The Crowdsourced Life: Why Forty Feels Like a Pivot

Everything So Far Has Been Crowdsourced

Most of what we do—education, career, lifestyle—is just following what the crowd says.

The “crowd” here could mean different things at different times:

Parents, friends, society, community, or whatever most people are doing.

The best school? Crowd says.

The job to go for? Crowd says.

Where to settle? What to buy? What skills to learn? Again—crowd says.

Even life partners—especially in places like India—used to be crowd-selected. Until recently, most people didn’t even choose that personally. It was relatives, parents, or some form of social consensus.

So when you really think about it, most of us live a crowdsourced life.

Some Rare Exceptions Start Differently

Of course, there are those rare people—the ones who discovered a passion early on.

Maybe it was sports.

Maybe it was science.

Maybe it was writing, or entrepreneurship.

They got obsessed with something.

They explored it. They failed. They figured it out.

They either succeeded—or fell back on the crowd-sourced path later.

That’s the beauty of starting early.

You can take risks, because the fallback is always there.

But For Most of Us, We Just Went Along

We didn’t choose with intent.We just stepped onto a conveyor belt.

Education. Job. Family. Responsibility. Repeat for almost anyone.

And in that cycle, years go by.

You don’t even realize it.

Until something shifts.

Then Comes Forty

Forty is not just a number.

It’s a pivot point. A moment where you start asking:

“Wait… what exactly have I been doing?”

But let’s be clear—this doesn’t only happen at 40.

For some, it hits at 30. For others, it’s 35. For many, it might not come until 50.

There’s no “correct” age for this kind of questioning.

But for us—for many people we’ve spoken to—it tends to settle in around the 40 mark.

Maybe it’s because you’re twenty years removed from your last teenage year.

Maybe because your next twenty years feel like they’ll carry you into old age.

Whatever the reason, forty feels like a mirror.

A natural midpoint.

A checkpoint.

And in that moment, something shifts.

It’s Not a Crisis. It’s a Quiet Questioning.

You don’t regret everything. But you start wondering:

• Have I ever really chosen anything for myself?

• Did I just go with the flow too long?

• Am I building toward something, or just passing time?

And it hits harder because you’ve done all the expected things.

And they’re not wrong. But they’re not enough either.

That’s where this whole idea of “the crowdsourced life” starts to weigh heavier.

The Shift: You Start Wanting to Grow On Your Own Terms

And this is where a quote from Swami Vivekananda becomes a guidepost for us.

He said:

“The purpose of life is to realize your potential—physically, mentally, spiritually.”

So maybe that’s it.

Maybe at forty, the only thing you owe yourself is to start growing in your own direction.

• Physically – Can you still push your body? Stay fit? Stay strong?

• Mentally – Can you stay sharp? Keep learning? Stay curious?

• Spiritually – Can you connect to something deeper? Something real?

This growth has nothing to do with your job or title. It’s just about becoming more just for you.

If There Was Ever a Time to Choose for Yourself, It’s Now

So no, this isn’t a midlife crisis post.

This is a reflection. That maybe at forty—or around it—you finally get to say:

“Enough of crowdsourcing. What do I want now?”

You’ve earned the right to ask that. Not because you have all the answers.

But because you start to taking the space for asking the right questions.