A note: The next issue is issue #100 (crazy!) and I'm going to take two or three weeks to do a more in-depth issue of some of my favorite reads by category from the past few years. If any of the suggestions have stuck with you, let me know!
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#1 Hustle: This article about anxiety, the gig economy and how everyone is self-promoting their own e-book hits home (perhaps too closely), but also presents a picture of what deeply troubles me every single day in my attempts to hack a living. This line captures how self-employment, side hustles, and gig employment are only more flexible versions "total work" for the professional class:
After a couple of decades of constant advice to “follow our passions” and “live our dreams,” for a certain type of relatively privileged modern freelancer, nothing less than total self-actualization at work now seems enough.
I do attempt to avoid being the type of freelancer described in this article but I do wonder if some of my posts seem a bit much to others. Regardless, the article touches on a point which I actively reject which is that many "shackle our self-worth to the success of these projects." I try to actively detach from the success of anything I create. Perhaps I am lucky, because I truly enjoy the process itself.
#2 Early Gift Economy?: Benjamin Franklin turned down the opportunity of having a patent on a stove he invented because of his belief that:
as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.
Check out the first page of this part of his autobiography for the full context. His book is also a free gift anyone can get here.
#3 Company Towns: Looking back on my corporate existence, this quote from Andrew Taggart seems to paint a good picture of the dark side of what I was engaged in:
the ways that people’s energies get corralled and channeled so they can be poured single-mindedly and obsessively into work; the lack of experiential awareness that there exists a “blooming, buzzing” life (to borrow some adjectives from William James) outside of the financial or tech industries; the sense of living in a bubble, with its insular rules, stratagems for career advancement, and status games; and the feeling that everything significant is happening right here
The essay is on how companies like WeWork and Google are re-creating the company towns of the past. I have felt for some time that WeWork is the creepiest company in existence - this essay helps identify some of the reasons why.
#4 Algorithms: This quote from Sarah Kessler's book Gigged (I just interviewed her about it last week) seems to identify some of the challenges with our current evolution of work. It is from Kristy Milland, who details how she sleeps in her office afraid to miss tasks on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, where she would make 5 cents per task.
I am a human being, not an algorithm
#5 Bravery?: A woman is praised as "Brave" for taking some time off at age 50. Similarly, I have had several people use the word brave to describe what I am doing. This essay is powerful,
Working made me feel productive, and I love feeling productive. “You’re just one of those people who likes to work,” my sister often says. “It’s clearly who you are.”
She talks about not being able to "get back in" and some advice she gets from a recruiter:
A recruiter tracked me down to discuss a potential role. When I told him I was planning to take some time off, he said, “Can I give you some unsolicited advice?” Without waiting for my response, he said, “I really wouldn’t recommend that. It will be hard to get back in.”
Many people have shared this same fear with me and I am starting to believe that it is somewhat true - at least in the professional knowledge economy. This world seems to operate as something you are either "all-in" for or completely operating outside of that realm. This is why Andrew's quote above seems so poignant. In this vein, I have even seen people add their one-year sabbatical to LinkedIn highlighting that it is certainty finite and that the goals of the sabbatical are to enrich themselves further for this knowledge economy.
Perhaps this is a longer piece, but this is definitely worth reading....
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