The Next Room is a narrative nonfiction about ambition, burnout, and what you find when you finally stop.

I’d been in love with an idea of my life, not the actual one.
— The Next Room

A founder chases every version of success he was told would fix him: a Hollywood deal, a tech company, a sense of purpose. He gets close enough to touch all of them, and finds the noise follows him everywhere. From the red carpets to the monastery — and what he found on the other side.

  • Eighty thousand hours in our careers. Eighty good summers if we're lucky. I'd burned enough on autopilot, waiting for permission to want more. Nobody was coming with that permission.

    — The Next Room