Caveat: written from my U.S. context and cultural environment without broader consideration
I am about three and a half years into abruptly leaving a job to escape an abusive coworker and start my own bootstrapped software company, which failed and taught me that I should probably not try anything requiring sales and/or much socializing, so now I am starting a regenerative organic no-till farm that has sales options more compatible with my proclivities. During this whole time I’ve kept house and parented too.
One of the smarter things I did when I was building the software company was volunteer at a community kitchen that one night a week feeds anyone who shows up dinner as well as sends food out to our city’s homeless population. Other kitchens in the area do the same thing on different days which gives hungry people pretty good coverage so long as they are delivered to or aren’t too ashamed to join wealthier people like myself for a meal. This was a smart choice for me because it is meaningful to me which feels good and the people I work with are quirky but good hearted sorts plus it fairly directly contributed to my decision to start farming.
A few things to note… I had a partner in the software business that was much more like an employee. This have me the insight that more than anything else my job as owner was to define context: to explain what we were doing, create opportunity to discuss strategies for how to do it, set boundaries and set or collaborate on setting priorities, and so on. Sometimes the depth at which I would have those drawn out of me was surprising. One of the side effects of the work a day life and all levels of earlier development is scaffolding. If you haven’t started really thinking through what it takes for things to work the way they do and what it takes for them to be imagined, specified, and implemented then your “muscles” for that are not developed. How developed they are interacts with a decision that you make to become more or less dependent on your context over time. Without obligations and external definition you fall into the deep end of needing to be independent and self determined.
Another thread… Working a regular gig makes it easy to think that when you’re not working for the man you want to engage in leisure. If not working means doing a lot more of that to a person, you can atrophy and stagnate, coming into contact with fewer interesting divergent and challenging notions as well as becoming physically less able. So too, unless you explicitly plan and choose otherwise, do you stop participating in value making for the world. Our societies are built on mutual service even if that has been co-opted for sometimes but usually not quite slavery spectrum arrangements. Some of them aren’t so malicious like unintended growth of population pockets that are inherently dependent. The things that make your life good are made by people endeavoring to create them and those who arranged for them to be created. You move the world closer to the slavery side of that spectrum of you just cease serving, although a world of abundance through automation takes that off the table. Getting away from the servitude consideration, to participate in the mutual service and value creation engine, you have to start making decisions and asking questions that you generally haven’t been in the habit of needing to decide or ask. Staring down those questions can be overwhelming. Answering them can lead to analysis paralysis and endless rabbit holes of discovery and learning. One of the services of the modern working is avoiding all of these complications for its customers. Every action you take is choosing between worlds and that can be wonderfully empowering or completely stifling with so many options and seemingly endless needs.
I’d recommend asking how you can make the world a better place. I find myself after side quests getting more energized with time and more present and engaged with a fuller vision of myself, my life, and the role I choose in my context. If I can make and keep it sustainable, keep the balances even, then this is much better and much healthier living for me, I would recommend it. Still, I don’t feel like I know many that couldn’t handle it well. However, I think there’s a big caveat that this is in part due to the large scale of the configuration of current work a day living and that if we had a population which had been taught to think these things through from the early days and throughout their schooling that we would have very different results.
Caveat: written from my U.S. context and cultural environment without broader consideration
I am about three and a half years into abruptly leaving a job to escape an abusive coworker and start my own bootstrapped software company, which failed and taught me that I should probably not try anything requiring sales and/or much socializing, so now I am starting a regenerative organic no-till farm that has sales options more compatible with my proclivities. During this whole time I’ve kept house and parented too.
One of the smarter things I did when I was building the software company was volunteer at a community kitchen that one night a week feeds anyone who shows up dinner as well as sends food out to our city’s homeless population. Other kitchens in the area do the same thing on different days which gives hungry people pretty good coverage so long as they are delivered to or aren’t too ashamed to join wealthier people like myself for a meal. This was a smart choice for me because it is meaningful to me which feels good and the people I work with are quirky but good hearted sorts plus it fairly directly contributed to my decision to start farming.
A few things to note… I had a partner in the software business that was much more like an employee. This have me the insight that more than anything else my job as owner was to define context: to explain what we were doing, create opportunity to discuss strategies for how to do it, set boundaries and set or collaborate on setting priorities, and so on. Sometimes the depth at which I would have those drawn out of me was surprising. One of the side effects of the work a day life and all levels of earlier development is scaffolding. If you haven’t started really thinking through what it takes for things to work the way they do and what it takes for them to be imagined, specified, and implemented then your “muscles” for that are not developed. How developed they are interacts with a decision that you make to become more or less dependent on your context over time. Without obligations and external definition you fall into the deep end of needing to be independent and self determined.
Another thread… Working a regular gig makes it easy to think that when you’re not working for the man you want to engage in leisure. If not working means doing a lot more of that to a person, you can atrophy and stagnate, coming into contact with fewer interesting divergent and challenging notions as well as becoming physically less able. So too, unless you explicitly plan and choose otherwise, do you stop participating in value making for the world. Our societies are built on mutual service even if that has been co-opted for sometimes but usually not quite slavery spectrum arrangements. Some of them aren’t so malicious like unintended growth of population pockets that are inherently dependent. The things that make your life good are made by people endeavoring to create them and those who arranged for them to be created. You move the world closer to the slavery side of that spectrum of you just cease serving, although a world of abundance through automation takes that off the table. Getting away from the servitude consideration, to participate in the mutual service and value creation engine, you have to start making decisions and asking questions that you generally haven’t been in the habit of needing to decide or ask. Staring down those questions can be overwhelming. Answering them can lead to analysis paralysis and endless rabbit holes of discovery and learning. One of the services of the modern working is avoiding all of these complications for its customers. Every action you take is choosing between worlds and that can be wonderfully empowering or completely stifling with so many options and seemingly endless needs.
I’d recommend asking how you can make the world a better place. I find myself after side quests getting more energized with time and more present and engaged with a fuller vision of myself, my life, and the role I choose in my context. If I can make and keep it sustainable, keep the balances even, then this is much better and much healthier living for me, I would recommend it. Still, I don’t feel like I know many that couldn’t handle it well. However, I think there’s a big caveat that this is in part due to the large scale of the configuration of current work a day living and that if we had a population which had been taught to think these things through from the early days and throughout their schooling that we would have very different results.