Bill Burnett
Guest is known for...
Bill Burnett is a designer, educator, and co-author of Designing Your Life. He has worked across toys, technology and academia, and now leads the Life Design Lab at Stanford where he helps people rethink how they build their careers and lives.
In this conversation, we walk through his journey from the early days of design to his work with students and professionals who are trying to find clarity in a world that keeps shifting. Bill talks about the power of curiosity and play, the value of reframing problems before rushing to solutions, and why small prototypes often reveal more truth than long plans.
He also explains gravity problems and anchor problems, how energy and engagement shape our daily experience, and why coherence is a reliable signal that your choices match who you are. We touch on how AI is reshaping work and why the most durable skills involve empathy, creativity and the ability to learn fast.
The discussion is a helpful reminder that there is no single perfect path. There are several good paths, and we find them by paying attention, trying things and staying open to what the world is telling us.
Here's what I will learn...
• How to design your life through small experiments instead of rigid plans
• How to recognize gravity and anchor problems that quietly limit your choices
• How energy and engagement help reveal work that truly fits you
• Why play and curiosity matter more than ever in shaping meaningful careers
LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION
From the Podcast
Doing versus Being
Educating ourselves for the future
Elevator problem and reframing
Staying relevant over the long term
Bill Burnett speaks about his early years, some of the hard-wired elements of his operating system and how he has navigated his career across various pursuits including designing Star Wars toys, Product design at Apple and teaching Life Design at Stanford.
Bill Burnett speaks about how he thought about navigating through various choices and transitions and how he balanced pursuing his passion and being pragmatic in terms of providing for his family without swinging too far to one side.
Bill Burnett speaks about how we hold on to some beliefs about careers that might have worked for us given our lived experiences but are irrelevant in the world our children are growing into.
Bill Burnett speaks about the criticality of “problem finding” in contrast to problem solving that we all are taught formally. He speaks about how Starbucks redefined the problem and built a successful business based on it.
Bill Burnett speaks about two kinds of problems where people often get trapped with. Gravity problems are those that you can’t do much about and Anchor problems are those where a solution has crept into the problem without you realizing.
Bill Burnett speaks about the idea of coherence and how we all can strive to design a coherent life. He also discusses the markers of a coherent life.
Bill Burnett speaks about the distinction between energy and engagement and how journaling about these two can be illuminative for us.
Bill Burnett speaks about the fact that there is no one pathway but many possibilities that can unfold for us. Letting go of that “this is what I am meant to be doing” can be liberating.