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the best way to win is to mindlessly pick cards, follow instructions, and wait for it all to

turn out okay.

Sheesh. What a disaster.

My decree: If you own a copy, burn it. Replace it with Cosmic Encounter or chess or a

big box filled with wooden blocks. Please don't look at school or even board games the

same way again. If they're teaching your kids or future employees to be map readers and

agenda followers, make them stop.

Looking for Something to React or Respond To

In the old-school factory, the twin taskmasters are the manual and the assembly line.

The manual tells you what to do, and the assembly line keeps the work coming. It's not

your job to decide.

When we moved away from assembly and manual labor, it was easy to pretend that we

were no longer working in a factory. It turns out that our work changed, but our psyches

didn't.

Now, we go looking for something to distract us. That's the culture of the Internet,

combined with the culture of the white-collar cubicle worker, combined with fear.

You don't want to take initiative or responsibility, so you check your incoming mail, your

Twitter stream, and your blog comments. Surely, there's something to play off of,

something to get angry about, some meeting to go to. I know someone who goes to forty

conferences a year and never seems to actually produce anything.

And you can repeat this process forever. Forever. It never ends.

The alternative is to draw a map and lead.

The Choice

You can either fit in or stand out. Not both.

You are either defending the status quo or challenging it. Playing defense and trying to

keep everything "all right," or leading and provoking and striving to make everything

better.

Either you are embracing the drama of your everyday life or you are seeing the world as

it is. These are all choices; you can't have it both ways.

Someone will hire you because you fit the description, look right, have the right

background, and don't ruffle feathers, or because you are a dream come true, an agent of

change sure to make a difference. I don't think it's possible to make this point too clearly.

Being slightly remarkable is a losing strategy. Blander than bland can work, and it has.

Indispensable linchpin works and it is the future. But the in-between spaces are scary.

Heads, You Win

Perhaps the biggest shift the new economy brings is self-determination. Access to capital

and appropriate connections aren't nearly as essential as they were. Linchpins are made,

not born.

There's no doubt that environment still plays a huge role. The right teacher or the right

family support or the accidents of race or birth location are still significant factors. But

the new rules mean that even if you've got all the right background, you won't make it

unless you choose to.

These are internal choices, not external factors. How we respond to the opportunities and

challenges of the outside world now determines how much the outside world values us.

In this section I want to outline some of the roles the linchpin plays and how you can

choose to play them.

Will Working More Hours Make You a Better Artist?

Does painting more pictures help? Writing more words? Inventing more inventions?

To a point.

But most of the time, that's not what we do. Most of the time, we're doing non-linchpin

work, doing someone else's work instead of our art. That's fine, as long as there's a

balance, as long as you leave enough time for the work that matters.

The resistance encourages you to avoid the work, and our society rewards busywork as

well. Serious artists distinguish between the work and the stuff they have to do when

they're not doing the work.

The Typical Transaction (and the Missing Arrow)

The typical transaction at work looks like this:

The boss gives you an assignment; you do the work. In return, she gives you money. It's

an exchange, one not so different from shopping at the local store. You, the customer, are

the boss. You exchange