Seth Godin on business ethics

“The happy theory of business ethics is this: do the right thing and you will also maximize your long-term profit…

The unhappy theory of business ethics is this: you have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit…

It comes down to this: only people can have ethics… You either do work you are proud of, or you work to make the maximum amount of money.”

Seth Godin

Ben Pieratt on work

“For some people, work is personal.”

Ben Pieratt

I’ve enjoyed reading a few of this guy’s posts. Here’s another quote, i resonate with the “within the larger context of designing a business” thing:

“I still spend a fair amount of time pushing pixels and worrying about grids, but its all within the larger context of building a business, designing a business.”

Haruki Murakami on assholes

“Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.”

Haruki Murakami

I don’t know if I agree… I can get myself further by caring for myself, I think. Balance there, though. Self pity, in my experience, is like a dormant volcano you want to just skirt the edges of, not fall down into.

Merlin Mann on doing a better do

“I want to become an evangelist for hard work and editing, and I want to get to a place where it shows in everything that I do, make, and share. Yes, even if it makes me sound like a fancy guy who just doesn’t get it. Fuck it.”

Merlin Mann

One of the better short reads on why we feel this way, those of us who feel it, and why we care so much about the quality of our dick jokes.