The Boomers Are The Original Job Hoppers
Ten thousand Americans, tracked week by week from age 18 to 58. The death of the steady career trajectory happened long before we let go of the idea
Paul Millerd
Writer, Creator, Father & Curious Human. Essays on work, life, meaning, and the pathless path.
Latest posts
The Boomer Blockade, Six Years Later
Six years after the original Boomer Blockade post, the Fed's data tells a different story than I expected. The CEO chart finally crossed into Gen X. The wealth chart didn't.
Paul Millerd's Wife Is Angie Wang
Apparently enough people are Googling this that I figured I'd make a page. Yes, I have a wife. Her name is Angie Wang. She is, by a comfortable margin, the more interesting half of this marriage. Here's her story.
Unhinged Habits Book Review: Why You Don't Need More Productivity
Jonathan Goodman's Unhinged Habits does what most productivity books fail at: showing how he actually lives, trade-offs and all.
Ambition Without Trying: Overcoming The Golden Algorithm and What I Learned From Joe Hudson
For 10 years I chased impressive jobs to avoid feeling unsettled. Then I discovered the golden algorithm - the trap of trying to outrun your own emotions.
Leap Capital: The Financial Resources You Need To Quit Your Job
The financial milestone that convinces you to make a change. Whether it's $7k or $10 million, the story you tell yourself about the number matters more than the math.
Paycheck Envy: Why Self-Employed People Love Recurring Revenue
Self-employed people obsess over monthly recurring revenue because salaried work has wired us to need a steady paycheck. What if we're chasing the wrong thing?
Book Review: The Ghost Map - From Miasmas to Germ Theory
How the 1854 London cholera outbreak reveals a timeless pattern: established experts cling to wrong ideas for decades, from miasma theory to Covid airborne denial.
The Long 2024: A Year of Change, Creativity, and Letting Go
My 2024 annual review: writing and publishing Good Work, deepening into fatherhood, finding a StrategyU operator, and preparing to leave Austin for Asia.
The Organization Man by William Whyte: Where Corporate Loyalty & the Career Ladder Began
Whyte predicted workaholism, work-life balance debates, and the security-obsessed employee in 1956. A review of the book that decoded the source code of modern work culture.
Hacking US Healthcare: A Guide to US Healthcare for Self-Employed People
After 8 years self-employed across 4 states and multiple countries, here are my best hacks for navigating US healthcare without an employer.
What if everyone followed The Pathless Path?
People ask if society would fall apart if everyone followed the pathless path. It won't. 95% of people aren't interested. I'm writing for the weirdos who already know.
Rethinking Wealth: Four Insights from "Just Keep Buying"
Four data-driven insights from Just Keep Buying that challenge common fears about spending, saving, retirement, and how rich you already are.
Question People and Answer People
There are question people who love the uncertainty of not knowing, and answer people who already have their minds made up. Knowing which one you are changes everything.
How to answer "what do you do?" on a pathless path
When you leave a conventional career, people ask what you do. You need three stories: one for skeptics, one for the curious, and the real one for fellow weirdos.
Escape Shouldandia!
Stop saying you should write more or should do YouTube. Pay attention to what you actually do with ease. That's the real clue to your creative path.
The Case For Quiet Quitting (and the dangers of slacking at work)
People doing almost nothing at their jobs aren't lazy. They're stuck in job-shaped containers without access to good work. The real problem is an absence of meaning.
Solopreneur & Creator Week-In-The-Life (as a parent)
A detailed look at my actual week as a self-employed creator and dad: writing sessions, podcast recordings, consulting workshops, gym time, and co-parenting.
Seven Reflections on Seven Years Of Self-Employment
Seven honest reflections after seven years of self-employment, from quitting alcohol to embracing boldness to threading the needle of parenting and creative work.
How Do You Leave Money On The Table?
I've actively chosen to leave money on the table for years. The return? Time with family, peace of mind, and a richness that no paycheck can match.
New Additions, New Heights & Open Questions | 2023 Annual Review
My 2023 annual review: becoming a dad, working less than ever while earning more than ever, selling 34k books, and losing a mentor who changed my path.
How To Take A Sabbatical: Stories From Five People Who Took Them
A sabbatical roundtable: personal experiences, mindset shifts, financial strategies, travel impacts, and transitioning back to work
Die With Zero: Why Too Many Save Too Much for Too Late In Their Lives (Book Review)
Die With Zero is a persuasive argument for those who spend to much to turn money into time & experiences earlier in their lives
The Way of Mediocre Man
Mediocre man flows through life. It is his birthright. He is not great man aiming at great results but merely trying to do enough of the right things over a long period of time such that it might lead somewhere interesting.
A Pebble In My Shoe (Excerpt From The Pathless Path)
An excerpt from Chapter 4 of The Pathless Path, on the stages people go through before leaving the default path
Leaning Into Ambition & Deeper Commitments: (Still) Enjoying The Journey | 2022 Annual Review
My 2022 year in review: publishing The Pathless Path, 2.5x income growth, finding community in Austin, and learning that ambition doesn't have to mean compromise.
The “Wild Problem” Of A Life Well Lived: A Book Review of Russ Roberts' Wild Problems
A review of Russ Roberts' Wild Problems and why the biggest life decisions can't be solved with logic. The upsides of bold leaps are impossible to imagine beforehand.
Selling My Time Too Cheap: How Full-Time Year-Round Work Blinds Us To The Joys of Life
I sold my time at a bargain for too long. After five years of self-employment, I realized how unnatural it is to trade most of your waking life for a paycheck.
The Inspiration Deficit - Or Why So Many Young People Still Crave More Challenging Work
Young people aren't lazy or entitled. They're starving for inspiration in a working world that offers far less challenge and growth than it did a generation ago.
Too Big To Think: Why Prestigious Institutions Stopped Generating Good Ideas
Why have our most generative institutions of the 20th century become \"too big to think\" and how is the internet creating new spaces for ideas?
Don't Find A Niche, Find A Mode
Finding a niche is not helpful early in a creator journey. Instead find a mode where you can keep showing up and feel connected to yourself
Ship, Quit & Learn - A Framework for Finding Work Worth Doing
Ship, quit & learn - a proven framework for finding the work worth doing. It's a way to detach from outcome and explore without pressure
My "Creative Engine": A Curiosity-First Second Brain Approach For Creating Online
How to develop a habit for creating online in a way that helps you keep the habit going and that makes your life better
Finishing My Book, From Mexico to Taiwan to the US | 2021 Annual Review
This annual review reflects on 2021 for Paul personally and professionally and shares financial results from the business
Do We Really Want Happiness? Lessons from Socrates, Kahneman & Maslow
Why did Daniel Kahneman give up on the idea that people want to be happy and what can we learn from Maslow's real research?
Designing Your Own Infinite Game In The Creator Economy
The five principles I follow in order to plan an infinite game in the creator economy with the whole goal of having fun along the way
"Ambition Is Frozen Desire" - Excerpt From David Whyte's Consolations
David Whyte details the positive and negative sides of ambition and our challenge of grappling with it in our lives
The Ultimate Guide & Reasons To Take A Sabbatical
Sabbaticals have a near 100% approval rating and often serve as a space in one's life to rediscover curiosity, energy & passion for life
My Five-Year Journey Creating, Launching, Failing & Succeeding With Online Courses
Paul details his efforts to plan, create, launch, build in public and run several cohort-based courses as well as evergreen courses
Accidental Meaning: How The Baby Boomers Misled Us About What Leads To A Happy Life
People are still pursuing the default american dream path and not getting what they expect, meaning. How do find meaning in today's world?
How I Think About Money & Retirement While Self Employed
Why do full-time employees think self-employment is so risky? Here's how I think about money, retirement & my future
How Obsession With Work Killed Our Connection With Leisure
We've lost connection to an ancient definition of leisure which was centered around contemplation and an active engagement with the world
The Inevitable Decline Of The Elite Full-Time MBA
The full-time MBA performs a certain number of jobs well but it is being replaced by new options that are using the power of networks to scale
The Battle For The Soul Of The Creator Economy
Will the \"creator economy\" self-destruct before it ever takes off or will a new culture emerge that helps develop an ecosystem of creators?
What I learned in Ali Abdaal's YouTube Course
A review of Ali Abdaal's Part-Time Youtube Academy course. I share how I levels up my YouTube skills and changed my mindset towards creation.
150+ Things Worth Reading & Listening To From 2020
150+ links from the boundless newsletter on work, life, carving one's own path and making sense of the modern world
Don't Follow Your Passion, Work In The Corporate World First
People have more freedom in the corporate world than they imagine. A corporate job can be a great first step to an entrepreneurial journey.
The Magic of Non-Doing
What is non-doing? Wu-wei, or inaction in Chinese, is being in a state of not having to \"do things.\"
Why Did People Stop Caring About Developing a Meaningful Philosophy of Life in the 1970s?
Why did college students abandon trying to achieve a meaningful philosophy of life and instead replace it with the desire to become wealthy?
An Ode To Travel and What It Means (Video)
Long-term travel is different than short-term vacations and it surprised me in ways I didn't expect. This is a short travel essay I wrote.