Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

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I am facing sort of a similar problem. I recently joined a $BIGTECH company. I work in the business development / product management area in technical capacity. Think of my role as a technical advisor, solutions architect or mini CTO to help my company's partners to build products together. Lately I have observed that a lot of folks I deal with at my $BIGTECH company as well as partner companies don't really do any real work. They attend meetings and sometimes they have update which basically is 'i am working on it'. The inflated titled executives (VP of strategy, Sr. director for finance industry etc) from partner companies just update a couple of words on 2 year old slide decks all day long and don't have tangible deliverable for months to show for. They don't have any valuable feedback on other's work. The partner companies I deal with are with 10k+ employees and these folks are supposed to be senior leaders thinking about 3, 5, 10 years vision. It's very demotivating to see people around me are either mediocre or not working at all. My work depends on they doing their job well and its stressful for me to deal with this. I feel like wasting my work-life just pretending.

I quit my previous job at another $BIGTECH company due to similar problem where people didn't want to work.

Is this a new thing since pandemic that people don't want to do real work? Or it was always like that.

I was a consultant for the last 15 years before becoming a full time bigtech employee a few years ago. I didn't have visibility into inner workings of tech companies.

I think I should do something of my own. But don't know what it should be.

Sam Harris is the one who comes closest to my world view and has shaped it quite a bit. He is one of the few who is careful with his words and emotions when articulating his arguments.

I'm not sure if meaning is decision for yourself. We live in society, in relationships, not for yourself even though mainstream says opposite.

Sacrifice for others could be purpose of our mortal life.

I’ve been working intentionally on this for over a year after I got laid off and decided I didn’t want to work for someone else again

The best explanation in what I’ve read is, purpose is “living the truest expression of yourself as a human being” - Oprah

To get there I recommend her book, “The Path Made Clear.” Go through it slowly. Your path will unfold in parallel.

I’m working on living authentically (saying what I need to say in the moment not thinking of it after the fact) which is needed to find and live your purpose.

Tactically, at its core, the first level is getting your basic needs met. Beyond that, it’s figuring out who you want to serve and how to use the gifts of your personality to serve them in a way that’s fulfilling to you.

In my year off I took many courses and read many books. 100DaysOfNoCode.com, 30 podcasts in 30 days, Pencil Pirates, Hassan Osman’s course creation course, Decafquest’s philosophy course. I recommend following your curiosity and taking courses that pique your interests. Through this I discovered I could draw. It’s been therapeutic and useful in many ways.

I’ve found my purpose, now I’ve got to figure out how to make a living off it. My purpose unfolded organically. I tried to ignore it because I couldn’t figure out how to make a living off it, but it kept coming up. It brings joy to myself and others. It’s something I couldn’t have figured out by following someone else’s path.

My purpose is to help people get unstuck. I can do it in 15 minutes with only 3 questions. The framework I developed evolved organically. There are 6 categories of questions to help people get unstuck. People love the sessions. Seeing them start with concern or uncertainty and end with relief and confidence is the most rewarding experience for me.

I wish you all the best on your journey