The Journey: Labor Day

#mondaymotivation in honor of Labor Day (which is a workers’ holiday, so we take a day off?)… Creators or makers or whatever are the new labors? It’s like a hipster thing to work with your hands these days.

I’m sure if Karl Marx would see where we are today (or how his ideology was twisted) he would be pretty upset… but one thing I do see a lot of is this cult of #hustle or #hustlehard and the such. How many hours can you work doing the day? Like real work, not meetings (aside from prep), not phone calls, or posting on social or “networking” but what author Cal Newport describes as “deep work”. Sitting with your butt in the chair and focusing on the computer screen and doing hard mental work? Prob 3–4 hours max.

I am for sure going to get some heat for this, but if we’re honest with ourselves and reflect we would see that we’re not as effective as we can be. And honestly, there is nothing wrong with that. We’re entering a period in work and culture where so much of the bean-counter type work will be taken by AI and our time with ppl, and the investment in our relationships will become even more important. Not just in a professional context, but in every part of our lives (emotional, spiritual, physical, etc). As if it wasn’t the most important thing already.

Jonathan 'Yoni' Frenkel

Written by

Sharing meaningful experiences, impactful ideas and career + event opportunities in the NY/SF/LA/TLV tech ecosystems