Shankar Vedantam

Dave, we've talked about how radical acceptance is the foundation of design thinking.

I want to talk now about some of the techniques that can help us design our lives.

Many years ago, you were driving up from Santa Cruz to San Francisco.

It was an ordinary Thursday afternoon, but something happened that day that was most unusual.

Tell me what happened.

You say that radical acceptance is a prerequisite to finding wonder in our lives.

How so, Dave?

And of course, that sunset was amazing.

It was beautiful.

It was so beautiful that everyone jumped out of their cars.

But the truth is that there are probably amazing and beautiful things happening all the time that we're just passing by without noticing.

In fact, all sunsets are beautiful and all sunrises are beautiful.

In fact, every day is beautiful if we stop to admire the beauty.

Tell me about a student of yours whom you called Stina, who was trying to fit two parts of her life that were not coming together.

Now, we often see this in the lives of some people.

You worked with Steve Jobs at Apple, and famously, his personal life was nothing to write home about.

But in some ways, perhaps that was the price that he and the people around him were paying for him to accomplish what he did at work.

Talk about the idea that in some ways, a well-designed life has a certain direction to it.

It feels cohesive.

I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about this compass exercise that you mentioned just now, Dave.