1, #191 - Choose good quests.

I recently read an article with a deceptively simple proposition: Each of us has a moral obligation to pursue good “quests.”

Your quest is your personal objective in life. And there are good ones and bad ones.

“In the most simple terms possible: a good quest makes the future better than our world today, while a bad quest doesn’t improve the world much at all, or even makes it worse.”

What I like about this framework is that it reframes a familiar concept enough to make it feel new. “Do something worthwhile” sounds obvious - but the quest concept is novel enough to catch our attention.

I also like that the authors apply a “with great power comes great responsibility” approach. Good and bad quests both come in varying degrees of difficulty, and although we should all be pursuing good, the specific objective will depend on our circumstances.

For instance, the authors challenge successful tech founders to use their immense wealth, relational networks, and public influence to take on quests that the rest of us literally cannot. Perhaps you and I won’t personally cure Alzheimer’s or crack nuclear fusion… but we can do something.

Before the quest is the question. Ask yourself:

“Am I on a good quest right now?”

Then: If not, what should replace it? If so, can you raise the difficulty? And either way: What’s one very small step you can take today to get started?

Insight inspired by Trae Stephens & Markie Wagner, in Choose Good Quests. Thanks to Packy McCormick for sharing it in his (also amazing) recent post with Markie.