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I’ve been enjoying Kat’s posts for years, even though we come from very different faith perspectives. We both went to Macalester College together, and she’s always been particularly insightful. Today she posted about seeing Al Gore speak at the Chicago Theater

Something Else We Can Learn from Al Gore* « This is my library.

It was a topic both he and the first presenter came back to- how did you get over the 2000 election?  When they* were asking about it, it was kinda dumb to be honest.  But Al Gore’s response was brilliant and, I think, good for anyone who is currently unemployed, searching, or just worried (I wish I had video).  He first said that everything he had been through was no worse and probably a lot better than what most of us and America was going through.  He followed it up with the idea that he viewed it as an opportunity to really think about what he wanted to accomplish and another way to do so, which was, of course, An Inconvenient Truth.  I think I’m missing a lot of the passion of his words, but it really inspired me.

The problem is that, for most of us, a primary goal of a job is to make money.  We maybe don’t have the luxury to have a goal of saving the planet from people, at least not as our main goal. So how can we take Al Gore’s advice to heart?  By trying to think past the money to our goals.  Maybe it’s not a job itself that moves to your goals (we can’t all work for non-profits/charities) but a job that lets you work on them (good work/life balance, ample time off, educational funding).  Or a job that will lead to a job working on your goals.

I’m reading a book called “A Failure of Nerve” by Edwin Friedman for one of my classes, and it talks about the difference between a system of anxiety and one of adventure. One of those differences is that a system plagued by anxiety tries to work harder to find an answer, while one of adventure often reframes the question. Gore could have spent years in the future trying to figure out how he could better become president, or how he could better amass political power. Instead, he changed the question, and probably found greater success and influence than he would otherwise have had.

I think the second quoted paragraph is where the gold is. If you have a vision of what the world should be, then you can work towards that vision no matter what job you take. There are ways to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly and yes, even build the Kingdom of God* within the scope of whatever job you have.  I would go so far as to say that if you cannot figure out how to do that, then it is incredibly likely** that your vision for the world, and/or your concept of the Kingdom of God is too small.

Anyway, you should check out Kat’s blog, and if you have need someone to do a cool media/marketing analysis/research job, you should hire her.

* this is not to imply that building the Kingdom of God as I define it was the point of Kat’s post.
** OK there are some jobs that I would say are inherently anti-Kingdom, like being the guy in charge of kidnapping child soldiers.

From Seth Godin’s blog:

I’m on a roll here, so let me add one more new standard:

If you’re a knowledge worker, your boss shouldn’t make you come to the (expensive) office every day unless there’s something there that makes it worth your trip. She needs to provide you with resources or interactions or energy you can’t find at home or at Starbucks. And if she does invite you in, don’t bother showing up if you’re just going to sit quietly.

I’ve worked in three companies that had lots of people and lots of cubes, and I spent the entire day walking around. I figured that was my job. The days where I sat down and did what looked like work were my least effective days. It’s hard for me to see why you’d bother having someone come all the way to an office just to sit in a cube and type.

This totally makes sense from a coder’s perspective too. I code better, in most cases, from a coffee shop than I do from my desk, and the day ends up being significantly cheaper, with the cost of gas, parking, and lunch all being significantly cheaper.

I think that over the next couple of weeks/months, I’m going to try to increase my ability to work from home with the same amount of resources at my fingertips as working from the office. I’ll let you know how it turns out.