For hunter-gatherers, chiefs and shamans could, and did, moonlight as foragers and hunters. Overlapping duties preserved a strong sense of community, reinforced by customs and religions that obscured individual differences in strength, skill, and ambition. Shared labor meant shared values.But in industrial economies, lawyers don’t tag in for brain ... See more

The potential for passion to be exploited—either the passion of workers who have it, or by expecting workers to perform it—was a deep-cutting finding that led to my own reckoning with my perspectives about work.

Engaging in this quest became far easier for me when I decoupled the idea of "work" from the idea of a "job." Without this constraint, I can take my work more seriously and less seriously at the same time. I can both prioritize the work that matters to me and remain detached from what that work says about me as a person. If I ha

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