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Anne Murphy's avatar

The loss of Steve Albini hit hard at our house, and amongst so many people we know. My husband never had him engineer a record, but knew him and many of the people he did work with over the years. I had the pleasure of seeing Shellac play twice in Seattle before the pandemic. I was thinking that even people who don't know his name have been touched by his work, his contribution to music was so far-reaching. I was watching clips people had posted, and my favorite was his apology for having a fascist haircut. https://youtu.be/1uUNeejxWp0?si=oiRt1vm8XExNpU8H

We would all do well to be like Steve. Rest in peace, good man.

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Petya K. Grady's avatar

GOALs are totally overrated.

As a former corporate girlie, I love Steve Albini's definition of success. Since I quit my corporate job (and my "dream job" at a startup that followed), I decided to give myself a break from "career goals" and just do things that felt good for my heart and my mind.

I joined a small company where I work with a bunch of Type B people who like what they do but don't care to be famous for it. As a result, I have become "post-achievement" myself. I do my job, I like my work. At the end of the day, I have so much brain space to read all the books, to write my substack about my reading life... I even completed the first draft of a novel I started 10 years ago.

As a recovering ambitious, career-driven person... I highly recommend dropping your goals and focusing on process instead.

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