# Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned  ## Metadata - Author: [[Kenneth O. Stanley and Joel Lehman]] - Full Title: Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned - Category: #books ## Highlights - Though often unspoken, a common assumption is that the very act of setting an objective creates possibility. The very fact that you put your mind to it is what makes it possible. And once you create the possibility, it’s only a matter of dedication and perseverance before you succeed. This can-do philosophy reflects how deeply optimistic we are about objectives in our culture. All of us are taught that hard work and dedication pay off—if you have a clear objective. ([Location 131](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=131)) - Objectives are well and good when they are sufficiently modest, but things get a lot more complicated when they’re more ambitious. In fact, objectives actually become obstacles towards more exciting achievements, like those involving discovery, creativity, invention, or innovation—or even achieving true happiness. In other words (and here is the paradox), the greatest achievements become less likely when they are made objectives. Not only that, but this paradox leads to a very strange conclusion—if the paradox is really true then the best way to achieve greatness, the truest path to “blue sky” discovery or to fulfill boundless ambition, is to have no objective at all. ([Location 257](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=257)) - The problem is that the stepping stone does not resemble the final product. ([Location 273](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=273)) - Vacuum tubes on their own just don’t make people think about computers. But strangely enough, as history would have it vacuum tubes are right next to computers in the great room of all possible inventions—once you’ve got vacuum tubes you’re very close to having computers, if only you could see the connection. The problem is, who would think of that in advance? The arrangement, or structure, of this search space is completely unpredictable. ([Location 273](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=273)) - unpredictability is the rule rather than the exception in almost any situation with an ambitious objective. ([Location 277](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=277)) - These stories of delayed revelations and serendipitous discovery expose the danger of objectives: If your objective was to invent a microwave oven, you would not be working on radars. If you wanted to build a flying machine (as countless failed inventors did over the years), you wouldn’t spend the next few decades instead trying to invent an engine. If you were like Charles Babbage in the 1820s [5] and wanted to build a computer, you wouldn’t dedicate the rest of your life to refining vacuum tube technology. But in all these cases, what you would never do is exactly what you should have done. The paradox is that the key stepping stones were perfected only by people without the ultimate objective of building microwaves, airplanes, or computers. ([Location 281](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=281)) - The stories of Elvis and rock and roll in general illustrate that not only can objectives block discovery, but that having no objective can lead to the greatest discoveries of all. ([Location 314](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=314)) - Note: bezos and wandering - Sometimes the best way to achieve something great is to stop trying to achieve a particular great thing. In other words, greatness is possible if you are willing to stop demanding what that greatness should be. ([Location 323](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=323)) - Really useful: the origins of everyday things. ([Location 359](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=359)) - Note: book rec! - Being open and flexible to opportunity is sometimes more important than knowing what you’re trying to do. ([Location 386](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=386)) - The great achievers are willing to abandon their original objectives and spring for opportunity when it arises. What is important in these scenarios is to avoid locking into rigid commitment to the original ambitious objective, and instead remaining mindful and open to where the present stepping stone might lead. ([Location 448](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=448)) - In other words, Picbreeder seemed to work best when visitors were open minded about what they hoped to find. ([Location 607](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=607)) - Note: my best images on midjourney are images i never set out to make - To arrive somewhere remarkable we must be willing to hold many paths open without knowing where they might lead. ([Location 776](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=776)) - Evolution on Earth was not trying to evolve human-level intelligence. ([Location 826](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=826)) - Almost no prerequisite to any major invention was invented with that invention in mind. ([Location 889](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=889)) - Great invention is defined by the realization that the prerequisites are in place, laid before us by predecessors with entirely unrelated ambitions, just waiting to be combined and enhanced. The flash of insight is seeing the bridge to the next stepping stone by building from the old ones. ([Location 907](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=907)) - Non-objective search is the true source of much that gives value to our lives. ([Location 917](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=917)) ## New highlights added December 31, 2024 at 12:54 PM - although metrics allow for control, strict control is only important or appropriate when working on a project with little chance of major impact [70]—in other words, measurements are great when you have a modest goal, but lose their value when applied naively to ambitious undertakings. ([Location 1711](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00X57B4JG&location=1711))