Woolgathering #148: Do What You Love vs. Love What You Do
Plus: the future of Medium, how we ran out of everything, and positive thinking
When I was a kid, it was clear to me that my father really disliked his job. Aside from the many nights he didn’t see me before I went to bed — and the early mornings when I woke up and he was already gone — he would also explicitly tell me that he hated his job.
His dislike for his job became a sort of rallying cry between the two of us. After all, his father (my grandfather) hated his job as well. I came from generations of men with jobs they hated. As I approached college age, my father would advise me not to repeat these mistakes. He urged me to find what I love to do, and never settle for another line of work.
And to an extent, that made sense. As the old adage goes: do what you love, and you never work a day in your life.
But as I got older, and a few of my dreams slipped away from me, I was forced to look at things from a slightly different angle than the one that my father had shown me.
Quick Announcement
For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing some work for a company that I’ve been a long-time user and supporter of: Workflowy. They make what I consider to be the best list manager out there. I’ve used it regularly since 2014 to get all the information of my life in order.
They’ve recently upped their blogging game, and reached out to some writers to help with productivity content. I’m honored to be a part of that group.
Check out some of my work here, as I continue to work with them.
Feed Your Mind
Casey Newton on the “Mess” at Medium
I’ve been writing on medium regularly for the past 6+ years. In that time, I’ve seen many changes in the platform. But over the past year or so, I have been concerned at what I perceive to be a dramatic change in how independent writers see their work distributed. This piece in Platformer gives a good amount of background as to what these changes internally at Medium have been, and what the future for the platform might look like. Hint: it might be bleak.
[Medium CEO]Williams said he “can see more focused, high-affinity publications working well as part of the Medium bundle.” But staffers I spoke with at Medium’s existing publications largely do not expect them to survive, at least in their current form. A skeleton crew of editors will likely be kept on to promote user-generated posts to the relevant sites; what once had been publications are now likely better thought of as topic pages.
How the World Ran Out of Everything
My day-job working for an industrial distribution company has been a lot more…interesting these days. The time it takes and the price we need to pay to get a lot of the standard stuff we supply has gone through the roof. And it’s running rampant all over the economy. Appliances are taking months for new homeowners to get. Lumber at one time was like gold—in both its scarcity and price. The value of used cars has gone up over 30%.
Why? This NYT article has some interesting backstory on how the once-abundant and streamlined global supply chain suddenly ground to a screeching halt this year. As kind of an industry insider, it seems to be nearly right on point.
[Video] The Power of Positivity in Action
The phrase “mind over matter” has been a cliché for quite some time. But the thing about clichés is that…there’s usually some truth at the root of it. Enter this interesting video about the power of our thinking over how well we do at something.
A Question
What’s the one-sentence headline here?
If, like me, you often find yourself giving long-winded answers to questions, it helps to ask yourself this question. But also, if you find it hard to think through tough situations, this is also a helpful question to ask. It forces you to distill your scattered thoughts down to a focused sentence that delivers specific and relevant information.
Here’s a link to a great site that breaks down what makes for an effective headline. Using this to guide your thinking—whether composing a difficult email, or just identifying what’s bugging you—is super helpful.
A Quote
“Don't wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you've got to make yourself.”
- Alice Walker