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Owning Your Work in a World That Rents Your Life February 3, 2026
This is the quiet truth of institutional work: improvement doesn't buy freedom. It buys responsibility without ownership.
This guest essay by longtime correspondent 0bserver describes the core dynamics of work in America and the global economy: if we don't own our work, we only "rent" our income and the life it funds. I discuss the process of owning your work in my book Get A Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy. The system doesn't make it easy to own your work, and this isn't accidental. Modern work promises freedom but delivers dependence. The language is flattering--flexibility, opportunity, growth--but the structure is rigid. You don't own the work. You rent access to it. Your time, attention, and energy are leased month to month, contingent on priorities you do not control. In theory, performance compounds. In practice, it resets. Every quarter resets the scoreboard. Every month resets the scoreboard. Often, every week. I learned this twice, in the same industry, in two very different environments. The first time, I stood in the open. The second time, I sat in a chair. The Kiosk The kiosk sat in the middle of the mall. No walls. No back room. Shirt and tie. Ironed. Serious enough to signal legitimacy, close enough to retail to remain disposable. Friday morning sales meetings were held off the floor in a business office. Everyone was half-awake, suits pressed, coffee, doing little. The whiteboard showed the same columns it always did: new contracts, renewals, data attachment, accessories. At one of those meetings, a manager told us--earnestly--that it was harder to get hired there than to get into Harvard. He offered it as an explanation. Why the pressure was justified. Why the metrics mattered. Why we should feel fortunate. New and Renew were what paid you. Contracts and commitments. Real money. The rest--data attachment and accessories--were something else entirely. Loyalty tests. Metrics that paid the company, not the worker. We were asked to brainstorm ways to raise them anyway. Someone suggested bundling more accessories. Someone else suggested reframing the pitch. No one suggested aligning compensation with the ask. That was the first time I noticed that performance wasn't cumulative. Competence didn't reduce pressure; it increased expectations. Solving last month's problem simply earned you a harder one next month, at the same pay and with less tolerance. The scoreboard didn't measure value created. It measured compliance with whatever mattered now. You could be excellent and still be wrong. Strong production but weak accessory numbers? Coaching. Solid revenue but low data attachment? Attitude problem. The rules shifted constantly. Quotas changed. Staffing changes altered the math overnight. Decisions made far upstream--pricing, promotions, online upgrades--were absorbed downstream by people standing on the floor. After work, we joked about it at the bar. About executives not sitting in rooms trying to figure out how to pay us more, but how to make sure they didn't have to. The kiosk exhausted the body. But it was honest about the transaction. The Cubicle The cubicle presented itself differently. Quieter. Legitimate. Inbound sales. New customers only. Hourly base plus commission, paid on completed installs. Long-term contracts paid best. Internet was the product. Phone lines were inexpensive add-ons. Television rarely sold and mostly complicated the transaction. There were no scripts, but there were constraints. You couldn't change pricing. You couldn't change contract terms. You couldn't change installation rules or service windows. Your role was to move orders through the system, absorb frustration created elsewhere, and keep the machine operating smoothly enough that customers didn't notice its edges. If you understood the system, you could do well. Same-day closes. Next-day installs. Competitive pricing used deliberately to avoid marginal accounts that churned and consumed time. The work rewarded efficiency, not judgment. Once an install was scheduled, your involvement ended. If it failed, the anger returned to you. If it succeeded, it disappeared. Nothing accumulated. Nothing followed you forward. On paper, it was a good job. The promise was stability. Not fulfillment. Not advancement. Stability. But the structure was already thinning. Strategic uncertainty. Leadership turnover. Hiring followed by 'realignment.' Compensation plans adjusted downward. Training sessions explaining why this was reasonable. People began paying attention to different variables. Mortgage payments. Closing dates. Whether a spouse's income could carry the household if this stopped. The job wasn't asking for loyalty. It was asking for patience. I took the position hoping for runway--time to fund entrepreneurial efforts, time to build something that could exist independently before the structure inevitably changed. The cubicle didn't exhaust the body. It exhausted something quieter. The Reset Made Visible The layoff arrived without drama. A visiting executive tried to soften it with a metaphor. "We bought a nice house," he said, "but it's already filled with people." There was no malice in it. Just accuracy. That was the moment the language finally aligned with the structure. We weren't being removed for failure. We were excess capacity. The house no longer required us. Nothing I had done there could belong to me. And nothing I could have done would have altered the outcome. Orientation Toward Ownership This is the quiet truth of institutional work: improvement doesn't buy freedom. It buys responsibility without ownership. The better you perform, the more efficiently your output is absorbed--and the easier you are to remove when conditions shift. Ownership reverses that relationship. You become smaller, but sturdier. You trade the illusion of scale for the reality of control. When you own the work, effort compounds. Skills persist across transitions. Mistakes cost you--but they teach you. Success stays with you. The feedback loop tightens. Ownership doesn't mean safety. It means alignment. Large systems promise stability and deliver fragility. Small ownership looks fragile and delivers durability. In a world that rents your time, ownership isn't rebellion or ideology. It's orientation. Work that leads somewhere. Skills that survive disruption. A life that doesn't reset every quarter. That's not a philosophy. It's the difference between running in place and moving forward. This is a guest essay by longtime correspondent 0bserver. 
My new book Investing In Revolution is available at a 10% discount ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition). Introduction (free) Check out my updated Books and Films. Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com Subscribe to my Substack for free My recent books: Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases originated via links to Amazon products on this site. THE REVOLUTION TRILOGY: Investing In Revolution Ultra-Processed Life The Mythology of Progress Systemic Problems/Solutions Investing In Revolution (2025) Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress (2024) Introduction (free) Global Crisis, National Renewal (2021) Introduction (free) Money and Work Unchained (2017) Introduction (free) A Radically Beneficial World (2015) Introduction (free) What You Can Do Yourself Ultra-Processed Life (2025) Introduction (free) Self-Reliance in the 21st Century (2022) Introduction (free) When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal (2022) Introduction (free) Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy (2014) Intro (free) Novels The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher Intro (free) The Secret Life of an Asian Heroine First chapters (free) Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free Investing In Revolution print $18, (Kindle $8.95, Hardcover $24 (145 pages, 2025) 
Only now do we see that we've been investing in revolution for decades--not the revolutions we thought we were investing in, revolutions in technology and finance, but in the social revolution made inevitable by the extremes that we've reached in our single-minded pursuit of private gains.
The pendulum that we've pushed to an extreme will swing to the opposite extreme, and the artifices that have propped up a facade a stability for decades will accelerate the disorder rather than reverse it. We now stand at the point of decision, and this book offers a path to a reformation and renewal that serves the shared interests of us all, not just the few. Introduction (free) Ultra-Processed Life print $16, (Kindle $7.95, audiobook, Hardcover $20 (129 pages, 2025) 
Ultra-Processed Life: the substitution of a synthetic, commoditized, very profitable facsimile for what was once authentic.
Ultra-Processed Life is my term for everything that is analogous to ultra-processed snacks: attractively marketed, instantly alluring, easy to consume, addictive by design, tasty in the moment but harmful over time, its origins a black box of unknown processes, the brightly colored product bearing no resemblance to the real-world ingredients, an idealized form of what is inherently imperfect, untethered from the natural world. As with many others, the catalyst for my exploration was a life-threatening medical crisis that did not have a specific cause. This led me to wonder if our entire way of life is like an ultra-processed snack: tasty but not healthy, edible but stripped of the nutrients we need to be healthy, addictive by design. Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress, Anti-Progress and a Mythology for the 21st Century print $20, (Kindle $9.95, Hardcover $24 (215 pages, 2024) audiobook, Read the Introduction and first chapter for free (PDF) 
What if the policies to accelerate growth are no longer working because our fix for every problem--growth at any cost--is failing? We're told Progress is inevitable as a result of technology, but everyday life is getting harder, not easier--the opposite of Progress, what I call Anti-Progress.
What if the real source of the unraveling is far deeper than economics or politics? What if the problem is what we see as the inevitable destiny of humanity--Progress--is actually a modern mythology, disconnected from the real-world consequences of growth for growth's sake? We indignantly reject that Progress is a mythology, but our need for mythology hasn't gone away because we've mastered technology; we've created a modern mythology of technology that is heedless of its own consequences. To truly progress, we need a new mythology aligned to 21st century realities. Read the Introduction and first chapter for free
Recent entries: Owning Your Work in a World That Rents Your Life February 3, 2026 Power and Impunity February 2, 2026 The US Economy in a Nutshell: A Few Winners, Everyone Else Loses Ground January 29, 2026 Why the Next Recession Will Be the Catalyst for Depression January 27, 2026 The Fatal Limits of the Technocrat Class January 26, 2026 The Epic Struggle Just Ahead January 23, 2026 Lessons from China's Cultural Revolution January 21, 2026 Narrative Control Made Easy: Us versus Them January 19, 2026 Why Is Everything Such a Hot Mess? January 12, 2026 The Perverse Incentives Dominating Our Lives January 8, 2026
We Can Discern Cycles and Waves, But Not the Outcomes
January 6, 2026
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Mastery requires reading and doing.
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Extra-Special Bonus Aphorisms:
"There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity." (Douglas MacArthur) "We are what we repeatedly do." (Aristotle) "Do the thing and you shall have the power." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." (E.F. Schumacher, via Tom R.) "He who will not risk cannot win." (John Paul Jones) "When we drink coffee, ideas march in like the army." (Honore de Balzac) "Progress is not possible without deviation." (Frank Zappa, via Richard Metzger) "Victory favors those who take pains." (amat victoria curam) "The man who has a garden and a library has everything." (Cicero, via Lee Bentley) "A healthy homecooked family meal and a home garden are revolutionary acts." (CHS) "Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything." (Napoleon Bonaparte) "The way of the Tao is reversal" Or "Reversal is the movement of Tao." (Lao Tzu) "Chance favours the prepared mind." (Louis Pasteur) "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill) "Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasures." (Rumi) "The realm of gratitude is boundless." (CHS, 11/25/15) "History doesn't have a reverse gear." (CHS, 12/22/15) Smith's Law of Conservation of Risk: Every sustained action has more than one consequence. Some consequences will appear positive for a time before revealing their destructive nature. Some consequences will be intended, some will not. Some will be foreseeable, some will not. Some will be controllable, some will not. Those that are unforeseen and uncontrollable will trigger waves of other unforeseen and uncontrollable consequences. (July 8, 2014)(thanks to Lew G. for retitling the idea.) Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1: If the citizenry cannot replace a kleptocratic authoritarian government and/or limit the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation is a democracy in name only. The Smith Corollary to Metcalfe's Law (The Network Effect): the value of the network is created not just by the number of connected devices/users but by the value of the information and knowledge shared by users in sub-networks and in the entire network. (CHS, 4/6/16) My Credo of Liberation: I no longer care if the power centers of our society--the distant, fortified castles of our financial feudal system--are changed by my actions, for I am liberated by the act of resistance. I am no longer complicit in perpetuating fraudulent feudalism and the pathology of concentrated power. I no longer covet signifiers of membership in the Upper Caste that serves the plutocracy. I am liberated from self-destructive consumerist-State financialization and the delusion that debt servitude and obedience to sociopathological Elites serve my self-interests. (Thank you, Klaus-Peter L., for reminding me) "We've become a culture of excuses rather than solutions: solutions always require sustained effort and discipline." (CHS 4/9/16) "Fraud as a way of life caters an extravagant banquet of consequences." (CHS 4/14/16) "Creativity = problem solving = value creation." (CHS 6/4/16) "Truth is powerful because it is the core dynamic of solving problems." (CHS 7/21/17) "We live in a system of human emotions that masquerades as a science (economics)." (CHS 1/1/18) "Always remember, your focus determines your reality." (George Lucas) "Diversity is for poor people. Sameness is for the successful." (GFB) "When power dissipates suddenly, it dissipates completely." (CHS 7/14/19) "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." (Henry David Thoreau) "Markets cannot price in the value of non-monetized natural assets such as diverse ecosystems." (CHS 7/14/19) "Magical thinking isn't optimism, it is folly." CHS 1/3/22) "Tune in (to self-reliance), drop out (of hyper-consumerism and debt-serfdom) and turn on (to relocalizing capital and agency)." (CHS 1/5/22) "The path to everything you desire starts here: like yourself as you are right now." (CHS 11/20/22) "There are only two signals: how many essentials you produce and share and if you're consuming less with better results. Everything else is noise." (CHS 12/17/22) "Liberation is no longer needing any confirmation or feedback from others or the world for one's sense of self. Wealth, fame, recognition, admiration, praise, prestige, approval, sainthood, martyrdom, success: none are needed, none are desired." (CHS 12/26/22) "When fame, wealth, prestige, status and glory are out of reach, you're free to pursue other more valuable things." (CHS 2/6/22) "It is the sacred duty of every activist who seeks to better their community to grow and share as much life-giving food as is humanly possible." (CHS 6/15/23) "Being anonymous, gray and unknown is the ideal state of freedom." (CHS 3/15/24) "We seem to have entered a world of anti-leisure and anti-productivity in which the unpaid shadow work demanded to keep all the complicated digital bits in motion obliterate our leisure and productivity." CHS (5/22/24) "It is axiomatic that failing systems work the best just before they fail catastrophically." Ray W. "Looking younger is mere technique; thinking younger demands creativity." CHS (10/16/24) "Tell me what's taboo and I'll tell you the truths that threaten the status quo." CHS (12/15/24) "This is the core of the Attention Economy: the ultimate addiction is the addiction to ourselves." CHS (1/28/25) "If You Seek the Truth, Look for What's Taboo." CHS (7/18/25) "My definition of self-reliance: the less you need, the easier it is to get what you need." CHS (7/26/25) "Mastery requires reading and doing." CHS (7/28/25) "The replacement of authentic value, quality, agency, choice, trust, legitimacy and experience with self-serving facsimiles is the key dynamic of Ultra-Processed Life, my term for the present-day human condition." CHS (8/12/25) "Ultra-Processed Life replaces an authentic experience with a synthetic, simulated, commoditized, highly profitable version that's superficially attractive but destructive over the long term." CHS (8/12/25) "What we see everywhere is the replacement of authentic things--including democracy--with synthetic facsimiles designed to maintain the illusion of choice and value." CHS (8/12/25) "Sometimes certainty is the enemy we don't even see and uncertainty is our most faithful ally." CHS (9/20/25) |
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