Breezy books engage in career and workplace mythbusting

The challenge of any work is that it engages the reader. There is nothing so annoying as a book that takes itself too seriously. In the cases of two recent efforts, the authors have important things to say, but they are not afraid of speaking in an engaging style. “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport and “Rework” by 37Signals founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson take aim at the myths and misconceptions that surround careers and the workplace.

The two really do go together because at their core is the message that the most important thing is knowing what you do, and doing it well. Newport focuses on individuals while the founders of 37Signals focus on the workplace. Newport puts the craftsmanship involved in mastering rare and valuable skills that leads to career capital front and center. Career capital, and how you use it, can lead to the autonomy and sense of mission that make a career worth living. “Rework” puts the spotlight on doing what you do well. It distills the essence to keeping small enough that you create something that works that everybody wants and will continue to want.

For Newport, the biggest myth is the one he explodes right at the beginning: Follow your passion. Newport argues that this bit of advice is actively dangerous. Indeed, one imagines that this bit of advice comes from a misunderstanding of Joseph Campbell’s advice to “follow your bliss.” Again and again, Newport stresses the primacy of mastery. Know what you do well, do it well and continue improving. Your competence provides the source of your passion.

For the founders of 37Signals, there is no one single myth they explode. Instead, they turn their attention to a wide range of smaller myths that they blow up one at a time like a line of firecrackers. Whether it is the idea that bigger is better (it’s not) or that CEOs of Fortune 500 companies require Ivy League degrees (they don’t and most don’t have them), “Rework” overturns all the misconceptions a would-be company-creator might have and shows how those ideas are bunk.

The founders of 37Signals are in the trenches and use their experiences to highlight the lessons learned. Newport is an academic who was interested in how people really come into the kind of jobs people dream about. He relies on case studies in the form of interviews and academic research. Both books reinforce the idea of intimacy: know what you do, do it well and, in doing so, you become valuable.

Both of these efforts are well worth the read. Both are highly readable and will force a change in perspective. Both look at the same problem from different perspectives and both deserve a place on the desk.