“You weren’t meant to have a boss”
As ever, great stuff from Paul Graham:
If people have to choose between something that’s cheap, heavily marketed, and appealing in the short term, and something that’s expensive, obscure, and appealing in the long term, which do you think most will choose?
It’s the same with work. The average MIT graduate wants to work at Google or Microsoft, because it’s a recognized brand, it’s safe, and they’ll get paid a good salary right away. It’s the job equivalent of the pizza they had for lunch. The drawbacks will only become apparent later, and then only in a vague sense of malaise.
Pedantic note: Graham is wrong that humans are meant to eat the stuff that Birkenstock-wearing hippies in Berkeley eat. But his analogy still applies with the truth (that humans are meant to subsist on meat, fat, and very little starch and sugar).
Filed under: Life