Why overworking is so dangerous and why leisure is on a completely different plane from work.
Why overworking is so dangerous and why leisure is on a completely different plane from work.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How to outperform active stock managers without much work.
- Why overworking is so dangerous
- The two types of knowledge: ratio and intellectus.
- What is leisure and why we need it.
Show Notes
The Cult of Overwork by James Surowiecki – New Yorker, January 2014
Start Up podcast Episode 12 – Burnout
Creative Live Class – Power Your Podcast Through Storytelling with Alex Blumberg
MNY008: Leisure and the Economy – What If Everyone Worked Only Four Hours Per Day
Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
A Field Guide To Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew by Alan Lightman
MNY034: Investing Rules of Thumb
Become a Better Investor With Our Investing Checklist
Become a Better Investor With Our Investing Checklist
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Summary Article
Why We Need Leisure
Think of a time you sat and watched a sunset. How would you describe the colors to someone who wasn’t there?
Sort of orange, pink, and reddish?
For a more accurate color measure you could let those fleeting rays pass through a prism and use an electronic device to measure the amount of red light, yellow light and other colors as defined by mathematical frequency and wavelength.
The sunset could be quantified. It would eliminate all subjectivity, but would the analysis truly capture the majesty of a sunset?
The Deeds and Suffering Of Light
The German writer and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe studied color phenomena for over 20 years, publishing his findings in a three-volume work Theory of Colors.
Goethe believed the key to understanding a phenomena was to interact with it with the whole self. Observation and measurement were insufficient to truly understand a subject.
Goethe writes, “the observer never sees pure phenomena with his eyes.”
Rather, through continual engagement with a phenomena, Goethe believed one could intuitively discover the universal pattern or idea that is manifest through a phenomena.
He called this universal pattern the pure phenomena or the primal or archetypal phenomena.
The pure phenomena is not discovered through the logic of the intellect but through what he called “exact sensorial imagination.”
Goethe described the pure or primal phenomena of color as the “deeds and sufferings of light.”
In other words, color is manifest as light interacts with various mediums, such as the atmosphere. Colors change as conditions change. The lightening of dark gives violet and blue and darkening of light gives yellow and red.
Goethe was adamant that true understanding came only through total engagement with the phenomena—physically, emotionally and spiritually—not through models, abstracts and formulas.
Color can be observed and measured using scientific instruments but it can also be contemplated and reflected upon, what Heraclitus called “listening to the essence of things.”
Such insight does not come from buckling down, gritting our teeth and working harder. It comes from leisure.
What Is Leisure?
Josef Pieper in his book, Leisure: The Basis of Culture writes,“Compared with the exclusive idea of work as activity leisure implies an attitude of non activity, of inward calm, of silence; it means not being busy, but letting things happen.”
“Leisure is not the attitude of mind for those who actively intervene, but of those who are open to everything; not of those who grab and grab hold, but of those who leave the reigns loose and who are free and easy themselves—almost like…falling asleep, for one can fall sleep only by letting oneself go.”
Work can be satisfying and rewarding, but it is a means to an end—to earn a living; to produce goods and services for society.
Leisure is an end in and of itself. It consists of activities (or non activity) that we pursue for their own sake without an extrinsic end. Leisure includes writing a poem, painting a majestic sunset, pondering an ancient text, meditation, prayer and thousands of other activities. Leisure allows us to discover the essence of things, the pure phenomena, the infinite. Such revelations are highly personal and highly subjective.
Rational Analysis and Personal Insight
Alan Lightman in his book, The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew writes, “The strong sense of the infinite, the belief in an unseen order in the world, the feeling of being in the presence of something divine are all personal. Qualities of this experience cannot be quantified or measured, like readings on a voltmeter, and thus cannot be transferred to others. The qualities must be experienced by the individual in unique moments.”
“The physical universe is subject to rational analysis and the methods of science. The spiritual universe is not. All of us have had experiences that are not subject to rational analysis. Besides religion, much of our art and our values and our personal relationships with other people spring from such experiences.”
The Point Of Leisure Is Not To Rest From Work
The other day I overheard an employee at a restaurant mention he hates his days off. He is bored and restless and can’t wait to get back to work.
Conversely, there are others who work so many hours during the week that when the weekend comes they are so exhausted they spend their days not in leisure but sleeping and watching television.
The point of leisure is not to rest from work so we can recover physically and mentally in order to be effective employees come Monday.
Leisure in its true sense is on a higher plane than work. It is a different order. Leisure is what gives meaning, depth and purpose to life and work.
Pieper writes that “only in genuine leisure is a gate to freedom open.” Through that gate we escape a shallow existence that consists solely of work and unemployment.
