Happy Sunday from Taipei! I've launched a Slack community focused on the unleashing the human side of work and making sense of how people can do work that matters in a time filled with busyness and anxiety. You can join the conversation here. You can also support my journey with the 12 other people on Patreon.
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#1 The Real Work Ethic: This longform essay from 2009 reflects on the financial crisis in the context of the death of the “work ethic.” Steven Malanga argues that we are only left with the work part of the work ethic and it has become tied to consumerism and materialism rather than historical virtues such as “thrift, integrity, self-reliance, and modesty”
#2 Social Contagion: This post from Stowe Boyd, who runs a newsletter on the future of work, on “social contagion” is fascinating and matches what I have seen to be a major missing piece in the conversation on organizational change:
So, when companies want cultural change, the first step is not to tell people how to change their behaviors. The first step in cultural change is to increase the density of social engagement, or, more simply, to try to help people make more friends at the company
#3 Why You Should Hate Your Job: John Danaher, who I linked to last week, shares an argument for work for its own sake, but argues that paid employment is a bad way to do it:
It’s not that there is no place for determined effort, self-improvement and ambition in the well-lived life. Mastering skills, making a contribution to one’s society, and achieving goals are all key elements of the good life. They are also, as the philosophers Anca Gheaus and Lisa Herzog point out, things that are made possible through paid employment. But is the workplace really the best place to pursue such ends? I don’t think so.
#4 A More Beautiful World: This podcast discussion with Russell Brand and Charles Eisenstein (author of Sacred Economics) was wonky, beautiful, spiritual and provocative. It's worth checking out. Let me know what you think.
#5 Maybe I Should Get An MBA?: This essay from Jean Edelstein talks about her pull towards an MBA before deciding that was someone else's dream. I often get a lot of e-mails from people considering doing an MBA and my advice is nuanced.
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