Quarterlife crisis readings

Having a quarterlife crisis is definitely something that would be hashtagged on twitter as #firstworldproblems but it is a relatively common topic amongst my peers.

Part of the difficulty of graduating from college is realizing that

1. There is no longer a clear road map to "success". You got into college and graduated. Maybe you have a job now too. Now what?

2. There are no longer grades, tests, papers, and other external sources of measurement and praise for your self worth. Hopefully, your self worth was never dependent on these external measurements to begin with.

3. You and your friends are no longer on "equal" footing. Different working hours, salaries, and professions can create subtle changes in relationships where in the past we were all students.

4. Life was never fair but once you leave academia there is no pretense of trying to make life appear fair.

5. You realize that the process of getting a job at your firm was more challenging than your day to day work.

I think each of the 5 issues above can contribute to some reassessment of our life, time, and relationships.

There have been two influential articles/essays for me during my period of reassessment.

I want to explore David Foster Wallace's commencement speech (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html) further on Wednesday

and the essay about How to Measure a Life from Harvard Business School (http://alexcusack.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/how-will-you-measure-your-life.pdf) on Thursday.

The commencement speech focuses on how to live and think in the present while the HBS essay applies some principles used in assessing companies on your own life.