The Passion Economy
Nine Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The brilliant creator of NPR's Planet Money podcast and award-winning New Yorker staff writer explains our current economy: laying out its internal logic and revealing the transformative hope it offers for millions of people to thrive as they never have before.
Contrary to what you may have heard, the middle class is not dying and robots are not stealing our jobs. In fact, writes Adam Davidson—one of our leading public voices on economic issues—the twenty-first-century economic paradigm offers new ways of making money, fresh paths toward professional fulfillment, and unprecedented opportunities for curious, ambitious individuals to combine the things they love with their careers.
Drawing on the stories of average people doing exactly this—an accountant overturning his industry, a sweatshop owner's daughter fighting for better working conditions, an Amish craftsman meeting the technological needs of Amish farmers—as well as the latest academic research, Davidson shows us how the twentieth-century economy of scale has given way in this century to an economy of passion. He makes clear, too, that though the adjustment has brought measures of dislocation, confusion, and even panic, these are most often the result of a lack of understanding.
The Passion Economy delineates the ground rules of the new economy, and armed with these, we begin to see how we can succeed in it according to its own terms—intimacy, insight, attention, automation, and, of course, passion. An indispensable road map and a refreshingly optimistic take on our economic future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Success in a downsizing, offshoring, automating economy is about following your passion, argues this exuberant and detailed primer on newfangled entrepreneurship. Davidson, a New Yorker economics writer and cofounder of NPR's Planet Money podcast, warns readers to abandon jobs and businesses that can be automated or outcompeted by low-cost Asian firms. Instead, he contends, Americans should cultivate unique abilities and interests into specialty products and services for small markets accessed with the internet and cheap global transport. He illustrates his argument with case studies, including a lesbian couple who design menswear for women, an Amish factory producing horse-drawn farm equipment, and a pencil manufacturer that charges "bafflingly expensive" prices for #2s. Davidson's business advice shun commodity price-competition; find sheltered, high-margin niche markets isn't new, but his anecdotes are captivating, with shrewd lessons on management, marketing, and strategy. Firing bad customers, he notes, is as important as finding new ones. His case for mass entrepreneurship as a cure-all for economic discontents is less convincing, as it involves imponderables ("knowing yourself is crucial"), risks, and sharp edges ("price conversations" need to be "filled with some degree of tension and awkwardness"). Nevertheless, readers with a start-up yen will find useful and inspiring insights here.
