Prioritizing Work

Strongly agree with this well-articulated point.

Sometimes friends ask me why I work so hard, and I don't know how to get them to understand that it's because I believe that it matters — and the fact that they don't believe that about their work is maybe a sign they should do something else.

A Forum post can be short. What a great ratio of punch per word.

Rob Wiblin interviewed nuclear‑war planner‑turned‑whistle‑blower Daniel Ellsberg, five years before he died.  Here's a quote from the interview:

I act as if we still have a chance to find our way out of this. … It’s definitely not a waste for some of us to keep trying to explore if there’s a way out of the precarious situation humanity is in. I only wish I’d started doing it 50 years earlier.

I like this post a lot. I often use "regret minimisation" as a frame when making important decisions, which feels quite similar to "doing things you would endorse on your deathbed".

You can even take this further and question why the person on their deathbed doesn't feel proud of the work they chose to do. Maybe they feel ashamed of their actual preferences and don't need to. Or maybe they aren't taking to heart the tradeoff in interests between the experiencing self and the remembering self.

Thanks for this – it’s a thoughtful reminder that "work" and "meaning" don’t have to be mutually exclusive. As an occupational health epidemiologist, I often think about how much of our lives are spent at work, and how both the content of that work and the conditions we work under shape well-being, identity, and long-term health. I agree that time with loved ones matters enormously – but I also think there's something life-affirming about doing work that contributes to systemic change, whether that’s protecting people’s health today or reducing the risk of catastrophic harms to humanity in the future.

I read this on the morning of a sunny national holiday that I spent indoors, typing away as usual, and I came back to it three times, it really resonates. I might even translate it in French, crediting you (if that's alright) and share it with acquaintances (or simply paraphrase it) next time they seem confused or worried by me choosing to make work my main focus in life. I really like the last sentence in particular.

Thanks for writing this. I've told other people this in the past.