D.W. Winnicott's ideology of "good enough parent," which I discovered through The School of Life, is a refreshing take on parenting. My impression of this concept of a "good enough parent" is not to over-index on being perfect, but being present with one's imperfections and vulnerabilities, holding space for the kid, and letting them self soothe. More importantly, a parent doesn’t lose themselves in kids’ emotions/tantrums but still love them. When I learned about this book that looks at work through the lens of "good enough", I was naturally curious.

Maybe it's my middle-class upbringing or my financially not well-off environment with deep-seated patriarchy; I have never questioned "work or career." In all my school and college days, the highest priority has been for "career" and getting settled in a good enough job, making good money, and getting "settled" in life. But now that I have spent a couple of decades in the job market I tend to believe this - “If your identity was defined by your job, you never really had a real identity.”

So the approach of looking at the job as something good enough to do is pretty compelling. One of Esther Perel's quotes hit a nerve with me - "Too many people bring the best of themselves to work and bring the leftovers home." This is a good summary of how and where we need to stack rank work in our life. This book is a good enough exploration of this concept through various lenses - passion, purpose, perks, and general wealth.

It resonated well with me; give it a try. ( )

I thought this was a well-needed look at work and the culture that's been created to put it on such a pedestal, and I like this inclusion into the group of current books basically saying that there are changes to be made. I listened to the author on a podcast and then checked this out; I appreciated all his profiles and how he structured the book into different levels of how we esteem work so much (but probably shouldn't). I've had many jobs and multiple careers in my decades of work, and I'm very much not looking for any dream job but rather just need money to survive. I think this helps break it down for others who may be wondering about it all and potentially how to adjust to just dealing with work but then truly living your life. ( )

The introduction notes that this is not a how-to book with quick and easy tips on how to reclaim one’s life from work. Everyone’s relationship to work is different, so the goal is to present stories of how people in a variety of situations did it and perhaps you will see parallels with your own situation.

For me personally, this is maybe more of a 3.5 or 3.75 because I *do* make sure to disconnect from work every day and I don’t do overtime unless it’s an actual emergency. This isn’t telling me much new, but it is presenting the information in a good way that I think will help people who haven’t thought about work in this way before. ( )