What Should You Do with Your Life? Directions and Advice - Alexey Guzey
A curated playbook for ambitious people stuck coasting: pick important problems from YC/OpenAI/Gwern's lists, learn via MOOCs, build something minimal, then cold email your way into the field—with proof that this actually works.
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TLDR
• The problem isn't ability, it's knowing what problems exist: YC Requests for Startups, OpenAI research requests, Gwern's project ideas, and Tyler Cowen's questions provide concrete starting points
• Learning path: MOOCs/MIT OCW + find tutors + email local professors for help (not passive consumption), then build minimal impressive result and share it
• Cold emails/Twitter are life-changing if you demonstrate value—author shares examples that worked (20-50% response rate) plus embarrassing early failures
• Funding exists beyond traditional paths: Thiel Fellowship, Emergent Ventures, Pioneer, microgrants for people under 23 or working on unconventional projects
• Key heuristics: "Always produce" reveals what you actually love, "there's no speed limit" (the system is designed for average), weak-form EMH doesn't apply to careers—optimizations are possible
In Detail
The core thesis is that ambitious people aren't stuck because they lack ability—they're stuck because they don't know what problems exist and haven't given themselves permission to tackle them. Guzey provides a meta-resource of curated problem lists (Y Combinator's Requests for Startups, OpenAI's research requests, Gwern's project ideas, Tyler Cowen's questions) and argues the path forward is: pick an exciting problem, learn what you need via MOOCs plus tutors/professors, build something minimal and impressive, then cold email people in the field.
The actionable framework includes specific learning strategies (MOOCs aren't enough—pair them with tutors and email professors at local universities for help with specific problems), funding sources for unconventional paths (Thiel Fellowship for under-23s, Emergent Ventures, Pioneer, microgrants), and proof that cold emails work. Guzey shares actual examples of successful cold emails alongside embarrassing early failures, noting 20-50% response rates when you demonstrate value. The key insight: "If you can demonstrate that you have high potential and/or can be useful to somebody, you should just email/tweet them."
The career philosophy draws from Paul Graham ("always produce" as a heuristic for finding work you love), Nate Soares (slam plans against reality rather than perfecting them first), and Patrick McKenzie (weak-form efficient market hypothesis is terrible for evaluating careers—fruit hangs low). The "Working Resume" concept flips traditional credentials: instead of listing past jobs, show understanding of the employer's problems and a plan for solving them. The meta-point is that the internet gives you unfair advantages over prior generations—leverage it to connect with people doing interesting work rather than competing in traditional credential tournaments.