At well over 5,000 words, this post is an absolute monster. I’ll hold off on posting for a while, to give you enough time to absorb it. And I hope you will, because this is definitely an issue where you want to know where you stand.
Are you a lightworker or a darkworker? You’d better know the answer. After all, it’s one of the most important decisions you could ever make. It affects everything about you, from how you see the world, to how you treat people, to how you make a living, to possibly what awaits you in the afterlife.
But are lightworker and darkworker the only two options? Could you simply be unpolarized, not having chosen one or the other? Or could you be a third type that hasn’t been mentioned yet?
OK, let me slow down here, because I know I’ve lost some people already.
The terms lightworker and darkworker have different definitions depending on who you ask, and I think it can be helpful to look at the distinction from multiple angles. For example, if someone with a lightworker personality resorts to doing a darkworker job because they need the money, what is their real type?
Anyway, lightworker and darkworker are roughly synonymous with good and evil. They reflect the orientation of your morality, and therefore how you live your life. (I sometimes call them whitelighters and darklighters, but I’ll stick to the more common terms here.)
While these terms are sometimes used with spiritual connotations (i.e., “you have a lightworker soul”), I’ll be talking about them from a more down to earth perspective, mainly in terms of how we make a living. (If you’re interested in the spiritual side of this, I can refer you to Akemi Gaines. Start with her recent post Soul Shifting And the Light Ascension Of Maybe 2012. While it’s not exactly about lightworkers and darkworkers, it’s relevant enough, and it’s certainly drawing lots of attention.)
We’re all here on this earth to do something. Everyone is different, but we all want to do our work, or fulfill a purpose, or create value, or if nothing else, then at least live our life. And while it’s important to figure out the specifics of what you want to do, it’s even more important to determine your intentions that set the stage.
In whatever shape or form, lightworkers are here to serve the greater good, though they also want to take care of themselves. On the other hand, darkworkers are here only to serve themselves, and have no problem with sacrificing the greater good if it gets in their way.
The concept of polarization refers to how far you lean to either side. Most people have both lightworker and darkworker tendencies, but they don’t mix well together. If you try to be both a good lightworker and a good darkworker, you’ll be terrible at both.
A mass can be positively charged, negatively charged, or neutral. Whether it’s positive or negative, it can only become stronger by polarizing further in that direction. If it mixes with some of the opposite polarity, its charge weakens. Too much of the opposite polarity, and it becomes inert and powerless.
Many people are quick to call themselves lightworkers, but they’re not really polarized in that direction. Someone who’s just a little bit lightworker is no lightworker at all. That doesn’t mean they’re a darkworker; they’re just unpolarized.
So that’s how it goes, according to most people: you’re either a lightworker, or a darkworker, or unpolarized.
I’d like to propose another type. This kind of person is halfway between lightworker and darkworker. And they aren’t unpolarized; this is actually a third direction you can polarize in.
For lack of a better word, I’ll call these people neutralworkers. Yeah, it’s not catchy, but it will do. Zombieworker sounds insulting. Grayworker sounds cheesy, and also sounds like it means “a little dark,” which isn’t the case. Clearworker sounds good, but it’s confusing because it implies mental clarity, not to mention that clear technically means transparent, not colorless (cherry jello is clear, even though it’s red). Transparentworker and colorlessworker both sound ridiculous. Plainworker isn’t bad, but it sounds like someone who works on planes. So I’ll go with neutralworker for now, but feel free to suggest another word.
It’s easy to understand the difference between these types when you look at how they make a living.
- Lightworkers focus on earning money.
- Darkworkers focus on taking money.
- Neutralworkers focus on getting money.
Said another way,
- Lightworkers focus on creating value.
- Darkworkers focus on stealing value.
- Neutralworkers focus on hacking value.
Simple enough, right? Let’s take a closer look at these types.
Lightworkers
“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”
- Mother Teresa
Lightworkers love creating value. While they want to benefit from their work, they want to feel that they earned their money by doing something good for the world.
If somebody gets a paycheck, then they must have created value. Otherwise, what is the other person paying them for? However, to a lightworker, it’s not enough to just do what their boss considers to have value. Their work needs to be meaningful to them.
Lightworkers aren’t so “holier than thou” that every single thing they do has to have an earth shattering grand purpose, but they’re generally focused on making the world a better place. What exactly does that mean? We’ll see later that this is very subjective, but what matters is the lightworker’s intention.
Being a lightworker doesn’t have to mean being a martyr. If you want to make everyone better off, remember that “everyone” includes you. Lightworkers should strive to meet their own needs as well as society’s.
Darkworkers
“Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong.”
- Adolf Hitler
Darkworkers are always looking out for themselves, so they don’t care about creating value. If they happen to create value, so be it, but they’re just as willing to mooch it or steal it as they are to create it.
They’re not necessarily set on destroying society, but their only desire is to serve themselves. Whatever gets them what they want, that’s what they’ll do. If innocent people get hurt, that’s perfectly acceptable.
Think of it this way. Most people think it’s perfectly fine to eat animals. We’re at the top of the food chain, so we’re supposed to eat lower forms of life. But darkworkers take this concept and apply it to other people. They see everyone else as lower forms of life, available for their consumption.
To some extent, I can agree with that. Just now, while I’m typing this, I got an email from a reader. This person had opted into my newsletter, so of course he automatically got an email asking him to confirm his request. You know, the usual double opt-in deal. But instead of clicking the link to confirm, he replied with this:
GO **** YOURSELF *****
Yes, it was large bold red font in all caps, only his version didn’t have any asterisks. What a perfectly reasonable response to an opt-in confirmation. Do I think people like this are a lower form of life? You know, I might even put them below snakes. It would be justifiable to become a darkworker who targets people like this, but I wouldn’t do it. I’ll explain why later, when I give an argument against darkworking.
Neutralworkers
“Another day, another dollar.”
- The Neutralworker’s Motto
This is a term I’m just making up, but it’s hard to deny that these people exist. They don’t feel the need to create value, and they won’t resort to stealing it. Instead, they’ll just hack it, playing the system and taking the path of least resistance.
This is based on the idea that the value you provide is judged by other people, not by you. If someone hires you to do something, it has value to them, so they’ll pay you for it. It doesn’t matter if you think it has value. A neutralworker does a job just for a paycheck.
One example of this is often seen in the “make money online” crowd. Lots of people want to make money online by doing whatever works best. So instead of doing something they think is valuable, they find a high-paying keyword like mesothelioma, and base their life’s work on that. They set up a site that looks like my funny quotes pages. They make the site as ugly as possible so visitors will want to leave immediately, hopefully by clicking on an obnoxiously placed ad. (Incidentally, I created my quotes pages long before AdSense existed, so this isn’t a pure example of neutralworking.)
Is creating spam niche sites useful to society? No, but it works, and no one was hurt. No one did anything wrong or illegal. Why do you need to be a hero, when an easier way is available? In fact, the neutralworker path is the easiest way to make money, as long as you have the emotional deadness required to avoid wanting to do something useful with your life.
“If you don’t monetize a visitor one way, convert her into dollars another way!”
- Affiliate Masters Course
Years ago, someone I worked with was trying to get a top secret clearance, thinking that it was the best way to get ahead. But you can’t just go out and get a top secret clearance; you have to find an employer who (1) will hire you without one, and (2) will pay to get you one. Not easy to do.
This guy was staying in contact with his friend, an accountant who was close to getting his top secret clearance. One day this friend called. He had just gotten his clearance, and his salary had gone from $80,000 to $140,000, literally overnight.
These results aren’t typical, but to a neutralworker, this shows that clearly the best career move you can make is to get a top secret clearance. So you do whatever puts you in the path of one, accepting jobs based on their likelihood of ultimately leading to it. Forget about learning how to do your job better. Anything you do that you think makes you a more valuable employee has a negligible effect compared to being in the right place at the right time.
Another example of a neutralworker is the husband in Rosemary’s Baby. In exchange for a much-needed boost to his acting career, he agreed to let Satan impregnate his wife with the Antichrist, on the condition that she wouldn’t be hurt. Lovely.
Counting cards in blackjack, day trading, black hat SEO techniques, moving piles of money around–this is all about finding a way that works. No real value created, but none taken away. They’re just exploiting gaps in the system.
“Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others.”
- Carl Fox, Wall Street
It’s all about intentions
Sometimes it’s obvious whether someone is a lightworker, darkworker, or neutralworker. But many times it’s not. Where exactly do you draw the line?
“It’s not our abilities that show what we truly are, Harry. It’s our choices.”
- Albus Dumbledore
Paul Piotrowski at Inspired Money Maker has thought a lot about the difference between lightworkers and darkworkers, and concluded that it comes down to the intention you hold. In other words, there’s not an official list of lightworker jobs and one of darkworker jobs, because it depends on your perception of your work.
That seems right to me. For one thing, it explains why two people can perform the same job and see it completely differently.
You may have heard this story before. There are different versions of it floating around, and sometimes the moral of the story is different. But here’s the first version I heard 12 years ago, from Randy Pausch:
A gentleman walked past two guys who were laying bricks. He approached the first bricklayer and asked “What are you doing?”
The first bricklayer said, “Well, I pick up bricks from here, and take them over there. I get cement from over there, mix it with sand and water to make mortar, and use it to hold the bricks together. Then I come back here to get more bricks.”
He then asked the second bricklayer the same question.
The second bricklayer said, “I’m building a cathedral.”
Both were doing the exact same thing, but their intentions were different. The first was a neutralworker, doing the job to make a living. The second was a lightworker, doing what he could to create value. A third bricklayer could potentially have been building a fortress from which to launch a war against all living things, and that would make him a darkworker.
So bricklaying or any other job isn’t inherently light, dark, or neutral. It’s up to the intentions of the person doing the work.
The stock market is mainly used for neutralworking. People put money in, let it sit there, and make a profit (hopefully). It’s not good or bad, it just is. And yet it provided perfect opportunities for both lightworker Warren Buffett and darkworker David Schirmer. It all comes down to intentions.
(Intentions are sometimes a fuzzy measure because evil people often don’t think they’re evil, and because sometimes it’s necessary to kill for what is arguably the greater good. Were the Jedi evil for attempting to dethrone the Republic’s democratically elected leader without cause? What about someone who assassinated George W. Bush to end the war in Iraq? What about the European settlers wiping out the native Americans? The American colonies seceding from Britain? America dropping the bomb on Japan? What is the greater good? It’s hard to say, but let’s try to keep it simple here. (He says in a 5,000 word post with nested parentheses!))
Splitting your polarization
This picture is sending mixed signals, an example of split polarization.
People are often tempted to mix lightworking and darkworking. This is really dangerous. You’re much better off making a choice and sticking with it.
“Daniel-san, must talk. Walk on road, hmm? Walk right side, safe. Walk left side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later, get squished just like grape. Here, karate, same thing. Either you karate do ‘yes’ or karate do ‘no.’ You karate do ‘guess so,’ squish, just like grape. Understand?”
- Mr. Miyagi
You can’t build homeless shelters by day, and kidnap billionaire heiresses by night. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t shift your intentions from one extreme to the other and expect to do well at either end. Splitting your polarization that much will cause you to suck at both lightworking and darkworking.
One of the most unpolarized people of all time is Homer Simpson (son of Abraham Simpson). And because he was all over the place, he was horrendously ineffective. He started his own security company because he saw it as “a way to combine my love of helping people with my love of hurting people.” It was no surprise that he got mixed results, making lots of friends as well as lots of enemies, being good enough to replace the police force but greatly overstepping his bounds, and receiving lavish praise as well as death threats from the mob.
OK, but what about being mainly a lightworker, and just doing a little harmless darkworking on the side? Maybe you’re generally a good person, but now and then you see an easy opportunity to break the rules for your own gain, without really hurting anyone. Should you do it?
The real damage is not in the act itself, but in the effect it has on your intentions. A lightworker can’t act as a darkworker “just this once,” then go back to how they were before. Once you cross the line, you’ve become unpolarized. You can repolarize in time, but now there’s a risk that you might not.
“You can look the other way once, and it’s no big deal, except it makes it easier for you to compromise the next time, and pretty soon that’s all you’re doing; compromising, because that’s the way you think things are done.
You know those guys I busted? You think they were the bad guys? Because they weren’t, they weren’t bad guys, they were just like you and me. Except they compromised…once.”
- Jack Bauer
An argument against darkworking
Let’s say you’re trying to decide whether to become a lightworker or a darkworker. Your sense of ethics is very flexible, so you think you could go either way. And you decide to become a darkworker. Specifically, a car thief. You think you’d be good at it.
But deep down, you’re really not fully polarized as a darkworker. You can rationalize stealing cars by saying that it mainly just hurts the insurance companies. Occasionally someone catches you stealing their car, so you have to pull a gun on them to scare them off. And while you don’t like doing that, you figure that it’s not really that bad.
But what happens when the cops come after you one day? Are you going to kill them? Because that’s what you’d have to do. But no, you couldn’t possibly bring yourself to do that. And that’s the problem. Because to be an effective darkworker, you need to act like a darkworker all the time.
Tony Montana and Darth Vader were both highly effective darkworkers because they were highly polarized. They never hesitated to do what a darkworker would do in any situation. And they were both brought down because they slipped up once, by acting like a lightworker.
If you think it would be cool to be Al Capone, before doing anything, first ask yourself if you’re capable of being that polarized as a darkworker. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to help yourself, no matter who it hurts? Because that’s what you’d have to do.
Society and its laws are highly biased against darkworkers. You can only go so far down the darkworker path without breaking the law, because the law is meant to protect the society you’re trying to abuse.
There are some exceptions. A darkworker can be very successful as a politician, if they can learn to gain a lot of power within the confines of the law. But generally, the law will greatly hinder your darkworking efforts.
When you go partway down the darkworker path, and you reach a point where you can’t proceed legally, you have a choice to make. You can either stay there and accept the limitations, or you can keep going. But if you decide to keep going, you can’t ever change your mind and expect society to welcome you back with open arms.
Here’s a spoiler alert, as I’m about to reveal the ending of The Fatal Equilibrium, a 1985 murder mystery novel by Marshall Jevons. (And as a side note, it’s a very interesting book. Marshall Jevons is the pen name of economics professors William Breit and Kenneth Elzinga, and this entertaining but educational murder mystery is actually used in college economics classes.)
In this book, a professor of anthropology decides he needs to write a terrific book to become famous. When he finds he no longer has the time or the dedication to do the necessary research, he decides to just fabricate his data, figuring no one would have any way of knowing. Thus, he commits a single act of darkworking.
Except it doesn’t stop there. A whiz kid in the economics department reads the book and figures out that the data doesn’t make sense, so he decides to blackmail the professor. The professor is thereby forced to commit more and more acts of darkworking to maintain his cover. At last he realizes that he just can’t polarize himself enough to be a good darkworker, so he jumps off a ship into the cold, dark ocean, having left this confession letter behind:
“…The terror of being exposed as a fraud outweighed the terror of murdering others to keep from being discovered. Once the decision was made to protect myself, my career, and all that had any meaning to me, I went about the business of murder in the most systematic and disciplined manner. Killing another was not pleasant. It was simply necessary. As I saw it then, and as I see it now, there was no other recourse.
I had, of course, hoped Dennis Gossen’s dispatch would end the matter…But I was not yet totally secure…I had to put Bell out of the way quickly…Barrett had to go too…Your party provided the opportunity for me to steal Melissa Shannon’s gloves in order to implicate her…After Melissa Shannon was convicted, I thought the danger to me was over.
…[But] I noticed you reading and I saw you suddenly sit bolt upright. When you left the Reading Room, I looked at the book you left behind and realized you were reading the same pages in my book that had aroused Gossen’s suspicions. I still do not understand how economics could uncover the fact that I had falsified my data, but I knew you were onto me.
…I thought briefly of killing you, Henry, to protect my reputation. But sooner or later my duplicity would be discovered again by another Spearman or Dennis Gossen who happens upon my book. So I have come to an end. Once again there is only one clear alternative.”
So instead of doing a lot of harm as a darkworker, only to quit that path after you finally admit that you don’t have it in you, do yourself and everyone else a favor, and resolve never to start down the darkworker path. If you have any sense of ethics, this should be easy.
Choosing between lightworking and neutralworking
OK, if darkworking is off the table, what are your choices? Being polarized as a lightworker will make you the best lightworker you can be. Being polarized as a neutralworker will make you the best neutralworker you can be. And being unpolarized will let you freely drift between them, experiencing some benefits of each, but without becoming optimal at either.
While it’s potentially dangerous for a darkworker to do some lightworking, and it’s extremely dangerous for a lightworker to do any darkworking at all, it’s much safer to do some neutralworking. Both lightworkers and darkworkers are free to dump their money into an index fund, passively collecting money without jeopardizing their polarity. Your polarization simply indicates your overall focus, rather than dictating every single action.
Being unpolarized offers the most flexibility, so that might seem appealing. However, choosing to be either a lightworker or a neutralworker would let you direct your efforts consistently, and would theoretically lead to better results and life satisfaction. Still, it’s hard to choose one, because they both have significant downsides.
The downside of being a lightworker
Although it’s easy to think that lightworking is the best path, it has a very definite downside. That downside was shown quite well by Mary Ulrich (no URL given), in her comment on Leo Babauta’s The Culture of Free, and The Power of Less. Leo said he was a proponent of free information, but he meant free from copyright, not free of charge. For example, he sold an ebook, but gave his customers the right to distribute, copy, and reuse it.
Many readers, including Mary, misunderstood him, and thought he was saying that people should work for free. But while this comment was based on a misunderstanding, it demonstrates a common plight of lightworkers:
“Sorry Leo, but I still don’t understand your concept of FREE.
I’ve been a volunteer most of my life because my oldest son with the label of autism needed me to do the things I did.
Now as I am approaching 60 years old, I have lots of plaques and awards of appreciation, but no retirement income. If I am lucky, I might manage enough social security quarters to get the minimum payment and be able to afford some health insurance.
I am often in a room of professionals who are all paid to be at the meeting, and I am the only parent–the non-paid person. I know what I do is important, I know I have made a difference in people’s lives, but I can’t seem to be able to make a salary to save my life. There are advantages, I can say things that need to be said and not worry about my boss censuring what I say. Because of that I have made significant change. Fortunately, my husband supports my ‘volunteer habit’ and we are doing OK, it’s not like we are living on the street. We recently went to visit my youngest son’s new in-laws in another country and saw poverty like I have never seen before. I know I have many things to be thankful for.
I understand Mother Theresa, the joy of service, and have heard all the platitudes about being rewarded in the next life…. But, If I am going to write a book, this one time I want to get paid. Our society measures success with dollars. Somehow, I have to figure out how to support my oldest son after we die. So, even if it is just once, so I can know that my life work has had value in the traditional sense, I would like to be able to get a paycheck.
Another parent friend always kids me, ‘Even prostitutes get paid.’ and then I always feel like a doormat because I know the professionals are using me.
Leo, I am benefiting from your ‘free’ advice, so I thank you, and I am thrilled it is working for you, but my perspective must be upside down or something, because I can’t figure it out.
Thanks for any suggestions. Mary”
- Mary E. Ulrich
Wow! I don’t fully understand her situation, but clearly she resents some aspects of being a lightworker. Although her work has value to her and some other people, it’s not received well by society overall. Let’s look at what she said, and see the pros and cons she’s experiencing as a lightworker.
Pros:
- Doing what her autistic son needs her to do
- Knows she’s making a difference in people’s lives
- Can say things that need to be said
- Has made significant change
Cons:
- Can’t seem to be able to make a salary
- No retirement income
- Might not be able to afford health insurance
- The only one in the room who’s not being paid
- Resents that society measures success in dollars
- Resents that her work has not had value in the traditional sense
- Doesn’t know how to support her autistic son after she dies
- Even prostitutes get paid
- Feels like a doormat because she’s being used
Unfortunately, just because your work is valuable in your eyes, that doesn’t mean society will agree. Lightworkers are generally the most underpaid group, from their perspective, because other people don’t necessarily share their values.
The downside of being a neutralworker
By being a neutralworker, you’re optimizing your life around what society wants. Although your work has no particular value to you, apparently it’s really valuable to some people, and they’re the ones who write the checks. Neutralworkers are generally the most overpaid group, from their perspective. After all, if they don’t think their work has value, they’re lucky that some people disagree.
Still, if you have a need to actually do something with your life besides just getting a paycheck, neutralworking will really wear you down. If your job is just a machine for converting time into money, you’re living like a robot. Or like a bank robber, where the plan is to get in, get the money, and get out (the only difference from a real robbery is that you’ve been invited to rob the bank). Maybe one day you’ll wake up and wonder, “Is this really all there is to life?”
So, what’s it gonna be?
It would theoretically be best to polarize as either a lightworker or a neutralworker. There are disadvantages to both, but if you commit to one direction, you’ll do a much better job of following it. A lightworker can’t be such a great lightworker if they’re constantly distracted with learning the money-making secrets of neutralworkers. And a neutralworker can’t be such a great neutralworker if they always feel guilty about not doing enough with their life. Both of them need to tune out any impulses that would weaken their polarity, or they’ll end up chasing two rabbits, both of which will escape.
But so far, I haven’t been able to polarize as either a lightworker or a neutralworker, because when I think about how they’ll play out, neither one is acceptable. Consider this hypothetical tombstone:
“Here lies neutralworker Hunter. He did a satisfactory job writing software. Good attendance record. Slight attitude problem.”
Gee, that was worth incarnating for! On the other hand, it could look like this:
“Here lies lightworker Hunter. He did what he thought was important, but it wasn’t valued by society. Still, he was one of the nicest homeless people you’ve ever met.”
Now that’s even worse. I’m not going to be a martyr.
And while I’ve ruled out darkworking, the corresponding tombstone might look something like this:
“Here lies darkworker Hunter. He showed promise at first, but eventually he found that he didn’t have the resolve to follow through, and he was brought down by his own people. P.S. We don’t like darkworkers anyway.”
Steve Pavlina says to do what you love, even if you end up homeless. Sorry, but that’s not an option for me. Some “make money online” types say that links are what matter, and nothing else. Maybe they mean that’s all that matters for making money, or maybe they mean that’s all that matters in life. Anyway, it’s better than being homeless, but it’s a shame to waste your life on something so shallow.
If there’s a readily available job that lets you do your lightworker work, great. But there might not be. I bounce back and forth between lightworker and neutralworker, trying to do what I can with both. But constantly shifting your focus between creating value and getting money is extremely disruptive. It’s hard being a double agent.
The most direct solution would be to make money as a lightworker, but that’s easier said than done. However, these resources will help:
Tim Ferriss found a different way to solve the problem. I’m not a mind reader, so I can’t be sure about this, but it seems that he automated his paid neutralworking to free up time for his unpaid lightworking.
He created an automated system for running a nutritional supplement business in a way that would provide passive income. I’m guessing he would see this as neutralworking. Not having to trade his time for money, he’s now free to do what he would probably consider lightworking; conducting experiments in lifestyle design and sharing them with the world.
If you want to learn how he did it, he has a great book called The 4-Hour Workweek
. But be warned that it’s much harder to do this than it seems. Before you get your hopes up, read Why We’re Failing The 4-Hour Workweek!
Here’s the part where I’m supposed to wrap things up with a neat conclusion, but I don’t have one. As Ashley Brilliant said, “I don’t have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem.”
At least I can clearly see why I feel torn between different things; it’s because I have a mix of lightworker, neutralworker, and even some darkworker tendencies, and I haven’t been able to polarize.
What is your polarity?
This post is part of Jeremy Day’s group writing project on creating value.
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