In the world of personal finance, the focus is almost exclusively on the numbers: interest rates, savings targets, net worth, and retirement projections. However, a growing movement suggests that the most critical asset to manage isn’t your portfolio—it’s your purpose. Recently, J.D. Roth, the founder of the influential Get Rich Slowly platform, embarked on a journey to apply the rigorous principles of engineering and design to the subjective, often chaotic process of navigating adulthood.
By leveraging the methodology outlined in the seminal book Designing Your Life by Stanford design professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Roth is testing whether the same design-thinking frameworks used to create Silicon Valley products can be used to engineer a more meaningful existence.
The Genesis of the Experiment: Applying Design to Human Growth
The premise of Burnett and Evans’ work is deceptively simple: humans are not fixed entities, and life is not a linear path to be discovered, but a prototype to be built. Rather than asking the paralyzing question, "What do I want to be when I grow up?", the authors suggest a shift toward iterative design.
Inspired by the book’s potential, Roth mobilized a small "design collective" comprising his long-term partner, Kim, and a former college classmate, Craig. The objective was to move beyond theory and into actionable, collaborative self-assessment. By treating life as a series of prototypes rather than a singular, irreversible plan, the group aims to navigate the complexities of modern work-life balance through structured reflection and honest discourse.
Chronology of the Life Design Process
The journey began with the foundational principle of "Starting Where You Are." Much like assessing one’s financial health before creating a budget, the design process requires an unflinching, objective snapshot of one’s current reality across four critical pillars: health, love, play, and work.
Phase I: The Current State Assessment
The initial exercise mandated an honest, transparent evaluation of these four pillars. By rating each area and drafting a narrative description of the current status quo, participants create a "map" of their present location. Roth emphasizes that this phase is non-actionable by design; it is a diagnostic tool intended to provide clarity on one’s starting coordinates before plotting a course for the future.
Phase II: Building the Compass
Following the initial assessment, the group moved to the development of a personal "compass." This required the drafting of two distinct documents: a Workview and a Lifeview.
On a recent FaceTime session, Roth and Craig compared their respective philosophies. The conversation revealed a profound alignment in their values, specifically regarding the "right livelihood"—a Buddhist concept emphasizing work that supports life without causing harm to natural systems or the self. The two participants discovered that despite their different career paths, their core motivation was rooted in a shared desire to foster abundance and participate in the restoration of social and environmental systems.
Comparative Data: The Workview and Lifeview Perspectives
The depth of the experiment is best illustrated by the contrasting, yet complementary, views shared by the participants.
The Philosophy of Work
Craig’s perspective on work centers on the necessity of "right livelihood." He acknowledges the constraints of the capitalist system but argues that true satisfaction stems from producing tangible results, such as gardening or tool-making. He views work as a vehicle for restoring natural systems, prioritizing long-term growth and utility over status.
Conversely, Roth’s Workview focuses on the synthesis of personal fulfillment and societal contribution. Influenced by the Japanese concept of ikigai (the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for), Roth aims to leverage his platform to provide accessible, reliable financial education. His goal is to maintain a "center-outward" approach, where his personal stability allows him to better serve his community.
The Philosophy of Life
The Lifeview comparison proved even more revealing. Both participants rejected traditional religious structures in favor of a secular, humanistic approach to morality.
Craig argues that because the earth is an "insignificant dot in the vastness of space," the only logical response to life’s vicissitudes is humor and stewardship. Roth aligns with this, positing that while life may have no inherent meaning, that vacuum is an opportunity to manufacture one’s own purpose. For Roth, morality is not a matter of doctrine but a matter of treatment—specifically, how one treats those with whom they disagree or those who occupy a lower rung in the power hierarchy.
Implications: The Role of Social Capital
A critical implication of this experiment is the stark realization of the decay of social capital. Drawing on Robert Putnam’s seminal work Bowling Alone, Roth and Craig concluded that the digital age has, in many ways, atomized the human experience, eroding the community bonds that once served as a safety net.
The "Design Your Life" methodology suggests that we can reverse this trend by deliberately engineering our lives to foster community. By creating shared "Workviews" and "Lifeviews," individuals can re-establish the social cohesion that has been lost in the last two decades. The shared heritage of their alma mater, Willamette University—which embraces the motto non nobis solum nati sumus ("not unto ourselves alone are we born")—serves as the bedrock for their renewed commitment to communal health.
Future Projections: Iterating Through the "Good Time Journal"
The project is far from complete. As the experiment progresses, the team is moving into the next phase: the "Good Time Journal." Over the coming weeks, participants will log their daily activities and rate them based on two metrics: engagement and energy.
This data-driven approach will allow them to conduct "mindmapping" sessions to identify patterns in their daily lives that lead to burnout versus those that generate creative energy. The intention is to refine their life’s "prototype" through empirical observation rather than guesswork.
Professional Synthesis and Conclusion
The application of design thinking to life management represents a sophisticated pivot in the personal development space. By treating one’s life as an evolving design project rather than a static goal, individuals like Roth, Craig, and Kim are demonstrating that the tools of industry—prototyping, data logging, and philosophical alignment—are just as applicable to the human condition as they are to the creation of new technologies.
The implications for the broader audience are clear: success is not merely the accumulation of capital, but the careful construction of a life that aligns with one’s deepest held values. As the group continues their work, they prove that the most important "project" anyone can undertake is the intentional design of their own trajectory. By starting where they are, utilizing their moral compasses, and iterating based on real-world energy feedback, they are not just planning for retirement—they are building a more sustainable and intentional way of being.
