On Manifestos

And being "a bit much" on purpose

This has been hanging on the wall in my bedroom for years (since 2009, to be specific—more on that later). Every now and then I think about taking it down. Mostly because my views around "do what you love" have shifted over the last 16 years and also a little bit because the advice to "if you don't like your job, quit" seems to miss a lot of nuance.

In one of these recent take it down/leave it up reflections, I started to wonder what the creators of this manifesto were up to these days, and for that matter, what did the company this was written for even do in the first place? I couldn't even remember. I just remembered that for a period of time this Holstee Manifesto was all over the internet.

A quick internet search revealed that Holstee, which launched in 2009 with this manifesto, is still around. They have pivoted from the original plan to sell t-shirts and leaned into motivation and mindfulness, building on the success of the manifesto (which you can still buy). What's interesting is that I found myself holding my breath for the split second it took for the search results to come up, truly hoping that there was something there. My inner cynic knew that statistically it would not be a surprise if the search generated no results or led to an old, dead website—start-ups fail. But my inner optimist clung to hope because whether I agree with every word of it or not, I wanted the manifesto to manifest.

I also found myself wondering if you told one of the Holstee founders over a cup of coffee that you didn't like your job, would they just look you dead in the eye and say "quit"? Maybe. Maybe not. Or maybe 16 years ago they would have, but today they would approach it differently. I decided that what they wouldn't say was something like, "just tough it out" or "you're lucky to have a job at all" or something else that ran totally counter to the idea that you can and should change something you don't like.

Behind the sentiment "if you don't like your job, quit" is the idea that taking action to change things we aren't happy with is important. In reality quitting isn't possible for many people for many very important reasons. However, most often taking some action (even small) is: perhaps trying to change your position within a company, beginning to search for something else, or shifting your mindset or approach to the situation until it is possible to leave. Same with the idea of doing what you love and finding your passion; while those words seem big and lofty and not-always-accomplishable (or desired) through paid work, the idea behind them—having joy in our lives—seems like something we all deserve.

While you might have nodded along in agreement with the paragraph above, I think we can all admit that it doesn't hit quite the same as "if you don't like your job, quit" and "do what you love." And it certainly wouldn't be as compelling set in cool typeface on a poster.

Because manifestos aren't essays. Their whole job is to evoke a response. Inspire. Take a stand. Make a statement. You can't mince words when doing that. There is no nuance. That's the point. Sometimes we need the essay and sometimes we need the manifesto.

I think I'll leave that poster up.

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Around This Time Last Year

I first started talking about those messy piles I keep mentioning. Are messy piles my manifesto?

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Squirrel of the Week

Belgian waffle truck squirrel.

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Do you have a personal manifesto? A favorite one found on the internet (or IRL!)? Do you think they serve a purpose? Or are they too over-simplified? I have so many questions...