Welcome! This Substack is my free offering to the world, a guide to solve what people see as their greatest problems and, more importantly, a map of deeper questions to ask that will lead to more fulfilling challenges.
The ultimate goal is to help you create a life where enthusiasm, gratitude, and joy are your default way of being. Many of us can think back to moments of joy - perhaps the morning of Christmas or your birthday or some other holiday, perhaps the passion of teenage love, or perhaps the birth of a child.
Yet those are fleeting moments. I am inviting you to something far greater: not a life where joy is experienced infrequently, but rather a life where it’s unusual NOT to experience joy. This is a process of coming alive in a way that few people ever experience.
The vast majority of people spend most of their existence resisting life - wishing they were doing something else, ruminating on the past that didn’t go how they wanted, or hoping for some future where things will be “better.” This is a shadow of what life is meant to be.
For most people, the promise that you can be free from this is going to ring alarm bells that it’s “too good to be true” because it’s so far from the world of responsibilities and conflicts and all the things they “have to” do.
I promise that we will deal with all that pragmatic stuff! While it is certainly possible to make all the changes needed within, I have found that most humans struggle to drop the sense of “not enough” until they feel the external problems are solved, so we will address those first.
That said, the ultimate goal is not the temporary happiness of pleasurable experiences (what the ancient Greeks called hedonia). As you may have noticed, humans get accustomed to that fairly quickly and find themselves wanting ever more…
Instead, we will address the challenges that are at the forefront so that we can set them aside and go deeper to build an enduring, fundamental well-being that does not fade (what the ancient Greeks called eudaimonia).
In order to do that, we’re going to approach things very differently than most personal development resources (which are often vague and fluffy and sometimes ungrounded). Instead, we are going to approach this from the perspective of engineering and engineering principles.
That means no platitudes, no affirmations, no nonsense. Instead, you will receive structure, detail, and practicality. This means that you will have to use your intellect to understand and apply the lessons to your own life. Don’t shy away from that - the desire for “easy buttons” and “quick fixes” is why most people struggle.
Engineer of Joy is divided into 3 sections:
Core Model: A thesis of the stages that most people progress through on their way from the grind of the rat race to the flow of joyfully living their purpose, accompanied by reliable, repeatable processes to move from one stage to the next. This section is a single coherent journey from beginning to end.
Schematics: Frameworks of the human system and psychology that serve as valuable references to better understand ourselves and others. The different frameworks in this section are generally multi-part entries grouped under specific tags, though some are structurally complete within a single entry.
Tools: “How-to” techniques to solve specific problems or achieve specific goals, as well as specific perspective shifts that generally improve life. These entries are each self-contained and stand independently.
In keeping with the theme of engineering, some engineering principles will show up throughout this Substack:
An engineer designs and programs their system to achieve their desired outcome. The human mind is much like computer code, which means that none of us is a victim of our pre-existing programming. We can reprogram ourselves. I will help you discover what reprogramming serves your goals and show you how to do so.
In complex systems, it is often difficult or impossible to trace the complete mechanistic causation of outputs. That said, it is often possible to note general principles that tilt the probabilities towards more favorable results. For example, shorter and simpler computer code generally has fewer bugs. Similar principles apply to how we design and reinvent ourselves to create results in our lives.
To quote Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “An engineer has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing left to take away.” Lots of personal development focuses on adding more activities without regard for quantity or efficiency. While I will sometimes recommend adding certain processes/activities that have a high benefit for the time and effort put in, you will far more often hear me advocate for removing or replacing the sources of friction, resistance, and dysfunction.
I’m going to be completely honest and straightforward, just like an engineering assessment. It is not in my nature to mince words, and I am not going to cater to people’s insecurities. That does not serve you, just as it would not serve someone to overlook structural flaws in a bridge or a nuclear reactor. That may mean you read something that hits a trigger in you - pay attention to that, because it says far more about where you have the opportunity to grow than anything else.
Seemingly paradoxically with the engineering frame of mind, there will be aspects of what I share that are spiritual in nature (but not religious or connected to any particular religion). The reason for this is simple: as a man of science, I have experimented with these principles and perspectives, and I have discovered them to be accurate and useful.
I am never going to ask you to take anything on faith or because I said so (in fact, please do the opposite - question everything!). However, I may very well advise that you run some experiments related to these dynamics!
A few final notes:
Not one word of this Substack is written by AI, and it’s going to stay that way. You will encounter many numbered lists and instances of parallel formatting because that’s just how I process information. Why do you think I studied engineering?
If you want to learn more about me and where this offering is coming from, you can do here.
While I will be going into great detail, it’s obviously impossible to cover every potential situation. If you would like to explore something in greater detail as it pertains to your life specifically, feel free to reach out to sean@oculusinstitute.com
If you see something that can be improved, please let me know! I have deep appreciation for honest feedback.
I truly hope that you find these writings to be useful. If you do, consider who else in your life might benefit and share this gift with them! It’s free for all and always will be.
With all that said, let’s dive into the overview of the Core Model…
Great start! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for more information to digest on.