First, the fun stuff
Good Reads
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry — this is by far one of my favorite reads of the last few years. If you are wanting a western epic filled with the roughness and rawness of ranching on the western edge of settle 1870s America…this is it. Amazing characters, emotions and visceral imagery. I loved every second of it.
“Magical Systems Thinking” by Ed Bradon — this article goes into a lot of history on systems thinking and provides some compelling examples. The most impactful statement came near the end, with the quoting of Gall’s Law:
“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.”
I feel like this is something so many people get wrong in work and life and everywhere. The whole thing is worth the read.
Good Apps
Brick — this is an app paired with a physical NFC device to help you reduce your phone use. I’ve tried a few different ways for myself and this one has by far been the most effective. Within a few weeks of using it, I feel like I started to retrain my brain and question myself more when I habitually picked up my phone.
Manifold — this was something I was introduced to in a college class. It’s essentially a predictions market but using fake currency. If you’re into predicting/betting on future events, it’s a fun rabbit hole.
Good Vids
I mentioned Hank Green last week and so I wanted to share a favorite video from the last year. Nuclear Power, baby — it’s making a comeback! Green is one of the best science communicators I know of and I think everyone should watch his videos just to learn how to better think about ideas/issues.
This video by Preston Stewart I felt was especially important. Stewart is a former field artillery officer and West Point graduate. His insight into military and national security affairs is some of the best I’ve come across. Very fact based, very even keeled, but willing to critique when important. I watch every single video he posts.
Do I Need to be Passionate about My Work?
Friends who ask the big questions are good to have around. Over coffee a few weeks, ago I had one ask “what’s a question you’ve been wrestling with in work or life lately?” I’ve had a few that have come up recently. And I was grateful he asked me this because it’s stayed in my head and I have kept coming back to it over and over during the last weeks. I want to share my thoughts on the question titled above.
To preface here, these answers are ones that work for me. You might be different. You might not. There really is no right or wrong way, which in my opinion is a cool feature of life on Earth.
In short, I don’t think you need to be passionate about your work. Currently, I work in senior living, a field and industry that I believe is important to have, but is also, largely, in a bad way. The number of stories I have heard from friends and family (and even some of my own experiences with my grandma) of ignored, mistreated, abused, or scammed elderly are appalling. Additionally, senior living is expensive and can often become predatory.
Thankfully, after a friend reassured me the company was a good one, I joined an organization that works hard to provide meaningful lives for its residents. The company’s whole model is purchasing rundown and poorly managed communities and turning them into good places to live with positive cultures, believing that if people enjoy where they are, they’ll stay and that is good for business.
I am not particularly passionate about senior living. In fact, over my work career I’ve found that I’m not particularly passionate about many areas work — finance, senior living, policy, innovative technology, these things themselves don’t particularly motivate me. I do like solving complex problems with diverse groups — but that’s not tied to any specific job, just something I seek out wherever I work.
Now, don’t mistake this for “I don’t care about my work.” I do! I do a good job. I work hard and I have quality output because I expect that of myself and frankly am a bit obsessive sometimes about having high quality output.
I also do care about the people whose lives I affect through my work. But again, I feel that has less to do with my work and more to do with the basic sense of empathy I’ve worked to cultivate.
In a way, I’ve become passionate about how I approach work and what I produce, making fulfillment a product of my own efforts and not the uncontrollable vector of “work.”
“But Max, ‘do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life!’”
Well, “do what you love for work and all your favorite things will become work” feels more accurate to me. Is that a cynical view? Maybe. But as the saying goes, and I really believe this, I work to live, not live to work.
The thing I’m most passionate about, and the thing that gives me the most fulfillment, is a life outside of work well-spent. I want to spend hours biking the neighborhood with my kid. I want to chase my dog around the yard. I want to read good books, laugh with my spouse, take weekend camping trips, enjoy local events, build community, talk with my neighbors, even just cook a nice meal.
I’ll always do good work, push myself at work, and strive to solve problems, and work to provide good lives for those I’m working for. But, for me, work lets me live the rest of my life the way I’m passionate about. And as long as I live that part of my life to give, build community, have meaningful conversations, and treat people well, I think that’s alright.
So, if you don’t feel passionate every day about your work, maybe that’s ok.