Emma Gannon

all into place

emotionally fraught topic

This is the problem: we see a small number of people are at the top and this is sold to us as the ‘best’ way to live a life.

everything in our power

cannot be in two places at once. We cannot be cloned.

privilege stems from a combination of factors: socio-economic advantages, supportive parents (emotionally, and financially in the first year I moved to London); experiences of both state and private education; encouragement from wider family members; an innate passion for writing; a supportive pa

because they are choosing a path that goes against people’s expectations.

our brains aren’t wired to be continuously jolly, as most of the time they are just trying to keep us alive.

Author Sam Baker made a good point in an article discussing burnout: ‘The 1980s were, “Put on a suit and work till you drop”,’2 she says. ‘Mark Zuckerberg is, “Put on a grey T-shirt and work till you drop”.’ The difference, she says, is that ‘it’s all now cloaked in a higher mission’. This obsession with meaning, ‘passion’ and purpose is just a smokescreen to keep us all working harder. No matter its worth to society, output is the holy grail.

There is such a thing as ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’, which emerged from a Chinese expression about the frustration we feel when overwork and stressful hours leave hardly any time for leisure.