This morning I went for a lovely walk with renowned Stanford economist Russ Roberts and MIT philosopher Kieran Setiya… in my pocket.
Early in their discussion on midlife, happiness, regret, and death, professor, Setiya introduced the concept of telic and atelic activities. Telic, from the greek, describes pursuits with an endpoint, whereas atelic activities are the opposite: things we do for their own sake.
On the back porch, quietly strumming chords on a guitar while your children sleep. Atelic. Composing a jingle for a Jiffy Lube commercial. Telic. Skipping flat stones across a glassy lake. Atelic. Normalizing a database… you get the idea.
I’ll spare you the nuances of Kieren and Russ's conversation and recommend you listen for yourself on an atelic walk of your own. (Econtalk podcast episode 889)
I noticed a similarity between the telic and atelic in philosophy and Wonder and Tenacity in the Working Genius framework.
Wonder is an endless reflection on the workings of the world and the universe. Every successful project begins with Wonder and ends with Tenacity, the genius of clearing obstacles to bring a project to an endpoint.
Setiya makes his case that a life well-lived contains more atelic pursuits and fewer telic projects. (Obviously, he’s not a manager.)
Predictably, a philosopher and economist, who I’d wager both hold Wonder as one of their working geniuses, would be energized by atelic activities—endlessly asking WHY is their job.
Maybe Roberts and Setiya, like most of us, are biased by their geniuses.
It may be that life satisfaction comes not from an over-weighting of atelic activities, but when our geniuses match what we spend our time on.
Someone with Tenacity as a working genius and Wonder as a working frustration lights up during the execution stage of a telic project and disengages during atelic activities.
The examined life is worth more to a Wonder/ Discernment and less to a Tenacity/ Enablement. We take our own unique walks through the park.
A work-life worth living is spent primarily in our working genius, bringing our gifts and energy to the telic projects that advance our organizations.
Know thy geniuses.