Transitions and identities
Transitions are critical points in life when you feel "something" you held on dearly for a long time is not there anymore. Historically, we have looked at these points as singularities and almost as something to worry about or altogether avoid. This belief is holding us back from adapting to our world and finding a life of meaning. Here is a mental framework I find more useful.
Magnitude and frequencies of transition points.
If you were born a couple of centuries ago in southern Italy in a city with a commercial harbour (as I was), you would probably build your life around fishing, agriculture or commerce. You will rarely travel and most likely live with your extended family in the same building. The major transition points will be around significant and dramatic events, for example, wars or natural disasters. You expect a straightforward and charted life with only a few events driving a significant transition.
This attitude leads to a static perception of identity and a worried attitude to major changes.
We have been taught that life is a linear path with a clear progression: you start as a baby, learn a foundational set of skills at school, pick your identity, work 50 years at that identity, retire and enjoy free time. Once you decide how to contribute to society, every step is clear, and you must execute and follow along.
What happens when this attitude is confronted by a more dynamic world where major technological, cultural and societal transitions are happening faster than ever before?
Today, technology spreads instantaneously. Large language models are almost everywhere just a year after the broader release.
It took us thousands of years to codify a language and hundreds to transmit that in written forms; just a few centuries ago, we learnt how to scale distribution with printing. How fast were technological revolutions spreading when you were born?
Transitions are becoming more exciting and present in our lives than ever in human history. They are happening so frequently that it does not make sense to speak about transitions any longer.
I advocate moving from a traditional "land-based" perception of life and transitions to a "sea-based" one.
We are used to approaching life in a "land-based" framework: you look at what is available and at reach (which opportunities you have at birth), buy a plot of land (the cultural assumptions you will hold for the rest of your life), decide which building materials you want to use (key technologies and mental frameworks), build slowly and steadily your house (identity) by carefully finishing each room before moving to the next, every room so perfectly refined that it would never need renovation (steady progression in life), once you finish the building (retirement and/or old age), you go outside and sit in your porch admiring the whole building you spent a life on.
What if we switch to a "sea-based" framework? Suddenly it doesn't make sense to think of a stable and fixed plot of land, the water is constantly shifting, and while you could stay anchored, you cannot guarantee that the water in those coordinates will always be the same or that there would not be waves. As with the water, your opportunities and cornerstone cultural assumptions will also shift during your life.
What if we are building a boat instead of a house? The great thing is that your boat is always floating, even when small. Your boat is always finished; if you want to fix something, you do it while floating. Your boat is much more than its constituents, and you could change every part without that stopping being a complete boat (you would have to do it carefully to avoid sinking and maybe just one piece at a time). Previous choices do not lock you in. Changing the whole hull (core parts of your identity) is more challenging than changing the sail, but it is not impossible. What doesn't suit you any longer can be changed if you put in the effort.
The best thing about having a boat instead of a house is that you can travel and explore. Instead of being static, your dynamic identity allows you to move in a direction you value. You can change if you want to and find new adventures. You are no longer forced to stick with a plot of land you learnt to dislike. You can adapt your boat and sail. Shifting water conditions is something you learn to like; you do not couple your self-worth and identity tightly with the conditions of the environment.
You can enjoy and admire your boat while building it; you don't have to wait until the end to get out and look at it. You are always there: observing, enjoying, building, adapting and sailing until the end.
A dynamic identity
A core concept is that identities are coupled to daily activities and processes, not results. If you change what you spend time on, you are changing your identity, making working and looking at identities more accessible and actionable.
As an example, I have transitioned among multiple identities. My career and overall life have been more cyclical than linear, so I reinvented myself several times. And you will get to do that too.
Let's make it concrete by looking at three snapshots from my recent life.
2014, last year as a doctoral student: a typical day would have been scheduled around the current main experiment. My attention was aimed at gathering the missing datasets to evaluate the potential of a novel sensor. I spent about three years iterating my hypothesis and gathering knowledge. I would have spent weeks designing experiments to isolate the variables and verifying each step. I was focused entirely on designing ways to build knowledge around a specific hypothesis I had.
2015, first year as a founder: I was in a tight team with other co-founders more than working alone. We spent months identifying challenges in healthcare that could bring enormous value if solved. Weeks, narrowing the search to the most valuable and feasible challenge to build a company around. Building tests to identify the best solutions and a business model that could allow us to verify our assumptions and raise capital.
2021, as an entrepreneur: I navigated a complex map of external and internal stakeholders. Our company has grown to 14 people and raised funding from private and public investors. We had customers and consultants. A typical week would have been spent on a broad range of topics and questions: how to manage cash flow to balance the runway with growth? What should we prioritise? Which milestones are achievable and when? How do we keep both employees and shareholders informed and involved? Is the business growing fast enough? Which area of the company should we strengthen? Are our current commercial contracts reflecting our value proposition after the last pivot? When should we issue the next stock options? Do we have coffee at the office? Who is ringing at the door?
These three mindsets are correlated to very different identities. They all felt relevant to bringing me as close to being the best version of myself.
Until they didn't, and I let them go.
They might come back, but that is not the central assumption. The more you stay in touch with yourself, the faster you can understand if it doesn't feel right or is not driving you in a direction you value. Once you identify that, rebuild and explore!
A great feature of the current world is that technological development is so fast, and access to expert knowledge is so increasingly commoditised that you can switch careers and identities much faster.
Asking the right question is becoming more and more important than being effective at mechanically executing or being highly knowledgeable in a specific domain. Today, philosophy, abstract modelling and being in touch with yourself scale much better than expertise and perfect productivity. That's why the future is way more exciting than ever (and why our education system should be thoroughly reformed).
How do I find which identity is relevant to me right now?
One way is to reflect on which kind of activities you find valuable, even if they do not result in any outcome.
What do I mean by uncoupling activities from outcomes?
Playing with your kids is a clear example: you never play to reach an outcome, so you can tick off a box from your to-do list. You wouldn't play solely to achieve the result of winning so that you can stop playing. The same applies to thinking or listening to music. In all these cases, the activity matters more than the outcome. If you value an activity, you have a much more relaxed and efficient way of looking at the results.
Now you can explore every set of identities, looking at which related activities you feel have the most intrinsic value for you right now. Is it about reading novel information, thinking about new solutions, or improving organisations?
At some point, some past identities will get in the way of realising something that you feel is more meaningful to you right now. Learn to be ok with letting them go.
From my journey until now, I have been an academic, founder, and entrepreneur alongside several other identities. I have let go of some identities to embrace the next ones fully. I have always been surprised at how much my thought of missing something was more intense than actually missing it.
What is next? A main driver is to spend time with people like you so that you can build something meaningful while being as much yourselves as you can be. This blog and reflections are my personal gift and a sign of gratitude for you being the force of change you are. I feel a deep sense of accomplishment and meaning while writing this text, independently of the results of it. Still, it is about positively impacting your lives, so I am curious to understand and explore the results along the way. Which identities come with this activity? I do not know yet; I am still exploring and charting the sea.