That’s a deceptively hard question. It’s also of crucial importance. There isn’t one right answer, but there is YOUR right answer. Finding and defining your relationship to work is a huge component to fulfillment that almost everyone neglects.
Author: Isaac Morehouse
Isaac Morehouse is the founder and CEO of Praxis, an awesome startup apprenticeship program. He is dedicated to the relentless pursuit of freedom. He’s written some books, done some podcasting, and is always experimenting with self-directed living and learning. When he’s not with his wife and kids or building his company, he can be found smoking cigars, playing guitars, singing, reading, writing, getting angry watching sports teams from his home state of Michigan, or enjoying the beach.
There’s Only One Argument for College (and It’s Wrong)
The only argument for paying tuition and completing college is the old, “You need a degree to get a decent job.” That one’s worth engaging, and it’s easy.
Less Voice, More Exit
The fact that voice has become 1000x easier, while exit has become only maybe 2x easier in the last half century is interesting. It means, I think, that things are better overall, but the relative ease of voice over exit seems to have tilted culture heavily towards a “say something about it” vs a “do something about it” mentality.
Don’t Be Passive Aggressive
I had a recent experience that’s pretty common. Someone asked for something, I told them the conditions under which it could be delivered (which were, as most conditions, just my made-up best guesstimate of what made sense). They replied, “Oh, that’s disappointing. I thought it would be different.”
On Mortality and Children
Today, I didn’t listen to any podcasts or audiobooks or music. I just walked in silence. The cemetery air was a little heavier than usual, and I got to thinking about mortality. It only took me a few minutes of initial discomfort to come to terms with my own mortality. It took me a little more time and discomfort to come to terms with the mortality of my wife and peers. Then an awful thought popped into my head. My children will die someday. I can’t begin to explain how dreadfully this hit me.
A Sample Size of One
We live in a culture that gives ceaseless lip-service to “Science”. Everyone claims to want data, studies, and research. That’s all well and good where it makes sense, but many claims are binary claims about what is and is not possible. Those don’t need more than a single sample.
Don’t Hate Market Signals; Use Them
I saw some guy on Twitter complaining about “capitalism” because he can’t get paid for his labor unless it’s valued by someone else. He picked the wrong culprit.
Making History
Every day you are making history. Think that way. Act that way. Remember what’s happening when it’s happening, because someday it will be part of the grand narrative of your life, and the world at large.
Comedy: The Most Powerful Therapy
I’ve heard a variously attributed quote about how a paper cut is tragedy, while falling in an open sewer and dying is comedy. My friend experienced both as comedy. It made him invincible. Not a stoic acceptance of pain and suffering. Not an optimists insistence on silver linings. My friend had something else.
Credentialed Experts: Protectors of the Sacred Dogma
Credentialed Experts are not at the forefront of innovation and discovery, driving truth forward. Their job is to tell a story about the past that doesn’t threaten the present and stymies the future. The process of winning the credential itself is a trial intended to prove how effectively you imbibe and re-enforce the dominant dogma of the academy, or “The Republic of Science”.