The Hunt

(This essay is from one year ago.)

This week, the New Yorker published “What Hunter-Gatherers Can Teach Us About the Frustrations of Modern Work,” by Cal Newport.

One main intent of the article is to explore the extent to which we can understand and perhaps improve our working conditions by considering the life styles of the remote societies that still practice hunting and gathering.

Anthropological research seems to indicate that contrary to common wisdom, these “primitive” societies do not work longer or harder than we do, nor are their lives more difficult or frustrating than ours.

But what resonated for me was just how apt the hunting/gathering style of work applies to certain fields, namely journalism — the craft I spent more than 50 years perfecting. (And I’m still working on the perfecting part.)

Journalists hunt for stories by gathering facts. Some are out there for the picking while other require a long sustained effort overcoming obstacles or specialized skills plus a certain type of fearlessness.

But perhaps unlike some types of office work, journalism can provide the satisfaction on a pretty regular basis of getting a juicy story and publishing it — for the entire community to then consume.

Journalists can feel that they’ve done their job once they’ve brought home the goods.

Another aspect of the anthropological research I found relevant to journalists is hunting and gathering is a type of work that require a long apprenticeship. Most of the best journalists will tell you they benefited from mentors as they were developing their skills at getting the story.

This all may seem somewhat abstract to some people but in the wake of the recent pandemic, battles are raging inside many companies (the New Yorker article focuses on Apple) over the amount of remote work that is allowed given demands for high rates of productivity.

It would be fair to say, I think, that reporters are expected to get out of the newsroom — to go out and hunt down their prey — on a regular basis. Maybe that is another reason this type of article resonates with those of us who are essentially modern hunter-gatherers.

HEADLINES:

• Hezbollah’s Leader Stops Short of Calling to Expand Gaza War (NYT)

• Hezbollah says wider Mideast war possible if Gaza assault continues (Reuters)

• Israel says it hit an ambulance used by Hamas. Gazan officials say it was carrying the wounded. (NBC)

• Israeli Troops Encircle Gaza City as Global Criticism of Strikes Mounts (NYT)

• Israel says Hamas stages hit-and-run attacks from tunnels (BBC)

• Blinken in Israel to urge humanitarian pause; IDF reports ‘face-to-face’ combat (WP)

• Blinken is meeting Israeli leaders to push for humanitarian pauses in the Gaza war as Israeli troops surround the Palestinian enclave's biggest city, the focus of its drive to wipe out Hamas. (Reuters)

• Israel resists US pressure to pause the war to allow more aid to Gaza, wants hostages back first (AP)

• Netanyahu may not last, Biden and aides increasingly believe (Politico)

• Russia steps up its aerial barrage of Ukraine as Kyiv brace for attacks (ABC)

• Zelenskiy ‘weighing up presidential elections in spring’ (Guardian)

• Ukraine’s Top Commander Says War Has Hit a ‘Stalemate’ (NYT)

• People in New Delhi woke up to a thick layer of toxic haze, and some schools were ordered to be shut for two days as the air quality index entered the 'severe' category in several parts of the Indian capital. (Reuters)

• Eric Trump Just 'Lost the Entire Case'—Mary Trump (Newsweek)

• Trump appointee who assaulted Capitol officers on Jan. 6 sentenced to nearly 6 years (NBC)

• FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of defrauding cryptocurrency customers (AP)

• WeWork’s Perfect Storm (Atlantic)

• Tiny plastic particles are showing up in clouds. Microplastics were found in clouds above Mount Fuji in Japan, a study said. (WP)

• Smart rats show human-like powers of imagination in neural research (Financial Times)

• Elon Musk says his new startup xAI will debut its artificial intelligence Saturday (CNBC)

• It looks like Elon’s AI company is getting somewhere. (The Verge)

• Palantir Is Quietly Emerging as a Leader in Artificial Intelligence (Motley Fool)

• Generative AI is a minefield for copyright law (St George News)

• Woman Amazed She Found Perfect Partner Just When She Was Getting Desperate Enough To Accept Anything (The Onion)