Significance in our work

Reflections on a visit to Washington D.C.

I was just in Washington D.C. this week. This is the first time I’ve been to D.C. in almost five years and it reminded me of two things: 1) how insanely hot and humid D.C. can get and 2) how much the feeling of importance and purpose permeates the air in the U.S. capital city.

People from all walks of life seem to congregate here, driven by the pursuit of commerce, work, and positive change – though, of course, "positive" is subjective, and this is the battleground of opposing political parties who have different ideas of what “positive” looks like. Nevertheless, it's hard not to feel the gravity of importance and purpose that fills the atmosphere.

There’s a joke that D.C. is filled with people who all think that what they’re doing is the most important thing in the world. It’s hard to not feel like you should be working on something significant when you walk by massive monuments on your way to work, you brush shoulders with people running around in suits, and your commute is occasional sliced by a motorcade of someone probably significant.

If (capital “M”) Money is the ambition of success in New York and (capital “F”) Fame is the ambition of success in Los Angeles, than (capital “P”) Power is D.C.’s ambition.

But everyone in D.C. can’t possibly all be working on the most important thing in the world.

During my stay, I was at a Peruvian pisco bar next to someone working in the hospitality industry. We chatted for an hour about life, hobbies, career, language learning and more, and I was reminded that significance can fluctuate depending on the lens through which we view various careers. While solving “grand picture” problems is crucial, so is addressing fundamental human needs like shelter and sustenance. Especially in a transient city like Washington, D.C., where so many people come through, it’s still important that people who visit have a place to stay to rest up and do their best work.

This realization prompted me to question the essence of importance in our work. Is national security more vital than improving people's lives through products or services? Both are important in their own right, and the lens through which we perceive their significance can vary.

Comparing the tech industry's focus on market growth and problem-solving with the “soft issues” prevalent in D.C. shows the contrast of different approaches to impact and significance. Crafting narratives, rallying support, and appealing to emotions play a pivotal role in government-related work, while tech (more specifically social tools, apps, and SaaS) is often about discovering problems or new habits with a broad appeal to expand and capture marketshare and grow grow grow.

As I contemplate my next career move, I'm challenged to determine the story that resonates most with my values and motivations. Each of us is driven by different factors, whether individualistic, national, familial, or futuristic, and our environments play a big role in influencing what we aim to become.

Our careers are continuous biological experiments, fueled by the stimuli we encounter and the stories we tell ourselves. Embracing new experiences and cross-pollinating ideas from diverse fields can foster creativity and innovation in our own lives. Stepping into different industries and cities around the world can also sober us to our own biases to what matters.

So how serious is pursing a specific “capital letter” ambition of success when it is so transient from place to place? While we often self-organize into cities where other people share our values, the one constant no matter where we are is ourselves. How we react to these external factors and filter them through our own ideas of success is something worth reflecting on every now and then to make sure we don’t get caught-up aimlessly chasing prestige. But, if we’ve found a sense of fulfillment in pursuing a category, why would it be bad to keep pursing it if you enjoy it?

In the end, significance in our careers lies not only in the scale of the problems we tackle but also in the alignment of our values and motivations with the stories we tell ourselves.

In other words, the only thing we need to be aware of is what we think is important to ourselves.