your one wild and precious life
hello friends! thanks for opening--how are you? apologies for the delay in this letter--as expected, the return of MPL has (rightfully) taken over our weekends. no regrets found hehe. how's your weekend so far? hope there's something useful for you here. -K
Discovered tech journalist Charlie Warzel's Substack earlier this week, through an article shared on my feed asking, "What if people don't want 'a career'?" -- which is exactly the sort of question we ought to be asking ourselves on Sundays, while dreading the restart of the work week, no? 😅
Anyway, the essay talks about how the pandemic has essentially transformed the relationship of many people across the world with their jobs. Nothing like a global cataclysmic event to simultaneously spur a similarly global effort to re-evaluate what is important and what truly brings value. The part of his essay that struck me the most is this:
The modern understanding of a career in most knowledge work fields involves a non-trivial amount of sacrifice. You are expected to pay your dues, work your way up, and ride out the rough patches. Endurance is key. If you stick it out long enough, there’s something great on the other side — primarily security. Even in jobs where management is less cynical and exploitative, the focus is always on the long term: It might suck now, but you’re building toward something. And that something — the resume at the end of your life — is a genuine measure of a person’s worth.
What the career skeptics are asking is a simple question: What if all that reasoning and endurance language is bullshit? What if, instead of working toward something for decades and barely tolerating the day-to-day process, we created a different value system around labor? What if we built our working lives around a concept other than endurance and submission?
Perhaps, there is nothing I hate more than the outright dismissal of these re-examinations as "laziness", as if there is no other way to build a career. Just because someone wants to draw boundaries between work and life, doesn't make them less competent workers. I, too, have been sold the Hustle Culture--I think it's time to move on from that because, well.
People are just plain dying, Brenda.
As Mary Oliver asks of us in her poem The Summer Day:
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
What, indeed.
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From the internet
In far too many circumstances, I have stopped to consider if the Internet is actually dead and everything is already run by AI. I mean, are you real? Am I even? Who is? In an age of state-weaponized, manufactured social media engagements, what does it even mean, being real?
We've had all sorts of comebacks from various groups, but the one being staged by ABBA right now--after forty years--takes the cake. Obviously. Way before Mamma Mia, I remember fondly how ABBA songs were among the oldies that were usually played in our house during Sundays, while my mother cleaned our home. Good times. :)
Earlier this week, VP Robredo sat down with Rappler reporter Mara Cepeda to answer some pressing questions about the current pandemic, and of course, her potential bid for the presidency in 2022. She could not hide how frustrated she is with the government's lackluster pandemic response. Her plea: Let me help. Anyway, the entire Q&A is only about an hour or so long, and tackles so many issues, including her proposal to provide conditional stimulus to SMEs to boost the economy and provide jobs (two birds with one stone, she said) and her call to declare a crisis in education, among other things. It can be found here. I enjoy listening to her so much--she is the only person making sense in the room, so to speak. Fucking hand her the mic.
Pls tell me I'm not the only person constantly being hit by LJ Reyes and Paolo Contis' comm plan about their separation??? (I'm not even dropping a link anymore--I'm that sure.)
MPL Season 8 is off to a good start! Strong early showings for Onic PH and Blacklist International in particular, as well as the "newbie" teams Echo and TNC, who are just above the Omega and RSG squads. Meanwhile, the fans of old favorites Bren and NXP Evos are still awaiting their first wins.
I can't quite embed tweets like I used to (I have yet to figure this out, again) but here's my favorite meme for the week. It's about transitioning from August to September -- and I assure you it does NOT feature Jose Mari Chan. AUDIO ON; YOU'RE WELCOME.
I hope your weekend has been restful! Here's to living that one wild, precious life safely and to the fullest.
XO,
K