One of my good friends (an Olympic gold medalist), sent out a newsletter post on the same Scheffler interview at almost the same minute! Complete coincidence, and he had a very different perspective: https://steve-mesler.beehiiv.com/p/screw-the-arrival-fallacy
Perhaps we should reframe victories in sports not as the goal we’re working towards, but as a byproduct of what does provide us ongoing reward and satisfaction, which is learning and growth.
Then again, maybe the arrival fallacy is necessary to motivate us to do what actually gives us ongoing reward and satisfaction!
It’s like the relationship between being interested in something and being good at something. If you do something because you’re interested, you accidentally get good at it too.
Being interested has more value for me than being smart (etc).
But of course it's not only sports. It's career "achievements", it's material goods, it's all of those hamster wheel "objectives" that billions of people think are so important.
Back to sports, I remember being so impressed by Barry Sanders' explanation for retiring at a relatively young age, within a season or so of breaking the all-time NFL rushing record. He walked away from "immortality" (the record) and tens of millions of dollars in contracted salary, plus endorsements, saying, "My desire to exit the game is greater than my desire to remain in it."
I remember tennis player Jim Courier achieving his lifelong goal of attaining the number one ranking, and within a few weeks he was reading novels (Paul Auster!) during changeovers, then retired within a year or so after that. He had ticked the "lifelong goal" box, and lost his motivation to continue doing all the hard work of staying there.
Lots of other examples. Great and thoughtful statement from Scheffler.
Haha...I did not know that about Courier! That's an amazing detail. ...And Barry Sanders is one of my handful of favorite athletes ever. Selfishly I wanted him to keep going, but tremendously admire how he went about his career.
Mats Wilander (one of my favorite players, such beautiful strokes) was another guy with a similar story. He had a tremendous year in 1988, capped with a win at the U.S. Open (his third major title of the year) that gave him the world number one ranking and removed Ivan Lendl from that spot after a three-year reign. Having finally landed at number one, Wilander seemingly had run out of motivation, didn't win a tournament in 1989, and was pretty much finished with the game (though he continued to try to play, off and on, for several years).
A funny story: an old friend of mine has a house in Sun Valley, and when his sons were young, went along to their elementary school to make a parent "What I Do for a Living" presentation. Afterwards, he sent me an email, reporting that, "The kids weren't too impressed by my "What It's Like to Be an International Sales Executive" presentation. The parent who presented right before me was Mats Wilander and he brought his French Open trophy." Hahahaha!!!
I remember hearing Brad Stulberg make a similar point when describing the arrival fallacy: “Every climber desires to reach the peak of the mountain, but every climber spends 99.99% of their time, energy, and attention on its sides.”
Put another way: Summiting is nice, but you better love the mountain you’re on.
I‘m an amateur theatre director, and at the beginning of a new production I always tell my actors: „we‘re here for the rehearsal; the performances at the end are nice and give us focus, but if you don’t enjoy the process of rehearsing but see it as a means to an end, you will be disappointed.“ I think that works for life in general.
Was reading an article the other day about people who scaled Mount Everest but died on their way back down, and that was a whole goal re-framing for me...
I love this David! Great post. Rethinking the journey- and, to me a psychologist, what are we trying to connect to as we move toward our goals? My answer is related to a shift towards what we are hoping to:
A) Become or are Becoming
B) Grow or are Growing (within us)
I did write a note on it yesterday as well. I hope it is okay to post here:
Absolutely you are very welcome to post it here! And this is short enough that you might consider just pasting the text right in so others who read the comments can see it.
Thank you David! I appreciate your generosity and helping, give a live example, of how we might feel more connected to those around us in ways that help with the going. It matters.
I enjoyed this. Scheffler's humility and his multiple mentions of that feeling of accomplishment will stick with me. I've recently and finally been feeling a sense of accomplishment about the Amazon Ads I have running for my book, and just realized that feeling has lasted longer and been sweeter somehow than the feeling of accomplishment I got when I published the book itself. How that for ironic!
Thanks for the invite to think and share more about it. Here's some of those thoughts:
Writing and publishing a book was it's own kind of hard, but all of the steps made sense. Amazon Ads, on the other hand, didn't. It felt like a black box or a ball of yarn to untangle, made even more complicated by lots of conflicting advice about how to do them "right," without a lot of principle-based recommendations for evaluating success. It took several (6+) months of stumbling in the dark to get to this place where I'm like "Oh, it's actually this simple?"
Publishing a book provided an initial wave of accomplishment, helped in large part by the public validation, but I had to fight harder for this Amazon Ads sense of accomplishment, for it to make sense making it feel like more of a victory. Also, by finally understanding ads, I can do more with this book and future books, so it's a victory of understanding that enables more victories. Thanks again for asking.
I love this story, Emily. I honestly had not thought about Amazon Ads in this way (and I'm grateful when these comments make me think new thoughts). I appreciate that idea of fighting to a point of understanding and feeling that as accomplishment, and "a victory that enables more victories." Thanks so much for sharing this, and best wishes for your writing!
I'm rewatching One Piece (I can't wait until the day I can splurge on each Manga set 😭😂) and ironically just passed the episode where Usopp asks Rayleigh about the One Piece and Luffy cuts him off. I think Luffy, as the ubermensch and consummate hero he is, says something poetic about the importance of seeing the journey as an adventure.
"I don't wanna know where the treasure is. I don't wanna know if the treasure exists or not. We've put all our lives on the line and set out to sea even though we don't know anything! I'd rather give up being a pirate than have the old guy tell us stuff now! I won't go on a boring adventure!"
Many of us pray for life to be a boring adventure, that the ends justify all means and that the means hold almost no importance. In our society that champions rushing, paints patience as a mistake, it's refreshing to remember to enjoy the journey. To prioritize seeing each instant as the adventure it is, and not to think it is the arrival that makes the journey worthwhile.
Wow this is a great comment that I will remember. I love the framing of Luffy as the ubermensch (and you're right, where so many comparisons have twisted what Nietzsche meant with that term). It's especially apt to me because the moment in the first episode where I started to fall in love was when Koby is telling Luffy he's crazy and he's going to die, and Luffy responds, basically: Yeah maybe, but this is my dream and if I die, I died trying. It made me think of the first part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where the people are watching a high wire walker who gets interfered with and falls. They scorn him (the people are early Koby here), but Zarathustra approaches him as he's dying and says: "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands."
When I started rewatching, that part gave me chills. Because it sets the foundation for everything we grow to love about Luffy and reveals how he inspires everyone he comes across. Freedom is his foundation. The journey itself is the treasure and is the measure of his freedom. Death as a free man, someone with the will to chase his dreams is just as liberating as actually making it to the end. Doflamingo and Trafalgar both have quotes about weak men not getting to choose how they die. And Luffy is choosing how he dies. His strength cannot be questioned.
There’s a whole niche of people making their livelihoods off of analyzing One Piece. If you ever get bored or want another stream of income, you’d probably be a great addition to that community. Analyzing the greatest (imo) media of our lifetime and connecting it to real world issues for the youth and adults could possibly be a teaching unparalleled in education. Is this not an epic being played out in real time? I’ve written a couple essays about One Piece. I’ll tag you if I ever post them.
That’s a hell of a quote! Thanks for sharing it. Some great inspiration for us humans.
My Substack which posted today called Practicing doesn't address the Arrival Fallacy, but it does speak adjacent to your wise words. it's about a Psychology Practice and talks about the humility involved in continuing building muscle. I agree that the thrill of getting something that we've worked for is marvelous, but short lived. Thankfully, we can continue finding new challenges. Or get very depressed if we can't. As always, an admirer. Margit
I remember reading something years ago that framed this concept very succinctly (it may have been in this newsletter).
The rage for many years was for people to create S.M.A.R.T. Goals in work and education. We love acronyms!!!!
The A stood for Actions or Action-oriented steps that one would take to achieve the goal. However the person reframed the steps are actually the goal not the end result.
For example, if one’s goal was to complete a marathon, that is the end result which has some uncertainty and could be derailed by bad luck (illness on the day of the race, etc.). The goal is actually the training. Running x miles per week or x days per week.
Nick Saban used to constantly talk about process over results and I believe this is what he meant.
Mike, that's really interesting in terms of the marathon perspective. You're right, anything can happen on the day, or you can sick, but the journey of becoming a runner over is really something that's in your control.
Began to realize smart goals were a corporate con to keep them from paying you properly for your effort. Sorry, you/we didn’t achieve the goal so no bonus for you.
I truly like this. The arrival fallacy and Scheffler's realisation plus the summit climber's experiences make the point vividly. Yeah, the goal is crucial as a point of focus but enjoy every step of the journey, it's where you spend most of your time!
Thank you for sharing that interview. It is gold. From my first career I know quite a few Olympic medalists and World Champions and buckets of people who one would consider "made it" in their athletic careers. Among them are so many National team athletes who fell short of making the Olympics, Olympians who fell short of a medal, medalists who fell short of a gold and gold medalists who fell short of a follow up performance. "Arrival" is indeed an endless pursuit, and creates a lot of emotional shrapnel that takes years and even lifetimes of recovery and reckoning. So many years down the road, I think the sweet spot of sport for most people is getting the benefits that come from the deferred gratification of discipline and hard work, the resilience from recovering after failures, the friendships/relationships and the pure love of whatever sport you pursue...and then getting out when you're expecting too much out of it. Wow that was long but it is a rich and important topic. Thanks for raising it here!
"Emotional shrapnel" Wow, what a powerful phrase. This is just a great and wise comment all around. And brought me back a bit to some of my early writing days, where I definitely think I suffered at least somewhat from the arrival fallacy. I think over time—and partly from seeing things play out with athlete and author friends—I've developed a more productive approach. With the book I'm just finishing now, I decided to experiment with the structure—knowing that it would make the project higher risk, but that I would find it so engaging that I'd consider the endeavor worthwhile and a fantastic learning experience no matter what happens commercially with the book. Not that I don't very much want the book to be widely read—I do—but no matter what happens I'm already at peace with the notion that it's been an extremely worthwhile journey.
wait...you mean taking the lessons from sport and using them in other aspects of life???? Thank you for spelling out how you applied that to your writing. It's a very helpful perspective.
Living out one's identities really can be liberating, and it can also make sense business-wise - against the mantra to 'pick your niche' (e.g. see https://substack.com/@annamackstack 'portfolio career' idea)
I just celebrated my 77th birthday. At this age, each year is a victory that I do truly treasure. Beyond survival, I have but one anecdote to share. As a citizen scientist, I have worked for 20 yers to promote a rather unconventional hypothesis. When I met up with a major geological journal’s chief editor after having a 30 page paper published, I professed a heartfelt observation: “If I die tomorrow, I’ll die happy because its in citable print”. That was 3 years ago, and I still feel the same way.
The paper is published by the Geological Society of America at https://doi.org/10.1130/2021.2553(24) behind a $10.00 paywall, but can be found on ResearchGate. If there is any merit to the runnable mental model described, the resources required to advance it will take many more years to assemble. Hence my joy of the safety net.
Apologies, I just edited my comment to properly link the paper I was referencing. It's actually chapter 24 in the GSA volume. I had erroneously linked chapter 23, which was by my co-author, another ranging wildly citizen scientist.
Absolutely true. Speaking as a retired Neurosurgeon, I found that my profession was what I refer to as "open ended," which is to say it was somewhat like an horizon in that as succeeded at each step in the trip the "horizon" continued to recede, thus continuing to beckon. I found the same to be true in each of my significant interests: Photography with Platinum printing and Philosophy. Ernest Fokes, MD
Doctor, it sounds like you have a very full life! I like that expression—"open ended." Did you do anything to grapple with that? Engaging new interests, for instance? Or did just recognizing it help at all?
One of my good friends (an Olympic gold medalist), sent out a newsletter post on the same Scheffler interview at almost the same minute! Complete coincidence, and he had a very different perspective: https://steve-mesler.beehiiv.com/p/screw-the-arrival-fallacy
Ugh I don't know. It's obvious Scottie is goal oriented or he would not be such an amazing athlete.
Bring proud of achieving goals is one thing living amongst the trophies of the past is another.
That's an eloquent way to put it. Thanks for reading, Chris.
Perhaps we should reframe victories in sports not as the goal we’re working towards, but as a byproduct of what does provide us ongoing reward and satisfaction, which is learning and growth.
Then again, maybe the arrival fallacy is necessary to motivate us to do what actually gives us ongoing reward and satisfaction!
It’s like the relationship between being interested in something and being good at something. If you do something because you’re interested, you accidentally get good at it too.
Being interested has more value for me than being smart (etc).
Love that. Curiosity is the way.
I might modify to say being interested is how we get smart. :)
That too! Becoming smart/skilled is a side effect of being interested.
But of course it's not only sports. It's career "achievements", it's material goods, it's all of those hamster wheel "objectives" that billions of people think are so important.
Back to sports, I remember being so impressed by Barry Sanders' explanation for retiring at a relatively young age, within a season or so of breaking the all-time NFL rushing record. He walked away from "immortality" (the record) and tens of millions of dollars in contracted salary, plus endorsements, saying, "My desire to exit the game is greater than my desire to remain in it."
I remember tennis player Jim Courier achieving his lifelong goal of attaining the number one ranking, and within a few weeks he was reading novels (Paul Auster!) during changeovers, then retired within a year or so after that. He had ticked the "lifelong goal" box, and lost his motivation to continue doing all the hard work of staying there.
Lots of other examples. Great and thoughtful statement from Scheffler.
Haha...I did not know that about Courier! That's an amazing detail. ...And Barry Sanders is one of my handful of favorite athletes ever. Selfishly I wanted him to keep going, but tremendously admire how he went about his career.
Mats Wilander (one of my favorite players, such beautiful strokes) was another guy with a similar story. He had a tremendous year in 1988, capped with a win at the U.S. Open (his third major title of the year) that gave him the world number one ranking and removed Ivan Lendl from that spot after a three-year reign. Having finally landed at number one, Wilander seemingly had run out of motivation, didn't win a tournament in 1989, and was pretty much finished with the game (though he continued to try to play, off and on, for several years).
A funny story: an old friend of mine has a house in Sun Valley, and when his sons were young, went along to their elementary school to make a parent "What I Do for a Living" presentation. Afterwards, he sent me an email, reporting that, "The kids weren't too impressed by my "What It's Like to Be an International Sales Executive" presentation. The parent who presented right before me was Mats Wilander and he brought his French Open trophy." Hahahaha!!!
Haha...I feel like the school should've given Wilander his own day so another parent didn't have to compete;)
Both excellent thoughts, Josh. I'm going to try that "byproduct" frame on myself!
Haha, ditto! :)
I remember hearing Brad Stulberg make a similar point when describing the arrival fallacy: “Every climber desires to reach the peak of the mountain, but every climber spends 99.99% of their time, energy, and attention on its sides.”
Put another way: Summiting is nice, but you better love the mountain you’re on.
"Better love the mountain you're on..." That phrase is going to stick with me.
I'm a big fan of Brad's and that is a wonderful way to put it. Wish I'd thought of that;)
I‘m an amateur theatre director, and at the beginning of a new production I always tell my actors: „we‘re here for the rehearsal; the performances at the end are nice and give us focus, but if you don’t enjoy the process of rehearsing but see it as a means to an end, you will be disappointed.“ I think that works for life in general.
I'd be in your troupe
And it is better to do things with someone -
To quote Kermit the Frog:
Getting there is half the fun
Come share it with me
So much wisdom, that fellow.
Was reading an article the other day about people who scaled Mount Everest but died on their way back down, and that was a whole goal re-framing for me...
Yeesh...Annie Duke's book Quit has a pretty fascinating story about a disastrous drive to reach a peak.
I love this David! Great post. Rethinking the journey- and, to me a psychologist, what are we trying to connect to as we move toward our goals? My answer is related to a shift towards what we are hoping to:
A) Become or are Becoming
B) Grow or are Growing (within us)
I did write a note on it yesterday as well. I hope it is okay to post here:
https://substack.com/@broncerice1/note/c-140404876
Even with degrees, a meaningful career, and a supportive community…(thank you!)
To be honest, I still feel behind sometimes.
Psychologists call it the arrival fallacy: The mistaken belief that once we “get there,” we’ll finally feel fulfilled.
But I’m learning—it’s not the final arrival that gives life its meaning.
It’s becoming. It’s growing.
So if you’re in a season where you feel “behind,” I hope you know:
You’re not alone.
You’re just human.
And humans aren’t wired for arrival.
We’re wired for connection—we’re wired for the journey.
Substack—like me, do you ever feel this way, too?
Let me know—because, sometimes, it’s hard
to feel alone.
Absolutely you are very welcome to post it here! And this is short enough that you might consider just pasting the text right in so others who read the comments can see it.
Thank you David! I appreciate your generosity and helping, give a live example, of how we might feel more connected to those around us in ways that help with the going. It matters.
I enjoyed this. Scheffler's humility and his multiple mentions of that feeling of accomplishment will stick with me. I've recently and finally been feeling a sense of accomplishment about the Amazon Ads I have running for my book, and just realized that feeling has lasted longer and been sweeter somehow than the feeling of accomplishment I got when I published the book itself. How that for ironic!
That is indeed interesting! Actually, I'd love to hear a little elaboration on that if you're willing.
Thanks for the invite to think and share more about it. Here's some of those thoughts:
Writing and publishing a book was it's own kind of hard, but all of the steps made sense. Amazon Ads, on the other hand, didn't. It felt like a black box or a ball of yarn to untangle, made even more complicated by lots of conflicting advice about how to do them "right," without a lot of principle-based recommendations for evaluating success. It took several (6+) months of stumbling in the dark to get to this place where I'm like "Oh, it's actually this simple?"
Publishing a book provided an initial wave of accomplishment, helped in large part by the public validation, but I had to fight harder for this Amazon Ads sense of accomplishment, for it to make sense making it feel like more of a victory. Also, by finally understanding ads, I can do more with this book and future books, so it's a victory of understanding that enables more victories. Thanks again for asking.
I love this story, Emily. I honestly had not thought about Amazon Ads in this way (and I'm grateful when these comments make me think new thoughts). I appreciate that idea of fighting to a point of understanding and feeling that as accomplishment, and "a victory that enables more victories." Thanks so much for sharing this, and best wishes for your writing!
I'm rewatching One Piece (I can't wait until the day I can splurge on each Manga set 😭😂) and ironically just passed the episode where Usopp asks Rayleigh about the One Piece and Luffy cuts him off. I think Luffy, as the ubermensch and consummate hero he is, says something poetic about the importance of seeing the journey as an adventure.
"I don't wanna know where the treasure is. I don't wanna know if the treasure exists or not. We've put all our lives on the line and set out to sea even though we don't know anything! I'd rather give up being a pirate than have the old guy tell us stuff now! I won't go on a boring adventure!"
Many of us pray for life to be a boring adventure, that the ends justify all means and that the means hold almost no importance. In our society that champions rushing, paints patience as a mistake, it's refreshing to remember to enjoy the journey. To prioritize seeing each instant as the adventure it is, and not to think it is the arrival that makes the journey worthwhile.
Wow this is a great comment that I will remember. I love the framing of Luffy as the ubermensch (and you're right, where so many comparisons have twisted what Nietzsche meant with that term). It's especially apt to me because the moment in the first episode where I started to fall in love was when Koby is telling Luffy he's crazy and he's going to die, and Luffy responds, basically: Yeah maybe, but this is my dream and if I die, I died trying. It made me think of the first part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where the people are watching a high wire walker who gets interfered with and falls. They scorn him (the people are early Koby here), but Zarathustra approaches him as he's dying and says: "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands."
I can take no credit for the ubermensch comparison. Here’s the youtube video that introduced me to the concept https://youtu.be/-oue28juBnA?si=sRfyXqv0EP6SoHod
When I started rewatching, that part gave me chills. Because it sets the foundation for everything we grow to love about Luffy and reveals how he inspires everyone he comes across. Freedom is his foundation. The journey itself is the treasure and is the measure of his freedom. Death as a free man, someone with the will to chase his dreams is just as liberating as actually making it to the end. Doflamingo and Trafalgar both have quotes about weak men not getting to choose how they die. And Luffy is choosing how he dies. His strength cannot be questioned.
There’s a whole niche of people making their livelihoods off of analyzing One Piece. If you ever get bored or want another stream of income, you’d probably be a great addition to that community. Analyzing the greatest (imo) media of our lifetime and connecting it to real world issues for the youth and adults could possibly be a teaching unparalleled in education. Is this not an epic being played out in real time? I’ve written a couple essays about One Piece. I’ll tag you if I ever post them.
That’s a hell of a quote! Thanks for sharing it. Some great inspiration for us humans.
Hi David,
My Substack which posted today called Practicing doesn't address the Arrival Fallacy, but it does speak adjacent to your wise words. it's about a Psychology Practice and talks about the humility involved in continuing building muscle. I agree that the thrill of getting something that we've worked for is marvelous, but short lived. Thankfully, we can continue finding new challenges. Or get very depressed if we can't. As always, an admirer. Margit
"That's why they call it a practice" ...I love that line.
I remember reading something years ago that framed this concept very succinctly (it may have been in this newsletter).
The rage for many years was for people to create S.M.A.R.T. Goals in work and education. We love acronyms!!!!
The A stood for Actions or Action-oriented steps that one would take to achieve the goal. However the person reframed the steps are actually the goal not the end result.
For example, if one’s goal was to complete a marathon, that is the end result which has some uncertainty and could be derailed by bad luck (illness on the day of the race, etc.). The goal is actually the training. Running x miles per week or x days per week.
Nick Saban used to constantly talk about process over results and I believe this is what he meant.
Mike, that's really interesting in terms of the marathon perspective. You're right, anything can happen on the day, or you can sick, but the journey of becoming a runner over is really something that's in your control.
Began to realize smart goals were a corporate con to keep them from paying you properly for your effort. Sorry, you/we didn’t achieve the goal so no bonus for you.
I truly like this. The arrival fallacy and Scheffler's realisation plus the summit climber's experiences make the point vividly. Yeah, the goal is crucial as a point of focus but enjoy every step of the journey, it's where you spend most of your time!
That's a great point about where we spend most of our time, and probably a good thing to repeat constantly!
Thank you for sharing that interview. It is gold. From my first career I know quite a few Olympic medalists and World Champions and buckets of people who one would consider "made it" in their athletic careers. Among them are so many National team athletes who fell short of making the Olympics, Olympians who fell short of a medal, medalists who fell short of a gold and gold medalists who fell short of a follow up performance. "Arrival" is indeed an endless pursuit, and creates a lot of emotional shrapnel that takes years and even lifetimes of recovery and reckoning. So many years down the road, I think the sweet spot of sport for most people is getting the benefits that come from the deferred gratification of discipline and hard work, the resilience from recovering after failures, the friendships/relationships and the pure love of whatever sport you pursue...and then getting out when you're expecting too much out of it. Wow that was long but it is a rich and important topic. Thanks for raising it here!
"Emotional shrapnel" Wow, what a powerful phrase. This is just a great and wise comment all around. And brought me back a bit to some of my early writing days, where I definitely think I suffered at least somewhat from the arrival fallacy. I think over time—and partly from seeing things play out with athlete and author friends—I've developed a more productive approach. With the book I'm just finishing now, I decided to experiment with the structure—knowing that it would make the project higher risk, but that I would find it so engaging that I'd consider the endeavor worthwhile and a fantastic learning experience no matter what happens commercially with the book. Not that I don't very much want the book to be widely read—I do—but no matter what happens I'm already at peace with the notion that it's been an extremely worthwhile journey.
wait...you mean taking the lessons from sport and using them in other aspects of life???? Thank you for spelling out how you applied that to your writing. It's a very helpful perspective.
Haha... indeed! I'm still working through some of the lessons I learned on the track;)
Living out one's identities really can be liberating, and it can also make sense business-wise - against the mantra to 'pick your niche' (e.g. see https://substack.com/@annamackstack 'portfolio career' idea)
Daniel, you are speaking my language! And thanks for this link, definitely want to read some of her writing now.
I just celebrated my 77th birthday. At this age, each year is a victory that I do truly treasure. Beyond survival, I have but one anecdote to share. As a citizen scientist, I have worked for 20 yers to promote a rather unconventional hypothesis. When I met up with a major geological journal’s chief editor after having a 30 page paper published, I professed a heartfelt observation: “If I die tomorrow, I’ll die happy because its in citable print”. That was 3 years ago, and I still feel the same way.
Michael, this is a truly wonderful—and very unique—anecdote. Thanks so much for sharing it. Can you share a link to the paper as well?
The paper is published by the Geological Society of America at https://doi.org/10.1130/2021.2553(24) behind a $10.00 paywall, but can be found on ResearchGate. If there is any merit to the runnable mental model described, the resources required to advance it will take many more years to assemble. Hence my joy of the safety net.
Apologies, I just edited my comment to properly link the paper I was referencing. It's actually chapter 24 in the GSA volume. I had erroneously linked chapter 23, which was by my co-author, another ranging wildly citizen scientist.
Absolutely true. Speaking as a retired Neurosurgeon, I found that my profession was what I refer to as "open ended," which is to say it was somewhat like an horizon in that as succeeded at each step in the trip the "horizon" continued to recede, thus continuing to beckon. I found the same to be true in each of my significant interests: Photography with Platinum printing and Philosophy. Ernest Fokes, MD
Doctor, it sounds like you have a very full life! I like that expression—"open ended." Did you do anything to grapple with that? Engaging new interests, for instance? Or did just recognizing it help at all?