Success Quote by Doug Larson

Goal-setting gets praised like a moral virtue; Larson punctures that sanctimony with a cartoonist's shrug. The line opens with a concession - "all right" - that instantly lowers the temperature. He isn't anti-ambition, just allergic to the way ambition can become a tyrant. The real punch sits in "deprive you": goals aren't merely plans, they're capable of theft. They can steal surprise, curiosity, and the kind of human-scale discovery you can't schedule.

The subtext is a critique of a modern mindset that treats life like a project-management board. Goals promise clarity and efficiency, but they also encourage tunnel vision: every choice gets filtered through "does this advance the plan?" Larson argues for a different metric of a life well lived, one that leaves room for serendipity. "Interesting detours" is doing a lot of work here. Detours usually sound like mistakes or delays; he reframes them as the point, not the problem. It's a sly defense of wandering, side quests, and the accidental encounters that end up defining careers, relationships, and taste.

As a cartoonist, Larson is writing from a profession where the best material often comes from the off-script moment: the overheard line, the odd juxtaposition, the day that refuses to behave. The intent isn't to romanticize chaos; it's to warn against confusing direction with destiny. Set goals, sure. Just don't let them turn life into a straight line drawn by someone who never stopped to look around.