“You can ask them to imagine his stories as all about a kind of door. To envision us approaching and pounding on this door, increasingly hard, pounding and pounding, not just wanting admission but needing it; we don’t know what it is but we can feel it, this total desperation to enter, pounding and ramming and kicking. That, finally, the door opens… and it opens outward (italics in the original) - we’ve been inside what we wanted all along.”

- David Foster Wallace
Some Remarks on Kafka’s Funniness in Consider the Lobster p. 65

I was talking to a good friend about life and career this afternoon and he told me this: You should orient yourself in the general direction you want to go and not worry too much about anything beyond that. Planning where you want to be in ten years is a bit ridiculous because where you end up is so dependent on the opportunities that you’ll be presented with in the intervening period. So enjoy the ride. Planning long-term is a good thought exercise but you shouldn’t sacrifice job satisfaction on the way to your goal. You’ll perform better at something you enjoy doing. From this increased performance will come better opportunities. The destination is important - but just as important - is the road getting there.

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