Call it what you want—fit, motivation, chemistry—but the things a person cares about must also be what the team (and company) cares about. If not, then that person might find themselves in frequent misalignment with what they want for their own career.

If the fit just isn’t right on a particular team, sometimes a move within the same organization solves the issue—a new environment plus a different problem to noodle on is often exactly what’s needed. If that doesn’t work, then perhaps the fit is with the company as a whole, in which case parting ways may be the best outcome for everyone.

Research shows that people are more likely to make a charitable gift to a single needy individual than to an entire impoverished region. We are wired to feel things for people, not for abstractions. Sometimes the hard part is finding the right emotion to harness. For instance, it’s difficult to get teenagers to quit smoking by instilling in them a fear of the consequences, but it’s easier to get them to quit by tapping into their resentment of the duplicity of Big Tobacco.

But given the benefits of having children and raising them well, I do think that we could start to once again see having kids as a way of positively contributing to the world. Just as you can live a good life by being helpful to those around you, donating to charity, or working in a socially valuable career, I think you can live a good life by raising a family and being a loving parent.

You can do this by writing, organizing, talking to people you know, or getting involved with organisations such as 80,000 Hours and the Centre for Effective Altruism, where movement building is a component of their work.

Suggestion #1: The Power of Generosity…

Research clearly shows that he’s right: helping others benefits the one who helps. There is both a neural and a practical link between generosity and happiness. Being generous is a way to prime your brain for good feelings, and those good feelings in turn make us more likely to help others in the future. Generosity is an upward spiral…