Don’t be a hack.
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Notes
Etymology: “Hack” comes from Hackney, where (centuries ago) cheap horses were raised for cheap customers, such as London cabbies (known as “hacks”).
Today, a hack asks what you need, how cheap they can be to get the job, and how much they can get away with. Giving up standards like this can become toxic. Avoid this path.
Amateur: finds joy in creation, serving oneself. Can be admirable, and even heroic.
Professional: a leap from the amateur, showing up even when one doesn’t feel like it.
The choice between amateur and professional is a “fork in the road. “A professional is not simply a happy amateur who got paid.“
Thoughts
This chapter clears up a central question I’ve had while working through this book. I’ve said that I don’t work for a clearly defined audience, but I don’t work for “everyone,” either, and decided that it’s most accurate to say that I work for “anyone.” I wasn’t sure how that fit into the way Seth was describing the practice (and its practitioner, the professional).
Here’s the answer: “The amateur serves only herself. If there are bystanders, that’s fine, but as an amateur your work is only for you.”
That describes my attitude well. I’m an amateur—and, since the leap to becoming a professional is a fork-in-the-road choice, I may also decide that this is what I want to be.
Sometimes that word has negative connotations (“you’re such an amateur”), but Seth presents it as a valid option: admirable, and even heroic, a privilege. He also separates his definition from the one that I probably would have espoused before reading this; I would have said that the primary difference—even the definitional difference—was whether or not the person got paid.
This chapter becomes a challenge to me, then. I see myself as an amateur, in this sense, and I’m not sure that I want to make the leap to being a professional.
I’m also not sure if that’s just fear speaking.
If this chapter had appeared earlier in the book, I might have stopped reading, content with my position on Seth’s failure/hack/amateur/professional grid. Part of me wants to stop reading now; there’s no shame in deciding that it’s not for me.
But I’ll keep reading, for two reasons: first, at this point in the book I have been grappling with the choice, and I’ve found that to be helpful; and, second, even if I decide to remain an amateur, there’s a lot to learn from the professional.
This series is meant to capture my thoughts as I work through Seth Godin’s The Practice. It’s a book with over 200 (very short) chapters, which I hope to work through and, I further hope, to implement over time.
If you’re interested in more of Godin’s ideas, or my thoughts about them, you can check out this collection of posts. Note that if you’re more interested in the former, you should probably get Godin’s book and read it yourself; my notes will be both incomplete and idiosyncratic, and my thoughts will relate to my own experience.
But if my thoughts resonate with you, or if you think I’m just silly, I welcome your comments.