Talent is cheap – you have to be obsessed, otherwise, you are going to give up.*
John Baldessari

I found myself telling him … that I felt stopped at a crossroads, looking for direction, unsure of my next steps. I told him I was beginning to feel a few icy tendrils of cynicism around what work might actually mean to most of the adult world, and with a long work life still ahead of me, I wanted to know what it took to find a life and a work such as he had found, a work into which you could really put your heart and soul.**
David Whyte

If Richard Sennett is even half-right^ about how
the first industrial revolution took away people’s skilful hands, and
the second industrial revolution incarnated in the computer
took away our skilful minds,
Then AI will only compound our forfeitures.

We are meaning-making creatures, and a part of this
is meaningful work to shape our days with purpose.

There’s never been a more critical time –
How often have these words been spoken through history? –
To identify our talents in which a deep passion resides,
To notice what we are doing when we are feeling highly energised,
To inscribe these things within our values,
To stop waiting for someone else to dictate our story and
to pen our own.

*Austin Kleon’s blog: You have to be obsessed;
**David Whyte’s Crossing the Unknown Sea;
^Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman.