What I think
Simone shared an early draft of the book with me, and I was impressed. It was one of the first modern work books I’d read that didn’t fall into the traps of “hustle harder” or “capitalism sucks.”
Almost all mainstream writing on work centers around an “anti” script about why the current system is broken. Simone skillfully avoided this, and a lot of the book comes from his own journey with his relationship to work. That’s a tricky thing to pull off, but he did it.
The book is a collection of ten modern stories of people grappling with the reality of work. The best parts, I think, are his own personal journey and the references to historical ideas about work.
This book is probably a great recommendation for someone deep in the corporate world who is just starting to question things. It tackles all the myths of the workplace: “We are family.” “Do what you love and never work again.” “Dream jobs will save you.”
It still feels like so many people I talk to don’t think they should complain about these kinds of work issues. But they are hard.
We went much deeper into Simone’s personal story on my podcast.
What the book is about
Stolzoff, a journalist turned designer, looks at workism: the belief that work should be the center of our identity and the main source of meaning in our lives. Through profiles of people in very different jobs and his own story, he argues for a “good enough” job, one that supports a life without having to be that life.
Highlights
Workism
The modern ideology of workism asks two distinct pursuits—money and inner fulfillment—to coalesce. These pursuits are not always aligned, and yet we increasingly look to our jobs to satisfy both.
This is such a key thing a lot of people are waking up to. The 2010s were the peak of expecting jobs to meet all our needs. It never was going to work.
Regardless of class, nearly every worker I spoke to commented on the pressure of living in a country where self-worth and work are so tightly bound. Here, capitalism is not just an economic system; it’s also a social philosophy—a philosophy that says a person is as valuable as their output.
The US is certainly a worker-first culture. I don’t totally buy the “workism” frame à la Derek Thompson, but I do buy that economics determine our consciousness.
His own story
It didn’t feel like I was choosing between two jobs; it felt like I was choosing between two versions of me.
But, gradually, something began to change. I wish I could say that I had some grand epiphany, but what helped the most was simply time. I loosened my grip on work and started to get back into my weekly routines.
More than anything, I stopped obsessing so much about my choice. I saw my job as good enough.
My favorite parts of the book are when he shares his personal story.
Work as one container
But it’s important to remember that the workplace is just one container with one definition for what makes a valuable life. Assuming one value system as gospel is to balance on a narrow platform, vulnerable to a strong gust of wind.
I like this frame. A job as a container is a very hard place to derive full life satisfaction from. It’s just a 40-hour chunk of work from a random company!
Dream jobs
If workism is the religion, dream jobs are the deities.
Quoting Derek Thompson:
“It is a diabolical game that creates a prize so tantalizing yet rare that almost nobody wins, but everybody feels obligated to play forever.”
The dream job chase was something I got caught up in in the 2010s. And the reason I left was that I sort of gave up and lost hope. It felt like I was indeed playing a game that would never end.
Non-work as practice
Figuring out who you are when you’re not working is a practice. It requires letting go of the control, validation, and comfort of a work-centric existence in order to ask a hard question: Who are you when you’re not producing?
Non-work as practice. This was a subtle point, but I think it’s huge. You can’t think your way to a better relationship with work. You often need time and distance away from your current reality.