Corporate Identity

Dave Pollard's blog on How to Save the World is a fascinating piece of work; he tries to take world problems and offer commentary and solutions from (for lack of a better descriptor) a corporate/capitalist perspective. He recently abandoned a well-paying job and for the past several months has been soul-searching and trying to think of a way to earn good pay doing something much more consistent with his ideals.

I find myself now in much the same situation; I am not long out of school and have concluded that I need more in my life than a 9-5 programming job. It's a big-picture issue - on the small scale, programming and solving just about any kind of problem can be quite rewarding. However, when you start thinking of the big picture, it's hard to say that translating lists from one format to another or compression or what-have-you can fill the Well that is *you*. My cup has grown larger. (I recall that analogy in regards to spirituality, the young have a much smaller cup to fill). As a programmer, someone who likes to do diligent numbers-work, likes to play more of a supporting than central attention-getting role, and an idealist, what spiritually fulfilling jobs are out there right now? Ironically, even the word "job" sounds banal to me right now.