Notes

Chapter 2: Passion Is Rare

1. Roadtrip Nation, http://roadtripnation.com. If you click on the “Watch” link, you can browse the PBS series by season, and within each season browse each episode by the interview subjects.

2. Interview with Ira Glass, Roadtrip Nation Online Episode Archive, 2005, http://roadtripnation.com/IraGlass.

3. Interview with Andrew Steele, Roadtrip Nation Online Episode Archive, 2005, http://roadtripnation.com/AndrewSteele.

4. Interview with Al Merrick, Roadtrip Nation Online Episode Archive, 2004, http://roadtripnation.com/AlMerrick.

5. Interview with William Morris, Roadtrip Nation Online Episode Archive, 2006, http://roadtripnation.com/WilliamMorris.

6. Vallerand, Blanchard, Mageau et al., “Les passions de l’âme: On Obsessive and Harmonious Passion,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85, no. 4 (2003): 756–67.

7. Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin, et al., “Jobs, Careers, and Callings: People’s Relations to Their Work,” Journal of Research in Personality 31 (1997): 21–33.

8. See the following for an academic overview: Deci and Ryan, “The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior,” Psychological Inquiry 11 (2000): 227–68. For more popular coverage, see Daniel Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Riverhead, 2009), or the official website for the theory: http://www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT/.

Chapter 3: Passion Is Dangerous

1. Daniel H. Pink, “What Happened to Your Parachute?” FastCompany.com, August 31, 1999, http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/27/bolles.html.

2. Google Books Ngram Viewer, http://books.google.com/ngrams.

3. Arnett, “Oh, Grow Up! Generational Grumbling and the New Life Stage of Emerging Adulthood—Commentary on Trzesniewski & Donnellan (2010),” Perspectives on Psychological Science 5, no. 1 (2010): 89–92. See section titled “Slackers or Seekers of Identity-Based Work?” for the quote and related discussion.

4. Julianne Pepitone, “U.S. job satisfaction hits 22-year low,” CNNMoney.com, January 5, 2010, http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/05/news/economy/job_satisfaction_report/.

5. Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner, Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties (New York: Tarcher, 2001).

6. Interview with Peter Travers, Roadtrip Nation Online Video Archive, 2006, http://roadtripnation.com/PeterTravers.

Chapter 4: The Clarity of the Craftsman

1. George Graham, “The Graham Weekly Album Review #1551: Jordan Tice: Long Story,” George Graham’s Weekly Album Reviews, March 11, 1999, http://georgegraham.com/reviews/tice.html.

2. Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life (New York: Scribner, 2007).

3. “An Hour with Steve Martin” (originally aired on PBS, December 12, 2007), available online at: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/8831.

4. Steve Martin, “Being Funny: How the pathbreaking comedian got his act together,” Smithsonian, February 2008, available online at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/funny-martin-200802.html.

5. Calvin Newport, “The Steve Martin Method: A Master Comedian’s Advice for Becoming Famous,” Study Hacks (blog), February 1, 2008, http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/02/01/the-steve-martin-method-a-master-comedians-advice-for-becoming-famous/.

6. Po Bronson, “What Should I Do with My Life?” FastCompany.com, December 31, 2002, http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/66/mylife.html.

7. Po Bronson, What Should I Do With My Life: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question (New York: Random House, 2002).

Chapter 5: The Power of Career Capital

1. “Ira Glass on Storytelling, part 3 and 4,” YouTube video, 5:20, video courtesy of Current TV, uploaded by “PRI” on August 18, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23U7U2aUY.

2. Kelly Slater, “Al Merrick Talks Sleds,” Channel Island Surfboards (blog), January 6, 2011, http://cisurfboards.com/blog/2011/al-merrick-talks-sleds/.

3. Emily Bazelon, “The Self-Employed Depression,” New York Times Magazine, June 7, 2009, page MM38, available online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/magazine/07unemployed-t.html.

4. Pamela Slim, Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur (New York: Portfolio Hardcover, 2009).

5. Pamela Slim, “Rebuild Your Backbone. Because you are good enough, smart enough, and doggonit, people like you,” Escape From Cubicle Nation (author’s website), http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/rebuild-your-backbone-because-you-are-good-enough-smart-enough-and-doggonit-people-like-you/.

6. Stephen Regenold, “A Retreat Groomed to Sate a Need to Ski,” New York Times, June 5, 2009, C34, available online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/greathomesanddestinations/05Away.html.

7. For more details on the dangers of this particular trap, see Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t (New York: Warner Business Books, 2007).

Chapter 6: The Career Capitalists

1. “Salon Media Circus,” Salon.com, October 1997. Between the research and editing phases of this book, the online version of this column seems to have been taken offline. It was originally available at: http://www.salon.com/media/1997/10/29money.html.

Chapter 7: Becoming a Craftsman

1. Djakow, Petrowski, and Rudik, Psychologie des Schachspiels [Psychology of Chess] (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1927).

2. Charness, Tuffiash, Krampe, et al., “The Role of Deliberate Practice in Chess Expertise,” Applied Cognitive Psychology 19, no. 2 (2005): 151–65.

3. Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008).

4. http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html.

5. Ericsson and Lehmann, “Expert and Exceptional Performance: Evidence of Maximal Adaptation to Task Constraints,” Annual Review of Psychology 47 (1996): 273–305.

6. Ericsson, Anders K. “Expert Performance and Deliberate Practice,” http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html.

7. Geoff Colvin, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else (New York: Portfolio Hardcover, 2008).

8. Geoff Colvin, “Why talent is overrated,” CNNMoney.com, October 21, 2008 (originally appeared in Fortune), http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/21/magazines/fortune/talent_colvin.fortune/index.htm.

Chapter 8: The Dream-Job Elixir

1. Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Riverhead Hardcover, 2009).

2. DeCharms, “Personal Causation Training in the Schools,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2, no. 2 (1972): 95–112.

3. “ROWE Business Case,” Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) website, http://gorowe.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ROWE-Business-Case.pdf.

Chapter 11: Avoiding the Control Freaks

1. “Derek Sivers: How to start a movement,” TED.com, video posted online April 2010, http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html.

Chapter 12: The Meaningful Life of Pardis Sabeti

1. “Pardis Sabeti: Expert Q & A,” NOVA ScienceNOW, posted July 7, 2008, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/sabeti-genetics-qa.html.

Chapter 13: Missions Require Capital

1. Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation (New York: Riverhead Hardcover, 2010).

2. Sabeti, Reich, Higgens, et al., “Detecting recent positive selection in the human genome from haplotype structure,” Nature 419 no. 6909 (2002): 832–837.

Chapter 14: Missions Require Little Bets

1. Kirk and Jason hated this name, as it goes against the tenets of archaeology to assign financial value to artifacts. They much preferred their original suggestion of Artifact or Fiction. In an ironic twist, after airing just three episodes of the first season, the Discovery Channel was sued by an individual who claimed to own the rights to American Treasure. They pulled the series from the air that summer and planned to re-air it the following summer, this time using Kirk and Jason’s original title suggestion.

2. Peter Sims, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries (New York: Free Press, 2011).

Chapter 15: Missions Require Marketing

1. Seth Godin, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (New York: Portfolio Hardcover, 2003).

2. Seth Godin, “In Praise of the Purple Cow,” FastCompany.com, January 31, 2003, http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/67/purplecow.html.

3. Chad Fowler, My Job Went to India: 52 Ways to Save Your Job (Pragmatic Programmers) (Raleigh, NC: Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2005).

Conclusion

1. The necessity and difficulty of these problem sets in learning mathematics is one of the reservations I have about the growing self-education movement. Without someone to grade your problem-set results—a grade that might play a big role in what options are available to you in the future—it’s hard to imagine repeatedly pushing yourself through the dozens of hours of strain required to get yourself to answers, and in turn experience substantial skill growth.

2. Alan Lightman, Einstein’s Dreams [paperback] (New York: Vintage, 2004).

So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
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