For five months or so last year I was obsessed with work. I typically worked 12-hour days, six days a week, taking only Sundays off to rest and catch my breath. It was a miserable time to live with me to be honest. I spent almost every waking hour thinking about work and where to go next on some problem. It was exhausting, exhilarating, and — for that brief period of time — a dream come true.
Most people's dreams don't revolve around work and so it's always a bit weird when I say that, but mine do to some extent. I've always fantasized about working hard on some personal, impactful project. Alone in a cabin in the woods perhaps, writing the next truly great book of our time or cracking some really difficult equation, things like that.
There are a number of reasons for this deep seated desire to bury myself in work at least some of the time, some of them good, others not so good. But that's for another essay, another time. Right now I just want to say that one of the reasons is that I am obsessed with the idea of obsession.
I love it when I meet people who are absolutely obsessed with what they do. They're so concerned with the work that they know even the smallest details about it that others would deem unnecessary. It doesn't matter the type of work as well. Quant traders, rappers, designers, whatever the field, I just really enjoy meeting people who know the minutiae of the work they do. Something in them calls to me. I want to be like that. Obsessed with what I do, invested in it down to the seemingly unnecessary details of the work. I write more about this kind of "good obsession" in an essay of the same name with examples from fields as different as football and hip-hop.
One final observation. As the years go by I'm beginning to realise that this kind of obsession with the work is absolutely necessary for developing good taste in any field. Those who have good taste in fashion pay closer attention to clothes and accessories than everyday people like me who just put on whatever they have in the wardrobe and head out. Likewise with design, hip-hop, football and pretty much every other field. Obsession with the work is a prerequisite for great taste.
And, if there is something I've ever wanted to have when it comes to work, it's great taste.