David Gordon's Catalog Game
David talking about making a list of qualities he wanted in his job, and he compared it to Abe's cookie counter analogy - I want to choose this one and I want to choose that one. But he realized that the analogy didn't really work for him, because someone else picked the ingredients and baked the cookies, and he wants to deliberately create his perfect job.
So he created a new, improved analogy. It is like having a catalog of component parts of the job "system," and like picking the parts of the computer system you want, you can flip through the pages and pick the parts of the job system you want. Here's the page on job relationships, and here's the part about the feedback you get from your fellow workers and supervisors and clients, and here's the part about the kind of clients you have, and here's the part about the kinds of work that you do and how self-directed it all is, and here's the part on what hours you work, how much vacation you get and how much freedom you have in deciding those hours and vacations, and here's the section on how much you get paid, and how, and what the additional benefits are.
And like a computer system, you never get it done! If next week somebody has an idea that you like about how your job system could work better, you can always trade up for a new, improved part or add an additional peripheral that didn't even exist in your catalog at the time you designed the original system.
And like computers, if you get tired of expanding the current job system, you can always completely give away the current system, and replace it with a new model that has entirely different basic components that better serve your current needs.
And at some point, you can switch platforms entirely, and get the flexibility of self-motivated job system where you are the boss, and the energy vortex begins in your location rather than being part of an already established network!
I love this new idea. You are just building systems from component parts in a catalog, ever interchangeable and upgradable! And you never get it done. There are always new capabilities and dynamic improvements to try out and play with and master!
And this game would work for new relationships, better health or whatever else you are wanting to create, too! Thanks, David, for a great, flexible, creative game for us to play!