Stopping by the Silicon Street Podcast
Longtime readers know full well that White Noise is more personal scribblings than professional memos. This is intentional.
Delving into the very nature of our behavior and psyche—namely, what we do and why we do it—interests me much more than “leveraging synergies” or “boiling the ocean.”
Unfortunately, I feel that most of what we consider contemporary, professional work resembles the above phrases; it is obscure, futile, and light on real meaning.
It is jargon writ large—professional patina lazily smeared atop muddled thought and unclear purpose.
It is confusion masquerading as cogency, bullshit impersonating bravado.
It reigns supreme in the harshly-lit, drop-ceilinged offices of old.
This is not to say that it is bad, just (mostly) banal and boring. After all, we work for pay, not play.
This may change given the concurrent rise of the Passion and Community Economies, however, that is another note for another day.
I mention the above because two Notre Dame students—Conor Holahan and Alex Tullman—kindly invited me on their podcast to discuss the long, meandering path to my vocational stride.
I do what I love and love what I do with people whose work ethic, integrity, and intellect I very much admire. In this day and age, this is a privilege—very much the exception to the rule. I am incredibly lucky; the beneficiary of a heaping number of happy accidents along the route. I discuss said accidents and much, much more with Conor and Alex.
If of interest, I invite you to listen along:
Above: The long, winding road to vocational telos.
P.S. Keep an eye on Conor and Alex, they’re going places.
P.P.S. Something I have been thinking about: If push always comes to shove, why doesn’t shove ever return the favor and come to push?