Elbaum's World 39: Work as Hobby
Hey everyone,
I hope the first full week of 2021 was good for you. I feel I've started strong, but I'm reminding myself to focus on (enjoying) the process rather than the outcome. Here's this week's idea:
Gumroad: Work as Hobby š
It's safe to say the pandemic has changed how we work. Even so, Gumroad, an online platform for selling digital products, has been doing it differently for some time.
Most people at Gumroad work between 10 and 20 hours a week, pretty much completely asynchronously, and earn a full-time income. Yet the company did $11M in revenue last year and paid out $175M to creators.
This week, the founder, Sahil, published an essay on his philosophy: No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees. The essay took the corner of Twitter that I follow by storm, and I've been thinking about certain aspects of it.
In particular, these quotes stood out to me:
This take on work is striking, mostly because work usually takes up the majority of our waking hours and becomes a big part of our identity as a result. I wonder how much the pandemic and changing attitudes towards career will force a shift towards more flexible work environments like this, especially as Generation Z enters the workforce.
For my part, I welcome these changes and like the idea of work/career being but one in a portfolio of activities. Sahil's essay is worth a read and some reflection, even if you'd like for work to continue as it has for the past ~100 years.
How do you see work changing, post-pandemic?
Pete's Picks ā
- What I'm Reading: I got Anxious People on audiobook and have been loving it! The author, Fredrik Backman, previously wrote Beartown which was also great. He does a great job summarizing the shared experiences of humanity with witty and incisive language, and develops robust characters. Highly recommend anything he's written.
- What I'm Watching: Yesterday I stumbled upon Kraig Adams' YouTube channel, which is comprised of super cinematic footage from his hikes in places like Nepal and Torres del Paine. This video from Guatemala caught my eye and was almost took my breath away on watch. Rare to say that about a YouTube video!
- What I'm Listening To: The Ambient Relaxation playlist on Spotify has been indispensable when I've needed to focus this week.
Video of the Week š¹
BrightTrip Camera Fundamentals Review
Tweet of the Week š¦
I've been reading https://t.co/7STCVkUtY9 from @EricJorgenson and have been thinking about the chapter on building "specific knowledge."
ā Peter Elbaum (@peterelbaum) January 7, 2021
I've a couple reflections and three examples of people I think have done a great job at acquiring their own specific knowledge.
THREAD š
Cheers,
Peter
Hi, Iām a creator
Drinking the AI Kool-Aid š„¤ I'll admit it: I'm fully on the AI bandwagon. To explain why, I think it's helpful to contrast with the crypto hype train. For me, it comes down to application. The blockchain is an interesting idea, but at the end of the day it still hasn't answered the question "How will this change my life in a tangible, everyday way?" On the other hand, for the current large language models (like GPT-4, etc.), the use cases are plentiful: Virtual assistant? Check. Personal...
The Weight of Self-Expectation šļøāļø I've been thinking lately about how burdensome it can feel to not do the things that I say I want to do. Some of us want to lose weight. Others imagine learning a new language. For me, there are a few things I said I wanted to accomplish while self-employed that haven't happened yet. And it's been over a year. For a long time, my version of "losing weight" has been building a SaaS (software as a service, i.e. web app that you pay for), and over the past few...
The Law of Your Very Self š I mentioned a few newsletters ago that I've been reading The Second Mountain by David Brooks. I'm a slow reader, so I'm still going through it. This week, a chapter on the idea of vocation stood out to me. In particular, there was a thought-provoking subsection under the heading "The Law of Your Very Self." In it, Brooks mentions an idea that I've been trying to spend a bit of time thinking about. Essentially, the concept is to take stock of your passions going...