Is Striving For Ikigai Terrible Advice?
Missing the good in search of the perfect.
There are many articles floating around various industry forums, on the topic of getting more life out of the work-life balance (especially during a pandemic-induced lockdown). One way to keep our employees motivated where the office is frighteningly close to the bedroom, is to create more joy in their work. Naturally, some professionals have encouraged people to look to the Japanese concept of ikigai for guidance, but some wellbeing experts argue that searching for the perfect combination in our daily work will be an endless struggle.
Work-Life Balance.
Put simply, ikigai is something between purpose and happiness, with an accompanying diagram looking like the below:
While some have called it a God-given mission, others argue that it is not something we need to find because we already know what brings us joy, and we shouldn’t focus on things we think may bring us joy in the future. It makes economic sense for data science leaders to encourage the pursuit of ikigai, since it will lead to retention, innovation, and loyalty at least to the vision of the firm. Friedrich Nietzsche tells us that the man who has a “why” can bear any “how”. It is the bear-ability through unfavourable events which can slowly chip away our motivation without appropriate levels of vitamin D and exercise to offset the stress.
Having known some data scientists who burned the candle at both ends during peak lockdown conditions, it certainly affected their motivation to stay in their roles. One of the key elements to their ikigai was their love for their jobs, but in the absence of other past times, their work filled their time. Their perceived workload may not have changed much, but the time they spent working certainly did. Now, once their work was an overwhelmingly dominant part of their life, they no longer felt they had achieved their ikigai and fell out of love with their work. As data scientists, we must ask ourselves if it really is the work that we love, or simply the right level of time we spend doing the work, which keeps us coming back every morning.
The Polite Push-Back.
Writer Donny Kimball decided to de-couple his ikigai from his profession, rather than try to incorporate it. He mentions that the actualisation of his dream was costing his mental health more than the incremental happiness he experienced. Some data scientists might strongly agree! The lesson for him is that implementing ikigai was supposed to make us feel good about ourselves, and not the opposite (read: burnout) through endless trials and tribulations of red tape.
Volunteering the intersection between “what the world needs”, “what you are good at”, and “what you love” could prove a fruitful contribution to quality of life, given some kind of vocation can be exercised simultaneously. Kimball justifies his volunteering with no burden of responsibility in his consulting. He also drew confidence from the lack of remuneration, giving an honest (but still professional) opinion without reservations since no one was paying him for pleasantries or to be a ‘yes man’.
But of course, to be able to volunteer our love and work for wealth, we must allocate time to do so. To have disposable time for allocating, we must learn the art of saying no. An old mentor of mine mentioned that the secret to being a good senior leader is learning how to be content with disappointing lots of people. Unfortunately human nature allows us to continue delegating/asking for favours until someone says no. Some burnt-out data scientists will be able to tell us the price of the time they spend exercising or being with their families, some will not. There is a surprisingly easy way to deliver the message of dwindling capacity, and that is through prioritisation. I have mentioned in previous articles that a clever data scientist will pitch stakeholders against each other to gain the priority, and I stick by that philosophy. No manager or other business leader will expect a single data scientist to produce the output of ten, so it is perfectly reasonable to ask “I was just working on this old task as a priority, where does this new task sit?”. Reasonable overtime can be expected occasionally, but not consistently, since all managers and business leaders also understand the value of sustainable resources, versus the true cost of hiring.
Pursuit of selflessness.
To close, we can reflect on the words of Viktor Frankl: “For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself”. The pursuit of ikigai may be terrible advice when only in context of ourselves, however, contributing to the lives of others with the specialised efforts that we can produce may be part of the ideal solution.
References:
“Rejecting My Ikigai”, 2018, DonnyKimball.com (Donny Kimball),
<https://donnykimball.com/ikigai-c3f6135b3625>
“Why ‘Find Your Purpose in Life’ Is Terrible Advice”, 2020, Thought Catalog (A Parmar),
<https://thoughtcatalog.com/amardeep-parmar/2020/09/why-find-your-purpose-in-life-is-terrible-advice/>
“How To Find Your Ikigai And Transform Your Outlook On Life And Business”, 2018, Forbes (C Myers),
