Jerry Seinfeld says[1]: “Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you’re comfortable with.” Jerry describes writing comedy as “The torture I love.”
What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
251–260 of 332 posts
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#252I grew up in a remote rural area of a third world country. My mother & father taught me to read. And I developed interest in reading books at the age of 6 or 7. When I was 9 or 10 years old, someone (may be my cousin or my fathers' uncle) gave me a book on simple electronics (it was in my native language). That was the first time I read about P-Type & N-Type materials and some other physics. It was so fascinated to m…
Thanks for sharing. I didn't discover electronics until I was much older. I did, however, discover a passion for software at a young age and that has been one of my true loves.
In software, I have deep interest and am decent at it. I can't say that for my electronics pursuits. I've been at it as a hobbyist for a few years now and am probably equivalent to someone 6 months into a Bachelors program. In the past, I tried to justify my electronics activities as something productive but a few weeks ago I had a minor Eureka - I just accepted I love electronics for the happiness that it gives me. I don't really care to invent something new or be productive with it.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think the problem is things you enjoy but don't have skill to match your taste, the issue is identifying things you would enjoy if you had more skill, so you know where it is worth investing the effort to get over the lack of current skill.
I'd argue that sometimes you don't really know what good taste is or whether or not you would enjoy something until you've acquired a certain level of competency for it. Sports, programming and math are all like this. The more you work on them the more enjoyable they become, and you'd become a lot more "tasteful".
> The more you work on them the more enjoyable they become
Hmmm. After a decade of running, swimming and circuits I still detest them every day just as much as when I started.
The key might be that one can only enjoy activities that are done purely for whimsical reasons.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
First start by recognizing that there can never be an alternative system to having to earn your way in this world. One way or another, someone's productive effort has to pay for things that get created, whether by currency or direct barter. The only alternative is slavery: someone else being forced to work to fulfill your needs, for no compensation or trade. And then understand that money is nothing but frozen time a…
I disagree. Yes, trading value must be necessary in a system with scarcity. But most of the things that make work a struggle for me are simply not necessary at all. It's not necessary to have nonsense like a few weeks of holiday. The UK is far better than the US in this regard and still we get only a few weeks. It's not necessary for there to be ludicrous entrenched inequality, which results in most employment being…
> Yes, trading value must be necessary in a system with scarcity.
Which our system is becoming less and less like thanks to automation - so at this point I really hope that people will drop this stupid meme that "everyone has to work" and push towards basic income. I'd provide much more real value to people around me and worldwide if I didn't have to worry about money that much.
Also, many (if not most) of the jobs related to tech sector, and especially web development, are bullshit anyways. We're cogs in the machine of advertising, which is a) harmful to society, and b) powered by negative feedback loops that can suck in infinite amount of labour and resources for no value to show.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#255What if the idea of work itself is what you dislike? There are plenty of activities I can enjoy, and some, quite a few of them in fact, are profitable. Once you shoe-horn them into the power dynamic situation of a traditional job (with the bureaucracy that entails unless you're dealing with Actual People as opposed to corporations), suddenly a lot of the luster disappears. As a ridiculous example - I enjoy reading. I…
I feel as though this is PG's point though. If you enjoy reading from 9-5 everyday and dont view it as burdensome then that is your "thing". Mind you there's probably a second essay on how incredibly hard it is to find your thing.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What if the idea of work itself is what you dislike? In one of the economic courses I took, the Professor posed this very question. Apparently Karl Marx had also opined along these lines - how would a society incentivize someone who only likes to build sand castles ? He can't monetize the sandcastle because the waves wash them out, so he just builds another one & another one & so on. Sometimes I think programming i…
You have achieved wisdom! Everything in this "contingent world" is sandcastles. What will endure?
Lots of things endure, actually: the world, buildings, relationships, families, books, many larger achievements, governments... Almost nothing is outright eternal, but on the other hand, you generally wouldn't want it to be -- many things endure so long beyond our current lifespans they might as well be eternal, anyway.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#257What if the idea of work itself is what you dislike? There are plenty of activities I can enjoy, and some, quite a few of them in fact, are profitable. Once you shoe-horn them into the power dynamic situation of a traditional job (with the bureaucracy that entails unless you're dealing with Actual People as opposed to corporations), suddenly a lot of the luster disappears. As a ridiculous example - I enjoy reading. I…
As an addition to this, I've struggled a lot with the concept of working for pay and only recently could I really begin to explain why. Some people would probably call it 'entitlement', but I'm not really sure that's an accurate description. As an employee, your role is essentially a permanent state of brown nosing. First of all you must convince a rich person/company that you are worthy. Then you must convince them…
I definitely wouldn't call it a sense of entitlement. What you say though is disturbing and unfortunate and I wish I had a good answer. Imagine you buy a plane ticket and fly to somewhere exotic. Passenger in seat 11a is thinking "flying is horrible. It is a huge polluter. You're all crammed in like sardines. The airline is owned by wealthy fat cats and I had to pay $1500 for the 'honor' of being stuck with horrible food, crying babies and long lines at the toilets" passenger 11b has a constant smile on his face "I can't believe that one weeks salary + 12 hours of flying is all it takes to be in a completely different part of the world starting an adventure with unknown possibilities and tremendous learning to be had"
The thing is I guess they're both right! But now you know why you dont need to worry about why your coworker is grinning in the seat next to you. He/she is viewing the same circumstance very differently. Maybe over time your view can change to (mainly because you seem so unhappy with how it currently is)
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#258This excerpt - "what he really liked was solving problems. The text of each chapter was just some advice about solving them. He said that as soon as he got a new textbook he'd immediately work out all the problems—to the slight annoyance of his teacher, since the class was supposed to work through the book gradually." is literally me. I did that. Every year at my school I did exactly that. Once I actually turned in m…
"I work problems in it just because it is a craving - I simply have to solve it. Sadly, society doesn't pay for this sort of addiction."
Heard about research? As long as the problems you solved haven't already been solved as well by others, you can certainly make this your living.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#259Is it common for programmers to dislike debugging? I'm stunned. I never considered the possibility, it's always been something I enjoyed. I don't believe it impacts you either way in terms of capability but I imagine it impacts your desire to continue.
My personal aversion: being forced to do unit testing.
Compared to that, debugging is very enjoyable.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it always intimidation, though? I find programming unimaginably boring.
I'm a programmer and I completely agree. When everything was new it was fun and exciting. I started programming seriously when I was 12 years old. By the time I was in college programming was an absolute chore. Yet I do it for a living, because building things is incredibly satisfying. Ya about 90% of the time I'm kind of bored, but actually finishing things (useful things!) makes it all worth it. Interestingly I fou…
thats a powerful talent to have; although there is the danger it can lead you down the wrong path
personally, if I find something dull for a longer amount of time, there is no way I could push through it; luckily, in programming, if something is dull, you either don't have the creative freedom you need, or you have chosen the wrong abstractions (which leads to the fun task of looking for better ones :-))