The most dangerous tradition we hold about work is that it must be serious and meaningless. We believe that we’re paid money to compensate us for work not worthwhile on its own. People who are paid the most are often the most confused, for they know in their hearts how little meaning there is in what they do, for others and for themselves. While money provides status, status doesn’t guarantee meaning. They’re paid well because of how poorly work compensates their souls.
Scott Berkun, The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work
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Scott
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Scott
I’ve been reading The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work, and aside from all sorts of other inspirational stories and ideas about workplace culture that make Automattic sound like an incredible place to work, I also enjoyed this annotation that pointed me to a blog post by Matt Mullenweg (the company’s founder).
There’s so much to take in that I could seriously write for days about everything I’ve read so far, but for now I just wanted to share this one quote that really stood out to me about blogging in general…
I used to think constantly about building an audience for my blog but now my attitude is that if I’m not blogging for myself it’s not worth it.
This hit home for me because I honestly go back and forth with a lot of my writing projects, admittedly when they’re not rising in popularity as much as I’d like. I often have the internal debate about whether I’m writing for me or for my potential audience … and I know in my heart that the former has to lead because, really, what’s the point if other people love what you’re doing, but you don’t???
My blog is one project that has really always been for myself because I just use it as a space to write pretty much whatever I want, unfiltered, and it’s exciting to see it approaching the 1,000,000-word mark after having written it now for some 16 years!
Anyways, I guess my point is just that even as long as I’ve been writing, it’s always nice to stumble across a random affirmation that writing for yourself first and foremost is a perfectly fine perspective to take. 😉
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