Work falsifies you all the time.

Work has negative feedback loops all the time.

People have good days and bad days at work.

And so it's hard to put your sense of self in the hands of another,

in the hands essentially of a boss or the market.

When you make political interest to your religion,

when you make actual faith in God your religion,

you can sort of worship that from afar without ever being explicitly

castigated by a boss, right?

And so there's ways in which I think that the kind of work isn't that we develop,

this kind of faith in work can actually be really sickening.

Because again, these jobs are not created to necessarily fill us with self-actualization.

These jobs are very often created in order to just be jobs.

And so I'm afraid of people that place too much emphasis in their work.

It is my distinct pleasure and privilege to welcome back to the pod.

The author of the new book on work, Money Meaning Identity.

You may know him from his columns in the Atlantic or his very popular podcast,

plain English. Derek Thompson, welcome back, Derek.

It's great to be here. Thanks so much, Andrew.

Derek, it was so much fun reading this book.

In part because it was a trip down memory lane,

where it had some of your greatest essays from the Atlantic,

...