Why the only work worth doing is making or serving
Or, why startups and barbershops rule
I’d like to put forward that work worth doing - satisfying, enjoyable, meaningful work - falls into only two conceptual buckets, making and serving. If you aren’t doing one, or better, both of these, you should stop.
Making
Making things is amongst the most satisfying of all activities. The act of making involves coordinating hands, eye and brain to manipulate matter, and thus good making is a mastery of self and materials.
Great making experiences are full of flow. Making something new, that involves pushing your existing skills forward and results in tangible outputs is incredibly rewarding.
Serving
Equally satisfying, when done with the appropriate levels of autonomy, is serving others.
The act of helping someone else achieve their goals can be just as rewarding as pushing your own skills forward through making — getting direct praise and thanks for your work makes the work worth doing.
Startupshop quartets
The most enjoyable work, the work where you can experience meaningful flow for the longest periods combines the two — you get the satisfaction of mastery, with the direct feedback from people using your output.
Two examples to illustrate my point — startup software development and hairdressing.
It’s well know that hairdressers are amongst the happiest in their work. This, I think, is because they get to combine making — the creative act of styling and cutting hair — with serving — a happy customer leaving feeling a bit better about themselves than when they came in.
Closer to home, from my perspective, is startup software development. Again, people working in startups with product/market fit get the satisfaction of making — coding, designing, shipping — with the direct service relationship that comes from being a startup — everyone in the business is close to the customer and gets their feedback directly.
Everything else is a waste of time
If you aren’t making or serving, there’s a high probability you are doing a bullshit job that involves the symbolic analysis of other people’s making and serving decisions, and are thus experiencing the latest version of alienation, re-born for the information age.
It’s true that these skills may give you the highest exchange value for your work, but you won’t get up every day excited about going to work unless you are making something, or serving someone. And if this sounds like you, I’d stop.
But if you do take the plunge into making or serving (or a mix of the two) you can’t go back.
