Crowdsourcing Your Future

Over on? The Future of Self-Knowledge, Jessica Charlesworth posits an interesting idea: what might you learn (about yourself and your future) if you were to ask your friends, “What do you see as my possible future?” and “What would you offer as a preferable future?” (These aren’t her exact questions … but bear with me.)

Some definition of terms is in order. A possible future, I’m guessing, is what is, in your friend’s opinion, a likely future. A preferable future, though, should reflect some changes your friend think would be a better outcome for you.

For example: I think a perfectly possible future involves me working at The Company (or somewhere similar) until retirement age. A preferable future might be “Mark writes or creates something that allows him to lead a more self-directed life as a writer, information artist, or workshop leader.”

My own vision, though, is limited by perspective — and breaks with the spirit of Jessica’s experiment, which involves making an effort to see your future as *others* might see it. Problem is: her method involves printing and mailing a bunch of postcards, and “Mark prints and mails a bunch of postcards” simply isn’t in my range of possible futures.

So, MadeByMark reader, I’d like to ask your help. If you’ve stumbled on this entry today, would you please consider entering a comment (or sending me an email at mark@madebymark.com) containing any one of the following?

1) the job you think I ought to be doing (or not doing!)

2) the book you think I ought to be writing (or not writing!)

3) a project you think I should be completing (or abandoning!)

4) a workshop you think I should be offering (or not offering!)

or

5) your vision of my future, as you think it ought to be.

Be honest. I can take it. And — if you’re willing to invest that time in me, I should return the favor, yes? I hereby promise that everyone who responds to the above request will receive something similar in return:

1) if I know you personally, I’ll provide one of the four items above based on what I know about you, or

2) if we’ve never met, I’ll draw a Tarot card and use it to brainstorm a list of pseudo-random possibilities for you to consider as you plan your own best path.

Thanks in advance for playing!