Some books don’t just give you answers; they make you sit still with questions you’ve been avoiding. For me, Po Bronson’s What Should I Do With My Life? was one of those.
The book is a collection of true stories about people who wrestled with the ultimate question of purpose. But what stayed with me even more than the stories was what they triggered in me: a long, quiet reflection about how I live, work, learn, and change.
The thoughts below aren’t in Bronson’s book word for word. They’re the ideas that reading it stirred up in me—especially now, when artificial intelligence is reshaping our jobs, identities, and possibilities at lightning speed.
1. Meaning Is a Moving Target
Bronson’s stories reminded me that purpose is not a fixed address. At 25 you may crave adventure; at 45, stability; at 65, legacy. Each stage forces a new version of the same question.
AI accelerates this. In previous generations, you could build a career on one skill or industry and assume it would last decades. Today, automation and algorithms can disrupt a field in just a few years. That makes the search for meaning even more dynamic: it’s not only what do I want to do? but what will still exist to be done?
Instead of trying to “solve” meaning once and for all, I’ve come to see it as an ongoing practice—checking in with myself as circumstances shift.
2. Skills Expire, but Curiosity Doesn’t
One passage in Bronson’s book described someone who had to start over professionally. That made me think about how skills themselves are impermanent. We spend years acquiring expertise, only to find the world has moved on.
AI is the ultimate skill disruptor. It can now write code, analyze data, generate images, even produce first drafts of reports. If you’ve built your identity solely on tasks that machines can do, it’s a scary moment.
But there’s a hopeful flip side. The one “meta-skill” AI can’t automate is the human drive to explore. Curiosity, pattern recognition, empathy, judgment—these are the abilities that let us combine old and new skills in fresh ways.
For me, this means staying in beginner’s mind.
Taking a course, experimenting with a tool, and learning something new.
3. Relationships Are How We Learn Who We Are
Another theme that emerged for me while reading was the role of relationships.
Over time we collect friends, mentors, colleagues, and family across generations and cultures. Some drift away; some stay; some clash with us. Each one is a mirror.
AI won’t replace this, but it is changing the texture of connection. Networking is now as likely to happen on LinkedIn or Discord as at a coffee shop. AI recommendation engines suggest which voices we see first. Even companionship itself is being simulated in chatbots.
All of this makes it more important to cultivate real, non-algorithmic friendships—people who will tell you uncomfortable truths and stretch your worldview.
In a sense, as AI curates our digital worlds, we have to curate our human worlds more deliberately.
4. Life Is a Series of Problems—Not a Destination
Bronson’s book made me realize how much of life is problem-solving. You resolve one issue, and another appears. The people who seem happiest aren’t those who found a problem-free lane; they’re the ones who became good at tackling what shows up next.
AI can be both a problem and a partner here. It introduces new challenges, but it also gives us unprecedented tools for analysis, brainstorming, and scenario planning.
I now try to think of each challenge as a training ground: “What skill am I strengthening by dealing with this?” That mindset, more than any single job title, may be the real answer to “What should I do with my life?”
5. Making Life Work for You
Another reflection: we often assume life will “work out” if we work hard and stay loyal. But change is real. In Bronson’s book, people took small but deliberate steps—volunteering, side projects, negotiating new roles—to align daily action with deeper values.
AI amplifies distractions: endless feeds, automated tasks, predictive suggestions. But it also lowers the barrier to action. You can prototype a business idea with AI tools in a weekend. You can test a new career path by talking to experts or freelancing.
In other words, the same technology that can lull you into autopilot can also empower you—if you stay intentional.
Purpose isn’t handed to you; it’s built by you.
6. The Final Equation: Giving and Receiving
When I think about what endures beyond résumés and roles, it’s contribution. Over time the most meaningful lives aren’t measured by titles but by the balance between what we give and what we receive.
AI complicates and enriches this. It’s easier than ever to create something of value—write, teach, design, analyze—at scale. But it’s also easier to churn out noise. The temptation is to optimize for clicks; the invitation is to use these tools to serve real human needs.
For me, the “final equation” looks like this:
What am I giving, that only I can give? How am I using technology to amplify that, not dilute it? What am I receiving in growth, connection, or joy from the process?
That’s not a formula you solve once. It’s a compass you keep checking.
Bringing It All Together: AI-Age Practices
Here are some small, practical things I’ve started doing, inspired by Bronson’s book and sharpened by the AI era:
➡️ Run an annual “purpose audit.”
Ask: how have my values shifted? What excites me now? What am I avoiding? Stay in learner’s mode.
➡️ Pick one AI tool or new skill each quarter and experiment with it, for curiosity.
➡️ Curate real conversations. Schedule time with mentors or peers offline. Let AI help with scheduling, but not with soul. Use AI as a co-pilot, not an autopilot. Let it draft, analyze, and suggest, but make the final call yourself.
➡️ Give before you optimize. Create, share, mentor, or volunteer in ways that feel authentic. Then see how tech can expand that impact.
Why This Matters Now
We’re living through an inflection point. Careers are less linear, identities more fluid, and technology faster than our reflexes.
In that swirl, Po Bronson’s book remains a steady voice reminding us that the question “What should I do with my life?” will always be a relevant question.
Adding AI to the mix doesn’t erase the question; it intensifies it. But it also gives us tools to explore more paths, learn more quickly, and connect more widely than any previous generation.
The key is to stay awake—to resist the temptation to let algorithms decide our lives for us.
To keep asking the question, keep experimenting, keep building a life that feels chosen rather than decided by circumstances and others.
And maybe that’s the quiet, enduring answer. You don’t find “what to do with your life” once and for all.
You create it, step by step, choice by choice—using every tool available, but never surrendering your agency.
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