I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I really like the videos by "Unmotivational Speaker Self-help Singh"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8An2SxNFvmU
> Just do nothing... do the least amount of work without getting fired... release yourself of obligation and responsibility... everything you think you need to do has been done before you, and will be done without you... you are not special... the world is fucked, and you cannot unfuck it, so just do you... stop searching for the meaning of life, that is futile, you will die just as confused as you are now... so just be happy
Recently my partner got laid off with a 3 month severance, and after working her ass off for years it's her first chance to relax "without guilt," she's literally being paid to do nothing (and, well, look for a job, but in her market it won't take long to find another). It's been fascinating to watch her jump between guilt at doing nothing but playing Elden Ring, to righteousness that she deserves it, to fanatic exploration of new hobbies and skills, back to tremendous laziness.
She complains about being bored, and it makes me think, what a fantastic opportunity, to be bored. What a privilege, honestly, what a human right, that's been stolen from all of us. The right to be bored. To sit around, having exhausted all the little means to entertain yourself, finally just sitting in your chair, thinking, what's the point? Why am I here? Why am I alive? What should I do with myself?
She gets to explore what her purpose is. I think the way we've structured our society, growth capitalism, has stolen that opportunity from us. We have no chance to feel bored like that, we have to get up at 7 so we can get to the gym in time, so that we can be in the car sitting in traffic mad at eachother for 40 minutes, maybe listening to a podcast so the time is "at least productive." Then you have to be at work and executing someone else's values for 8 hours. Then home, and you MUST take your remaining few hours for either errands and chores, or, enforced leisure time, after all, when else will you get to play Elden Right? Or the hundreds of other games in your Steam backlog? Or your massive unread reading list? Or unwatched TV and Movie list?
But mostly it centers around that work time stealing your purpose, your value. My purpose is I'm a really good engineer, I build really good websites with fantastic SEO, good designs that deliver high click through rates so that my company makes lots of money. That is Who I Am and What I Do Well. Take away that job, close the company down, then what are you? Well, I guess the same thing, but for someone else, soon as you can find a new job. Take it all away, then what are you?
A good accusation of this position is that it could apply to any form of identity. Who are you? A good mother. Take the kids away, then what are you? Well, for a while, probably nobody. But something feels particularly, uniquely, hollow about the purpose of our life being taken away Work.
I think it's long time that we leverage our incredible technology to take a load off our shoulders, let the machines do more of the work for a change, and let ourselves experience a bit more boredom. Maybe only a few of us will because everyone's netflix backlog is big enough to fit a lifetime, who knows, but that doesn't sound so bad either.