Just before the pandemic, Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing changed how I thought about my relationship to work, productivity, and how I was spending my time.
It’s impossible to sum up the entire book in a sentence—I recommend reading the whole thing or at least the text of the talk she adapted it from. But in it, Odell explores how productivity culture has corrupted our broader culture, particularly in the U.S., and argues for recapturing our own attention. In my mind, it was a much needed corrective to our pervasive hustle culture, one that valorizes giving ourselves over completely to work and turns “burnout” into a badge of honor.
The book came out the same month I stopped working at Lifehacker, a site about, well, hacking every facet of your life. While I wrote about personal finance there, the site required us to publish multiple stories a day, and I was in constant conversations and planning meetings with my team about the “right” way to do just about everything. Once, we posted an article about how everyone was breathing incorrectly, or at least not optimally, if that gives you a sense of the vibe. I still think about it often.
Odell’s words were a balm to me then, as I tried to get a little distance from the Lifehacker mentality. (Absolutely no shade to the site or my coworkers, I enjoyed working there. But the constant intake of content telling me I needed to do X, Y, and Z things differently really started to mess with my head after a while.) I even gifted copies of How to Do Nothing to multiple family members that Christmas.
Up until that point in my life, I always considered myself ambitious. Lean In came out while I was in college, and while I didn’t subscribe to Sheryl Sandberg’s entire worldview even then, I was excited to start my journalism career and make a name for myself. But after leaving Lifehacker, I wanted more than ever to put some distance between my work and my life. I felt let down and disillusioned with where my ambition had gotten me. Ambition and productivity aren’t synonymous, but they are often treated as such in our work culture. Doing nothing sounded pretty nice.
Then Covid-19 hit, and it felt like there was a real shift in how we thought about work and productivity. We acknowledged the difficulties many people, especially parents and other caregivers, were having in the pre-pandemic workplace and talked seriously about instituting reforms. “Quiet ambition,” “languishing,” and “soft life” permeated the discourse. Naively, it kind of seemed like we might really be moving toward changing work culture.
And then…things just kind of went back to the way they were, as if this worldwide reckoning had never happened. CEOs got tired of offering employees flexibility; pride for the grind came roaring back. Now, tech bros boast about their unsustainable work schedules and everyone else is too scared of layoffs to make much of a fuss.
Naturally, there’s been widespread resistance, even resentment, to this. Many of us are tired, we’re overscheduled, and we feel like we can’t take a break. “Burnout” feminism seems to be taking the place of the Girlboss variety, Alice Robb writes for Bloomberg. And with AI and all the talk of the impending white collar job apocalypse, it’s a pretty weird time to feel ambitious about your career in a Lean In-type of way. The entire workplace paradigm we grew up in and planned for seems to be collapsing; what is there to be ambitious about?
The growing movement to restrict women to the home is another manifestation of the backlash. Using our understandable frustrations with the corporate grind, we’re encouraged to give it all up and stay barefoot in the kitchen, a baby on our hip. Rather than being ambitious at work, we should have ambitions to be tradwives or stay-at-home girlfriends or whatever the hell infantilizing nickname du jour they come up with. Who needs a dream job when you can have your dream family instead?
It’s all pretty exhausting. I have no ambitions of being a tradwife, just like I have no ambitions to be a CEO—or even a middle manager. But I have plenty of other ambitions. I want to do good work that I’m proud of, with people I like, and be able to provide a good life for my family. I want to hangout with my husband and my cat every day, practice yoga, cook some interesting meals, and read a good book. Occasionally, I would like to do nothing.
I’ve referenced a series I wrote on ambition many times since January 2023, when I first published it while working at Fortune, and it’s interesting to read now what I wrote then, since leaving traditional media and starting to freelance full time. I do actually feel much more fulfilled in my day to day, and much more ambitious now than I was back then. These days, I know what I’m capable of. I’m eager to take on new projects, learn new skills, and make the most of my time in the ways I want to.
I love working on The Purse, and I know I’m incredibly lucky that Lindsey brought me on. It’s also so much harder than having a comfy full-time job. I’m ambitious about what we’re doing, but I don’t expect anyone else to be. For all of those who aspire to the C-Suite, I salute you. And if your ambitions lie in the home, I want that for you, too. There’s no single way to be ambitious, nor is any person ambitious in one single way. Personally, I am ambitious in my career and in my desire to sleep eight hours every night. I think I can manage both.
- Alicia
Ambition in the news
- This article was inspired by a conversation we were having in Slack after reading Alice Robb’s recent piece in Bloomberg, “Why ‘Burnout’ Feminism Is Replacing the Girlboss, Lean In Era.”
- I didn’t get into this in my essay, but another inspiration for covering this is the report of the growing “ambition” gap between men and women at work.
- And we do worry about what it means financially when women aren’t ambitious in the ways Corporate America approves of.
- Friend of The Purse Corinne Low wrote an interesting op-ed about workplace boundaries a few months ago.
- My 2023 series on ambition included stories on wintering, quiet ambition, and career breaks. I also wrote about a “middling” career here.
- Lindsey has been listening to The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler (apologies that she can’t remember which Purse reader recommended it). As someone who has felt shame about her perfectionist tendencies, Lindsey says it feels like hearing the best pep talk from a very wise friend.
- Odell’s follow-up book, Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock, examines the problem of time scarcity and encourages us to rethink what making “good” use of it entails.
What else we’re talking about
- The fun New York salary roundup sparked a lot of chatter among the fashion Substacker community after one anonymous style writer shared her annual income of $275k. I loved the response from Totally Recommend, “The Fashion Newsletter Playbook,” which breaks down how these newsletter writers actually make money. Her piece has a heck of an ending! (And I shared my thoughts on affiliate links in the comments.) -Lindsey
- I’m a Rebecca Solnit fangirl so I loved her recent interview in The New York Times in which she says: “You really have to hold both: that there’s still a lot to hope for and a lot to mourn, and those things can exist at the same time. You can be kind of heartbroken and exhilarated about climate and keep doing the work.” - Alicia
- Speaking of salary roundups, New York has been doing those income stories every couple of decades, the last time in 2005. I thought it was interesting that in the last edition, no one was anonymous! It got me wondering: Maybe as a society, we’re not actually more comfortable talking openly about taboo money topics than a few decades ago. It used to be that publications pretty much required you to share your full name if you were going to be quoted. Those rules are loosening, for better or worse. Obviously, I’m someone who has benefitted from people anonymously sharing their money stories, so I’m not being critical. I just find the whole thing very interesting! -Lindsey
- The best news I heard this week is that Kacey Musgraves is coming out with a new album! Golden Hour and Deeper Well are all-timers for me, and I’m excited it seems like she’s going a little more country on this one. - Alicia (Lindsey co-signs this!)
On our radar
- The first edition of Meal Prep goes out tomorrow—hopefully it will provide some inspo for your weekend grocery shopping!
- I am very excited for the TV-adaptation of Margo’s Got Money Troubles, which comes out on AppleTV next month. I loved the book so much, and the cast for this series is just amazing. Should we do a Purse watch party? -Lindsey
TikTok of the week
The Purse is on TikTok, and so is Alicia!
@aliciatalksmoney More workers are taking emergency hardship withdrawals from their 401(s), according to Vanguard—never a good sign for the economy. Increasing usage of auto-enrollment and recent expansions of the reasons to legally make hardship withdrawals are two factors. #economy #retirement #401k #vanguard ♬ original sound - Alicia Adamczyk
Comment of the week
“Really respect your commitment to supporting your child’s birth mother and thoughtful acknowledgement of privilege.”
- Nancy on “Home Economics No. 48: A married mother of 2 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who owns a tiny cabin resort.” Join the convo!
Stats of the week
74% of parents with children at home are considering, or would consider, starting to financially plan to help their kids buy a home.
Among those parents, 29% say helping them buy a home is more important than helping them pay for college; 55% say it’s equally important.
- Northwestern Mutual’s 2026 Planning & Progress report
What else we published on The Purse this week
We forgot to link Monday’s and Tuesday’s stories in Wednesday’s newsletters, so please check them out! Lindsey really wants to know what something in your budget that you don’t want to share!
Lindsey Stanberry
Alicia Adamczyk
Lindsey Stanberry
Alicia Adamczyk
Best money we spent this week
- I didn’t do much this week! But Chris and I are having a date night Saturday that includes tickets to a jazz show, which I’m really looking forward to! (~$75) - Alicia
- I ran around like a crazy person trying to get ready for SXSW, and that included spending $1 million dollars at Sephora. I also bought new sneakers in Purse brand colors, and the nice sales guy at the Adidas store in Soho humored me and followed The Purse on Instagram. ($100). -Lindsey
