Objectives are well and good when they are sufficiently modest, but things get a lot more complicated when they’re more ambitious. In fact, objectives actually become obstacles towards more exciting achievements, like those involving discovery, creativity, invention, or innovation—or even achieving true happiness. In other words (and here is the paradox), the greatest achievements become less likely when they are made objectives. Not only that, but this paradox leads to a very strange conclusion—if the paradox is really true then the best way to achieve greatness, the truest path to “blue sky” discovery or to fulfill boundless ambition, is to have no objective at all.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. John Lennon

Being open and flexible to opportunity is sometimes more important than knowing what you’re trying to do.

Almost no prerequisite to any major invention was invented with that invention in mind.

Great invention is defined by the realization that the prerequisites are in place, laid before us by predecessors with entirely unrelated ambitions, just waiting to be combined and enhanced.

Novelty (and interestingness) can compound over time by continually making new things possible. So instead of seeking a final objective, by looking for novelty the reward is an endless chain of stepping stones branching out into the future as novelty leads to further novelty.

Behind any serendipitous discovery there’s nearly always an open-minded thinker with a strong gut feeling for what plan will yield the most interesting results.

We can reliably find something amazing. We just can’t say what that something is! The insight is that great discoveries are possible if they’re left undefined.

That ambitious goals can’t reliably be achieved by trying—unless they are one stepping stone away, where they come within reach. Otherwise, the only choice that remains is not trying.