What to Do

Despised Work Opportunity Framework

Finding high-value opportunities in low-prestige domains

A three-step framework for identifying undervalued opportunities by seeking work categories that are dismissed or despised, articulating what others overlook about their true value, and pursuing them when the explanation is compelling. Based on the pattern that prestigious recognition often follows decades after initial dismissal (e.g., Raymond Chandler's pulp fiction).

The quality of thinking is best proven by the ability to make something new and valuable.

In Practice: Core principle: best proof of thinking well is making good new things

Demonstrated by Leg-pg-001

Human psychology tends to overvalue criticism relative to creation.

In Practice: Explaining why creation should be preferred to critical observation

Demonstrated by Leg-pg-001

The questions philosophy asks and the frameworks it develops are shaped by the c

In Practice: Explaining why ancient philosophy focused on virtue rather than vocation; the qu

Demonstrated by Leg-pg-001

Figures who represent genuinely new categories of work are often admired as prod

In Practice: Explaining why ancient creators were prodigies not models; the social category d

Demonstrated by Leg-pg-001

Work that is currently despised or low-prestige but which you can explain the overlooked value of re

In Practice: Raymond Chandler example used to establish pattern: despised work today can be prestigious tomorrow

Demonstrated by Leg-pg-001

Pursuing excellence for its own sake often generates massive practical benefits

In Practice: Newton example supporting argument that making something amazing helps world eve

Demonstrated by Leg-pg-001

Forced constraint from primary domain can catalyze creative output in a secondary domain.

In Practice: Cicero and Confucius examples showing that enforced leisure enabled philosophical legacy

Demonstrated by Leg-pg-001

Classical virtue ethics (Cicero, Confucius) as constrained optimization under feudal social structures

The traditional philosophical focus on virtues (wisdom, bravery, honesty, temperance, justice) rather than vocational choice emerged because the audience for philosophy (the landowning political class) had no meaningful choice about what work to do. Their roles were predetermined by birth and social structure. Virtue ethics optimized for how to be within fixed constraints, not for what to do when choice exists. This explains why ancient philosophy emphasized character over vocation, and why modern philosophy about work choices represents a genuinely new question, not merely a modern answer to an old question. The constraint shaped the philosophical framework itself.

Analysis of why traditional philosophy focused on virtue rather than vocation; the insight emerged from recognizing that the philosophical question itself was shaped by social constraints

Archimedes as prodigy rather than model: creators perpendicular to social hierarchy

In ancient societies, people who made genuinely new things (like Archimedes proving the sphere-cylinder volume ratio) were admired as prodigies but not held up as models for others to emulate. This occurred because the category of 'people who make new things' cut across the social hierarchy rather than fitting within it. A landowner's son was meant to become a landowner, a craftsman's son a craftsman; there was no socially recognized path for becoming an 'original thinker' or 'creator' as a vocation. Modern society has created this category and elevated these figures to model status, but this represents a genuine shift in social structure, not just changed attitudes. The makers existed but were unclassifiable within the old hierarchy.

Explaining why ancient society admired creators but didn't suggest emulating them; the vein of makers ran orthogonal to social structure

Newton's physics: unintended practical benefit from pure curiosity-driven work

Isaac Newton pursued physics driven by curiosity and ambition, with no consideration of practical applications, yet the practical effect of his work has been enormous and foundational to modern technology. This pattern (pursuit of excellence for its own sake yielding massive unintended practical benefit) appears to be the rule rather than exception in foundational intellectual work. It suggests that attempting to directly optimize for practical benefit may be less effective than pursuing genuine excellence in domains you find intrinsically compelling, then allowing the practical applications to emerge as second-order effects.

Supporting the argument that making something amazing often helps the world even without that intent; used as evidence for pursuing excellence over direct optimization for benefit

Chinese philosopher

Roman philosopher, orator, statesman

Roman philosopher and statesman whose work De Officiis represents one of the great classical answers to the question of how to live. Cicero explicitly stated he would not have written it except for being excluded from public life by political upheavals, illustrating how constraint can force creative output.

• Wouldn't have written De Officiis if not excluded from public life by political upheavals

Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor

American novelist, screenwriter

English mathematician, physicist, astronomer

casuistry

Reasoning that uses clever but unsound logic; moral sophistry

“A useful casuistry no doubt, but we don't need it.”

Roman philosopher and orator who wrote De Officiis on moral duty

Chinese philosopher whose teachings emphasized virtue and social harmony

Greek mathematician

American novelist who elevated detective fiction

English physicist

De Officiis

Cicero's philosophical work on moral duty, written during political exile in 44 BC