The Pathless Path

In describing the power of the inner ring, C.S. Lewis warns that, ”unless you take measures to prevent it, this desire is going to be one of the chief motives of your life, from the first day on which you enter your profession until the day when you are too old to care.”

philosopher Erich Fromm summarized this transformation, saying, “in the Northern European countries, from the 16th century on, man developed an obsessional craving to work which had been lacking in a free man before that period.”

“…internalized the idea that I should be working all the time. Why have I internalized that idea? Because everything and everyone in my life has reinforced it – explicitly and implicitly – since I was young.”

Peter Thiel, born right after the baby boom generation, reflected on this mentality in his book Zero to One, saying, “Since tracked careers worked for them [the baby boomers], they can’t imagine that they won’t work for their kids, too.”