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Do What You Love: And Other Lies About Success and Happiness Hardcover – August 11, 2015

by Miya Tokumitsu (Author)

4.2 67 ratings

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The American claim that we should love and be passionate about our job may sound uplifting, or at least, harmless, but Do What You Love exposes the tangible damages such rhetoric has leveled upon contemporary society.

Do you love what you do?

This mantra is so often repeated that it has become part of the American ethos. Find a career that you’re passionate about. Work hard and maintain a good attitude, be persistent, and all good things will come to you: wealth (or at least material comfort), job satisfaction, a sense of self-worth, and the happiness that comes from achieving success in a profession that you have chosen and find fulfilling.

Except, as this penetrating, fact-filled book reveals, most of these ideas are lies, and have been co-opted by corporate interests as a way to pay their employees as little as possible, and to strip away the hard-won benefits and protections that wage earners used to enjoy. After all, if you truly love what you do, pedestrian concerns about salary, health care, and retirement savings can take a back seat. Passion and devotion are what matter. Therefore, unpaid internships abound (they’re opportunities!), full-time positions are being replaced by freelance and contract work (it’s flexible!), and the amount of debt that one has to incur even to get in the game can be crippling.

Both a rallying cry for a disempowered workforce to reclaim its footing on the economic ladder, and an eye-opening exposé of the ways that “doing what you love” can actually make your goals less achievable, this compact, insightful, and brilliantly argued call-to-arms might just spark a much-needed workplace revolution.

Print length

192 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Regan Arts.
Publication date

August 11, 2015
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.8 x 7.5 inches
ISBN-10

1941393470
ISBN-13

978-1941393475
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Lowest Pricein this set of productsThis item:
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Jonathan Malesic
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Editorial Reviews

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“Miya Tokumitsu’s short, sharp and timely new book, stabs plenty of pins into today’s increasingly freelance economy.” -- Joanna Scutts ― Monterey County Now

“Tokumitsu’s book is dangerous to the establishment...her critique of Do What You Love gives workers the language to talk back.” -- Amien Essif ― ALTERNET

About the Author

A former Fulbright scholar, Miya Tokumitsu holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Regan Arts. (August 11, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1941393470
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1941393475
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.8 x 7.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #544,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #21 in Unemployment
- #240 in Labor & Industrial Relations (Books)
- #327 in Labor & Industrial Economic Relations (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 67 ratings

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4.2 out of 5

67 global ratings

5 star		61%
4 star		18%
3 star		12%
2 star		4%
1 star		6%

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An explanation for the exploitative workplace

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 20, 2016

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This book is actually not about taking the belief of "Following your passion" and how that is a personal misnomer. What this book is however, is a look into is how the "Follow your passion" mantra has been co-opted as a way for companies to exploit workers into poorer and poorer conditions. This is by no means a screed and I think lends a perspective into how certain personal attitudes have infected the workplace.

8 people found this helpful

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Robert Olson

Not Recommended For The Uninitiated

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 2, 2015

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I agree with a lot of what Tokumistu has written about here and elsewhere, but I feel like the book was a big let down. For one thing I gather that Tokumistu has dedicated a lot of time to researching for the book. The number of citations, which has the stink of ivory tower all over it, clearly demonstrate someone who is fully invested in her topic. However, Tokumitsu stops short several times of fully engaging the reader in a deeper understanding.

For example when writing about the problems of internships and adjunct professors (perhaps some recent experiences here?) there is a lot of talk about how poorly people are being treated and how the drive to pay people less is playing out among students and faculty alike. Yet the argument lies only on the merits of how people are being treated when I was left wondering, "Well, how many people are we talking about exactly? Where is the data?"

The book reads more like a manifesto. A cry for society to change its ways and revolutionize social conditions. For members of the choir I'm sure that the Bible is a good read, although the problem faced by passionate people like Tokumitsu is that the vast majority of people in the United States have not sympathy for problems of inequality.

In the US, even during the not-so-Great Recession, an overwhelming majority of people rested comfortably in their beds while 12% of the population went unemployed. While the numbers of people who lost their jobs were quite high, 88% of the country will never be able to fully sympathize with the minority. Further to the point when the 99% rallied in New York no one in the US blinked for the same reasons that the Great Recession didn't sway people: because the majority feel safe and secure.

It is not news that insane things are happening, but what I had hoped to hear was how far down the rabbit hole we have travelled. That on some level we have reached critical mass and are seeing, not just trends, but push-back. Without data to convince people that they are not a minority - that they have a group to belong to - Tokumitsu's pleas ring rather hollow.

Of interest are her brief discussions of poverty and how much they work in comparison to other classes. Yet one wonders if or even how the poverty burdened will find time to digest this manifesto. While the people like you and I who might read this material are more likely to be in a much better position and probably less likely to do anything about our current circumstances.

All-in-all if you are looking for an introduction to the problems our economy and social structures are facing I think this book can give you a good start. However, if you are well versed in the plights of modern day woes I do not see the benefit to reading a pleading summary of the day's events. While I agree that things are tough and should be changed my expectations for digging deeper into the perils that challenge us were sadly disappointed. I am giving this book a 3/5 mainly because the topic is important and should be discussed, but points off for only going skin deep.

16 people found this helpful

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voracious

Strong medicine and maybe not what you think

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 4, 2015

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For want of time I don't review much on Amazon, but this book deserves a wide audience, especially among the young. Every high school senior should read it as an antidote to the poison they've already taken from the wider culture, which stands ready to give them more, vigorously, and soon. Tokomitsu's is the commencement speech they will otherwise not hear.

DWYL refutes the worthless follow-your-bliss counsel. Such an "approach" only works for people whose bliss already follows them everywhere, thanks to family money or to the labor of lower-class workers. Most employees understand this and prefer to distract themselves from the knowledge, usually by trying to get promoted, buying something, or both.

But neither does the book, as its packaging might suggest, offer Oprah-style advice on how to *really* find success and happiness on the job. Instead, readers get a well-researched understanding of why labor as structured now -- hierarchical, exploitative, fundamentally dishonest -- cannot offer such rewards. It may never, although Tokumitsu offers ideas for change.

39 people found this helpful

Helpful

Thoughtworks

and she offers thought-provoking insight in a great many types of workplaces in our society

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 10, 2015

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I thought this might be a sort of quick-read, self-help type of book, but there is a lot of important truth told in this little book. The author seems well-read on the subject, and she offers thought-provoking insight in a great many types of workplaces in our society, all of them an attempt to show the true cost of the American workforce being pitted against one another in the name of loving one's work. A sample, "Neoliberal education reform rationalizes the rich and complex craft of primary-school teaching into something that can be measured according to manager-determined rubrics. in the name of accountability, standardized-testing corporations, test-prep corporations, and an apparatus of reformer-mangers feed on the teaching profession, inserting layers of bureaucracy staffed by many who have never taught or who have done so only briefly."

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Interesting Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 22, 2016

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Thought provoking book.

Junipertree

Telling us what we already know

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 19, 2016

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This book isn't going to tell you anything you don't already know if you're reading the newspaper. Let me sum it up for you: the workers are being exploited, rise up against the capitalist work culture. Bam, now you don't need to read it. It's socialism 101.

I'm a socialist myself, but even I couldn't take the heavy-handed rhetoric. This book is only going to preach to the choir. It's not going to convince anyone who's right-leaning. If the author is so anti-capitalist, then why did she write a book that such an obvious cash-grab? You can find all of this information easily for free online. Don't waste your money on this book, unless you want to be the very kind of wasteful, mindless consumer this book is preaching against.

Rafael

Como amar o que você faz, de forma correta

Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on April 4, 2017

Verified Purchase

Honestamente, quando uma pessoa faz algo que ama e não recebe o que é justo, o problema pode não estar nas "condições de mercado". Esse livro é bom para demonstrar como sonhos podem virar pesadelos, e não só isso, mas também demonstrar que muitos se ocupam em vender as pessoas não seus sonhos, mas apenas o caminho dos seus sonhos, o que no fim só acumula problemas para o pobre sonhador.

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Cliente Amazon

Clever and interesting book

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on March 7, 2017

Verified Purchase

It has an interesting and solid point of view and it's quite well explained. A must read book. I recommend it.

Chris W.

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 16, 2015

Verified Purchase

Good book. Well written, well researched, and enjoyable.

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