Thanks for the insightful description of the resolution of a value dilemma. I'm curious about whether it was intended to be an example of Brian Whetten's fifth stage of psychological development, Receiving. If so, I didn't see in the story the kind of psychological development that seems to exemplify Receiving: "They’re able to consciously engage in psychological development to shift what they find relevant, so as to find better technical and moral framings for their problems."
Rohan definitely reframed the structure of the work he wanted to do, and at what level of compensation and time commitment, so that it better balanced his professional and personal aspirations for providing value. But I didn't see any explicit discussion of him consciously changing his values, which seems to be the hallmark of stage five, if I understand it correctly.
I'm intensely curious about this because in my experience, and from my reading about clashing value systems, changing one's values seems inherently spontaneous, inspired, and UNconscious. So, I'm eager to hear about approaches claiming to be able to change one's values consciously, when to me it seems as difficult as willing oneself to feel inspiration.
To be clear, once one has been inspired to change one's values, one can certainly will oneself to develop habits that will more deeply entrench such values. It is also commonplace to will oneself to try to appreciate something that feels initially off putting, eg, exposing oneself to abstract art, or learning to appreciate a food or drink that is initially distasteful. But ultimately, whether such openness and exposure to different values CHANGES one's values is beyond one's will. The emergence of the new value or revaluation is spontaneous.
Thus, the ending of the story of Rohan seemed to leave him with the same value framework as he began with. The only transformation was, not one of values, but of his approach to structuring potential jobs to better balance such values. Or did I miss some subtle revaluation of Rohan's values?
Thanks for the reading the essay!! :) You’ve raised a lot of good points, and pointed out some real holes within the essay’s structure.
The context is that I wrote it for a very specific friend who already shares a lot background context with me. My goal was to provide a diagnosis of the competing pressures inside someone like the protagonist’s head. So the essay simply omits substantial details/nuance of the sort you’re pointing out, to the extent I have answers for them. That’s partly why there isn’t a clean resolution at the end, and it feels sort of abrupt. Or it makes assertions and leaps without further treatment.
haha tbh I didn’t expect this essay to get as much attention as it did. Or really any attention at all for that matter.
But a lot of people have pointed out and asked about what you’re also pointing at. I’m dealing with some health stuff at the moment. But you and others have inspired me to write more sequels to this essay once I finish my current slate of drafts!! Please watch this space! :)
I hope your health issues are resolved quickly and I look forward to your further exploration of stage five. I think you did a great job of capturing the need to feel inspired by what one is working on or towards, and how much some of us struggle if our professional work no longer inspires us. I've switched careers four times (SW Eng, Attorney, IT Analyst, Design Thinker) because I no longer felt inspired by my work. I'd love it if stage 5 offered a way to conscious change our values and our inspirations.
This isn't _exactly_ what you're looking for. But I'm curious if you'd find the following podcast episodes with my executive coach Brian Whetten generative. Mostly because coaching from Brian has had a transformative impact on my own being.
I enjoyed the video, especially what I perceived as a U-turn in emphasis at about the 94 minute mark. (I made a transcript of it: https://www.youtube-transcript.io/videos?id=POi2ltt8Inc .) Suddenly Brian emphasizes the central importance of surrender, especially surrender within the context of a supporting container. This emphasis on surrender seems the opposite of agency and conscious development of new values. Brian's (emotional) discussion of suffering and surrender resonated much more deeply with me than the first part of the video.
His labelling the 5th stage "Receiving" makes much more sense to me now. Perhaps it would be even better to call the 5th stage "Surrendering", and the magic quadrant "Surrendering Sage" instead of "Agentic Sage". It fits well with how I understand inspiration and aspiration, where we open ourselves to something beyond our personal agency, which I emphasized in my initial comment on the story of Rohan.
I myself am working on the subject of philosophy of inspiration, inspired in large part by the psychologist Todd Thrash's influential psychology of inspiration. I discuss some aspects of his framework and it's application here: https://medium.com/@ironick/inspirational-freedom-44010d654e6a
Thanks for the insightful description of the resolution of a value dilemma. I'm curious about whether it was intended to be an example of Brian Whetten's fifth stage of psychological development, Receiving. If so, I didn't see in the story the kind of psychological development that seems to exemplify Receiving: "They’re able to consciously engage in psychological development to shift what they find relevant, so as to find better technical and moral framings for their problems."
Rohan definitely reframed the structure of the work he wanted to do, and at what level of compensation and time commitment, so that it better balanced his professional and personal aspirations for providing value. But I didn't see any explicit discussion of him consciously changing his values, which seems to be the hallmark of stage five, if I understand it correctly.
I'm intensely curious about this because in my experience, and from my reading about clashing value systems, changing one's values seems inherently spontaneous, inspired, and UNconscious. So, I'm eager to hear about approaches claiming to be able to change one's values consciously, when to me it seems as difficult as willing oneself to feel inspiration.
To be clear, once one has been inspired to change one's values, one can certainly will oneself to develop habits that will more deeply entrench such values. It is also commonplace to will oneself to try to appreciate something that feels initially off putting, eg, exposing oneself to abstract art, or learning to appreciate a food or drink that is initially distasteful. But ultimately, whether such openness and exposure to different values CHANGES one's values is beyond one's will. The emergence of the new value or revaluation is spontaneous.
Thus, the ending of the story of Rohan seemed to leave him with the same value framework as he began with. The only transformation was, not one of values, but of his approach to structuring potential jobs to better balance such values. Or did I miss some subtle revaluation of Rohan's values?
Thanks for the reading the essay!! :) You’ve raised a lot of good points, and pointed out some real holes within the essay’s structure.
The context is that I wrote it for a very specific friend who already shares a lot background context with me. My goal was to provide a diagnosis of the competing pressures inside someone like the protagonist’s head. So the essay simply omits substantial details/nuance of the sort you’re pointing out, to the extent I have answers for them. That’s partly why there isn’t a clean resolution at the end, and it feels sort of abrupt. Or it makes assertions and leaps without further treatment.
haha tbh I didn’t expect this essay to get as much attention as it did. Or really any attention at all for that matter.
But a lot of people have pointed out and asked about what you’re also pointing at. I’m dealing with some health stuff at the moment. But you and others have inspired me to write more sequels to this essay once I finish my current slate of drafts!! Please watch this space! :)
I hope your health issues are resolved quickly and I look forward to your further exploration of stage five. I think you did a great job of capturing the need to feel inspired by what one is working on or towards, and how much some of us struggle if our professional work no longer inspires us. I've switched careers four times (SW Eng, Attorney, IT Analyst, Design Thinker) because I no longer felt inspired by my work. I'd love it if stage 5 offered a way to conscious change our values and our inspirations.
Thank you!!
This isn't _exactly_ what you're looking for. But I'm curious if you'd find the following podcast episodes with my executive coach Brian Whetten generative. Mostly because coaching from Brian has had a transformative impact on my own being.
https://podcast.scottbritton.me/p/how-to-become-an-agentic-sage-brian-whetten
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Gp8mF2oBY
I enjoyed the video, especially what I perceived as a U-turn in emphasis at about the 94 minute mark. (I made a transcript of it: https://www.youtube-transcript.io/videos?id=POi2ltt8Inc .) Suddenly Brian emphasizes the central importance of surrender, especially surrender within the context of a supporting container. This emphasis on surrender seems the opposite of agency and conscious development of new values. Brian's (emotional) discussion of suffering and surrender resonated much more deeply with me than the first part of the video.
His labelling the 5th stage "Receiving" makes much more sense to me now. Perhaps it would be even better to call the 5th stage "Surrendering", and the magic quadrant "Surrendering Sage" instead of "Agentic Sage". It fits well with how I understand inspiration and aspiration, where we open ourselves to something beyond our personal agency, which I emphasized in my initial comment on the story of Rohan.
I myself am working on the subject of philosophy of inspiration, inspired in large part by the psychologist Todd Thrash's influential psychology of inspiration. I discuss some aspects of his framework and it's application here: https://medium.com/@ironick/inspirational-freedom-44010d654e6a
Thanks for the pointer!! Will check it out! :)