Purpose, Solved
This is the episode I’ve been waiting to make for a long time. Purpose has been at the core of everything I’ve written and done for over a decade—and in this episode, we go all the way down the rabbit hole. From Viktor Frankl surviving Auschwitz to the myth of “finding your one true purpose,” we break down what purpose really is, why you feel lost without it, and how you can build it into your life.
We also get uncomfortable (in the best way) and talk about the dark side of purpose—how it can burn you out, trap you in toxic ambition, or become an excuse to ruin your life.
And I have a very special announcement to make: Today, I’m launching a new app called Purpose. It’s an AI-powered mentor for personal growth. You talk to it about whatever you’re facing—stress, decisions, conflicts, goals—and it helps you make sense of things. Purpose listens, reflects back what matters most, and turns big challenges into small, actionable steps. The more you use it, the more personalized and helpful it becomes.
Get started in the app with a free course on finding your purpose at https://purpose.app/solved
Episode Notes
Referenced in This Episode
- Sign up for the Purpose App
- Viktor Frankl
- Viktor Frankl’s “existential vacuum”
- Man’s Search for Meaning
- Logotherapy
- Sigmund Freud
- Alfred Adler
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Existential psychotherapy
- Aristotle
- Nicomachean Ethics
- Teleology
- Descartes
- Baruch Spinoza
- David Hume
- Hume's Guillotine (Is–Ought Problem)
- Bobby Fischer
- Søren Kierkegaard
- Fear and Trembling
- Abraham (Biblical figure)
- Übermensch
- Ernest Becker
- The Denial of Death
- Arthur Brooks
- Second Mountain (book)
- Robert Kegan
- Erik Erikson
- Abraham Maslow
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
- Transcend (book by Scott Barry Kaufman)
- Scott Barry Kaufman
- Immanuel Kant
- Categorical imperative
- Formula of humanity
- David Foster Wallace
- This Is Water (commencement speech)
- Man’s Search for Meaning (Amazon)
- The Subtle Art Journal
- Ikigai
- Wheel of Life
- Blaise Pascal
- Pascal’s God-shaped hole
- Emile Durkheim
- The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
- Alcoholics Anonymous
- Robert Greene
- Mastery (book by Robert Greene)
- David Brooks
- Wheel of Life (Coaching Tool)
- Jason Isbell
- Florence Nightingale
- Paul Gauguin
- Ronnie Coleman
- Lady Gaga
- Enron
- Chris Rock
- David Goggins
- Joseph Campbell
- Casimir Dabrowski
- Positive disintegration theory
- Maslow’s hierarchy (original model)
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