11–20 of 223 posts
I would read this article but I am busily typing my name over and over into a word document.
I think Black Books[0] sums this phenomenon up nicely... [0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVGdhAetJaQ
Man, you know what, I don't why this Graeber guy hasn't gotten there first, but I reckon I'm just gunna go break the good news - I bet I can charge top dollar for my advice too, these companies are gunna be so blown away, hehehe I'm gunna be rich!!
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> "...work is valuable in itself." This is it. We have been fed a lie that "work" has intrinsic value and that people who don't want to work constantly are somehow inferior or immoral. Worse, "work" has come to be associated more with occupying a particular area in space during particular times than with actually accomplishing anything. I work relatively little (I'm 31 and I've literally never worked 40 hours a week)…
My employee next to me is working hard. I'm in elinks in terminal on HN and on IRC, with vertical split of htop in tmux. He thinks I'm working hard too, with all those numbers, columns, scrolling output and blinking cursor. I feel so bad right now. I'm going to go actually work.
I'm miserably reminded every week when I do my TPS^H^H^H timesheet just what proportion of my job is bullshit activity that I have to get through so that I can get to the part where I am actually going to work on something that will matter to someone. ("Look! I actually spent almost 10 hours this week [designing/] writing [/testing] code!") Knowing what needs doing is of course important, but after the third time of hearing it, it's time to shut up and go to work, people!
So many meetings, so many... (sobs bitterly in corner)
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> "...work is valuable in itself." This is it. We have been fed a lie that "work" has intrinsic value and that people who don't want to work constantly are somehow inferior or immoral. Worse, "work" has come to be associated more with occupying a particular area in space during particular times than with actually accomplishing anything. I work relatively little (I'm 31 and I've literally never worked 40 hours a week)…
[deleted]
> "...work is valuable in itself." This is it. We have been fed a lie that "work" has intrinsic value and that people who don't want to work constantly are somehow inferior or immoral. Worse, "work" has come to be associated more with occupying a particular area in space during particular times than with actually accomplishing anything. I work relatively little (I'm 31 and I've literally never worked 40 hours a week)…
http://www.amazon.com/The-Worlds-Wasted-Wealth-Environment/d...
The book is poorly written to the point it seems less than credible but it has some interesting takes on the situation. The author postulates something he calls "waste distribution territories" that have risen to take advantage of technological advancements. The basic gist is that instead of people working less as technology advances, unnecessary jobs are added to society and people work the same or even more at selling insurance, filling out forms in HR etc. etc. He points out numerous specific examples of this waste and there are many more he misses. He does offer some specific solutions to this problem that are very unlikely to be rationally implemented without a major structural collapse first. Overall, a poorly written book with some very insightful concepts.
Is my job a bullshit job? No, but... I'm miserably reminded every week when I do my TPS^H^H^H timesheet just what proportion of my job is bullshit activity that I have to get through so that I can get to the part where I am actually going to work on something that will matter to someone. ("Look! I actually spent almost 10 hours this week [designing/] writing [/testing] code!") Knowing what needs doing is of course im…