Thank you, Lord, for this day. May it be used for your glory!
Good morning everyone and welcome to edition #22 of Friday Inspiration! This week I have a nice smorgasbord of articles from all over the place. Just to give a little taste of Thanksgiving again, haha!
First up I have a crazy story about a man who got paid to do nothing, then I have a huge update on the Square and Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, and last, I’ll leave you with an inspirational article about disrupting dullness. Let’s jump on in!
“You’ve Won The Game”: Employee Hacks His Job, Gets Paid To Do Nothing For 5 Years
I urge you to read the whole story because it’s wild! I’ll do my best to recap, though. Apparently, this guy took on a data entry job as a temp position while he was in between jobs. It was a night shift which meant he could work from home, stay up a little later, get his work done, sleep in, and enjoy his day.
The job was pretty easy. Something like the company gets an order and he moves the data to some chart. It sounded as simple as that.
As he got rolling in the new job, this guy also started learning about programming and automation.
Get this.
The guy wrote a script to automate his night shift job! His entire job! Fully automated!
At first he monitored it pretty closely, but eventually he just let his program do all the work. He’d go to bed and live his life without ever worrying about the job! And he got paid for it!
He pulled this off for 5 years!
His night job was fully automated and he got paid for it. He tried to tell the company at one time about it, but they wouldn’t listen. He adjusted his algorithm every now and then so it looked like the number of reports he did wasn’t too consistent. He did always ensure he was top of the company as far as reports done in a night. He got several raises over the years too because of his diligent work.
The even crazier thing is he never got caught. He was fired because the company decided to automate his job.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey hands reins to technology chief Agrawal
This was some pretty big news! The founder and CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has stepped down from Twitter effective immediately. He says it was all his decision and he just wants to focus on other things.
What are those?
Well, he’s also the CEO of Square and a huge proponent for bitcoin. Perhaps he’s doubling down on those efforts? Perhaps he has some other idea up his sleeve, we’re not sure. I’d bet it’s something bitcoin related, but only time will tell.
All we know is he’s done being CEO immediately and he’s going to leave the board of directors sometime early 2022.
Square, Inc. Changes Name to Block
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/52543725/en
This just in as of 12.1.12, Square, Inc, Jack Dorsey’s other company has changed their name to Block!
I’ve talked about Square before with regards to their Cashapp. I love Cashapp and it is superior to Venmo hands down. And now Square, the company that brought us Cashapp, has rebranded to show that their focus is more on the crypto space. This is huge news!
Within 2 days, Jack Dorsey leaves one company and rebrands another to focus on blockchain? He’s up to something, haha!
If you don’t know, Cashapp also allows you to buy cryptocurrencies. Along with this huge announcement, Block has also announced they are going to create a separate app just for cryptocurrencies that will remain separate from the Cashapp.
Disrupt Your Dullness
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/disrupt-your-dullness
I won’t give away too much on this one. I need to reread it myself a few times. This is just a really solid inspirational article. Well, perhaps a better word would be convicting.
The author does a great job calling us out for not being earnest enough for the gospel. We lack zeal for God. We live in a world that is constantly distracting us with social media, Netflix, and the amazing freedom to choose jobs, hobbies, friends, etc. None of those are particularly bad, but when they are idolized they become an imminent threat and evil.
This article was just a really good reminder to always focus on the Lord, and strive for earnestness over all the distractions the world throws at us. If you don’t read anything from it, I liked the conclusion:
“Among those you know, who seems to live closest to Jesus? Whose life consistently pierces through the worldliness around you and shines with a supernatural quality? Whose words and actions are marked by both urgency and patience, ambition and humility, hunger and contentment? Whose conversations stimulate you to pray and love and grow more?
Make every effort to study, befriend, and imitate such saints. Their lives are a priceless testimony and reminder, and their camaraderie invaluable, in our shallow and distracted age. Disrupt any comfort you feel with your own sluggishness. Ask God for the grace to excel in earnestness.”
That’s it for this week! I hope y’all have a wonderful weekend! I can’t believe it’s already December! Christmas here we come!