals.

I have a partner who often asks me why I'm always developing new business. Why is present business not good enough? Well my dear, it completely depends on what we're doing business FOR, isn't it?

Earlier today I met a chap in his thirties, a moderately successful fellow, in this jelloesque economy. We talked about how we spend time differently. My view was that it doesn't matter when you make money - you can make it earlier, or later with interest ... but you can't respend any particular year of your life, though that's probably why parents heap so many expectations on poor children. The question is never "should I make X money now, or X money later?" It's not even "why should I make X money now, not Y money?" The question for everyone, everyday, is "er, fuck, the day isn't coming back after midnight - what can I do with it now, so that I will have minimal regrets over the rest of 120 years?"