{"id":93778,"date":"2026-05-04T12:32:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T17:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/?p=93778"},"modified":"2026-05-04T12:32:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T17:32:46","slug":"quick-book-review-designing-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/05\/quick-book-review-designing-your-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Quick Book Review: Designing Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hey everyone, we have a quick book review today \u2013 Designing Your Life<\/strong> by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans. This book is adapted from their class at Stanford University. The authors teach readers about design thinking. This process can help you figure out what you want for your life and how to create it. A lot of the book is focused on finding fulfilling work.<\/p>\n

How is this related to the FIRE movement? Well, some people discover FIRE and make it their primary mission in life. They think FIRE will solve all their problems. But is that really the case? Financial independence is a great goal. Life is fantastic when you don\u2019t have to worry about money. Early retirement is even better<\/a>. I love it because I don\u2019t have to work with anyone and I can work on my own terms.<\/p>\n

FIRE is awesome, but it can be a very long process even after achieving FI. Unfortunately, some people go a bit overboard. They sacrifice everything in order to achieve financial independence ASAP. They cut out all extraneous expenses and invest every penny. When you overdo this, life tends to be a bit miserable. It\u2019s okay to do this for a year or two, but misery can be habit-forming. If you\u2019re miserable for 10+ years, FIRE probably won\u2019t make you any happier. You need to enjoy the journey to financial independence<\/a> or else it probably isn\u2019t worth it.<\/p>\n

Designing Your Life<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This is where Designing Your Life<\/strong> can help. Most people don\u2019t hate work. Usually, they just don\u2019t like their particular working situation. I was miserable when I was an engineer<\/a> at Intel. But that didn\u2019t mean I hated work. It just meant Intel wasn\u2019t the right environment for me. If I had put more effort into it, I probably could have found a better fit. However, at that point, I was close enough to FIRE that I just pushed through the final hurdles. It worked out really well, but that last push only lasted 2 years. If it was any longer, I would have tried to find an alternative solution. That’s assuming that I became aware of other solutions.<\/p>\n

Multiple solutions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here is the gist of this book – there are multiple solutions to a problem, especially if you have an open mind. You can use the design process to try different solutions until you find something that works best. The book will show you the steps for that design process. FIRE worked for me because I had several advantages.<\/p>\n