The rise of the pointless job • Hacker News Board

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#111

Post by bluetomcat » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:43 PM UTC

mfoy_ wrote: post #27

Keynes was a little more direct: "The government should pay people to dig holes in the ground and then fill them up."

It is much more intellectually challenging to address the inefficiencies in the economic system by devising a global model with regard to the available resources, manpower and population needs. Call it a planned economy if you will. People should vote what the system must produce, while considering the pollution and exhaustion of finite resources.

The current capitalist system is all about the individual self interest of each playing agent (company). That probably worked in the past in loosely-populated areas with lots of resources, but doesn't look like it is the way for the future.

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#112

Post by clairity » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:45 PM UTC

burn_cycle wrote: post #33

lainga wrote: post #15

I have said this before, but I see some parallels between the modern world and Japan during the early Tokugawa era. Japan had pretty much reached a steady state by the time Tokugawa Iyeyasu came to power in 1600; most of the available land had been cultivated or settled, and, especially after the policies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, society was locked in a rigid structure without much room for advancement or unrest. As a…

This sounds pretty interesting, can you recommend any books on Japan about this particular period/topic?

you could also read shogun by james clavell, which is a fictional novel based on tokugawa. i read his whole asian saga series because that first book was so good.

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#113

Post by rabidrat » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:45 PM UTC

tlb wrote: post #69

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #44

Honest question: how much of our work is not absolutely necessary? It's easy to write a piece of software once and share it with everybody. The product you are working on - what unique value is giving to humanity? (I mean beyond "it pays the bills" and "it uses $popular_thing_of_the_year") I believe we reached a level of productivity where - in rich countries - we are all keeping each other busy with loads of unneces…

Only farming is absolutely necessary. Farming is down to about 2% in the US. You could cut that in half if people stopped ordering avocado toast and just ate oats. So, probably 99%.

What about plumbing or sanitation? Construction of shelter? Medical care? Firefighting? If those things aren't "necessary", it seems difficult to argue that farming itself even is necessary.

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#114

Post by mentalpiracy » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:46 PM UTC

PeterisP wrote: post #105

mfoy_ wrote: post #27

Keynes was a little more direct: "The government should pay people to dig holes in the ground and then fill them up."

However, digging a hole in the ground and then filling it up is horribly, soul crushingly demotivating. Even if someone is working in a job that de facto amounts to doing just that, it should be covered up so that this fact isn't obvious and that a person can reasonably choose to ignore the truth and convince themselves that their job has some real value. Which is actually done, all kinds of internal propaganda, glor…

> However, digging a hole in the ground and then filling it up is horribly, soul crushingly demotivating.

Ah you see, this is why you have one person doing the digging, and another doing the filling! This way, each man goes home satisfied.

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#115

Post by anoncoward1234 » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

expensivedrone wrote: post #80

I'm a programmer working at a big-tech company. I make ~$350k/year, even though my job could be done equally well by a college intern. I only do ~2 hours of productive work in an average day. My previous jobs were far more interesting and challenging, and I had apparently done extremely well in my interviews. Hence why I got an offer with an extremely good compensation package. However, the team that I go put into, i…

Sounds great! Are you guys hiring?

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#116

Post by basejumping » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

expensivedrone wrote: post #80

I'm a programmer working at a big-tech company. I make ~$350k/year, even though my job could be done equally well by a college intern. I only do ~2 hours of productive work in an average day. My previous jobs were far more interesting and challenging, and I had apparently done extremely well in my interviews. Hence why I got an offer with an extremely good compensation package. However, the team that I go put into, i…

Don't be so happy about it. I'm like you but 5 years in the future when it's time to look for a new job. At the beginning I was keeping my skills sharp, but after a while you become lazy. Especially when you see everyone around you not doing anything you sort of lose your motivation to do work.

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#117

Post by vkou » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

monocasa wrote: post #88

ams6110 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's tons of actual productive work that could be done though. Cleaning trash from streets and parks, filling potholes, fixing sidewalks, pulling weeds, painting over graffiti. These things would would make everyone's days a little nicer.

Or even stuff that has real meaning. Rebuilding our crumbling highway system, laying fiber to the home for a next gen telecoms infrastructure. Just going back to school and getting information job skills. Child care. The list goes on and on without resorting to telephone handset cleaners.

For some reason, even when people acknowledge that there is an endless amount of busywork work that could be done, the suggestions are always meaningless fluff. Cleaning up the parks? Yeah, that's better then sitting around on your ass, watching Netflix for 8 hours, but there's so much more that people could do... Which would, of course, compete with private industry.

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#118

Post by not_real_acct » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:50 PM UTC

expensivedrone wrote: post #80

I'm a programmer working at a big-tech company. I make ~$350k/year, even though my job could be done equally well by a college intern. I only do ~2 hours of productive work in an average day. My previous jobs were far more interesting and challenging, and I had apparently done extremely well in my interviews. Hence why I got an offer with an extremely good compensation package. However, the team that I go put into, i…

On a Monday I quit my job and gave my two week notice.

The next day my wife was fired.

The day after that, my old boss offered me a raise if I would stick around.

I did both jobs simultaneously for six months.

In my entire life nothing has been more lucrative than this. I've tried investing in stocks, bonds, and real estate. Nothing has been more lucrative than double-dipping.

The thing that's so bizarre, is that it also seemed to make me a better employee. I wasn't trying to be a scofflaw, I just kinda fell into it (due to my wife being fired). I found that things I learned from Job One made me better at Job Two, and vice versa.

I think a big part of the reason that this is, is because a lot of tech jobs are basically "human insurance policies." For instance, my employer paid me because I'm an expert in an obscure software program. So there weeks when I was busy as hell, but there were also weeks when I was basically there in case something broke.

I founded a forum on Reddit dedicated to this, it's called WWPGD. (A tip of the hat to Peter Gibbons from 'Office Space')

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#119

Post by [deleted] » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:50 PM UTC

blackbagboys wrote: post #59

Aunche wrote: post #35

In some developing countries, there's an unofficial social contract that the wealthy should employ as many people as possible, even if they need to make pointless jobs. A company I worked for had a remote office in India that employed people to hand out paper towels in the bathrooms.

This is also common in higher-end nightclubs and bars in the U.S., although these aren't full-time jobs and the attendants work mostly for tips.

[deleted]

Re: The rise of the pointless job

#120

Post by southphillyman » Fri, May 04, 2018, 5:51 PM UTC

expensivedrone wrote: post #80

I'm a programmer working at a big-tech company. I make ~$350k/year, even though my job could be done equally well by a college intern. I only do ~2 hours of productive work in an average day. My previous jobs were far more interesting and challenging, and I had apparently done extremely well in my interviews. Hence why I got an offer with an extremely good compensation package. However, the team that I go put into, i…

I've had several jobs which have had "cycles of inactivity". Basically periods where we are just doing busy work until a project gets signed off on or until client(s) commit to a new release, etc. I would use it to learn something new, take care of technical debt, automate something, or......relax