Question
What is values vs goals?
Quick Answer
Values tell you which direction to walk but not which specific path to take. They are a compass, not a map — and confusing the two leads to rigidity or paralysis.
Values vs goals is a concept in personal epistemology: Values tell you which direction to walk but not which specific path to take. They are a compass, not a map — and confusing the two leads to rigidity or paralysis.
Example: A software engineer values craft and quality. That value doesn't tell her whether to refactor the legacy codebase or build the new feature first. It tells her that whichever she chooses, she should do it with care and thoroughness. When her manager pushes for speed, she doesn't abandon the value — she negotiates how craft shows up in a compressed timeline. The value survived the constraint because it was a direction, not a prescription.
This concept is part of Phase 32 (Value Identification) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for value identification.
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