The Work of the 21st Century

Three Levels of Work the World Needs Now

“So. What should we be working on, anyways?”

It’s one of the first questions I get asked. My answer goes something like this.

There are two kinds of work we can be doing today. We can be agents of regression, working to pull the world backwards, downwards, inwards. We can fuel a slide into neofeudalism, peasantry, extremism, bitter division, and authoritarianism. You don’t have to think very hard to come up with organizations that fit that bill, do you?

Or we can be agents of motion. Upwards, outwards, forwards. We can create a better future for ourselves, our grandkids, all those who will inherit the world we leave behind. You are quite right to say that this kind of work brings with it greater responsibility, and more risk. But it also offers lasting self-realization, self-knowledge, self-discover — that is its gift and reward, where the first kind of work only holds the promise of staying on top of old heirarchies of domination and power, and we will come back to that. So the work of today is really at root the work of meaning, happiness, purpose, and freedom. Creating it. Igniting it. Sparking it.

Where does all that come from? I think about work in three levels. None of it’s about the old stuff — technical mastery…