Here is a great paragraph from Linchpin, a beautiful book from Seth Godin: I think it gives what can be considered the (right) definition of Knowledge Worker (the artist) … or at least as it should be:
The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed.
Someone can always do your job a litlle better or faster or cheaper than you can.
The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it’s a job.
Your art is waht you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challengin the status quo, and changing people.
I call the process of doing you art “the work”. It’s possible to have a job and do the work too. In fact, that’s how you become a linchpin.
The job is not the work.
Thoughts?
PierG
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PierG (aka Piergiorgio Grossi) 
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April 11, 2011 at 3:40 pm
ZioBrando
Nice take. Really explanatory.
I can’t stop thanking an old friend of mine who gave me a mug as a present.
On the mug was written “Do what you like, Like what you do”.
Simple and effective.
April 11, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Sergio
Good post. Let me play devil’s advocate for a second. Like you, I loved the tone and message of Godin’s Linchpin. We’re seeing this metaphor acted out in society with each passing day proving nonconformists such as Mark Zuckerberg or Jiulian Assange can have a greater impact on society on a scale previous that was previously unimaginable.
In a recent NYTimes article (http://goo.gl/l1QMp), on the new Hiring perks in Silicon Valley the authors point out the following:
“And there has been a psychological shift; many of the most talented engineers want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, not work for him.”
This isn’t to say that the concept of the “Linchpin” is new as they’ve been around for a while, but maybe for the first time the values and principles the Seth presents are becoming the widely accepted norm for success and survival in a newly competitive workplace. But is a workplace of linchpins enough?
In 1999 Peter Drucker said:
“Knowledge worker productivity is the biggest of the 21st century management challenges. In the developed countries it is their first survival requirement. In no other way can the developed countries hope to maintain themselves, let alone to maintain their leadership and their standards of living.”
So is Linchpin the answer to this challenge? Has Facebooks and/or Wikileaks achieved the desired benefit on society? Or is there a greater solution in a society of Linchpins that can concentrate their output for the real benefit of their organization, their customers, and their country?
April 11, 2011 at 8:43 pm
PierG
Good one!
I’m not sure at all a workplace made just of linchpins is sustainable + if it’s pretty clear (and NOT easy at all) how to be a linchpin it’s not clear how to ‘handle’ (I won’t say manage 🙂 ) linchpins! Let me just finish the book and I might find some more answers 🙂
And I’m finding some analogies with what the Design Thinking group is doing in Stanford (where IDEO comes from)
PierG