1480: The Danger of the Dream Job Delusion by Cal Newport on Entrepreneurship & Career Success

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: This complex financing talk is very challenging. Do I get my depot ever?

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_02]: But you already have a depot.

[00:00:08] [SPEAKER_01]: No.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, you have the Vodafone Gigadepot.

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_01]: That's right! And I have myself in the hand how big my depot is.

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Now with the Vodafone Gigadepot and the data volume of the next month. Go on in the 5G network of Vodafone.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Vodafone. Together we can.

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Work Daily.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: The Danger of the Dream Job Delusion by Cal Newport of calnewport.com

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_00]: The Ivy League Farmer

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Earlier this summer, Julie and I attended a dinner at Red Fire Farm, a 110-acre organic farm in rural Gamby, Massachusetts.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_00]: The dinner celebrated the strawberry harvest and the farmhands had set up tables under a tent overlooking the fruit fields.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: As we poured our wine, the farm's owner, Ryan Voiland, stood up to say a few words about this year's harvest.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Ryan is young, only in his early 30s, a fact he tries to hide with a grizzled black beard.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_00]: As he spoke, his few words stretched into an enthusiastic dissertation on rainfall and cabbage yields.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, Ryan's wife Sarah took over, leading the group in a prayer to the Earth Goddess.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: As we sipped strawberry gazpacho, a group of college-aged farm interns formed a song circle in a patch of grass near the chicken coop.

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_00]: In the comfort of cynical Boston, the event would have felt over the top.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_00]: But in the shaded fields of Granby, it made sense.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: When I looked over to the main table, I saw Ryan take in the scene. He was smiling.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_00]: What makes Ryan's story canonical is its start.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Ten years earlier, he walked out of Cornell University with an Ivy League diploma in his hand

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_00]: and headed straight into the offices of the Farm Service Agency, where he secured a loan to buy his first farm property.

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_00]: A decade later, Red Fire is a success.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It sells organic produce straight to the consumers through farmers' markets and a sold-out CSA.

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_00]: When I last visited the farm in mid-August, they were installing a $200,000 solar array.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Ryan loves what he does and does it well.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: The Dream Job Trope

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Ryan has a dream job, which I define to be an occupation built around a hobby or casual side interest that you enjoy.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Growing up, Ryan loved to garden, so naturally, he started a farm.

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_00]: The dream job is a powerful trope in the job satisfaction literature.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: For example, here's the opening paragraph from a popular career advice guide.

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Quote,

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: A New York investment banker becomes a small-town college chef.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: A college professor becomes a chocolatier.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: An entrenched corporate exec converts to the ministry.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_00]: End quote.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_00]: These are all dream jobs.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_00]: When Tim Ferriss tells his famous story of an attorney who drops everything to open a Brazilian surf shop,

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_00]: that's also a dream job.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_00]: As are most of the examples touted in the perennially popular

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Quit Your Terrible Cubicle Job to Start a Business Advice Guide Niche.

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: You like to cook?

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Become a chef.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Love chocolate?

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Open a chocolate shop.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Like surfing on exotic beaches?

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Open a surf shop.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And so on.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: We're entranced by dream jobs.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: When we hear stories like the one that opened this post, we feel a rush of aspiration.

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Hundreds make a living writing books and blogs about mustering the courage to pursue dream jobs,

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: and millions dedicate their day dreaming to the topic.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: In this post, however, I want to argue that this is a problem.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: The dream job trope isn't the path to job satisfaction, and it's not just harmless, wistful thinking.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: It's instead downright dangerous.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what I want, but it might be this.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: In a fascinating study published in the Journal of Research and Personality in 1997,

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: a research team led by Amy Rezneski of the University of Michigan studied the differences between a job, a career, and a calling.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Early in the paper, they describe a surprising finding.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: The way individuals view work may be a function of personality traits, not just reflections of the work itself.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, the reason why some people see their work as a calling might have little to do with the work itself

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: and a lot to do with how the person approaches the work.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Rezneski's team, for example, found that the proportions of people calling their work a calling versus a career versus a job

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_00]: was about the same whether you looked at hundreds of people spread across dozens of occupations

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: or focused on a small group that all have the same position at the same company.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Around a year ago, inspired by this work, I launched my own informal study.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_00]: My goal was to interview people who self-described as loving what they do.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_00]: As my collection of interviews grew, I was struck by the normalcy of the respondents' jobs,

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: which included a certified behavioral analyst, an executive assistant, a milkman, a personal trainer,

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: an employee for a healthcare consultancy, an employee for a company that designs online ethics courses,

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: a language instructor, and a computer programmer.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: None of these are dream jobs.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, their mundane nature reinforces Rezneski's findings.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: When it comes to loving what you do, the type of job you have might matter much less than what you do with it.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_00]: This is where the dream job trope becomes dangerous.

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_00]: The more you're bombarded with messages promoting the dream job path to happiness,

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_00]: the more likely you are to ossify your view of the working world into normal boring jobs versus exciting dream jobs.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Once you've made this division, you're much less likely to start investing the hard, unsexy, long-term work

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_00]: into your current career needed to grow it into something deeply fulfilling.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_00]: You'll instead save this mental energy for your vague daydreams of starting a small-town wine store

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_00]: or teaching surfing in Cabo.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: See Ramit Sethi's exhaustively researched Earn 1K program for more details on the reality of making money by selling services.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's a preview.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Almost everyone who succeeds leverages a valuable skill they built up in a traditional job.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Assuming you accept this premise, the question remains of how best to nurture this growth of your existing career into something inspiring.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know all the answers yet, but if you've been reading study hacks this past year,

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: you know that my instincts lead me toward the importance of becoming very good at something rare and valuable

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: and then cashing in the career capital this generates for things you value.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: When you dive deeper into Ryan's story, for example, you discover that he grew up around farms

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_00]: and went to Cornell to study fruit and vegetable horticulture in their world-class ag school.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: His story is less about mustering the courage to follow his dreams and more about the determination required

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: to systematically gather the difficult skills needed to succeed in a demanding but rewarding field.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: If these less sexy but ultimately more fulfilling ideas about work satisfaction interest you, stay tuned.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Once we discard the saccharine tropes of the follow-your-passion camp,

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: we face a lot more exploration to figure out what's really going on.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listened to the post titled, The Danger of the Dream Job Delusion by Cal Newport of calnewport.com.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_00]: This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: We're all marveled at how quickly kids learn and that sense of wonderment they have while doing it.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: But as adults, sometimes we lose that curiosity.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, if there's something you've been wanting to learn,

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_00]: know that therapy can help you reconnect with your sense of wonder

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_00]: because your back-to-school era can come at any age.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And make no mistake, therapy is for everyone.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Whether or not you've been through significant trauma,

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: therapy can be a great tool for setting boundaries, learning new skills,

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_00]: and ultimately becoming the best version of yourself.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00]: If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Rediscover your curiosity with BetterHelp.

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Visit BetterHelp.com slash workdaily today to get 10% off your first month.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash workdaily.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And thank you to Cal, who is a popular writer with a book that's being talked about everywhere, it seems.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_00]: That's Deep Work, one of six self-improvement books that he's written.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: He completed his undergraduate studies at Dartmouth College in 2004

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and received a PhD from MIT in 2009 in computer science.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: He was a postdoctoral associate in the MIT computer science department from 2009 to 2011,

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: and in 2011 he joined Georgetown University as an assistant professor of computer science

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and was granted tenure in 2017.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: His work focuses on distributed algorithms in challenging networking scenarios.

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, basic stuff.

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And again, he has multiple popular books that are worth checking out,

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: plus his blog which is called Study Hacks.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And last, you can check out his relatively new podcast called Deep Questions.

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And you can find all of that at CalNewport.com.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's going to do it for today.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for being a subscriber to our show.

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Have a great rest of your day.

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.