It’s a hobby of mine, to look for taken-for-granted suggestions of wealth and privilege that are rarely acknowledged as such. I’m teaching a class about digital literacies (and of course, digital distractions) so had clicked through to this review essay about books on distraction and came across this about the author of one of the books:
At any rate, Bailey turned down a couple of job offers after college to spend a year researching and blogging about productivity.
via Don’t Distract Me – The New York Times.
I’ve been trying to find out more about him but can find only that he’s a “business school graduate” and that mention is every article — he turned down “lucrative” job offers.
From his on-line writing, it’s clear that he had a good computer, the capacity to choose to work some 20 hour weeks (as part of his productivity experiments), flexibility to commit to exercise and meditation, space to work, and good food.
I think of how few people could possibly imagine turning down (let alone getting) “a couple of job offers” to live comfortably and to pursue an interest like this – – that he has since turned in a book and career and publicity tour.
Ambitious? For sure.
But why not simply mention why he was able to take a year off to position himself in these ways?
Education and Class 