It’s time to rethink your entire life plan - Dave Evans

Dave Evans is an entrepreneur, early Apple engineer, former Electronic Arts executive, Stanford lecturer, and author. How does someone genuinely find meaning in their life? We’re often told that when things feel empty, uncertain, or painful, the answer is to “find more meaning”. But what does that actually mean? Is meaning something we discover, like a hidden truth waiting to be uncovered? Or is it something we construct through choice, responsibility, and attention? Expect to learn what people actually mean when we’re talking about meaning, the problem people are actually trying to solve when they say they want meaning, how to engineer more meaning into your life, what the difference between the problem-solving world and the meaning-making world is, what the red herrings are in terms of meaning, why so many people become objectively successful and subjectively miserable and much more… - 0:00 How to Find Out What You Actually Want in Life 5:30 What Does Meaning Really Mean? 15:34 How Do We Make Sense of Life’s Changes? 21:05 Reframing Fulfilment to Fully Enjoy Life 22:43 Are We Confusing Meaning With Feeling More Alive? 28:41 Has Optimisation Killed the Magic of Meaning? 39:31 The Surprising Power of Wonder 42:52 The Best Ways to Inject Wonder into Life 47:03 Does Coherence Create Purpose? 50:46 Can You Be Both Balanced and Coherent? 52:32 The Secret to Finding Your Flow State 57:06 Is Multitasking Sabotaging Your Flow? 01:02:40 How to Engineer Flow into Your Life 01:09:59 The Biggest Mistakes High Achievers Are Making 01:19:25 How to Strive Without Missing Your Life 01:25:43 Why Community is So Important 01:33:18 The Signals Telling You to Redesign Your Life 01:47:05 Where to Find Dave - Get up to $350 off the Pod 5 at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom Get a free bottle of D3K2, an AG1 Welcome Kit, and more when you first subscribe at https://ag1.info/modernwisdom Get a Free Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular flavours with your first purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom Get up to $50 off the RP Hypertrophy App at https://rpstrength.com/modernwisdom - Get Dave Evans' new Book - 'How to Live A Meaningful Life' here: https://designingyourlife.link/how-to-live-a-meaningful-life/chris - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic here - https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Chris WilliamsonhostDave Evansguest

Feb 21, 20261h 48mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: February 21, 2026
Duration: 1h 48m
Channel: Modern Wisdom
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Dave Evans is an entrepreneur, early Apple engineer, former Electronic Arts executive, Stanford lecturer, and author. How does someone genuinely find meaning in their life? We’re often told that when things feel empty, uncertain, or painful, the answer is to “find more meaning”. But what does that actually mean? Is meaning something we discover, like a hidden truth waiting to be uncovered? Or is it something we construct through choice, responsibility, and attention? Expect to learn what people actually mean when we’re talking about meaning, the problem people are actually trying to solve when they say they want meaning, how to engineer more meaning into your life, what the difference between the problem-solving world and the meaning-making world is, what the red herrings are in terms of meaning, why so many people become objectively successful and subjectively miserable and much more… - 0:00 How to Find Out What You Actually Want in Life 5:30 What Does Meaning Really Mean? 15:34 How Do We Make Sense of Life’s Changes? 21:05 Reframing Fulfilment to Fully Enjoy Life 22:43 Are We Confusing Meaning With Feeling More Alive? 28:41 Has Optimisation Killed the Magic of Meaning? 39:31 The Surprising Power of Wonder 42:52 The Best Ways to Inject Wonder into Life 47:03 Does Coherence Create Purpose? 50:46 Can You Be Both Balanced and Coherent? 52:32 The Secret to Finding Your Flow State 57:06 Is Multitasking Sabotaging Your Flow? 01:02:40 How to Engineer Flow into Your Life 01:09:59 The Biggest Mistakes High Achievers Are Making 01:19:25 How to Strive Without Missing Your Life 01:25:43 Why Community is So Important 01:33:18 The Signals Telling You to Redesign Your Life 01:47:05 Where to Find Dave - Get up to $350 off the Pod 5 at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom Get a free bottle of D3K2, an AG1 Welcome Kit, and more when you first subscribe at https://ag1.info/modernwisdom Get a Free Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular flavours with your first purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom Get up to $50 off the RP Hypertrophy App at https://rpstrength.com/modernwisdom - Get Dave Evans' new Book - 'How to Live A Meaningful Life' here: https://designingyourlife.link/how-to-live-a-meaningful-life/chris - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic here - https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

SPEAKERS

Chris Williamson
host
Dave Evans
guest

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Chris Williamson and Dave Evans, It’s time to rethink your entire life plan - Dave Evans explores design thinking tools to build meaning, aliveness, and coherence daily Dave Evans (Stanford Life Design Lab) reframes life planning as “wayfinding” through a wicked problem: you can’t optimize a path to a future you don’t yet understand, so you prototype your way forward without treating detours as moral failures.

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