When should you know the point?

Katja Grace, writing on LessWrong, explores a useful paradox: many of us pursue meaningful activities—university, careers, projects—without ever fully articulating why. We operate on vague intuition that they're worthwhile. And strangely, that often works. But here's the tension: explicitly thinking through your goals can genuinely improve your choices. The catch is overconfidence in a single rigid purpose—that usually backfires. Grace suggests the answer is context. Running a party doesn't need a clear point; asking someone for help with an unexplained project crosses a line. So the question becomes: when should you actually know the point of what you're doing?

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