All right, Jesse, what's our first question here? - All right, first question is from Little Better Than Average. In the era of quiet quitting, the new normal is to just do the bare minimum. Does this mean that showing even a little bit of initiative and willingness to do more important work can now set you apart from others?

- I have two parts to my answer here. I mean, first, let me just address this idea that we're in an era of quiet quitting, where quiet quitting is so ubiquitous that it's just assumed that most people around you are doing this. That, of course, is nonsense. The thing about internet movements is that because they're leveraging the amplification effects of internet distributed and algorithmic curation, they have a way for those who are plugged into it, they have a way of making internet trends seeming universal.

Everyone is doing this. Everyone is feeling this. We see this on topic after topic, right? So, like, you're plugged into, let's say you're plugged into med Twitter during the COVID pandemic. Suddenly in your mind, like, all of these particular possible terrible things around COVID are happening everywhere. And it's only by the grace of God you've survived being outside for 10 minutes because the internet makes these things seem totalizing.

Let's say you're in political Twitter, you're really plugged in the conservative Twitter, and it makes it feel like, or independent Twitter, it makes it feel like essentially 80% of the populace has been canceled. And there's almost no one left, and there's marauding bands of cancelers, and you're a day away from it, 'cause it totalizes.

It makes it seem like this is happening everywhere. Well, same thing for a trend like quiet quitting. I'm sure the actual number of people who would say, "I am doing this, "I'm purposely pulling back," is a relatively small percentage, and has no real large effect on, let's say, the dynamics of your particular workplace.

But the internet, if you're plugged into, let's say, TikTok, makes it seem like everyone is doing this. So that's just a side commentary on internet movements. That's not to say, by the way, that it's not important. I think internet movements play a good signaling purpose. Like quiet quitting's importance is not that, "Oh my God, everyone's doing this now.

"What's gonna happen to the economy?" Because of course, that's not what's happening. It's importance is there's a real signal that's being amplified here. So there's an actual unease or dis-ease that this particular generation is having with work as they're trying to figure out the role of work in their life.

That signal's important, and it's important to amplify that signal. So that's where internet movements are important, is that they amplify signals that might be meaningful to shifts happening in the culture, but we have to be careful because the tendency or human wiring is to receive it as if this thing is happening universally.

So you can be worried about COVID without thinking that you're probably gonna be the last person alive in your town. You can be worried about things like cancellation, without also having to believe that you're like one day away from it, and most universities have lost half of their faculty to canceling.

So this is the tension of internet movements. They can amplify messages, but that amplification mechanism can deceive us in the feeling like these trends are way more universal than they really are. This is a bit of a divergence, but just a little bit of internet culture chat. So what about this particular question though?

If people are average, do I have to do just a little bit more to stand out? Yes, this is true. And we don't need quiet quitting for this to be an effective dynamic. This is something I've talked about for years, especially if you are entry level in a knowledge work setting.

You do not have to be a superstar on a national scale to quickly get ahead. You have to just be a little bit better than the other young employees at your same employer. And that's not as hard as you think. And in particular, there's two things you can do that will almost always make you stand out.

One, deliver. So people trust you not to drop the ball. If they ask you to do something, you do it. And you get it done by the time you said it's gonna get done. And they don't have to worry about bothering you and sending you follow up messages and saying, sometimes Cal does this, sometimes Cal doesn't.

They trust you're gonna get things done. It's not that hard to do, but it's pretty rare. And that gets noticed. A quick test about whether or not you're succeeding on that particular property. Do the people you work for send lots of follow up emails or chats after they ask you to do something like, hey, how's this going?

Have you done this yet? If so, that means they don't really trust you. If they don't, then you're probably doing this right. Number two, exceed expectations. You don't need to be a perfectionist, but just when you get a task, think like, what do they really need here? What are they really looking for?

Let me make sure I get them what's really gonna help them. Like, what is the, why did they want me to pull out these quotes? Oh, they're trying to put together this marketing message. My boss is putting together this whatever. And so what would really make that succeed? Well, let me pull out some better, let me call up a client.

I know what he needs. And so let me make sure that like, I'm really meeting those expectations. You don't have to be perfectionist. It's not like you're knocking down the park. It's just that we know when Cal turns something in, it's gonna be what we need. It's gonna be good.

It's not gonna be, hey, I did the task, man. Why are you on my back? Like, technically I put some quotes down. You know, like this guy did, this client did ask me where the bathroom is. That is technically a quote. Get off my back, quiet quitting. I'm worth more than my labor.

I'm a human being. Just meet the expectations you're looking for. You do these two things, in about one year, you're gonna, your path is going to angle upwards much quicker. It's not hard, but it's rare. Of course, the question is why, like why bother advancing quickly when you're new to a job?

I mean, isn't that just playing into, you know, the sort of exploitative dynamic of capitalism or something like that? The reason is, is because when you advance quickly, you build career capital. Career capital is what gives you control over your career. Career capital is what's gonna set you free.

Career capital is what's going to allow you to decide what you want your working life to be like, mold it towards what resonates and away from what doesn't. It is the only way to make your job work for you and not the other way around. The things that make great work great is appealing.

It's in demand. You have to have something to offer in return. So if you don't like aspects of work, you don't like this thing or this boss or these hours, you can't complain your way out of it. You usually can't quit your way out of it, but you can career capital your way out of it.

You become so good, you can't be ignored. And then you use those skills as leverage and say, not today, now I'm doing this. Now I'm doing that. I'm going over here. I'm freelancing. I'm renegotiating my contract. I'm going to this company that just specialize on this, fully remote, and I only check in once a week.

All of those types of things that you could use to take control of your career are returns on investment of career capital gathered by you being good and advancing quickly. This is the quickest way to get to career capital if you're new. Be reliable, don't drop the ball, deliver past expectations.

Do those things for a year. Your trajectory goes fast. Just remember, as you build your capital, don't wait too long to invest it. I actually have an article, might be out by the time this comes out, of a quiet quitting article I wrote for The New Yorker that we were fact checking it and copyediting it.

So I think it's ready. So it's probably, it's kind of like a year in review style article. So probably, I don't know, but probably by the time you hear this podcast, I'll have a quiet quitting article you can find at The New Yorker. And if not, then, you know, it'll be like in the new year or something.

I've been thinking a lot about quiet quitting recently. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)