Designing Your Life
by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
Two Stanford design professors apply prototyping to careers: build several possible lives on paper, test them with conversations and small experiments, and iterate. The 'odyssey plans' exercise, where you sketch three different five-year futures, is the standout. The book is practical and unusually honest that there is no single right answer.
Read it if…
you are at a crossroads and keep trying to think your way to the perfect decision.
Skip it if…
you want a decisive, prescriptive answer; this book trains you to experiment, not to choose once.
Three things you will actually use
- Prototype with conversations before you prototype with your life.
- Reframe 'dysfunctional beliefs' like 'I should know by now.'
- Choose well, then stop agonizing.
Do this first
Sketch three different five-year plans, one safe, one bold, one wild, and rate each.
Our verdict
The most practical career-change book of the last decade.
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