Hi friend,

Hope your 2023 is off to a great start and we wish you so much love in this new year. We are boarding a plane back to LAX and spent the first week of the year in NYC eating F&F Pizza, visiting the MoMa and soaking in the city's love and energy.

This week, I wrote about the "ambition crisis" and the latest work meme: acting your wage.

But first, let's stop the low-value work and design a system to reclaim your focus and hit your goals. Join us for a free 3-day event where we'll Design Your Roadmap for an Epic 2023 - beginning on January 10th.

During this free 3-day workshop, you'll learn how to:

• Stay focused on the most important things in life
• Think bigger (versus making smaller things better)
• Prioritize what matters most to you (even when everything feels like a priority)
• Stop putting things off until some imaginary future date
• Invest in improving your mind, career and relationships

Should you act your wage?

"Nobody works, nobody gives a damn."

These were the words of Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, the nonagenarian (yup, "ninety year old") criticized today's workers and their risk-taking capabilities. Marcus questioned the broader implications of this laissez faire attitude for capitalism.

So, shhhhh, let's not tell him about this redditor:

If that's too much to read, here's the tl;dr:

• 32 year old
• No spouse or kids
• Works 5 hours a week
• Earns 20-30k per year
• Loves playing Warcraft

Is this redditor a genius? Or wasting their life away?

Here are this week's top reads:

// one

Your coworkers are less ambitious; bosses adjust to the new order

2 minutes | Wall Street Journal
​

Are we in an ambition crisis? Or are workers setting clearer boundaries and separating their identities from their careers? The data shows that the demarcation is a generational one between the “suck it up” Gen X/Boomers and the “act your wage” Millennials/Gen Zs.

→ Read the article​

// two

The homeownership society was a mistake

9 minutes | The Atlantic
​

Americans are obsessed with homeownership. And why shouldn’t we be? We’ve been sold a beautifully simplified story of the American dream - and buying a house is the ultimate sign that you’ve “made it.” Furthermore, renting is vilified as “burning money.” Have we over-indexed on the myth of home ownership?

→ Read the article​

// three

Notes of appreciation can boost individual and team morale

4 minutes | Harvard Business Review
​

When we want to squeeze in a new task we quickly turn to our tools (ahem, Shiny New Toys). But do this ensure a job well done — or simply that the job gets done? Instead of asking “can I squeeze this in?” We should be asking, “do I have what I need to do this well?”

→ Read the article​

​

// four

What is good therapy?

6 minutes | Good Therapy
​

The number of models of therapy has exploded in recent years. What makes good therapy? It’s non-pathologizing (problems exist, but our problems are not our whole person), empowering, collaborative, and most importantly? It’s imperfect.

→ Read the post​

// five

How to write for The Onion & lessons learned

5 minutes | Evan S. Porter
​

Securing - and keeping - a job at The Onion is no small feat. Writers are expected to turn in twenty-five ideas a week for concepts or headlines with jokes and how they’d play out. There are no meetings or phone calls to discuss (did someone say ​asynchronous?) just writers who are expected to pump out creativity. The main takeaways? Ideas are cheap. Creativity is a muscle. And you’re not as funny as you think you are.

→ Read the post​

// from our sponsors

Creators: Want more brand partnerships?

The Creator Wizard newsletter will help you:

• Find which brands & companies are sponsoring creators
• Pitch more effectively
• Get paid more $$$ on each partnership
• Immediately get better looking and tell funnier jokes (probably)
  ​

Join 10K+ creators and sign up here.

Below the Fold
​

LAST WEEK'S MOST READ

• ​John Mayer’s beef with Elon Musk (RadReads, 939 clicks)
• ​Your career is just one-eighth of your life (The Atlantic, 279 clicks)

​

And finally, Ryu's ending from Street Fighter II is deep as heck.

With gratitude,

Khe

PS Our flagship course Supercharge Your Productivity is the only course that connects the pursuit of productivity to life's larger questions. Secure your spot today, our next cohort kicks off in the middle of January. It's gonna be 🔥.

PPS Refer 2 friends and get the Weekly Review Cheatsheet. Here is your personal RadReferral link: https://sparklp.co/9ac1b50d

​Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook​