A fairly common pattern I see in the tech career lifecycle: - Grinding to reach material success - Reaching success and questioning purpose - Finding meaning in spiritual practice, and wishing they'd done so much earlier - Trying to convince others to pursue spiritual path earlier Deep spiritual practice is subjective, but some examples of it include - 1+ hours of meditation daily - Many multi-day meditation intensives per year - A near-exclusive focus on introspection Many spiritual paths promise benefits that directly support material success, especially enhanced focus & clarity of purpose. These practices have become increasingly popular in the last decade among young professionals, especially in tech. If these practices lead to an advantage in pursuing material goals, then we should expect to people who invest in those practices reach their material goals at a higher rate than those who don't invest. Anecdotally, this doesn't seem to be the case - people I know who dove deep into the spiritual path either pulled out again or become gurus. This is not universally true. [[Most people would benefit from nonzero mindfulness and meditation practices]]. I personally have gotten a lot of value from Sam Harris's [Waking Up](https://www.wakingup.com/) course and book, The Mind Illuminated book, and others. I do some form of meditation on most days. But the heavier investments in the spiritual path don't seem instrumentally useful. This may be for a few reasons: - Buddhist schools of thought in meditation point to desire as the root of all suffering, and instruct letting go of all desires. The desire to do deeply-aligned work that helps others is a desire. There's a very direct step on the path that reduces motivation. - [[Intense meditation can cause harm]], leading to some otherwise-impactful people to lose that efficacy - [[Most who pursue a heavy spiritual practice either pull back from it or it becomes their life]] - Spiritual work is a different skill tree than acting-in-the-world work. One can get better at being happy and at peace without getting better at enacting their values. - Though better nervous system regulation is likely to be helpful, again, much of that can be gained without a heavy spiritual practice Also, [[Meaning-making is not meaning itself]]. Beyond just a spiritual path, [[Becoming a more effective person is a key way to improve your character and moral fabric]], because [[Good character hinges on high executive function]].