Finally reading ’s book. It’s really good. Really drives home the extent to which the culture of modern work is is a success cult. You’re in it even when unemployed, or in obvious McJobs, with no pathway to the Promised Land of corner offices.
Conversation
Not done yet, but the first part is a really solid interwoven tale of his own journey into and out of the cult, told with almost painful honesty, and reflective commentary drawing on things like academic literature on burnout and eclectic philosophical sources.
1
51
I hadn’t prioritized reading it since I assumed I’d know what it was about from his newsletter, but no… this is polished and fresh content. It really should be a mainstream airport bestseller type book, not niche subculture blogger self-published book.
1
3
61
The cult of work extends down to high school, into retirement, and sideways to “non-working” spouses, and deprogramming out of it is 3x harder than a normal cult because it is an overwhelming majority rather than a minority of crackpots in a compound. Never thought of this angle
1
16
107
It’s not that jobs and workplaces are bad, or that we don’t need the outputs of the industries that are within the cult of work. Paul is careful, where many are not, to not demonize paycheck work itself. What’s toxic is “success culture” for powering its labor needs.
2
7
65
Not sure how to define this separately, but “success culture” as in:
— people who are paid more are more worthy
— jobs are in a hierarchy of prestige and that’s good
— prestige is a good variable to maximize
— spreadsheet-optimizing job-hunting is healthy
Etc etc
3
9
90
Replying to
I thought there were actually not that many people fully inside this culture?
there are so many dropouts who couldn't "win the game" and made lemonade instead
and so many people who were never in the socioeconomic class where the "game" is taught in the first place
1
2
Replying to
Working and upper classes have their own versions, and there’s lots of levels even in middle class

