Weekly Mix #240 - Work, Action, Kai Lenny, Effort, & Buy Now, Pay Later

Work, Action, Kai Lenny, Effort, & Buy Now, Pay Later

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Happy Monday!

The topic on my mind last week was work.

Specifically: what is work for?

The pandemic has given us a lot to think about on this front: some of the largest resignation numbers in history, unwittingly testing out universal basic income (and the effects on inflation and markets afterwards), remote work, and even antiwork.

​Dan Pink argues in Drive (TED talk here) that motivation (including for work) is driven by autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

The pandemic has rewritten how much autonomy we think we deserve. And how we find mastery.

Purpose is a more difficult question. Where do we find purpose?

Often, it's in doing things that are valuable to other people, and contributing to something bigger than ourselves.

Contemplating these criteria often brings up more questions than answers:

Is what I'm doing valuable?

What's the greater purpose?

Is there something out there that would be more valuable?

How much of the other two do I sacrifice to find more purpose?

Do I need to do that?

As usual, often the answers aren't the most important part. It's asking the questions.

Hope you find autonomy, mastery, and purpose in what you do this week.

Graham

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Links

📖 Action Is Everything - Joseph Wells - One of the behaviours I've tried hardest to cultivate is a bias for action. It's easier than ever to research and plan. And sometimes it's beneficial. But the returns diminish quickly, and often you'd do better to simply get started and figure it out along the way. Cultivating that bias for action is hard; sometimes you need to force yourself into situations where it's required.

📖 Kai Lenny Surfs the Unsurfable - New Yorker - Kai Lenny is a well-known name amongst those of us interested in surfing, windsurfing...really anything related to the water. This is the most extensive profile I've ever read about him:

"He’s been described, often, as the world’s greatest “waterman,” which some hear as faint praise. Sam George, a former editor of Surfer, wrote a passionate essay last year denouncing the narrow-mindedness of the surfing world for failing to recognize Kai as “the most progressive surfer in the world today.”"

📖 Effort - Ava - Bookbear Express - I'm resharing this because it came up again and it's one of my favourite pieces of the last year. "Here’s what I know: if someone’s much better than you at something, they probably try much harder. You probably underestimate how much harder they try...So much of getting good at anything is just pure labor: figuring out how to try and then offering up the hours."

📖 Buy Now. Pay (and Pay, and Pay, and Pay) Later. - Scott Galloway - Intelligencer - Another (even more) scathing article about the dangers of buy now, pay later (BNPL) and the cost it may impose on all of us. Personal finance should be taught.

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