It was the height of American counterculture. With his young son, Bob set off on his trusty Honda Superhawk for the ride of a lifetime. The 17-day odyssey saw them crisscross the country from Minnesota to San Francisco drunk on the expansive view from the road.
Afterward, Bob returned to a humdrum job of writing computer manuals in Minneapolis. This special brew of mind numbing boredom was in sharp contrast to the visceral feelings he recently experienced riding. Yet he endured and became a connoisseur in the subtle art of not doing. In dry spells of his own writing endeavours, he lost himself in his job and welcomed the mind wandering. He found a rhythm that would generate acute focus and originality.
If you’re a philosophy fan, you’re well aware that this was Robert Pirsig’s bizarre reality. It was in this dualistic period of his bitter-sweet life, that he birthed Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — the most read philosophy book of all time.
Pirsig became more himself through his writing. But like all silver linings, fulfilment in his work didn’t come without a hefty price tag. He endured tremendous heartache including getting committed to an asylum and undergoing comprehensive shock treatment. Through his experience and writing, we can learn so much about the inner working life. In particular, there are three interconnected themes that might help us navigate in the new world of work: boredom, thinking in action, and perspective-bending.
The Knife’s Edge
Imagine you’re all alone deep in a remote forest. Bar your footsteps, it’s eerily silent. The odd bird tweets (not on its smartphone). The trail you’re meandering makes a sharp turn and your eyes meet a colossal tree trunk. You’re gobsmacked. Time is suspended in this ethereal space and you make no judgement. There is no thought of ‘wow, this is one big ass Sequoia’ — there is only the awe of it all.
This might be what Pirsig saw as the knife’s edge of experience. He called it Quality. And his Metaphysics of Quality (MoQ) was a mash-up of East Asian and American philosophies which paved the way for both Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s notion of Flow and the Gladwellian ideas that litter Blink. It’s one thing to experience Quality by loosing yourself in a Sequoia-filled forest — but how exactly does Quality translate to the workplace? Pirsig relays that it depends on whether or not you feel a connection to what you’re working on:
“When one isn’t dominated by feelings of separateness from what he’s working on, then one can be said to ‘care’ about what he’s doing. That is what caring really is, a feeling of identification with what one’s doing. When one has this feeling then he also sees the inverse side of caring, Quality itself.”
Quality in work does not require categorisation. If anything, it’s a feeling — a non-state where the distinction between work and life does not exist. Some callings might favour achieving this work/life blend more than others. Maybe from time to time you fantasise of being a food critic or nature photographer. I know I do. The point is not to have the dream job (although that probably can’t hurt), but possessing a feeling of connection. It can be had by anyone in nearly any vocation. Both the blacksmith that spends the day making a sword and the management consultant that rejigs a client’s business model can attain Quality. It’s what’s going on inside that counts; carrying that inner smirk that manifests as an outer beam.
The Virtues of Boredom
In an intimate 1974 interview with Tim Wilson, Pirisg explained that:
“Boredom on the job was an incentive to creativity. I deliberately enter a period of boredom just prior to writing…because ultimately it brings me down to the centre of things from which all creativity comes.”
While the virtues of boredom are long-standing within the arts, they also bear relevance concerning today’s knowledge worker. A daily dance with a ceaseless stream of information is not only cognitively draining, it demands regular refuelling. And slacking off, as it turns out, is very good for the soul.
Some prefer long walks while others take shortish naps. I like sitting. Whatever floats your boat really — the point is to be intentional in doing nothing. What matters is that you avoid incessant hours of toil when embarking on creative pursuits. Alex Pang, author of Rest explains that, “Even in today’s 24/7, always-on world, we can blend work and rest together in ways that make us smarter, more creative, and happier.” Instead of reaching for that magical rectangle in your pocket, consider taking time out to master the skill of resting and draw in that blissful state of boredom.
Thinking in Action
It may not always seem it, but we do get to choose our attitude towards work. The luxury that lies with the Western worker is having much more freedom in work than previous generations. Still, nearly 9 out of every 10 employees claim they are not engaged in work. Too many suffer over a days work when they could be surfing through it.
The strongest indicator of whether you are engaged at work is whether or not you believe you’re making progress towards meaningful work. Known as the progress principle, it means incremental advancement through small wins.With every baby step forward the progress principle is revealed. As Teresa Amabile explains:<