9–5 or Entrepreneur: Which Lifestyle Is Better? | Weekbook #5

As I browsed LinkedIn this week my feed was once again filled with arguments about whether working a 9–5 or being an entrepeneur is better. In typical internet fashion, both sides were arguing their points but failing to listen to the other, but it got me thinking — is one really better than the other?

Most reasonable people should be able to recognise that this shouldn’t be an argument about which is better than the other, but instead a recognition that the preference of one person isn’t neccessarily the same as anothers and by listening to them, we may learn something valuable. So why is that not happening?

Perhaps the problem isn’t the people themselves but the content they are consuming, which leads me to one of my main gripes with social media, content algorithms.

If you’re lucky enough not to have experienced this first hand, the short version is that social media uses your data to learn about you and your preferred type of content. The algorithm will then leverage this to push more of that content towards you. In essence, it creates an echo chamber. You essentially find yourself bombarded with content that reenforces your beliefs and, as human behaviour has proven time after time, we love nothing more than for people agree with us and tell us we’re right.

This issue is further compounded by one of my other gripes with social media, unneccessarily controversial and provokative hooks and headlines. Think about it. Content creators exist with one primary purpose — to go viral and attract attention to a brand (either a product or themselves). What better way to do that than provoke discussion or to reenforce the beliefs of a group?

It is my view that without both entrepenuers and people working traditional 9–5s the working world wouldn’t be able to function effectively. I also believe that there are valuable lessons to be learned from both lifestyles and that by breaking the trend of toxic content consumption, we can swtich focus to holding useful dialogue to lift each other up.

So the next time you find yourself disagreeing with someone’s choices on social media, pause for a moment before responding and listen to what they’re saying. Most importantly, don’t just listen to respond, listen to learn.

Book Notes

All notes are from the books I am currently reading, Radical Candor by Kim Scott.

• “There are two dimensions to building trust. Care personally and challenge directly.”

• “Let people be human. Don’t surprise it, embrace it.”

• “Relationships don’t scale but culture does.”

• “Words aren’t measured at the speakers lips, but at the listeners ears.”

• “Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.”

Try This Podcast

Ending Quote

“The reality is, life is a single player game.” — Naval Ravikant

Thank you for reading Here to Where. This post is public so feel free to share it.

This blog may contain affiliate links. If you purchase anything through these links, I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.