Daniel Pink tweeted a thread about the Odyssey Plan, a 20-minute exercise from Stanford’s Designing Your Life course.
« Bill Burnett and Dave Evans teach it in Stanford’s Designing Your Life course, one of the most popular electives on campus. Their premise is a designer’s premise: you don’t think your way into a life. You prototype one. »
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
| the life you’re already on. If nothing changes, what do the next five years look like? | the life you’d build if column one vanished tomorrow. The industry dies, the role disappears. What then? | the wild card. What would you do if money and what people think were no object? |
| Give it a six-word title. | Six-word title. | Six-word title. This is the column people skip. Don’t. |
« Then rate each plan on four dials:
- do you have the resources?
- do you like it?
- are you confident you could pull it off?
- does it fit who you are?
Twenty minutes. No decisions required. »
« Why it works: columns two and three now exist. Once you’ve seen them, column one stops being “the plan” and becomes a choice. »
Three columns, six words each, twenty minutes. »
Daniel Pink is the author of several books including:
- The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward (2022)
- When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (2019)
- To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others (2012)
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (2011)
- The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need (2008)
- A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (2006)
Articles of Interest 