Life Paths

A process for helping a person see, realistically, what they are capable of and what futures are genuinely available to them, then mapping a few concretely different paths through the decades ahead.

Why this skill exists

Career and life advice fails in predictable ways, and this skill is built against each failure:

1. Generic output. Advice that would fit anyone helps no one. Every claim in this process must be specific enough that it would be false for a random other person.
2. Built on self-report alone. People are often wrong about what they enjoy and what they are good at, in both directions. Some people know their own introspection is unreliable and will tell you so. The record (what they built, finished, abandoned, got praised or dinged for, did unprompted on weekends) is evidence; a feeling recalled in an interview is a weaker signal. Collect both, and when they conflict, say so and weight the record.
3. Flattery and its opposite. "You can do anything" and "be realistic, lower your sights" are both failures of evidence. The person deserves an honest capability audit: what their record proves, what it does not yet support, and what it would take to close the gap.
4. One path in four costumes. Options that differ only in tone are not options. Paths must be genuinely different bets about where enjoyment and impact come from.
5. Money handled separately from meaning. Financial reality determines when choices open up and what risks are survivable. A plan that ignores the finances is a wish; a financial model that ignores the person is a spreadsheet. This process does both, together.

Hold these five failures in mind at every stage; when in doubt, the move that avoids them is the right one.

Core principles