Rethinking our relationship to time
ABC 169: On how the pandemic changed our relationship to the clock
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel describes the weekly practice of Jews abstaining from work, Shabbat, as “a sanctuary in time.”
It’s a beautiful image. I love the idea of building infrastructure around sacred time as one might build infrastructure around sacred space.
But in an age where phones double as offices and hangouts are slotted into calendar blocks, it’s become increasingly difficult to do so.
This week’s piece is a beautiful essay from today’s NYT Book Review about how the pandemic inspired people to rethink their relationship with both time and work. It also features my book 😊.
Here’s the piece: Off the Clock
Book updates:
The book tour was such a treat! I wrapped up my last events this week and loved meeting so many of you.
I wrote a rather personal essay about the process of defining and redefining success.
Tomorrow I’ll be on Hello Monday, LinkedIn’s flagship podcast. Their previous guest was, gulp, Barack Obama.
Warmly,
Simo
P.S. The song of the week is a Lucinda Williams classic that makes you want to belt from the rooftops. The full songs of the week playlist is here.
I just read your article "On the Value of Not Reaching Your Goals" and loved it. Especially this:
"While doing the reporting for my book, I read a postmortem from a successful startup founder. They said something along the lines of: “One of the best things that can happen to you is to achieve professional success when you’re young. That way you can learn that it does little to change your happiness.” For better or worse, achieving your goals shows you that no material accomplishment will fundamentally alter who you are."
Thanks for your work!