I guess I find it perfectly okay to not take pride in your work, which means you are free to not listen to me.
It seems to me that there are plenty of traits around which you can build your sense of self-worth. Being a diligent worker is just one of them.
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To me, work is not the same as paid labor (even though work can be paid for by others). Work is a substantial part of life, just like love, parenting and nurturing one's friends.
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Work is purposeful mental or physical activity that is not directed on consumption, recreation or play.
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It sounds like paid labor is a subset of "work". And I'm not sure how I would determine which parts of my unpaid, voluntary activity are not "recreation or play".
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Anyway, I don't mean to nitpick at you. The only point of my comment was to say be wary of anyone who tells you to take pride in doing the thing they want you to do for them. It seems inherently manipulative.
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I am a founder and I tell my team to do work they will be proud of. It’s about workmanship and doing things the right way than about extracting more work for less. If it feels manipulative to be advised to be proud of your craftsmanship, you possibly have been in toxic workplaces
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"Do work you will be proud of" seems subtly better than "take pride in doing this work I give you." In the former, you're telling me to pursue the values I already have. In the latter, you're telling me to align my values with the work I've been given.
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You are right. Work defining ones identity leads to hubris and depression as the case may be.
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I tend to think that having a paying job that aligns with your sense of meaning in life is a relatively rare privilege. For most people, it is reasonable advice to say "work because you have to, and find things outside your job around which to build your sense of self-worth".
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If you really took pride in you work, you would turn up the magnets to 50T and climb inside them to get superpowers.
You know, I think that climbing inside a 50 Tesla magnet would literally give you the power of levitation.
ru.nl/hfml/research/
(paging to immediately start working on fleshing out the character of Tesla Man)
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