I am grateful for this article. I have lived it.

I graduated from Amherst College in 1966. Various paths lay ahead, but they all implicitly invited me to more/higher. Instead, I got a trade (broadcast television technician) and worked for a company I respected (Public Broadcasting in San Francisco) for 49 years.

Nobody does that!

As a consequence: when I left work at night, I left it. I had time for relationships. Because it was a union job, I had some right to due process and did not get tossed out when it was someone's mood.

And the free time? I used it to pursue what I was interested in - Religion and Philosophy. I got a PhD in it, part-time over a decade. My dissertation became a commercially published book. Then came five novels, a chapbook of stories, and three fat books of poetry (all available through http://btwreviews.com).

Because I did not fall into the ambition machine, I was able to follow what I cared about.

So - thank you for publishing this. It is very good advice indeed.