This is obviously going to be controversial but the people talking about how this is abuse or slavery or exploitation are missing the point.
The author knows how it sounds. And yet...
> "it felt good to care about anything that much"
Purpose is fleeting in modern existence. Religion is waning. Spirituality is trivialized. Both for excellent reasons. So many people in the world are just surviving, while others are going through the motions of modern existence, as if on a treadmill. Achieving milestones but without feeling connected to them. Chasing Instagram highlight reels.
But we still have a human desire for impact, achievement, and purpose.
In Silicon Valley - the place, the culture, the TV show - the term "Changing The World" has been completely squeezed of it's meaning and replaced by grifters who are only seeking a quick buck. Maybe it always has.
But there are those places - and Stripe is one of them - that can lay honest claim to having done something legitimately groundbreaking and impactful to the world.
And to those that worked there, it gave them a *MISSION*, and *PURPOSE*.
There is no need to scoff at that. If you found your own purpose without working 15 hour days and making your boss a multi-billionaire, that's wonderful. If you haven't, but think you'd never do it at this cost, that's also a valid choice for you.
But for this person, it was the right choice. And it was/will be for many others also.
I think it is beautiful that there are some people out there capable of dedicating themselves to something with such passion.
But that's precisely the problem with the structures surrounding it. Organisations exploit these characters because they don't reward them as much as they put in. But not only that, you also have to think of the people around them. They point out in many places in the article how they weren't stopping because their neighbour wasn't stopping: a group expectation is formed that everyone is supposed to be putting 10-15 hours a day because that's what it means to be passionate, to care for your company. As others have pointed out, this is cult behaviour and believe it or not a lot of these companies precisely use cult-tactics to incite this behaviour on their workers.
I admire passion. But I want to see people putting that passion into constructive projects that improve their own lives as much as as everyone else's. That's the shift in perspective that we need, how much of this person's life was taken by this company? This kind of stress and hard work takes a toll on your health, it might not be immediately evident but it is real! And what do they have to show for it?
>Purpose is fleeting in modern existence. Religion is waning. Spirituality is trivialized. Both for excellent reasons. So many people in the world are just surviving, while others are going through the motions of modern existence, as if on a treadmill. Achieving milestones but without feeling connected to them. Chasing Instagram highlight reels.
I think this is a really important idea and I love the way you have phrased it.
However, I don't agree with your statement that writing copy for Stripe is anything other than achieving a milestone without feeling connected to it. Stripe is (primarily) an online payments platform that helps ecommerce transactions operate smoothly. I would not describe this as being groundbreaking and impactful to the world.
The author is highly motivated and driven, and has directed her energy towards what she (and you) have percieved to be a valid purpose. But imagine a world where she contributed to any other system. This could be academic research, volunteering in her community (I suspect she would be a great leader), or political/environmental activism. But instead, she has been coopted to work overtime and cancel holidays to make Patrick rich.
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” –Jeff Hammerbacher
So in their minds, these people are happy with the tradeoff, and that, on its own, makes it worthwhile? But that's the issue with drinking the kool-aid. I'm sure there's cult members who feel very fulfilled by devoting their lives to whatever leader or organization has taken over their psyche, but it doesn't make it any less sad for those of us looking from the outside in.
I'm getting major /r/antiwork vibes from this comment section. I think this attitude often comes from a place of fear. People don't want high performers who actually care about the work to "ruin the curve" for them. Especially now when a recession is starting after a long boom and people may feel their jobs are threatened for the first time in their careers.
Reading the rest of this thread is like reading /antiwork on reddit. We have the life we have because our ancestors worked hard. My father worked as a welder for 50 years and has health issue at just about every joint. My grandfather went 2km down a mine shift in some of the worst possible conditions. Its a privilege to be able to earn my living working on a pc and put in a couple of extra hours to get sth%t done. Most commentary here is trying to vilify hard work and often from some of the highest relative earners.
The author knows how it sounds. And yet...
> "it felt good to care about anything that much"
Purpose is fleeting in modern existence. Religion is waning. Spirituality is trivialized. Both for excellent reasons. So many people in the world are just surviving, while others are going through the motions of modern existence, as if on a treadmill. Achieving milestones but without feeling connected to them. Chasing Instagram highlight reels.
But we still have a human desire for impact, achievement, and purpose.
In Silicon Valley - the place, the culture, the TV show - the term "Changing The World" has been completely squeezed of it's meaning and replaced by grifters who are only seeking a quick buck. Maybe it always has.
But there are those places - and Stripe is one of them - that can lay honest claim to having done something legitimately groundbreaking and impactful to the world.
And to those that worked there, it gave them a *MISSION*, and *PURPOSE*.
There is no need to scoff at that. If you found your own purpose without working 15 hour days and making your boss a multi-billionaire, that's wonderful. If you haven't, but think you'd never do it at this cost, that's also a valid choice for you.
But for this person, it was the right choice. And it was/will be for many others also.