Post Work World

There are two big problems with the idea of a “Post Work” world I have discovered since I stopped being an employee five years ago. We build everything around work. The first question people often ask you is “what work do you do?”, and we ask children, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”. In a way that embeds the idea that you are defined by the label of work. A regular question artist or writer friends of mine get asked is, “do you make enough money out of that?”. The two problems are Conspicuous Leisure and Conspicuous Wealth. If you can’t visibly demonstrate what progress you are making, you look lazy or lost. If you aren’t working for money, you look greedy. Money is the most conspicuous demonstration of progress. You don’t have to understand what someone is doing if someone else is willing to pay them. The easiest way to free yourself from financial pressures is to control your expenses. But if you have an Engine, you have to explain why firing bits of it is so painful. You “have” money, but not really. It is working. I have discovered that it is very hard to create a “Post Work” life in a Work focused World.

But what are you doing? 

Pic Credit: Matt Hussey