Today’s essay is part of a series on work that includes me, Latham Turner, Bowen Dwelle, Michael Mohr ofSincere American Writing, Dee Rambeau, and Lyle McKeany. You may remember our past series about fatherhood and recovery. This week, all of us will wrestle with what work means to us. These collaborative series are a highlight of my life on Substack, and I hope you’ll keep tuning in this week. Let us know how our meditations on work compare to your own.
It doesn't do justice to such a densely insightful post/essay for me simply to observe that the Office Space/Jack London comparison is both clever and wonderful. But that's what I've got at the moment, so I'll offer it.
Btw, I wish you all (holistic) success with Big Sky Insights.
Like Latham, you are carving out a relationship to work that resists the systems that occupy most people's work life. Your prioritization of being a father is also consistent. You are both giving a great gift to your children, and by forging a close relationship to your children, a great gift to yourself when they grow older. It's an investment that pays off immeasurably when they become adults. (But remember, teenagers are difficult and often nasty, regardless!)
Also, my older son as a child loved to line up cars and animals, usually organized by color. I do think it indicates a very logical mind. But that type of mind can be applied to pretty much anything.
A truly excellent discursus. Ever since I left academe I too have struggled to define what 'work' was for me, and what it meant to me. And what once was joy can become work, in the opposite manner as the antique epigram, 'techne loves Tyche' suggests. This was the case for me with teaching, and now, alas, it is beginning to feel similarly for writing as well. The 'next' joy is at present an unknown. But I should add that 'work' too might be abolished in the same way as both God and the author have been in the history of ideas; was this not Marx's intent? If the Protestant Ethic confused work with act in its soteriological desperation, what then are we to think of a workless society, the technocratic paradise of a 'Star Trek', or the nostalgia for a colonial serfdom?
E. Gordon Gee? His career is checkered and controversial. His actions are a testament to an anti intellectual and materislstic mindset. He primary criteria is monetary.
You nailed the conformism angle of work: Being pulled into the sociological game of needing constant external validation from others regarding your own inner sense of self worth. I've always found it strange how in America adulthood and 'goodness' are viewed mainly by financial and external standards, versus emotional/psychologcal/spiritual standards. We seem to reward narcissism and greed over depth and kindness. This, of course, is a natural result of living in a free and open democracy which values (correctly) free enterprise. Such is the nature of the materialist beast.
Very cool, Josh. I’m glad to hear about the LLC! I’m headed in the same direction with The Sustainable Professor. All I can hope is to make things a bit easier for those sticking around in the academy, and to put my kid through college.
Josh, I enjoyed Latham's article yesterday and yours today. It is great to see this type of collaboration. My childhood was similar to yours although I took a different track after high school. However, the lessons related to work that I learned stuck with me. Now that my son is in college I can see quite clearly the issues with academia that you describe. While he attends a flagship university with massive amounts of money it is still very interesting to observe which programs they emphasize and which they don't. We are fortunate that he is on scholarship and so will not be saddled with huge amounts of debt but it is very obvious that the system pushes the students towards degrees that are focused on industry and employability. As I have stated elsewhere, my own career change this year led me to evaluate what this second half of my life will look like. I am looking forward to not working in the traditional sense so that I can focus more on family and creative pursuits.
Josh, this was a wonderful reflection on all levels, both deep and poignant without being angry or claiming a moral high ground. You nailed so much here.
I see Freddy the Frog so regularly, when our teachers are taught how to manage a classroom but never how to nurture a child's curiosity. I've seen it with my own children, at far younger grades than I would have expected. It was one more part of our decision to homeschool. I see it in performance reviews and honors, awards, and the like for adults. It's like we've forgotten that our "extreme behaviors" are not actually abnormal, but its the conformity and game playing that is out of the norm.
We've talked at length about how the military and academia have their similarities, but I didn't really appreciate how the non-economic nature of both was another one. We might have had different missions and motives, but both institutions offered protection from the pressure to make workers that make money. That's a protection that I didn't really appreciate before now.
I've been wondering a lot about the Jack London's of today. Where do the misfits go when the options seem to be industry or influencer. Neither one is fit for someone who doesn't fit in, doesn't want to hustle, or wants to spend their time on something more true. I wonder if this is a US problem (I have only a romantic desire for other countries to not be as industrially focused as my basis for that) or if there are any places left for the misfits, outcasts, and rebels. I know I'm still naively hopeful those spaces exist, but I can't seem to let go.
Thanks for writing this. Grateful to have gotten to collaborate with you on another piece.
I thoroughly enjoyed this piece. Recognized so much of myself in it. This part, e.g. — “I’m struck by how often adults project work stories onto children at play. I fall into this trap myself, seeing a future as an accountant in my son’s sorting of colored pencils, or in the perfect lines he likes to make with his toy cars. His fascination with building must mean that he’ll someday be an engineer. It never seems enough to see pleasure or mastery as the end in itself.” I even think we’re pretty low-key parents, not striving and shrill about achievement. But this culture really gets under your skin and it’s too easy to forget what’s important.
Brilliantly written piece, that is both life affirming and a warning of the threats posed by the industrialist mindset of those at the helm of the education system.
I have struggled with the work question my entire life. I truly believe our purpose is to love one another, hear and tell stories, create and just be. Cramming all that around the edges of a career is difficult and monetizing or commodifying it seems wrong.
It doesn't do justice to such a densely insightful post/essay for me simply to observe that the Office Space/Jack London comparison is both clever and wonderful. But that's what I've got at the moment, so I'll offer it.
Btw, I wish you all (holistic) success with Big Sky Insights.
Like Latham, you are carving out a relationship to work that resists the systems that occupy most people's work life. Your prioritization of being a father is also consistent. You are both giving a great gift to your children, and by forging a close relationship to your children, a great gift to yourself when they grow older. It's an investment that pays off immeasurably when they become adults. (But remember, teenagers are difficult and often nasty, regardless!)
Also, my older son as a child loved to line up cars and animals, usually organized by color. I do think it indicates a very logical mind. But that type of mind can be applied to pretty much anything.
A truly excellent discursus. Ever since I left academe I too have struggled to define what 'work' was for me, and what it meant to me. And what once was joy can become work, in the opposite manner as the antique epigram, 'techne loves Tyche' suggests. This was the case for me with teaching, and now, alas, it is beginning to feel similarly for writing as well. The 'next' joy is at present an unknown. But I should add that 'work' too might be abolished in the same way as both God and the author have been in the history of ideas; was this not Marx's intent? If the Protestant Ethic confused work with act in its soteriological desperation, what then are we to think of a workless society, the technocratic paradise of a 'Star Trek', or the nostalgia for a colonial serfdom?
Jack London is one of my favorite writers, precisely because he was willing to question the society he lived in rather than let it be.
E. Gordon Gee? His career is checkered and controversial. His actions are a testament to an anti intellectual and materislstic mindset. He primary criteria is monetary.
"a home on twenty acres above the tiny town of Troy, Montana" Sounds like trout country to this fly angler. I woulda never left : )
You nailed the conformism angle of work: Being pulled into the sociological game of needing constant external validation from others regarding your own inner sense of self worth. I've always found it strange how in America adulthood and 'goodness' are viewed mainly by financial and external standards, versus emotional/psychologcal/spiritual standards. We seem to reward narcissism and greed over depth and kindness. This, of course, is a natural result of living in a free and open democracy which values (correctly) free enterprise. Such is the nature of the materialist beast.
Very cool, Josh. I’m glad to hear about the LLC! I’m headed in the same direction with The Sustainable Professor. All I can hope is to make things a bit easier for those sticking around in the academy, and to put my kid through college.
Josh, I enjoyed Latham's article yesterday and yours today. It is great to see this type of collaboration. My childhood was similar to yours although I took a different track after high school. However, the lessons related to work that I learned stuck with me. Now that my son is in college I can see quite clearly the issues with academia that you describe. While he attends a flagship university with massive amounts of money it is still very interesting to observe which programs they emphasize and which they don't. We are fortunate that he is on scholarship and so will not be saddled with huge amounts of debt but it is very obvious that the system pushes the students towards degrees that are focused on industry and employability. As I have stated elsewhere, my own career change this year led me to evaluate what this second half of my life will look like. I am looking forward to not working in the traditional sense so that I can focus more on family and creative pursuits.
Josh, this was a wonderful reflection on all levels, both deep and poignant without being angry or claiming a moral high ground. You nailed so much here.
I see Freddy the Frog so regularly, when our teachers are taught how to manage a classroom but never how to nurture a child's curiosity. I've seen it with my own children, at far younger grades than I would have expected. It was one more part of our decision to homeschool. I see it in performance reviews and honors, awards, and the like for adults. It's like we've forgotten that our "extreme behaviors" are not actually abnormal, but its the conformity and game playing that is out of the norm.
We've talked at length about how the military and academia have their similarities, but I didn't really appreciate how the non-economic nature of both was another one. We might have had different missions and motives, but both institutions offered protection from the pressure to make workers that make money. That's a protection that I didn't really appreciate before now.
I've been wondering a lot about the Jack London's of today. Where do the misfits go when the options seem to be industry or influencer. Neither one is fit for someone who doesn't fit in, doesn't want to hustle, or wants to spend their time on something more true. I wonder if this is a US problem (I have only a romantic desire for other countries to not be as industrially focused as my basis for that) or if there are any places left for the misfits, outcasts, and rebels. I know I'm still naively hopeful those spaces exist, but I can't seem to let go.
Thanks for writing this. Grateful to have gotten to collaborate with you on another piece.
I thoroughly enjoyed this piece. Recognized so much of myself in it. This part, e.g. — “I’m struck by how often adults project work stories onto children at play. I fall into this trap myself, seeing a future as an accountant in my son’s sorting of colored pencils, or in the perfect lines he likes to make with his toy cars. His fascination with building must mean that he’ll someday be an engineer. It never seems enough to see pleasure or mastery as the end in itself.” I even think we’re pretty low-key parents, not striving and shrill about achievement. But this culture really gets under your skin and it’s too easy to forget what’s important.
This is beautiful.
Brilliantly written piece, that is both life affirming and a warning of the threats posed by the industrialist mindset of those at the helm of the education system.
Thanks for sharing.
I wish you well in your ventures.
Congrats on Blue Sky Insights. Cool new name!
Rich in time. Rich in experience. The best kind of wealth 🙏
I have struggled with the work question my entire life. I truly believe our purpose is to love one another, hear and tell stories, create and just be. Cramming all that around the edges of a career is difficult and monetizing or commodifying it seems wrong.