A story with an unconventional structure that asks "What is your number one priority?"

After being laid off from his job, a man struggles to find meaning in a utopian world where all of his basic needs are already met for him.

A man who is trying to find his place in the world tries his hand at multiple professions but ultimately settles with painting. Though he has talent as a painter, he leaves his patrons unsatisfied, taking wild artistic liberties he takes with commissions—a lesson which his two closest friends will come to learn when he paints a portrait of one of them.

As she walks alongside the Hudson River with her friend, a woman excitedly explains her intricate vision of what would give her happiness.

In this metafiction, the many lives of an unnamed man are scrutinized as he passes through millennia.

In a future where technology has advanced to the point where humans can undergo "optimization" to rid themselves of emotions and increase their mental functions, one man decides to cling to his humanity in an effort to atone for his sins and appreciate the beauty of being human.

In the far future, a woman is selected to undergo a Great Becoming. As she is forced to choose what she will become, she realizes that someone people do not have to choose at all.