- Tags:: #đź“šBooks , [[Career tips]], [[Work-life balance]]
- Author:: [[Simone Stolzoff]]
- Liked:: #2/5
- Link:: [The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work : Stolzoff, Simone: Amazon.es: Libros](https://www.amazon.es/Good-Enough-Job-Reclaiming-Life/dp/059353896X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+good+enough+job&qid=1690094492&sprefix=the+good+enough+%2Caps%2C109&sr=8-1)
- Source date:: [[2023-05-23]]
- Read date:: [[2023-07-06]]
- Cover::
![[Pasted image 20230723084241.png|100]]
## Why did I want to read it?
Francamente, no lo sĂ©. Es que me he leĂdo muchos ya de este palo:
- [[Al menos tienes trabajo]] de [[Naiara Puertas]].
- [[No puedo más]] de [[Anna Helen Petersen]].
- [[Frágiles]] de [[Remedios Zafra]].
- [[The burnout society]] de [[Byung-Chul Han]]
- [[đź“– Bullshit Jobs]] de [[David Graeber]]
¿Pero qué voy buscando? Si yo la paz ya la alcancé con [[📖 Four Thousand Weeks]].
Con este tengo un poco más de excusa porque [[Cal Newport]] invitĂł al autor a su podcast y parecĂa en la lĂnea de su mĂtico [[đź“– So good they can't ignore you]]... que a mi me vino muy bien en [[✍️ Acho. QuĂ© has estado haciendo estos Ăşltimos tres años. (2015)|una etapa complicada]].
## Highlights (raw)
> “Well, then you can retire, move to a small fishing village, sleep late, catch a few fish, play with your kids, take naps with your wife, and join your buddies in town to drink wine and play guitar.” ([Location 11](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=11))
> Work was a greater source of meaning than both faith and friends. Another study found that 95 percent of American teenagers—teenagers!— ranked having a career or job they enjoyed as “extremely or very important to them as an adult.” A fulfilling career ranked higher than any other priority, ([Location 19](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=19))
> In his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” economist John Maynard Keynes famously predicted that by 2030 we would work only fifteen hours a week. ([Location 73](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=73))
> In 1975, Americans and Germans worked the exact same number of hours on average. In 2021, Americans worked more than 30 percent more. ([Location 80](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=80))
> “When work was dirty, less was more; now that it’s meaningful, more is better.” ([Location 90](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=90))
> the expectation that work will always be fulfilling can lead to suffering. Studies show that an “obsessive passion” for work leads to higher rates of [[burnout]] and work-related stress. ([Location 99](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=99))
> Globally, more people die each year from symptoms related to overwork than from malaria. ([Location 102](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=102))
> The question, then, is how to balance the pursuit of meaningful work with the risk of letting your job subsume who you are. ([Location 107](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=107))
> ourselves. In the words of psychotherapist Esther Perel, too many people bring the best of themselves to work, and bring the leftovers home. ([Location 124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=124))
> she wasn’t excited by the monotony of cooking on the line ([Location 171](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=171))
> Divya wrote her own job description ([Location 175](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=175))
> For example, in one study, Patricia Linville found that subjects with a more differentiated idea of themselves—what she calls having greater “self-complexity”—were less prone to depression and physical illnesses following a stressful event. ([Location 238](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=238))
> What stood out most to Divya was the brief period after she left the company when she didn’t work—when her identity wasn’t tied to her career at all. ([Location 305](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=305))
> We shouldn’t do it just to avoid the sting of negative feedback or the disorientation of retirement. We should diversify our identities because doing so allows us to be more well-rounded people. ([Location 310](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=310))
> And ironically, research shows that people who have hobbies, interests, and passions outside of work tend to be more productive workers, too. ([Location 312](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=312))
> Calvin believed hard work was a key trait of those on the path to heaven, the Elect. The ability to work hard and receive outward signs of God’s favor (read: wealth) was evidence of one’s eternal salvation. ([Location 375](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=375))
> The first was the rise of the commercial internet. The internet made it easier for those who doubted their faith, like Sheila Connolly, to find each other. ([Location 392](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=392))
> Social scientists have a term for this: the spiral of silence. When our views go against the social norms around us, it’s easier to stay silent than speak out. ([Location 396](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=396))
> the fusion of Christianity and political conservatism. Though the origin of the religious right is contested among scholars, the most commonly cited theory argues that, starting in the mid-1970s, ([Location 402](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=402))
> In 1972, 55 percent of white weekly churchgoing Christians identified as Democrats; 34 percent were Republicans. In 2021, 21 percent were Democrats; 62 percent were Republicans. ([Location 408](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=408))
I've seen this book referenced many times
> increased social isolation. Americans simply participate in fewer social groups than they used to, religious groups being among them. In Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam studied social groups like bowling leagues and political membership organizations in order to chart the precipitous decline of Americans’ collective social life. ([Location 410](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=410))
> “The compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship,” David Foster Wallace says in his iconic speech “This Is Water,” “is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.” Worship beauty or money or power and you’ll be left feeling as though you never have enough. ([Location 451](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=451))
> great ironies of the twenty-first century: the reward for professional success is often just more work. ([Location 465](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=465))
> “Do what you love and you’ll work super fucking hard all the time with no separation or any boundaries and also take everything extremely personally.” ([Location 535](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=535))
> She loved what she did—at least that was what she kept telling herself. But over time, the hypocrisy of an institution that was supposedly “open to all” became increasingly hard for her to bear. ([Location 561](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=561))
> management needed new lures to keep employees happy. ([Location 576](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=576))
> Promoting the message that a profession is inherently righteous allows people in positions of power to characterize injustices as isolated incidents rather than systemic failures—if ([Location 591](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=591))
> Many zookeepers framed their work as a duty, similar to the Calvinist conception of a divine calling from the previous chapter. ([Location 611](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=611))
> A job will always first and foremost be an economic relationship. As Fobazi’s paper pointed out, treating a job as something else—a passion, a sacred duty—diminishes workers’ ability to call out and enact necessary changes. This has become particularly relevant in the past half century as workers have increasingly looked to work as an individual rather than a collective endeavor. ([Location 617](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=617))
> employers are looking for passionate workers, too. ([Location 645](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=645))
> even when passion isn’t necessary to do a job well. ([Location 646](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=646))
> Psychologists use the term “enmeshment” to describe when someone’s interpersonal boundaries become blurred. Enmeshment prevents a person from developing an independent self, as their personal boundaries are permeable and unclear. ([Location 736](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=736))
> we solidify our identities at this critical stage in order to cope with all that’s changing around us. ([Location 744](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=744))
> “I don’t think you can be in full community with someone who has the ability to fire you.” ([Location 825](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=825))
> To escape this loop, Koretz recommends two practices. The first is to intentionally carve out space for nonwork time. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel described Shabbat, the weekly practice of Jews abstaining from work, as “a cathedral in time.” ([Location 835](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=835))
> striving for a goal still imposes a frame of improvement, which implies work in a fundamental sense. ([Location 846](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=846))
> In a culture that valorizes side hustles and career advancement, the message is that if you aren’t getting ahead, you’re falling behind. ([Location 872](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=872))
> Although employees with friends at the office tend to perform better, they also report being more emotionally exhausted and conflict-avoidant. ([Location 949](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=949))
> The medical residency model was invented by William Stewart Halsted, a surgeon who believed medical students ought to live at the hospital during their training to fully immerse themselves in their work. Halsted was also a notorious workaholic and cocaine addict. And yet, the tenets of Halsted’s training model persist to this day. ([Location 1196](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1196))
> the culture of American management—one in which managers meticulously track workers’ hours—is largely the legacy of one man: Frederick Winslow Taylor. Though Taylor died over a century ago, his Principles of Scientific Management ([Location 1206](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1206))
> there were a few problems with Taylor’s “scientific” approach. He notoriously fudged the numbers, lied to clients, and inflated reports of his own success. ([Location 1222](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1222))
> “When I quit, it was not for time, it was not for a better living, a better pace of life, or work-life balance. It was because I was fucking moody,” ([Location 1275](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1275))
> “Do I believe that in our one short human life the thing that gives my life value is contributing to corporate work that has economic returns?” he asked himself. “No, my answer to that question is no.” ([Location 1290](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1290))
> Can I work only on projects I find meaningful, make good money, and work no more than twenty hours a week? he wondered. It was certainly an experiment worth trying. ([Location 1297](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1297))
> if the product is an idea for a marketing campaign or a headline for a website, Josh found that there wasn’t a linear relationship between how many hours he put in and the quality of the output. ([Location 1305](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1305))
> To be clear, not everyone can afford to take a sabbatical or to work fewer hours. Josh acknowledges that the money and skills he built up in the corporate world play an integral part in the success of his experiment. “This whole lifestyle that I’ve got going on would not be on offer ten years ago—I didn’t have the skills,” ([Location 1314](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1314))
> Walking around the campus reminded me of my own stint in the tech industry. Before I became a journalist, I worked at a startup with hot breakfast in the mornings and yoga in the evenings. I was #blessed with the perks of a venture capital–subsidized life. But I also think back to days when I was lured in before eight a.m. and stayed until well after sunset, like a driver on the highway who can’t remember the last five miles of road. Life became work, and work became a series of rinse-and-repeat days that felt indistinguishable from one another. The ease with which I could extend the workday was not, in fact, a perk at all. ([Location 1386](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1386))
> Nancy Rothbard, a management professor at Wharton, believes there are broadly two types of workers: “integrators,” people who don’t mind blurring the boundary between work and home, and “segmentors,” people who have a strong desire to separate work from their personal life. ([Location 1457](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1457))
> segmentors may prefer to stick to a predetermined schedule for working hours, while integrators might prefer to intersperse personal tasks, such as exercise or childcare, between periods of work. ([Location 1469](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1469))
> But after six months living at the office, Brandon realized that he was spending 70 to 80 percent of his waking hours furthering Google’s business goals. He realized that he had become a “zombie, constantly and mindlessly working away” at whatever problem he was given. ([Location 1478](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1478))
> But Brandon knew how easily the personal and the professional could overlap. Even subtle distinctions—referring to himself as, say, a person who worked at Google rather than “a Googler”—offered a semantic hierarchy that reinforced his control over work’s role in his life. ([Location 1493](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1493))
> One study of over 3 million workers from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that working from home led to a 13 percent increase in the number of meetings and an 8 percent increase in the length of the workday—an average of more than forty-eight minutes per worker. ([Location 1497](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1497))
> Executives love to tout the “water cooler magic” of office life, but there’s no evidence to support that working in person is essential for creativity or collaboration. ([Location 1513](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1513))
> In fact, studies show that productivity and face-to-face communication actually decrease in open office plans. Employees report feeling the pressure to work longer hours and decreased levels of engagement. ([Location 1514](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1514))
> “I never wanted the truck to be too nice,” Brandon told me. “The point was to spend time outside.” ([Location 1524](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1524))
> the most important thing is that we actively make a choice. If we don’t, work can expand like a gas and fill any available space. ([Location 1540](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1540))
> When you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. F ([Location 1546](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1546))
> When we say someone is successful, we rarely mean they are happy and healthy. We mean they make a lot of money. ([Location 1597](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1597))
> asked me a question that cut through the noise: “If you could go, but you couldn’t tell anyone that you went, would you still do it?” ([Location 1653](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1653))
[[Atelic activities]]
> Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, described a similar feeling of emptiness after competing in his second Olympics. “It’s like we dreamed the biggest dream we could possibly dream and we got there. What do we do now?” the swimmer told The New York Times. Phelps’s ennui sent him into a spiral of substance abuse and depression. ([Location 1684](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1684))
Actually, I think it's very easy not to do a pause in media consumption
> After finishing a video game, a player may take a step back to ask whether the game was worth it, whether the game was a good use of their time. But in careers, there are fewer built-in pauses. ([Location 1691](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1691))
> The skeptic in me believes that the lifestyle Khe created was possible only because of the years he spent on Wall Street. Sure, he sacrificed his future earning potential, but he had already “made ([Location 1737](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1737))
> The problem with self-imposed boundaries is that they’re permeable. It was too easy to let my fear of not finishing the manuscript on time or the feeling that I didn’t deserve a break stop me from honoring my intentions. ([Location 1780](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1780))
> Common antiburnout advice like “set a boundary” or “practice self-care” crumbles without institutional support behind it. If your company is understaffed, or it’s the end of a quarter, or your pay is tied to your hours, setting a personal boundary is like trying to shield yourself from the sun with a cocktail umbrella. ([Location 1786](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1786))
> “If capitalism wasn’t a thing and you had all your needs met, what would you do with your life?” ([Location 1810](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1810))
> Perhaps my favorite response was: I’d keep doing exactly what I’m doing with less worry, ([Location 1813](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1813))
> The first one is for governments, the second one is for companies, and the last one is for you. ([Location 1815](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1815))
> •DISENTANGLE SURVIVAL AND EMPLOYMENT ([Location 1816](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1816))
I completely share these feelings even though my position is better with time
> I think a similar biological force drives my tendency to overwork. Despite my gainful employment and the support systems around me, I still fear, however irrationally, that I’ll lose my livelihood—or at least lose my career momentum. Unless I overdeliver, my logic goes, unless I continually prove my worthiness, I will somehow fall behind. I’ve adopted the values of capitalism as my own: Growth is progress. Stagnation is death. ([Location 1821](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1821))
> unless company leaders model the culture they hope to create, it will never trickle down to the rest of the team. ([Location 1887](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1887))
> To be clear, I don’t believe a more transactional approach to work needs to come at the expense of caring about your job or doing great work. ([Location 1916](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1916))
> choose what good enough means to you. ([Location 1924](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1924))
> recognize when you have it. Because then you can heed Morrison’s father’s advice: you can come on home. ([Location 1926](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1926))
> develop a self that no boss or job title or market has the power to change. ([Location 1930](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C6N229RP&location=1930))