Why linking your work to your interests can do more harm than good
‘Find Your Passion’ Is Awful Advice
A major new study questions the common wisdom about how we should choose our careers.
Why ‘Follow Your Passion’ Is the World’s Worst Career Advice
The popular "follow your passion" advice has become an overused and generic phrase. Below is another method that may just do the trick in helping people's careers.
How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You) — Wait But Why
Our career path is how we spend our time, how we support our lifestyles, how we make our impact, and even sometimes how we define our identity. Let’s make sure we’re on the right track.
In 2026, I’m no longer interested in ‘working on myself’
We think of ourselves as full-time projects, but what if doing so much inner work does more harm than good?
A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you | Aeon Ideas
The belief that hard work and talent make for success is not only false, it encourages selfishness and discrimination too
People Who Have “Too Many Interests” Are More Likely To Be Successful According To Research
Author’s Note: This article was written over 60 hours with love and care using the blockbuster mental model. If you like my writing style…
A Deceptively Simple Way to Find More Happiness at Work (Published 2019)
You don’t need to change everything about your job to see major benefits. A few changes here and there can be all you need.
Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - FROM THE 2025 BBC REITH LECTURER A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE SUMMER 2025 'Gives us hope, humour and guidance at a time when all are in short supply' TIMOTHY SNYDER 'The rare read that might actually help you become a better person' ADAM GRANT THE ANTIDOTE TO APATHY FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR RUTGER BREGMAN Every day we're bombarded with methods, mantras and life hacks that promise us wellness and prosperity - while time and talent remain some of our most squandered resources. The average full-time worker will spend 80,000 hours at their job: are you making the most of them? Do you truly believe in what you do, day in, day out? What if you want to do something more with your limited time on the planet? Internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman shows us that with moral ambition - the will to make the world a wildly better place - we can be both idealistic and successful, and change the world along the way. Uncovering the qualities that made the great change-makers of history so effective, he shows how we too can lend our talents to the biggest challenges of our time, from climate change to inequality to the next pandemic. With moral ambition, we can do more than be on the right side of history: we can make history itself. This book won't make your life easier, but it should make it more meaningful. The question is: what will you do with it? As the 2025 BBC Reith Lecturer, Rutger Bregman will present 'Moral Revolution', a four part series: -A Time of Monsters -How To Start a Moral Revolution -A Realist's Utopia -Zoom Out Available to listen on BBC Four
Going to university does not broaden the mind
But going straight from school to work narrows it
From Academia to Alignment
What to do when your career crumbles before your eyes
Chasing life goals is a recipe for disaster – so try these tiny experiments instead
Whether its our careers, health or relationships, we often set the bar too high and end up feeling disappointed when it doesn’t work out. Try this new way of thinking … and you may just see some real results
What Happens When Your Career Becomes Your Whole Identity
Many people with high-pressure jobs find themselves unhappy with their careers, despite working hard their whole lives to get to their current position. Hating your job is one thing – but what happens if you identify so closely with your work that hating your job means hating yourself?Psychologists use the term “enmeshment” to describe a situation where the boundaries between people become blurred, and individual identities lose importance. Enmeshment prevents the development of a stable, independent sense of self. While identifying closely with your career isn’t necessarily bad, it makes you vulnerable to a painful identity crisis if you burn out, get laid off, or retire. Individuals in these situations frequently suffer anxiety, depression, and despair. By claiming back some time for yourself and diversifying your activities and relationships, you can build a more balanced and robust identity in line with your values.
Having a Growth Mindset Makes It Easier to Develop New Interests
Much innovation happens when people combine knowledge from different disciplines. But some people are more likely to reach outside of their areas of interest and expertise than others. Researchers investigated why by studying people’s “mindsets” about interest and their impact. They found people vary — some people lean more toward the view that interests are inherent in a person, simply waiting to be awakened or found (a fixed mindset of interest). Others lean more toward the view that interests can be developed and that, with commitment and investment, they can grow over time (a growth mindset of interest). They reasoned that these mindsets might affect how open people are to new or different interests, whether they be in arts, science, business, athletics, or other areas. In studies, they found that students with a stronger growth mindset reported being more open to areas outside of their interests than those with a stronger fixed mindset. Their research also suggests that a growth mindset may promote resilience in maintaining interest when a subject becomes challenging and that a growth mindset may be cultivated.
How to balance full-time work with creative projects – The Creative Independent
A guide to finding the right day job, protecting your time, and building creative habits by Jeffrey Silverstein. Illustrated by Sunny Eckerle.
How to balance full-time work with creative projects – The Creative Independent
A guide to finding the right day job, protecting your time, and building creative habits by Jeffrey Silverstein. Illustrated by Sunny Eckerle.
I got into tech six years ago because I figured I could have an outsized impact on making a less harmful, more empowering world for workers and marginalised people. Only this year, I started connecting IRL with people who think this way. Here I tried to write about the ways that's transformed me.
DWeb, Culture and Resistance
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