You Don’t Need Mentors, You Need Blissful Empty Space

I was talking to one of my friends the other day, and he was asking me about pros and cons of taking on a certain side project.

One of his big draws was that he would get to learn directly from someone. The idea of direct mentorship hits a certain nerve.

In my view, he’s already overworked at his full-time job. I told him that I don’t think he needs a mentor. What he needs is more hours in the week to mentor himself.

If you are already overemployed and motivated (I count myself among the recovering overemployed), you don’t need more input or opinions or more mentors. What you need is ten hours per week of blissful empty space to clear the path for your best ideas.

As psychologist Amos Tversky said, “The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.”

You don’t need another side project or another mentor. You have all the tools to guide your own good ideas to fruition. You just need to space to make them happen.