This is what Cal Newport calls the theory he deduced from the several interviews he did for his book So Good They Can’t Ignore You — Newport. I have a feeling that there are existing academic resources that uses the same arguments.
The theory has three main arguments:
- The traits that make a job desirable are scarce and prize.
- Careers are subject to the rules of supply and demand.
- The craftperson mindset helps you build career capital.
On statement 1, I agree that the things Cal points out as most desirable in an ideal career (autonomy, a sense of mission, and creativity) are indeed coveted as compared to the mundane tasks involved in less desirable jobs that don’t have none of these three. But are they really as scarce and coveted as Cal tells us they are? Do we really need to compete with each other just to have autonomy, a sense of mission, and creativity in the work we do?
On statement 2, I think it is critical because it justifies statement 3. Cal argues that because the coveted traits of ideal careers are scarce and prized, we only get them if we exchange something scarce and prized. That currency we use to pay for autonomy, a sense of mission, and creativity in our careers is a scarce and prized skill developed through hours of deliberate practice motivated by a craftperson’s mindset, advocated in statement 3.
Cal uses these arguments to ditch the follow your passion advice and preach that passion follows skill. Be good at something and you end up loving it.
It is now clear to me that the reason why the career capital theory is an incomplete theory is that it treats all work as something integrated into the exchange economy and is completely silent about human activity that are best contextualized in a Gift economy.
I don’t fully resonate with the career capital theory because it completely ignores this element in its discourse on what makes work and an entire career worthwhile. It merely looks at work as something exchangedd with an exact value, whereas the work that I do, I see it more as a gift with no exact value. I refuse to treat the game as a competition. The deepest thing I want to do comes to me as a gift and I want to give it to the world as a gift. This might look from the outside like I am simply “following my passion” but it isn’t as simple as that.
Related
- Early and semi-retirement could allow one to live in the gift economy
- some important work are necessary even if unprofitable