A Measure of Life
Clayton Christensen, the brilliant author of The Innovator's Dilemma -- for my money one of the most revolutionary and electric books about business and entrepreneurship every written -- coined the term "disruptive technology" to describe an innovation that takes the market by surprise, by either creating a new and unexpected market, or by delivering something at a radically lower cost.
He's also, it turns out, an eloquent thinker about life in general.
In his recent article, How Will You Measure Your Life?, in the Harvard Business Review, he applies his business ideas to life, and describes a class lecture he delivers at Harvard Business School:
On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.
And he gets deep:
For me, having a clear purpose in my life has been essential. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhodes scholar, I was in a very demanding academic program, trying to cram an extra year’s worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford t o take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.
Had I instead spent that hour each day learning the latest techniques for mastering the problems of autocorrelation in regression analysis, I would have badly misspent my life. I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day.
Why are you on the planet? What's your purpose? Those are great questions -- and a little irritating, too, I know. But worth thinking about. And worth asking, I think, not just of ourselves but of the people we're about to elect, or toss out, or re-elect, into office.
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Aug '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Those questions may cause severe brain pain.
Jul '10
Re: A Measure of Life
I guess I should stop cruising Ricochet and spend that time figuring it out...
Jun '10
Re: A Measure of Life
I find myself thinking about these questions a great deal, and sometimes, in brief moments of revelation, I actually think I know.
Sometimes though, I think it would just be easier to go buy a convertible. Or a boat.
Jul '10
Re: A Measure of Life
This also explains why auto-didacts are often the wisest people.
I have a post-graduate degree, but beyond a few electives (geology, art history, physics), those studies taught me nothing that I truly value.
What did teach me was seeing my father and his lumberjack pals leave home every morning before dawn and come home after dark, so tired that their kids had to pull their boots off.
That and the time our family came upon a "flatland" family in a shiny Cadillac that had gotten stuck in the middle of a stream. My father pushed and shoveled rocks under the tires while the rear wheels deluged him with mud and gravel, until the car finally broke loose.
Then the driver in his fancy city slacks and polo shirt offered my dad a few bills. Dad pretended not to notice. He just said "You be careful out here, now," and walked away.
I built on that foundation by discovering William F. Buckley in my 20's; reading all of his books - and then every book he mentioned. And then every book mentioned in those books - on and on, like an Escher engraving.
Edited on Aug 21, 2010 at 6:27pmJun '10
Re: A Measure of Life
I don’t know whether I was on the first drinking scholarship ever awarded by my university, but I can say with some certainty that I was on as fine a team of inebriates as ever assembled in any pub. The speed with which some of my mates could down a jumbo was positively staggering. Me, I was never a dasher, I was an endurance drinker, slow and steady. I tell people that I would’ve been on Academic suspension had the dean thought that I had any chance of graduating. Still, I got my degrees, and here I am, out of jail—no small accomplishment given the company I kept, and happy. Yes I could be richer! But I could also be dead. Some blessings are too complicated to dissect, especially since none of us know why we have been given this great gift. My one regret is that I wasn’t then as organized and disciplined as I am today, because had I been I would have drunk more, partied more, chased more women, and got better marks. Would that have made me happier? Did Captain James T. Kirk cheat on the Kobashi Maru problem? Who knows?
Jul '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Jim Chase: I find myself thinking about these questions a great deal, and sometimes, in brief moments of revelation, I actually think I know.
Sometimes though, I think it would just be easier to go buy a convertible. Or a boat. · Aug 21 at 5:54pm
Convertibles are why God made the sky.
Jun '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Kenneth
Jim Chase: I find myself thinking about these questions a great deal, and sometimes, in brief moments of revelation, I actually think I know.
Sometimes though, I think it would just be easier to go buy a convertible. Or a boat. · Aug 21 at 5:54pm
Convertibles are why God made the sky. · Aug 21 at 6:26pm
If God wanted us to drive convertibles, He wouldn't have given us hair! And another thing, did Noah build a convertible? I'll bet the arc didn't even have a sundeck on which missus Noah and the kids could catch a few rays. So if God wanted us to drive convertibles He wouldn't have made rain.
Jul '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Perhaps I mis-spoke.
Maybe the sky is why God made convertibles.
Jun '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Kenneth: Perhaps I mis-spoke.
Maybe the sky is why God made convertibles. · Aug 21 at 6:45pm
And hair, don't forget the hair!
May '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Ah, but it's a good pain
Thanks for pointing that out Rob; great article (and I too am a big fan of The innovator's Dilemma). I wonder if Christensen retained the habit of nightly pondering his larger purpose after Oxford. I'll bet he did, at least regularly if not nightly. I cannot fathom that a graduate student could come up with answers that will last through life. At least I always need to reassess and reorient myself thoughout the years.
I once worried that uncertainty or changing thoughts on these big questions was a failing, but then I realized that the critical thing was not to get the right answers but to find the right questions. That does a lot to reduce the "brain pain".
(I'm feeling deja vu. Didn't we just discuss Christensen's approach to the purposeful life?)
Jul '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Cas Balicki
Kenneth: Perhaps I mis-spoke.
Maybe the sky is why God made convertibles. · Aug 21 at 6:45pm
And hair, don't forget the hair! · Aug 21 at 6:54pm
Just buzz-cut it and put SPF 72 on the bald spots.
Then go screaming down Highway 1. You'll know you're going fast enough when your passengers alternately pray to their Maker, beg you to slow down and threaten to beat you to a bloody pulp.
At which point you downshift into a hairpin, let the rear end drift out right to the shoulder and smile as though life simply...could not...get any better.
That doesn't happen in a coupe or sedan.
Jun '10
Re: A Measure of Life
G.A. Dean
I once worried that uncertainty or changing thoughts on these big questions was a failing, but then I realized that the critical thing was not to get the right answers but to find the right questions. That does a lot to reduce the "brain pain".
I really appreciate that insight. In the very broadest sense, I believe I have a handle on the purpose question. But I've noticed that many times, the purpose of the singular moment, or the purpose of a particular season, may be unique to that span of time or even place. I find that it is not so much a search for significance, but rather the continual query of "am I in the right place, doing the right thing, for the right reasons." The answers do change, but the overall trajectory does not. Asking the questions regularly I submit is healthy, but hard. But always beneficial.
Jul '10
Re: A Measure of Life
I hate to bring the fun level down a notch, but the central point here is immense. As our society increasingly defines value in very specific and specialized terms (e.g. knowledge of econometrics) we increasingly lose sight of the value of the general and very important questions.
I have a T.S. Eliot quote on my cube wall at work ( I am a data geek). From memory:
"What wisdom have we lost in knowledge? What knowledge have we lost information?" To which I have appended: "What information have we lost in data"?
We are a long way from Plato.
Jul '10
Re: A Measure of Life
By the way, that doesn't mean we shouldn't pursue knowledge/information/data, just that we must be able to tie them back to the wisdom from whence they sprung. The temptation is to believe that our particular level of specificity is all that matters.
Jul '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Patrick Shanahan: I hate to bring the fun level down a notch, but the central point here is immense. As our society increasingly defines value in very specific and specialized terms (e.g. knowledge of econometrics) we increasingly lose sight of the value of the general and very important questions.
I
I'm sorry - were we having too much fun?
I agree that it's an important question.
I take some solace from knowing, first-hand, that most Americans still hold, even if they don't so comprehend it, to the eternal values.
I used to do a lot of campus recruiting. I asked every single student the same question: "If you had to identify the one quality in people that is most important to you, what would it be?"
If they didn't answer "honesty" or "integrity" within 3 seconds, they didn't get the job, no matter how otherwise-brilliant they might be. (Although the few times a student replied "humility", I gave them a pass.)
Yes, some answered "intelligence" or "compassion" or "ambition" - but so long as the overwhelming majority get it right, we still have hope.
Jul '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Of-topic, but, well, it's official:
I hardly ever go to HotAir anymore. And even my NRO trigger is getting rusty.
I spend way too much time here.
And I blame it on all of you.
Jun '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Been there done that, Kenneth. Hot July night in Winnipeg and I’m out to break my personal best through the aggie-barn esses at the UofM. Previous best between 70 and 72 MPH, on this night I’m driving a Datsun 240Z and looking for 75. It’s 2:00 AM, first lap leisurely to get the lay of the land. Second lap faster; third lap and I’m moving apace, the set up is hitting two opposite apexes to straighten them out, the line is curb to opposite curb and requires a small right-left move. Clutch in, drop a gear, hard brakes, the nose goes down the rear starts breaking out, everything is perfect, revs up, clutch up speed’s there; hammer down on the throttle. Holy Crap, Batman, I’m too fast on the gas, haven’t hit the long winder’s apex yet. Bone dry pavement, the tach and gear put me somewhere around 75 MPH when the rear breaks loose and comes right around on me. I’m looking at lamp standards; you know the ones that really hurt, moving past my windshield from left to right. Full sideways drift! It was grand!
May '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Thanks for sharing this, Rob. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a feeling that this article will make its way into many a sermon, at least I hope it will. I especially love how he took time out from his studies as a Rhodes Scholar to reflect and pray. Blessed are those that have him as a friend. While I was reading the article, I couldn't help humming "Sweet Hour of Prayer."
Aug '10
Re: A Measure of Life
Kenneth
If they didn't answer "honesty" or "integrity" within 3 seconds, they didn't get the job, no matter how otherwise-brilliant they might be. (Although the few times a student replied "humility", I gave them a pass.)
Yet how did you know a) they meant what they said, and weren't just saying it to sound good, and b) what they meant by honesty or integrity?
I come from a family where everyone places a premium on honesty and integrity, but to tell the truth, I'm not sure how different these qualities are in practice from rudeness and inflexibility. (They call being harsh being honest, and not accommodating one another having integrity.)
I've met people to whom honesty means expressing whatever they sincerely feel at the moment, so that what's true one day is not true the next -- whereas to me an honest expression is one I judge likely to be true for some time to come, even if my momentary feelings are quite otherwise. Likewise, some people think integrity means being themselves without restraint; others think integrity requires restraint.
Honesty. Integrity. Fine words.
But perhaps humility is not such a bad answer, after all.
Aug '10
Re: A Measure of Life
For me, it was "Denn wir haben hie' keine bleibende Stadt" (Then we have no lasting city here) from Brahm's Deutches Requiem. Oh, and Adam's Curse by Yeats.
Because "What is my purpose?" is an irritating -- an unsettling -- question, especially when your purpose in life is apparently emerging as something unpleasantly different from the purpose you thought you had -- from the purpose you wanted.
"That it had all seemed happy, and yet we'd grown
As weary-hearted as that hollow moon."
But now I'll buck up and find myself a recording of "Sweet Hour of Prayer".
Edited on Aug 21, 2010 at 11:32pm