The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?

by Seth Godin

It’s entirely possible to use the productivity of our economy to try to insulate ourselves from the pain of uncertainty. We can demand that our politicians deliver steady work in a factory setting, and we can scream for fair pay in exchange for our mind-numbing labor. We can fight to go back to trading money for numbness. The best part of being human doesn’t seek out numbness. And today, right now, our economy rewards us for being artists, no longer hypnotized, no longer cogs, no longer insulated from one another and ourselves. We have the opportunity to go backward if we choose. We can try to prop up failing industries, legislate and calcify our way into the notion of a day’s work for a day’s pay. Or we can choose a different path, one where we willingly expose ourselves to the apparent insecurity and risk of emotional labor, of creating breakthroughs instead of reliably lowering the price of the banal.