Why Labor Day could be the best and most meaningful holiday of the year (or should be)

Anyone out there know why we celebrate Labor Day?

According to the United State Department of Labor website, it’s “…a  creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”

So initially, it was a crucial recognition and reminder of the importance of the laborers of this country, created in a time when they weren’t valued much more than a horse. 

The first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882.  Crowds gathered, speeches were made, parades where marched in and watched by thousands.

Things are different now.  The reason Labor Day is celebrated is because most of us get a day away from laboring. 

Which is a pretty great reason to celebrate.

I recently had a debate with a friend about which is better:

•Work at a time-consuming job that takes you away from your family, is not all that enjoyable or fulfilling, but financially rewarding, which allows you nice things to live in and drive and wear, and nice, vacations and a comfortable, potentially early retirement.

•Or a little more flexible, pretty fulfilling, still hard-working but not crushing job, where you have more control over your life but need to stretch to make ends meet, get less nice cars and houses and few if any vacations, driving and staying in motels along the way, and working later and longer into your life.

The answer? 

Whichever you think is better, of course. 

We all make our own choices. We all have different things we want to get out of work.  And we all work differently. 

I ascribe to the theories laid out in Rework, one of my personal bibles.  I’ve seen co-author Jason Fried speak and I’m buying everything he’s selling.  Which, basically, is “Build it, and they will come.”

When it comes to work, one thing is undeniable and unarguable:  We all need to work.  Which means we all need time away from work. 

So the fact that there’s a day expressly designed for us to not work is pretty awesome and should be celebrated.

Hope you did absolutely nothing but not work yesterday.

The simple genius of the hiccup-curing lollipop

A 13 year old has discovered a way to cure the hiccups with a lollipop.

True story.  And it gets better.

Mallory Kievman, who spent two years tinkering with various folk remedies, licked the challenge when she came up with the soon-to-be-famous hiccup-bashing lollipop. She's about to lead a team of MBA students who will help her build a company that will bring the product to  market.

It’s called the Hiccupop.    

When I first tweeted the story, I got back a lot of “Why didn’t I think of that?!?!” responses.  The answer, of course, is that you could have thought of it as easily as Mallory Kievman, if you had read quite possibly the greatest (and shortest) book in the history of the world about how to create ideas, A Technique for Producing Ideas.

Whether she knew it or not, Mallory was following the steps of James Webb Young, who wrote that “all ideas are nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.” 

An over simplification?  Sure.  But sometimes, it helps to oversimplify when you’re searching for an idea.  I love Jason Fried’s philosophy on solving complicated challenges:

Cut it in half.

And if it’s still too thick, cut it in half again.

So go ahead, read Technique.  It’s right here and it’ll take you under an hour.

Then set aside an hour and do some thinking.

Don’t be the person saying “Why didn’t I think of that!?!?”  Be the person in the New York Times article about to lead a team of MBA students creating a plan to bring your genius product or service to market.

You may not be 13 any more, but it’s never too late.