Photo: Victor Schrager

At first I trusted my car's global positioning system—why not?—but soon its smooth voice began sounding like the homicidal computer HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. "Turn left now," the GPS would command as I drove along a freeway, with concrete barriers to my left. "You have reached your destination," it would assure me after leading me to a warehouse full of prostitutes and crack dealers. Once my kids programmed it to speak French, the GPS abandoned all pretense of helpfulness and began directing me southward in any and all circumstances. Presumably it was heading for Mexico to escape fraud charges.

These days, listening to my clients talk about their careers reminds me how bewildered I was by my demon guidance machine. People wander aimlessly because the well-worn paths of yesteryear—and by that I mean 2009—are disappearing, while strange new career options pop up before our frazzled brains can map them. The more new technologies and job descriptions have entered everyday life, the more my clients tend to become confused and overwhelmed, finding themselves facing a dead end. Like most of us who have no clue about how to get to where we want, they long for a voice of authority, a career GPS, that will spell out the exact route to a thrilling and fulfilling position. Although they keep beavering away at a solution, researching their options and seeking the advice of people with hot new ideas for them ("Use this career-finder app!" "What you need is a website!" "Blog, blog, blog!"), people end up in my office more muddled than ever. They tell me things like:

• "There's so much going on, and it sounds exciting to me, but I feel paralyzed about which new thing to follow up on."
• "I keep reading about all these new opportunities, but I don't really understand them, and I'm afraid I'm being left behind."
• "I'd be happy to follow my passion...if only I knew what it was."
• "I worry that if I commit to one career, I'll lose out on something better."

If any of these sound like you, don't bother with classic career guides; like my GPS, they'll have you meandering in circles, stumped at dead ends, or just profoundly lost. The fact is, as we've become accustomed to our overmanaged, overstimulated 21st-century lives, we haven't realized that there might be another—decidedly low-tech—way to get onto the right path.