1/ Over the past 3+ years I've consciously tried to carve a path without creating another job for myself that I hated.

I've seen many self-employed accidentally create a job and life for themselves which they wanted to escape.

I call these "hustle traps"
think-boundless.com/hustle-traps/
2/ Let's define it:

Hustle Trap (noun): A mental model built on legacy ideas of how one should work and live that leads to burnout, anxiety or the sense of being trapped. Often obvious in retrospect.

He works M-F, 9-5 even though he works for himself...looks like a hustle trap!
3/ Trap #1 The dopamine bomb of internet fame

You're working on random stuff and then boom you get thousands of likes, views upvotes or retweets.

Now you try to doing the same thing to get the same result yet you don't even enjoy creating that thing
4/ Trap #1 The dopamine bomb of internet fame, cont'd

This tweet on a random survey earned me a little attention in right-wing twitter. That was not a culture war I wanted to fight!
5/ Trap #2 Copying the tactics of a guru who isn’t you

The proliferation of how-to guides, walkthroughs, & productivity hacks is a GREAT thing.

However, the tactics are not the whole story. They have unique psychology, insecurities and skills which you likely don't have.
6/ Trap #3 The productivity / streak trap

Coming up with a routine of creation can be great when starting, but a streak going for the sake of keeping a streak going.

Take a week off and ponder what you're really up to.
7/ Trap #3, The productivity / streak trap

Many productivity hacks (ahem note-taking nerds) distract us from more ambitious projects or hard questions

From @anthilemoon: "We are scared of idleness because stopping would mean having to really consider what we want out of life"
8/ Trap #4 The desire to prove yourself, especially to your parents

Here's the bad news: The approval may never come. Don't morph your creations, work or path to fit expectations...you'll be a better person if you craft the work and life you want. It's up to others to see that.
9/ Trap #5 Chasing “audience” over people you actually want to engage with

Don't let the algorithm dictate your success. Understand the algorithm, but decide which kind of people you want to engage with

10/ Trap #6 Chasing status to calm your insecurities

Status games are hard to avoid. Almost every person wants to be seen and respected, but don't let that insecurity morph ALL your decisions.
11/ Trap #6 Chasing status to calm your insecurities

@khemaridh shares how he was almost tempted by this trap but eventually decided that becoming a startup founder wasn't what he was really seeking in leaving ibanking!

overcast.fm/+NPb3je8mE
12/ Trap #7 Not Changing Your Environment Or Making New Friends

Many people think the goal of self-employment is to become successful financially. You need money, but without shifting your environment or making a few new friends, you'll feel lost in a wage-based paycheck reality
13/ Trap #8 Not Taking Time Off

In full-time work its easy to plan vacation especially with other full-time workers. Working on your own its easy to fall into the trap of NEVER taking any time off.

Non-work breaks are essential to sustaining your path.
think-boundless.com/the-other-side…
14/ Trap #9 An income goal as the metric of success

If you to chase the salary you had before you quit, you'll start orienting yourself only towards what can be paid for and eventually you'll feel like a cog in a machine.

Eventually, youll need your own definition of success.
15/ Trap #10 “I am a x” identity trap

It's useful to tell others "I am a freelance consultant" and to believe it, but it has to be a playful attachment.

If you see yourself ONLY as X you'll be blind to the opportunities & surprises that self-employment offers in todays world
16/ ANTI-HUSTLE STRATEGIES
Undoubtedly, you'll fall in a few of the traps. So what do we do about it? Some approaches I've found:

1. Making other unconventional friends

2. Doing something a little slower than your insecurities are telling you
17/ ANTI-HUSTLE STRATEGIES, CONT'D

3. Taking extended breaks of non-work (2+ weeks) to reflect & contemplate

4. Designing experiments such that you can quit them once you get a sense for what it entails

5. Avoiding activities that rely heavily on algorithms
18/ ANTI-HUSTLE STRATEGIES, CONT'D

6. Lower cost of living through geo-arbitrage & lifestyle design to extend your runway

7. Mastering the "inner game" @artofgig
"a gigwork identity is an entire robot suit that allows you to express the real you"
artofgig.substack.com/p/the-inner-ga…

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More from @p_millerd

13 Oct
I love the “scraping by” on $400k narrative. This graphic from WSJ is my all time favorite Image
Similar to what @vgr mentions, this is a very real thing and many people making $150k+ a year really do think things are really hard for them. I wouldn't have believed it myself unless I had actually lived and worked in these world.
My first encounter with this was in my twenties when people making $150k+ combined with their partners would say things like "I don't know if I can afford kids." They were 100% serious and it It dumbfounded me. Over time I've started to realize how this happens
Read 7 tweets
24 Jun
1/ Let's talk about our work beliefs. The hidden forces shaping a lot of our modern reality.

Many people never think about their relationship to work and the fact that their beliefs have been around for hundreds of years

I believe there are nine "schools" of work:

Thread 👇
2/ These nine schools are:

Pre-1800s:
1. Catholic Work Ethic
2. Protestant Work Ethic

Post 1800s:
3. Gospel Of Wealth
4. Meaningful Work
5. Paid gifts
6. Unpaid gifts
7. Hustle
8. Everything is work
9. Post-work
think-boundless.com/schools-of-wor…
3/ CATHOLIC

Work is "toil", but necessary:

From the Bible “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.– Genesis 3:17
Read 60 tweets
22 Jun
1/ Thread about my explorations of total work, my identity as a worker and the challenges of actually building a life that doesn't revolve around work.

This is a fascinating puzzle that many people seem to be dealing with as they are working from home out of their rhythyms
2/ The first question worth thinking about is one I discovered from @andrewjtaggart. It is "are you a worker?"
aeon.co/ideas/if-work-…

Seems like an innocent question but becomes profound the more you think about it.
3/ How many choices (spending, commute, location) are based on your employment and even scarier, how much of your personality is determined by the people and systems you are part of?
Read 59 tweets
19 Jul 19
1/ Many people ask me about my experience in strategy consulting - especially at McKinsey & BCG. I've come to really enjoy teaching people what I've learned and teaching people those skills.

Here are some nuggets you might find valuable.
2/ One fundamental shift in consulting is from solutions to problems. Seems simple, but isn’t. Most people jump to solutions.
Example: “We need to guarantee health insurance to all Americans”
Consultant: “Who said the problem we are solving is insurance coverage?”
3/ Consulting problem solving also requires a slightly delusional level of belief that you can learn new things AND provide new solutions or identify new problems.

However, it is usually achievable because most workers are not incentivized to find and solve new problems.
Read 24 tweets
16 Apr 19
1/ There is a common line repeated in the media: "Fed survey shows 40 percent of adults still can’t cover a $400 emergency expense"

Inspired by @EconTalker to go deeper and question things I read, here is a perfect example of how people cherry pick data to fit their narrative.
2/ This is not actually what the report says but it makes for good clicks.
Washington Post: "The shocking number of Americans who can't cover a $400 expense"
The Atlantic: "Many Middle-Class Americans Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck"

and some more...
3/ Looking at the 2016 version of this (because the 2017 version detailed data is missing) it says: "Forty-four percent of adults say they either could not cover an emergency expense costing $400, or would cover it by selling something or borrowing money" federalreserve.gov/publications/2…
Read 12 tweets

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