Brett Hall on Goals

Brett Hall: In our times, rapid progress comes not from setting goals, but overcoming the *unexpected*. 

Goals are a kind of prophesy & can be coercive, so quickly choosing “failure” over *achieving them* must be a “goal” of any rational goal setting methodology to preserve error correction.

Brian: Can you elaborate? Is the idea that hewing too close to achieving a goal, particularly one far in the future, causes errors to go uncorrected because you're not adjusting to the problems right there in front of you at the time?

Brett Hall: Yes & if gurus, life/business coaches, etc are to be believed we need goals: a “5 year plan” or some such. 

• Get this job, 
• Make that income. 
• Etc 

But human minds create new preferences continuously though guru logic casts choosing those as failure (to be goal-oriented).

If one sticks to a goal because they’re being “disciplined” & it’s part of the grand plan (for success, happiness, whatever) - that’s an error. Worse: it’s anti-rational: it actively prevents errors being corrected and suppresses creativity in the service of “achieving a goal”.

Brian: But there are some goals that you may want over the course of years and that take years to achieve, right? House, marriage, kids, etc. for many. Or what about the persistence needed to, say, get a gold in Judo at the Olympics? Seems like there's got to be a middle ground.

Brett Hall: If each day one wakes & enthusiastically decides the “goal” ostensibly set is best & most fun (& not worked towards because one is solely being focussed/driven/disciplined) - that’s different. “Goal” there labels a different thing: daily human choice determining life, not a plan.

It may help some (eg your Olympian) to know what it takes to “have the fun” they want (like a pilot’s checklist for landing) & “plans” do help the depressed & confused: those who *don’t know* what they want. But those are exceptions “that prove the rule”: people don’t need goals.

(In those exceptions a “plan for success” is like “Wittgenstein’s Ladder”: once depression is gone or you don’t need to remind yourself of a “gold medal” to be excited to get to the gym & train, the plan can be thrown away as it’s not needed to get what is *really* wanted: joy).