May 25, 2023·edited May 25, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti
As a recovering investment banker myself (the name of my on-again, off-again podcast, in fact) you did a great job Silvio describing the environment in which my career unfolded as well. In fact, you prompted so many thoughts I planned to write a very different, much longer comment. But you caught me off guard with the truly poetic and profound last several paragraphs. We're on different journeys, but I have total respect and admiration for what you're doing and where you're going. And don't forget, even though it is indeed dark outside, God--the most alive being imaginable and the source of abundant life and overwhelming light--can be found in darkness, stillness, and smallness.
The Post-it note title image and the Post-it callback at the end totally cracked me up hahaha. And wow, Wall Street just never changes between then and now. But this line really caught my curiosity: "a superficial, reckless, childish schmuck" --- WHAT? Silvio being superficial, reckless, childish, and a schmuck on top of it? Now I want to know all the back stories ;) But that's not you, it's the environs around you, the Wall Street culture that turned you into that temporary shape to cope with things. It doesn't say anything who you *really* are.
It's funny Silvio, I see so much of the world around me in this essay. I never worked on Wall Street (I walked out of my interview halfway through and caught an early train back home), but I saw a lot of the identity as your job in the military and in tech startups.
I actually think it's good for most of us to get fired or "not get paid" at least once early in our careers. I got fired from my first job in tech, and it was one of those moments that helped clarify what's important in life. I do believe our work can be and probably should be on one of those Post-It notes. But our work and our job, well those very rarely should be the same things, regardless of what corporate culture wants you to believe.
Wow, I had no idea that things are this crazy for investment bankers. This was such a visual essay. I could see everything you wrote in front of my eyes. Definitely more back stories please! Feels like there's a lot we don't know about you, Silvio.
It's almost as if you have to divest and balance the amount of psychological capital any particular identity has in the portfolio of your being in order to stay equanimously delta neutral for optimal long term alpha/happiness/growth! 😆
Ohhhh I thought I knew where it was going but did not see the ending coming! Small reliable things. I’ll have to write about this to find out what I let in. Also did a YouTube video about this job is identify thing haha - going through the edits now. I’d love to hear what you think about the theory when it’s out
I related to this piece so strongly from beginning to end. It is ironic that we can become better workers when we detach it from our identity. Which can be tough when things are going well. Reading this, I'm not surprised to see you went through this transformation because you are such a grounded person Silvio with such an interesting and diverse set of interest. I think people think having or not having a job is the key to life, but I think you do a great job here highlighting the real thing. Finding our identity, not attaching it to something external and knowing the little "post it notes" (love that idea) that make us who we are.
This part stuck out, "My state of mind became one of just doing my best, of clarity of thought, of fearless realization that if anything went wrong, life would continue, that there’s a remedy for everything, except death." One time, an old manager told me that our job was stressful and I couldn't help myself and said, "no it's not, nobody dies." Which is how I have always felt, even when things get stressful.
This resonated with me now that I'm "unemployed," and while I am comfortable with that identity, I have perceived the tension of the outside world that is trying to find a box to put me in. Every workaholic should read this and will find wisdom in your words as always. Bravo Silvio!
Silvio, you always answer questions I have in the back of my mind, in the most profound and optimistic ways. Your articles have become like a life-guide from someone with more experience and awareness of how the world works. I'm glad one of your muses? obsessions? recurring themes? is identity, since I think about it a lot too.
This piece made me think how I used to not feel comfortable saying I ran a marketing agency, Coming from big, bold startups, how did you end up with something so banal? I would ask myself. It was only after some time when I suddenly had the realization that it was only to pay the bills and nothing more, and was able to divorce that feeling, that I started feeling good about myself.
You articulate this feeling perfectly, and what is even more important, you give way outs, framings and ideas to solve the problem, always with an optimistic, hopeful viewpoint. Really enjoyed this and will come back to it!
May 27, 2023·edited May 27, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti
The mood of this whole piece carries a pervading joyfulness that I've found in various texts on spiritual practice, especially those related to the practice of renunciation. At heart, a renunciate isn't the person who refuses to live in the world, but the one who refuses to allow the world to live in them. I'm very curious Silvio what exposure you've had to religious teachings and spirituality. Questioning one's identity seems to be at the origins of every spiritual tradition. You seem to have either accidentally stumbled onto the practice of inquiry (Who am I?) as was practiced by the Indian mystic Ramana Maharshi or perhaps you've had some formal introduction to meditation, Zen Buddhism, Sufism, or mystical Christianity? Or maybe you're just a reincarnated Tulku and haven't yet been tracked down by a search party of Tibetan lineage holders. In any case, this piece is very telling about the source of your strength as a writer, as the capacity to step away from identification, with anything, is the beginning of having clarity about what anything actually is, including oneself. It seems that life is like a trip to an art museum. If you stand half an inch away from a masterpiece it's very hard to appreciate it or receive its intended communication, and identification is just like that, a circumstance of standing too close to our own life and missing its meaning and beauty. You summed it up so simply. "It’s amazing how much better you can do your job when you think that, if you lose it, you still have yourself. And everything else." You are a champion of the human spirit and always sharing food for it.
We do not define ourselves but we 'get defined'. I do not think it is accidental that this question (does the work I do define me or is it just a part of me? Or: the work I do may not even say anything about who I really am) is natural at a certain age. As young people we accept that this is the way the world is, as adults we realise that this world (or society) is one of the possible ones we happen to live in, but to let it define us is a bit much. So maybe we challenge it or we do not recognise ourselves in its value system and explore a more internal and original one. Perhaps only then we see and understand who we really are.
Your writing is the advice I didn't know I needed. Ha, and now I'm thinking about your piece about not giving advice.
"Small, reliable things. Things that will always be there. Into a small, safe identity. A small box where all these small things will be untouchable and unreachable and securely kept." It comforting to think of our identity as small.
May 26, 2023·edited May 26, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti
Silvio, I could swear this was about me in my twenties. You captured the feeling of trying harder and failing harder so well. I'm in awe of you for having that moment of awakening before you switched to your next job.
Also amazed that so many of us journey through this same phenomenon of the job becoming our whole selves. My partner and I were just discussing it this morning. It's so easy to let the job be your whole self in the years of striving to arrive professionally (when it's arguably necessary and useful), and then forget that you had a whole self outside your job after (when you neither need the job so much nor find it of value). That's so tragic, so disembodied, and so self dehumanizing.
How did it occur to you to just try Opposite Land? What a fantastic way to go about it. (Also love that Seinfeld gets away with claiming to be a show about nothing while it is actually a show about everything!)
I always thought "man! if Silvio can be an investment banker and be so creative, into music, write so well, and have such a beautiful mind, I can too." Reading you reflect on this journey in your early years as a banker has made me feel the courage even more. Thanks for writing this essay.
I can relate to that shift of perspective you talk about. I had a similar experience where I was working so much it made it me sick. After the doctor told me to take two weeks off I found my viewpoint changed. When I returned I had somehow made a separation between the work and me. The problems in the company no longer seemed to be "my" problems, but rather I realised I didn't have control over them, and more importantly I wasn't the one responsible for solving them. When I had this shift from "I am my job" to "I am me, and this is where I work" it helped me feel a lot better about myself and paradoxically, about my job.
May 25, 2023·edited May 25, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti
In a world of techno-materialism where the self-claimed gods of technology and finance dare to replace the old God, and where humans are becoming more like robots, your essay is a good reminder to not overlook the stuff that make humans human. Without the micro stuff, the post-it stuff, the details, we are nothing but generic, soulless, boxes of machines, acting as commanded by the ones who press the buttons.
It's dark outside, but when out of the box, even a speckle of light shines in the darkness. And I shall remind myself to not lose sight of the speckle.
Hey Silvio! You bring out some interesting threads in this essay. For one, I like the observation of how we, as a society, have tied our identity to our work. Man, why is that the first question we ask strangers? Gosh, I'm going to change that.
I also was intrigued by the mindset shift you describe...got me thinking, that's for sure.
Lastly, it is funny that you write about how serious your old boss was, cause this is the "Semi-Serious View" XD
As a recovering investment banker myself (the name of my on-again, off-again podcast, in fact) you did a great job Silvio describing the environment in which my career unfolded as well. In fact, you prompted so many thoughts I planned to write a very different, much longer comment. But you caught me off guard with the truly poetic and profound last several paragraphs. We're on different journeys, but I have total respect and admiration for what you're doing and where you're going. And don't forget, even though it is indeed dark outside, God--the most alive being imaginable and the source of abundant life and overwhelming light--can be found in darkness, stillness, and smallness.
The Post-it note title image and the Post-it callback at the end totally cracked me up hahaha. And wow, Wall Street just never changes between then and now. But this line really caught my curiosity: "a superficial, reckless, childish schmuck" --- WHAT? Silvio being superficial, reckless, childish, and a schmuck on top of it? Now I want to know all the back stories ;) But that's not you, it's the environs around you, the Wall Street culture that turned you into that temporary shape to cope with things. It doesn't say anything who you *really* are.
It's funny Silvio, I see so much of the world around me in this essay. I never worked on Wall Street (I walked out of my interview halfway through and caught an early train back home), but I saw a lot of the identity as your job in the military and in tech startups.
I actually think it's good for most of us to get fired or "not get paid" at least once early in our careers. I got fired from my first job in tech, and it was one of those moments that helped clarify what's important in life. I do believe our work can be and probably should be on one of those Post-It notes. But our work and our job, well those very rarely should be the same things, regardless of what corporate culture wants you to believe.
Wow, I had no idea that things are this crazy for investment bankers. This was such a visual essay. I could see everything you wrote in front of my eyes. Definitely more back stories please! Feels like there's a lot we don't know about you, Silvio.
It's almost as if you have to divest and balance the amount of psychological capital any particular identity has in the portfolio of your being in order to stay equanimously delta neutral for optimal long term alpha/happiness/growth! 😆
Ohhhh I thought I knew where it was going but did not see the ending coming! Small reliable things. I’ll have to write about this to find out what I let in. Also did a YouTube video about this job is identify thing haha - going through the edits now. I’d love to hear what you think about the theory when it’s out
I related to this piece so strongly from beginning to end. It is ironic that we can become better workers when we detach it from our identity. Which can be tough when things are going well. Reading this, I'm not surprised to see you went through this transformation because you are such a grounded person Silvio with such an interesting and diverse set of interest. I think people think having or not having a job is the key to life, but I think you do a great job here highlighting the real thing. Finding our identity, not attaching it to something external and knowing the little "post it notes" (love that idea) that make us who we are.
This part stuck out, "My state of mind became one of just doing my best, of clarity of thought, of fearless realization that if anything went wrong, life would continue, that there’s a remedy for everything, except death." One time, an old manager told me that our job was stressful and I couldn't help myself and said, "no it's not, nobody dies." Which is how I have always felt, even when things get stressful.
Great piece Silvio!
This resonated with me now that I'm "unemployed," and while I am comfortable with that identity, I have perceived the tension of the outside world that is trying to find a box to put me in. Every workaholic should read this and will find wisdom in your words as always. Bravo Silvio!
Silvio, you always answer questions I have in the back of my mind, in the most profound and optimistic ways. Your articles have become like a life-guide from someone with more experience and awareness of how the world works. I'm glad one of your muses? obsessions? recurring themes? is identity, since I think about it a lot too.
This piece made me think how I used to not feel comfortable saying I ran a marketing agency, Coming from big, bold startups, how did you end up with something so banal? I would ask myself. It was only after some time when I suddenly had the realization that it was only to pay the bills and nothing more, and was able to divorce that feeling, that I started feeling good about myself.
You articulate this feeling perfectly, and what is even more important, you give way outs, framings and ideas to solve the problem, always with an optimistic, hopeful viewpoint. Really enjoyed this and will come back to it!
The mood of this whole piece carries a pervading joyfulness that I've found in various texts on spiritual practice, especially those related to the practice of renunciation. At heart, a renunciate isn't the person who refuses to live in the world, but the one who refuses to allow the world to live in them. I'm very curious Silvio what exposure you've had to religious teachings and spirituality. Questioning one's identity seems to be at the origins of every spiritual tradition. You seem to have either accidentally stumbled onto the practice of inquiry (Who am I?) as was practiced by the Indian mystic Ramana Maharshi or perhaps you've had some formal introduction to meditation, Zen Buddhism, Sufism, or mystical Christianity? Or maybe you're just a reincarnated Tulku and haven't yet been tracked down by a search party of Tibetan lineage holders. In any case, this piece is very telling about the source of your strength as a writer, as the capacity to step away from identification, with anything, is the beginning of having clarity about what anything actually is, including oneself. It seems that life is like a trip to an art museum. If you stand half an inch away from a masterpiece it's very hard to appreciate it or receive its intended communication, and identification is just like that, a circumstance of standing too close to our own life and missing its meaning and beauty. You summed it up so simply. "It’s amazing how much better you can do your job when you think that, if you lose it, you still have yourself. And everything else." You are a champion of the human spirit and always sharing food for it.
We do not define ourselves but we 'get defined'. I do not think it is accidental that this question (does the work I do define me or is it just a part of me? Or: the work I do may not even say anything about who I really am) is natural at a certain age. As young people we accept that this is the way the world is, as adults we realise that this world (or society) is one of the possible ones we happen to live in, but to let it define us is a bit much. So maybe we challenge it or we do not recognise ourselves in its value system and explore a more internal and original one. Perhaps only then we see and understand who we really are.
Your writing is the advice I didn't know I needed. Ha, and now I'm thinking about your piece about not giving advice.
"Small, reliable things. Things that will always be there. Into a small, safe identity. A small box where all these small things will be untouchable and unreachable and securely kept." It comforting to think of our identity as small.
Silvio, I could swear this was about me in my twenties. You captured the feeling of trying harder and failing harder so well. I'm in awe of you for having that moment of awakening before you switched to your next job.
Also amazed that so many of us journey through this same phenomenon of the job becoming our whole selves. My partner and I were just discussing it this morning. It's so easy to let the job be your whole self in the years of striving to arrive professionally (when it's arguably necessary and useful), and then forget that you had a whole self outside your job after (when you neither need the job so much nor find it of value). That's so tragic, so disembodied, and so self dehumanizing.
How did it occur to you to just try Opposite Land? What a fantastic way to go about it. (Also love that Seinfeld gets away with claiming to be a show about nothing while it is actually a show about everything!)
I always thought "man! if Silvio can be an investment banker and be so creative, into music, write so well, and have such a beautiful mind, I can too." Reading you reflect on this journey in your early years as a banker has made me feel the courage even more. Thanks for writing this essay.
I can relate to that shift of perspective you talk about. I had a similar experience where I was working so much it made it me sick. After the doctor told me to take two weeks off I found my viewpoint changed. When I returned I had somehow made a separation between the work and me. The problems in the company no longer seemed to be "my" problems, but rather I realised I didn't have control over them, and more importantly I wasn't the one responsible for solving them. When I had this shift from "I am my job" to "I am me, and this is where I work" it helped me feel a lot better about myself and paradoxically, about my job.
In a world of techno-materialism where the self-claimed gods of technology and finance dare to replace the old God, and where humans are becoming more like robots, your essay is a good reminder to not overlook the stuff that make humans human. Without the micro stuff, the post-it stuff, the details, we are nothing but generic, soulless, boxes of machines, acting as commanded by the ones who press the buttons.
It's dark outside, but when out of the box, even a speckle of light shines in the darkness. And I shall remind myself to not lose sight of the speckle.
Hey Silvio! You bring out some interesting threads in this essay. For one, I like the observation of how we, as a society, have tied our identity to our work. Man, why is that the first question we ask strangers? Gosh, I'm going to change that.
I also was intrigued by the mindset shift you describe...got me thinking, that's for sure.
Lastly, it is funny that you write about how serious your old boss was, cause this is the "Semi-Serious View" XD