"You Are What You Do" by Daniel Im

You Are What You Do: and Six Other Lies About Work, Life, & Love by Daniel Im (B&H, 2020) might die an unfortunate death simply because of its release date. It's a book about gig economy and all the lies we but into from work. Thanks to a global pandemic, more people are out of work than any living person has ever experienced, and the gig economy has imploded. We're all quarantined at home. Musicians, Uber drivers, and hundreds of other side jobs have been sidelined. 

But for a moment, let's imagine there is no coronavirus.  

Daniel Im filled his book full of examples that do an excellent job expressing the lies we believe. There's no doubt Im has identified and explained the problem (well, the pre-pandemic problem anyway). However, he did such a good job expressing the problem, his effort to point to the solution came up lacking. Each chapter includes some discussion about the answer, as does the final chapter. Yet, we all know and feel the problem. Instead, Im could have spent half the pages on the issue and tapped into what we already know. Then, with the remaining available pages, he could have given us more of what we're missing--the answer.  

Don't get me wrong, Im expressed and identified the lies with laser precision. It's impossible to miss them after reading his book. But there's a bigger problem. We're in a pandemic, and the economy has the potential to look very different very soon. Most of his examples are irrelevant now. Much of the nation is sitting in their homes, with their family, learning all the things Im suggested, only they are in the school of a new reality.  

I read the book just as the first cases were cropping up in the US. It made sense. It was spot on. But as I'm finally getting around to write a review, I can't think about how disconnected the book may now be. That's unfortunate on many levels. But who could have predicted such a thing?  

Here’s a brief video. In it, Daniel Im discusses the book.