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John Burg's avatar

I am encouraged by your words and thoughts. While the balance of compensated and uncompensated work is difficult to manage from time to time. I strongly encourage associates to engage in uncompensated work as diligently as they seem to engage in recreation. Uncompensated work has in most cases been more gratifying than spending the time at pure recreation for me. Again there is space for both in our lives.

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Joel E. Lorentzen's avatar

Nice to hear from you, Mr. Burg! Believe it or not, many of our past discussions were top-of-mind as I was formulating these thoughts. I expect that your "retirement" includes a lot of uncompensated work...

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LORI's avatar

Funny that I just read this essay as well about fulfillment and work-life balances. I like the concept of three commitments in it.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/03/11/david-whyte-three-marriages-work-life/

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Joel E. Lorentzen's avatar

Thanks, Lori! But I guess I’m late to the game. Wythe’s book was published in 2009 and I wasn’t even aware of it. (Although my problem with work-life balance has been since I first heard it.) It’s nice to see the concept validated by actual smart people!

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LORI's avatar

Never late when it's you've reached your own conclusion. We don't stop learning math because Pythagoras already did it.

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anthony lorentzen's avatar

I think I hear a yearning for a pre-monetary system, hunter-gather society.

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Joel E. Lorentzen's avatar

Maybe, deep in my psyche. But what I think I'm yearning for is an acknowledgement that monetizing every measurement doesn't necessarily point us to optimum fulfillment. That and, as we've discussed before, income is just a stupid thing to tax!

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