Have a life

I sometimes get recruitment messages from companies saying how different they are. They work 6 days a week. The whole team eats dinner together every day. It’s not for everyone but they’re ambitious go-getters, and they’re gonna win.

Nothing turns me off faster.

Not because I’m not ambitious. But because I recognize that a rich life is exactly what makes good work possible in the first place. Taste and perspective grow through novelty and variety. Through following your instincts wherever they take you. Humans are like plants. They wither away stuck in the corner of some dingy office.

The kind of people I want to work with live lives far too interesting to surrender entirely to a company. They’re too busy chasing weird dreams to shout about how hard they work.

They spend their free time reading, tinkering, cooking, hiking, repairing things and spending time with good people. Drinking from the fountain of life. Noticing weird patterns. Trying to make sense of the world in all its chaos and beauty. Developing a unique and deeply personal sense of taste.

If you want people who think differently, let them live differently.