This article makes me sad. There is a mode of thought that "work" has to be the other. Work is not your time, but that thing you have to do. Work is another "fo

This article makes me sad. There is a mode of thought that "work" has to be the other. Work is not your time, but that thing you have to do. Work is another "four letter word" according to the author. This is partially an artifact of history and partially conflating all kinds of 'work' together. We're living in interesting times where there's a shift of what's valuable from simple mechanical and repetivtive skills (industrial revolution type jobs) and knowledge workers and digitial creatives. We have a unique and amazing opportunity, where it is our collective creativity that is what's valuable and not merely our presence or ability to be turn a mechanical crank. If you follow this advice, and engage in purely a value exchange for the 8 hours a day in something you don't care about and have no real interest in, you're selling 8h/d * 5d/w * 50w/y * 40y = 80k hours. That's a hell of a lot of your life to give over for merely a paycheck, especially when you don't have to. It's that last part that makes me sad, we are in am incredibly unique industry and point in history (which may not last) where you can find a job that engages your whole self while simultaneously making a good living. I recommend "Drive" by Daniel Pink, about how to think about human motiviation and the opportunities that we currently have to reshape work. Where things like Autonomy (being self directed, choosing your hours and what you work on), Mastery (becoming great at something), and most importantly missing from the rant in this article, Purpose are what really lead to greater happiness and overall better results. "Purpose" was why I left a high paying job where I was respected to spend 10 years starting companies that (until very recently) meant I made radically under what I was "worth". Would I trade those years? Hell no. Because even if I hadn't had the recent success with Smarterer, I knew I was working towards a bigger and more important purpose, one that could really make a dent in the universe. Being able to do that, and still eat and satisfy all my basic needs is a pretty amazing thing, and one that's totally missed by a rant like this. When I think about passion, and look for passion in people I want to work with, I look for people who care about what we're doing. Because I don't want "butts in seats" I want people thinking creatively about how we can change the world together. That could mean a day of thinking deeply without banging out any code at all. It could be a crazy "in the shower idea". It could mean long hours one night to hit some big milestone. It also means that if you've been pushing hard on something and you need to take days off to recenter, I trust you because you care about what we're doing together.