It is truly cathartic in a way, when your feelings are echoed so profoundly by the words of another. Thank you for your wonderful work as always. It’s an aggressive act of rebellion to make time to be the person you were meant to be. Much harder these days when everyone around is so deeply sedated by the same ailment. Definitely need to come back to this from time to time
I was just thinking about it. I don't think entrepreneurship is the answer, because any business needs to survive and so it falls onto the same path of making money and having to grow. Am I wrong? Any entrepreneurs out there, are you not caught up in the same rat race of living for weekends minus the fact that you probably working through them? Is work a problem. Period?? Or is it the purpose of the work? I always think that working in a coffee shop should be one of the most enjoyable jobs on the planet because you make someone's day with your latte. If we could do this for 2-3 hours a day and move on to something else that we also enjoy, like designing and teaching a marketing course... "In letters from 500" they describe a future society where careers don't exist and people choose any job they want to do for a time being, and then move on to the next, they want to explore. But not for 8hrs a day. It's stupid. Work should be us helping a society and community to become better by contributing our unique talents and interests.
Re. entrepreneurship - I think the saving grace is you are the master of your own destiny, to make it sound dramatic. If you decide to not work today its on you. If you want to push and work three days straight, also on you. All the choices are ones you make - working for someone else means you have less choice in matters. The lack of choice in this whole setup plays a big role in why we dislike work so much.
I’ve always felt that work without meaning doesn’t just drain your energy — it chips away at your curiosity and creativity, the very things that make life, that make me, feel vibrant. I can’t imagine (anymore, because I did before) spending eight or more hours a day on something that doesn’t align with some sense of purpose; it’s like forcing myself to move while something inside is pulling back. That feeling of fragmentation, where who you are and what you do don’t align, is exhausting in a way that goes beyond physical tiredness. It’s like you start to forget the parts of yourself that used to feel so alive.
What really hits is how easy it is to fall into that cycle without realizing it — getting used to the routine, convincing yourself it’s normal to feel drained, until one day it’s not just burnout from work, it’s burnout from yourself. The worst part is how society wraps this up as something admirable, like resilience means enduring things that slowly hollow you out. But real resilience, to me, is fighting for a life that doesn’t require you to abandon who you are just to survive.
Terrific article and thoughtful commentary... Perhaps one key to a Work / Life balance and to enduring and even growing within a wage based economy is to try to make one's living in an action of "Service" rather than "profit" ??
You can often tell "Service" industry work in that it is undervalued, and often under paid. Yet understanding your work is of help to others, or provides tangible benefits to people or the planet can go a long way "making a "wage" more tolerable or even satisfying.
Most of us "need to make a living" Unless born to extreme privladges, or drawn to a truly eccentric lifestyle - "going to work" is something few avoid. While work-place conditions are important, in the end, it is WHAT you are doing and WHO you are benefiting that can make a personal difference.
Being a working class hero in service to others or the benefit of the many can still be "Something to Be"
I have been going down the "Corporate America" path for three years now - I could not agree more.
There is something intrinsically WRONG with the way that our system depends on our willingness to labor away at bullshit jobs that do not serve us in any way, aside from earning enough to eat with a roof overhead.
It crushes my soul everyday I step into the office. I walk in, brimming with enthusiasm about my own ideas, only to be immediately crushed by demands from my boss. I come home, get high, and begin my laps on the hedonic treadmill.
I do not know if there is any way out of this. Moving out of the US into Europe seems to be a route out. Then again, the grips of capitalism span farther than the borders of our country.
Sometimes I think of Diogenes, finding solace in the fact that he rejected what we have come to hate so much. This feeling only lasts so long. Once I remember what my family and friends would say, my soul sinks into itself. A feeling of true existential despair. I continue on the path I am on, seeking a way out of this mess.
Perhaps it is the cost of being Human in the era we live in.
Regardless, this essay has shown me that I am not alone. Thank you.
I recently lost my menial labor job but am in a position where housing and the costs of everyday life are thankfully secured. In the past, this would have been cause to return to the things I’ve always loved, like writing and art. Despite being an “early career” professional, though, I’ve already found it more difficult to return to what used to be my default state. As a child and as a student, story ideas, scraps of writing, sentences, art project ideas—they all used to come to me so easily and so readily that I took them for granted. These days, it’s a struggle to even start a sentence. And rather than feel like I should use this opportunity to pursue my craft, I’ve found myself in a mad dash to find the next menial job that will make me money. While working my menial labor job, weekends and afternoons that should have been spent on the work that truly brings me delight, were instead spent on, exactly to your point, hedonistic vices that proved my leisure time was well-spent on “having fun.” After reading this, I took it upon myself to finally open up a new document and start writing again, something that feels harder than it ever has before. I appreciate you putting these thoughts out. They found me at exactly the right time and were the push I needed to finally start focusing on nourishing my existential needs.
A combination of good luck, bad luck, meaningless (but sufficiently profitable) work and time. And I am close to 50 years old, so it hasn't exactly been happening lightning fast.
Also I live in Norway where it is still possible to advance from working class to middle class if you get an education that provides steady employment. But this window is probably closing here as well.
I will eventually write a post about it.
What I will say about it right off the bat is: Selling your time and skills to an employer is not an efficient way to make money. But it is by far the easiest. You can however, not realistically keep doing it forever.
It’s comforting that you have expressed my exact feelings so beautifully, especially when no one in my circle has this perspective. I started to feel this way a few months into my first corporate job and it has not gone away years later. There’s always a feeling that something is missing - a continuous restlessness and desire for more. This feeling is what brought me to substack and I now try to make sense of it and reignite my creative side through writing on here.
I once had the epiphany that money is a bad incentive, with some exceptions, for doing something one is already passionate about. For some reason the analogy that came to me was one where a lover buys a gift for their partner knowing they will be rewarded for that act. There is a difference when your main wish for the gift is to make your partner smile. I will flesh out the idea more.
Thank you for such a refreshing and viscerally relatable read.
That I hopped onto substack and read this in the middle of writing a freelance article about "workforce management software" for a client is a testament to your point that we can't really focus on stuff that doesn't make us curious. Thanks for making me feel less guilty about it lol.
"Human beings have two sets of needs — the animal and the existential. Once you have your animal needs of food and shelter met, that's essentially when human life begins. Mental health comes from having your existential needs met."
I feel this deeply. The thing is, we as individuals can't compete anymore with big corporations. Most of us can't get paid to do meaningful work. So what then? I've found some fulfillment from hobbies but because of globalism, we can't just do what brings us meaning because we're competing with everyone on earth not just the folks in our village.
It is truly cathartic in a way, when your feelings are echoed so profoundly by the words of another. Thank you for your wonderful work as always. It’s an aggressive act of rebellion to make time to be the person you were meant to be. Much harder these days when everyone around is so deeply sedated by the same ailment. Definitely need to come back to this from time to time
I was just thinking about it. I don't think entrepreneurship is the answer, because any business needs to survive and so it falls onto the same path of making money and having to grow. Am I wrong? Any entrepreneurs out there, are you not caught up in the same rat race of living for weekends minus the fact that you probably working through them? Is work a problem. Period?? Or is it the purpose of the work? I always think that working in a coffee shop should be one of the most enjoyable jobs on the planet because you make someone's day with your latte. If we could do this for 2-3 hours a day and move on to something else that we also enjoy, like designing and teaching a marketing course... "In letters from 500" they describe a future society where careers don't exist and people choose any job they want to do for a time being, and then move on to the next, they want to explore. But not for 8hrs a day. It's stupid. Work should be us helping a society and community to become better by contributing our unique talents and interests.
Re. entrepreneurship - I think the saving grace is you are the master of your own destiny, to make it sound dramatic. If you decide to not work today its on you. If you want to push and work three days straight, also on you. All the choices are ones you make - working for someone else means you have less choice in matters. The lack of choice in this whole setup plays a big role in why we dislike work so much.
I’ve always felt that work without meaning doesn’t just drain your energy — it chips away at your curiosity and creativity, the very things that make life, that make me, feel vibrant. I can’t imagine (anymore, because I did before) spending eight or more hours a day on something that doesn’t align with some sense of purpose; it’s like forcing myself to move while something inside is pulling back. That feeling of fragmentation, where who you are and what you do don’t align, is exhausting in a way that goes beyond physical tiredness. It’s like you start to forget the parts of yourself that used to feel so alive.
What really hits is how easy it is to fall into that cycle without realizing it — getting used to the routine, convincing yourself it’s normal to feel drained, until one day it’s not just burnout from work, it’s burnout from yourself. The worst part is how society wraps this up as something admirable, like resilience means enduring things that slowly hollow you out. But real resilience, to me, is fighting for a life that doesn’t require you to abandon who you are just to survive.
Thank you for writing this. The second part especially, how this insidiousness is normalized, accepted and actually defended.
Hurry up and drop a book already… I need a place to take shelter from the nonsense of existence, and your words are the only refuge that makes sense.
<3
Terrific article and thoughtful commentary... Perhaps one key to a Work / Life balance and to enduring and even growing within a wage based economy is to try to make one's living in an action of "Service" rather than "profit" ??
You can often tell "Service" industry work in that it is undervalued, and often under paid. Yet understanding your work is of help to others, or provides tangible benefits to people or the planet can go a long way "making a "wage" more tolerable or even satisfying.
Most of us "need to make a living" Unless born to extreme privladges, or drawn to a truly eccentric lifestyle - "going to work" is something few avoid. While work-place conditions are important, in the end, it is WHAT you are doing and WHO you are benefiting that can make a personal difference.
Being a working class hero in service to others or the benefit of the many can still be "Something to Be"
I have been going down the "Corporate America" path for three years now - I could not agree more.
There is something intrinsically WRONG with the way that our system depends on our willingness to labor away at bullshit jobs that do not serve us in any way, aside from earning enough to eat with a roof overhead.
It crushes my soul everyday I step into the office. I walk in, brimming with enthusiasm about my own ideas, only to be immediately crushed by demands from my boss. I come home, get high, and begin my laps on the hedonic treadmill.
I do not know if there is any way out of this. Moving out of the US into Europe seems to be a route out. Then again, the grips of capitalism span farther than the borders of our country.
Sometimes I think of Diogenes, finding solace in the fact that he rejected what we have come to hate so much. This feeling only lasts so long. Once I remember what my family and friends would say, my soul sinks into itself. A feeling of true existential despair. I continue on the path I am on, seeking a way out of this mess.
Perhaps it is the cost of being Human in the era we live in.
Regardless, this essay has shown me that I am not alone. Thank you.
I recently lost my menial labor job but am in a position where housing and the costs of everyday life are thankfully secured. In the past, this would have been cause to return to the things I’ve always loved, like writing and art. Despite being an “early career” professional, though, I’ve already found it more difficult to return to what used to be my default state. As a child and as a student, story ideas, scraps of writing, sentences, art project ideas—they all used to come to me so easily and so readily that I took them for granted. These days, it’s a struggle to even start a sentence. And rather than feel like I should use this opportunity to pursue my craft, I’ve found myself in a mad dash to find the next menial job that will make me money. While working my menial labor job, weekends and afternoons that should have been spent on the work that truly brings me delight, were instead spent on, exactly to your point, hedonistic vices that proved my leisure time was well-spent on “having fun.” After reading this, I took it upon myself to finally open up a new document and start writing again, something that feels harder than it ever has before. I appreciate you putting these thoughts out. They found me at exactly the right time and were the push I needed to finally start focusing on nourishing my existential needs.
I am so grateful that I eventually managed to escape this vicious spiral.
how?
A combination of good luck, bad luck, meaningless (but sufficiently profitable) work and time. And I am close to 50 years old, so it hasn't exactly been happening lightning fast.
Also I live in Norway where it is still possible to advance from working class to middle class if you get an education that provides steady employment. But this window is probably closing here as well.
I will eventually write a post about it.
What I will say about it right off the bat is: Selling your time and skills to an employer is not an efficient way to make money. But it is by far the easiest. You can however, not realistically keep doing it forever.
It’s comforting that you have expressed my exact feelings so beautifully, especially when no one in my circle has this perspective. I started to feel this way a few months into my first corporate job and it has not gone away years later. There’s always a feeling that something is missing - a continuous restlessness and desire for more. This feeling is what brought me to substack and I now try to make sense of it and reignite my creative side through writing on here.
this is true.
luckily though.
I remembered who I was.
Have you ever read the Idler magazine ?
I have not. I checked it out, it looks wonderful
Yes!
I once had the epiphany that money is a bad incentive, with some exceptions, for doing something one is already passionate about. For some reason the analogy that came to me was one where a lover buys a gift for their partner knowing they will be rewarded for that act. There is a difference when your main wish for the gift is to make your partner smile. I will flesh out the idea more.
Thank you for such a refreshing and viscerally relatable read.
Thank you for writing this. I needed it :)
That I hopped onto substack and read this in the middle of writing a freelance article about "workforce management software" for a client is a testament to your point that we can't really focus on stuff that doesn't make us curious. Thanks for making me feel less guilty about it lol.
"Human beings have two sets of needs — the animal and the existential. Once you have your animal needs of food and shelter met, that's essentially when human life begins. Mental health comes from having your existential needs met."
Very good.
I feel this deeply. The thing is, we as individuals can't compete anymore with big corporations. Most of us can't get paid to do meaningful work. So what then? I've found some fulfillment from hobbies but because of globalism, we can't just do what brings us meaning because we're competing with everyone on earth not just the folks in our village.
Fuck me that is bleak!