Happy Sunday (or Monday). Whats the best article or essay you've ever read? Hit reply and let me know. I'll share it next week.
#1 Head: Douglas Harding argues that we have no head. His argument is compelling and a bit hard to https://www.instapaper.com/read/1162778322grasp at the same time:
The best day of my life—my rebirthday, so to speak—was when I found I had no head. This is not a literary gambit, a witticism designed to arouse interest at any cost. I mean it in all seriousness: I have no head.
#2: Big Data & Heuristics: Many of the things we measure are not because they are the most important. They are just concepts that we stuck with. GDP is probably the best example. This essay argues that we need to use big data to find the metrics that matter, like a horses left ventricle and its impact on race performance.
#3 The Prestige Trap: This article gives an account of a fictional but very real character of someone that intends to do something that matters to them, but keeps pushing that decision down the road because of the endless availability of prestigious options that don't limit your options in the future.
And while these firms lure students in with the generous salaries and trendy offices, these status symbols often come at a cost. It’s difficult to demote your lifestyle once you’ve become accustomed to it. When you’re rocking a high six-figure salary and steadily contributing the highest amounts to your retirement accounts, wearing well-made clothes, living in a well-appointed apartment, and buying most of the things you want whenever you want them, it’s pretty hard to switch to a more “exciting” job that doesn’t pay nearly as much. This phenomenon is known as the golden handcuffs.
I might be one of the rare people that has stepped off this path, but I don't think its reasonable to expect others to do so. I've always been rather unimpressed with any of the nice things I could buy with more money and have always placed an absurd value on my "free" time. Most people I know are consciously happy to give up time for money.
#4 Hustle: This article on "hustle" culture points out that most people don't actually like the hustle. This quote from DHH, a co-founder of basecamp (a model "calm" company) nails it:
Mr. Heinemeier Hansson said that despite data showing long hours improve neither productivity nor creativity, myths about overwork persist because they justify the extreme wealth created for a small group of elite techies.
However, the kind of advice that says "work less, enjoy life" often comes from people who failed to follow that advice (and now have cozy positions because of not following that advice:
Jonathan Crawford, a San Francisco-based entrepreneur, told me that he sacrificed his relationships and gained more than 40 pounds while working on Storenvy, his e-commerce start-up. If he socialized, it was at a networking event. If he read, it was a business book. He rarely did anything that didn’t have a “direct R.O.I.,” or return on investment, for his company.
Mr. Crawford changed his lifestyle after he realized it made him miserable. Now, as an entrepreneur-in-residence at 500 Start-ups, an investment firm, he tells fellow founders to seek out nonwork-related activities like reading fiction, watching movies or playing games. Somehow this comes off as radical advice. “It’s oddly eye-opening to them because they didn’t realize they saw themselves as a resource to be expended,” Mr. Crawford said.
My hypotheses around this kind of work culture is it emerges from the fact that many entry-level employees first entering the workforce actually love the new environment and the ability to impact the success of a company. It is often when people are first part of a team that is working on something meaningful over a long stretch of time and a place where they can get monetarily rewarded because of their actions.
However, I've also seen that after 5-10 years of this and especially at today's pace of always-on connectivity, people tire of it. Quickly.
#5 Meditation: A deconstruction of meditation and the missing "jhāna" in the western versions of it.
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