Dean Bokhari

FlashBooks

"Designing Your Life" by Bill Burnett, Dave Evans : Book Summary

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

By Bill Burnett, Dave Evans

About

Designing Your Life teaches you how to take a design-based approach toward your life to live better and optimize your life in every way, and in every area. The book was co-authored by Bill Burnett (one of Apple’s original designers) and Dave Evans (mechanical engineer, prev. VP of Talent for Electronic Arts). Bill and Dave also teach a class together at Stanford on how to leverage design-thinking to customize a personal + professional lifestyle optimized for maximum fulfillment. This book is based on their Stanford life-design class.

One of the most important points the authors reiterate is that anyone can design and live a joyful, purposeful life—including you. Regardless of your past, your failures, or whatever skills you believe may be holding you back, remember this: when you take a design approach to your life you will learn exactly how to evaluate your biggest challenges, reframe your thinking, and try solutions as you find what works specifically for you. This design-thinking approach takes the pressure off needing to know exactly what you want and how to get it. Instead, you try options that seem interesting, enjoy the journey, and add or subtract choices as you design your life. It leads to a dynamic, energetic, and fulfilling life where you’re always growing.

In this summary, you'll learn how to:

 • go from where you are right now, to where you want to go, to the type of person you must grow into in order to get there.
 • sort through several options and choose the one that suits you best by using techniques like way-finding and prototyping.
 • practice living a life where you can positively reframe negative situations and use them to your advantage.

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