hebel. today · 9 November 202640 / 74
Arts · Design Thinking
Design your life through experiments or rigid plans
Planning as a driver. Houda Nait El Barj argues that intentional design requires treating your life like a product, using a framework to define goals, develop strategies, and measure progress. By blocking specific time…
From 4 newsletters · 1 min read · one thing to try
Planning as a driver. Houda Nait El Barj argues that intentional design requires treating your life like a product, using a framework to define goals, develop strategies, and measure progress (Houda Nait El Barj from Human Flourishing with AI). By blocking specific time for projects and reviewing outcomes monthly, you convert ambitions into a structured calendar that reveals who you are actually becoming (Houda Nait El Barj from Human Flourishing with AI). This approach prioritizes clarity and measurable milestones, allowing you to use AI to translate aspirations into actionable plans while maintaining a clear vision of your personal objectives.
Experimenting as a path. Simone Stolzoff contends that you cannot think your way into knowing what you want, but must act your way into it by treating career and life choices as a series of experiments (Molly Graham from Lessons). This perspective suggests that you should avoid the pressure of permanent decisions by trying different roles or projects to collect data on what you like and dislike. Instead of a rigid ladder, this model treats life as a series of lily pads where you jump to the next one based on evidence gathered from direct experience rather than abstract planning.
Synthesis of approaches. Both perspectives agree that avoiding the pressure of permanent decisions is vital, yet they differ on the primary engine of progress. While one emphasizes the discipline of a structured, measurable strategy to force growth, the other advocates for iterative, low-stakes testing to discover what truly fits your evolving self.
- Patrick Van Horne notes that AI-assisted development shifts the bottleneck from technical execution to problem identification, definition, and evaluation (Patrick Van Horne from The CP Journal).
- Strong judgment evaluates the process before the result, ensuring you do not mistake a lucky outcome for a smart decision (World of Creatives).
Try today · 30 min
Identify one current professional or personal uncertainty and launch a two-week experiment to test it.
Pick a project or role you are curious about but haven't started.
You need
- A specific, low-stakes task (e.g., writing one essay, consulting on a small project, or leading a single team meeting)
- A defined observation period of two weeks
Steps
- Define the specific hypothesis you want to test (e.g., 'I will enjoy managing this project').
- Set a concrete, time-bound action to perform the task.
- Execute the task during the two-week window.
- Record which parts felt fulfilling and which felt draining.
- Decide whether to continue, pivot, or stop based on the evidence.