> > Message: 2 > Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 20:45:58 +0530 > From: Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> > To: Silk List <[email protected]> > Subject: [silk] The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > I got recommended a book called "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work"[1] > today. I am unlikely to get hold of it due to a couple of adverse > reviews I read, but the topic is if great interest to me. Quoting from > an old blogpost of mine on the topic [2]: > > <quote> > > [...] presumably, an order of magnitude more people who are debating > this question with themselves: Is it worth it, really? (for whatever > values of "it" seem reasonable to you.) > > Speaking for myself, I'm grappling with the question too. I went through > the "live at work, define yourself by your job, burn out spectacularly" > phase along with various other people during the dotcom boom; and > promised myself that it wouldn't happen again. > > Actually being serious about that promise had various implications. Here > are some: > > Spending only a reasonable amount of time at work implied that one would > have sufficiently interesting things to do outside of work, which again > meant that the constant cultivation of interesting friends and ideas was > a necessity, not just a hobby. > > Realising that being a B player was not just not-a-bad-thing, but that > there were contexts within which it was an excellent idea. > > <snip> > > And, of course, the fact that I acquired a family along the way - a > wife, and then a daughter - makes the above all the more important as an > internal dialogue. What is the acceptable level of trade-off? How does > one define "acceptable", anyway? > > Interesting times (there's that word again!) > > So, how does everybody else deal with this? > > [1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307277259 > [2] http://udhay.livejournal.com/924.html > -- > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
After much soul-searching and profound thinking, I have found that the only acceptable level of trade-off is what your spouse/significant other/kids allow you to get away with.
