10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

The most popular and the most controversial post Steve Pavlina ever wrote was his 10 arguments why you should never get a job.  This is a truly brilliant piece of writing and repays rereading a few times.  It was, he claims, a throw away piece never intended to be taken seriously.  I can well believe it.  It has a playful and devil may care feel about it that suggests it was written in a jokey fashion.   But humour and truth have a very close relationship, so even if it was intended to be a joke and can be read as one there is a hint of something in there that strikes a chord with a lot of people.


So is he right?  Should you get a job?  Speaking as someone who has a job I have some skin in this game.  If I take the Steve Pavlina approach to employment at face value shouldn't I be handing in my notice straight away?

The strongest argument Steve puts forward is that he is himself making a lot more money than the average employee makes right there and then in the form of affiliate income from his blog.  Shouldn't we all be out blogging our way to riches?  There is of course a significant flaw with that idea.  Just because Steve has the ability and inclination to write stuff that attracts a lot of readers, it doesn't mean that anyone else can do it with as much ease.  Paul MacCartney after all could as easily point out that nobody should get a job because all you have to do is sit down and pen a million selling record and off you go.  Steve rather obfuscates this point by talking about the infrastructure that exists to allow him to draw an income from his writing talent.  I don't think anyone would be fooled that the secret to great song writing was purchasing a cheap but effective microphone.

Now you might say that anybody could learn to write like Steve, and I have a feeling that in some respects that might be true.  You can certainly master the grammar and even the structure. But nobody is reading 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job to admire the syntax.  The point about it is that it is a provactive and challenging title backed up by some persuasive arguing.  It is a blog post hit because it does the job well and hits the spot.  Hit records and successful books often share those same characteristics.

Creativity is the real key here, and again this can be learned to a certain extent.  So what the post is really arguing is that it is possible to make a nice living out of your creativity if you have any.  That sounds like good advice and many people have indeed led very fullfilling lives by exploiting and developing their creative gifts.  So if you have some, go for it.  But I don't think it is for everyone.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never-get-a-job/