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Bullshit Jobs

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Re: Bullshit Jobs

#491

Post by vkou »

Kluny wrote: post #423
stirlo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was like WTF at this and had to google it. From Wikipedia... "Academic staff: 2,219 Administrative staff: 12,508 excluding SHC Students: 16,430" Oh how far western civilisation as fallen to end up with the statistics above. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University

Seriously, I thought computers were supposed to replace all those administrators.

Will a computer fix a broken door? Wash out glassware? Cook 5,000 meals every lunch hour? Knock on a dorm door, when there's a 3 am party going on? Trim the hedges? Roll the AV projector out to the lecture hall that needs it? Ticket someone for parking without a permit? Wash the windows?

Or would you prefer tenured professors doing all that work, instead of teaching, or research?

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#492

Post by wu-ikkyu »

ken wrote: post #361
wu-ikkyu wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's human history

Unless it was written down, it's human pre -history.

And yet human beings still existed before developing written language, so the pertinent statement is still baseless:

>As human beings we have never had as much free time as now

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#493

Post by arbitrary_name »

jpttsn wrote: post #474
TeMPOraL wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Antelope eat grass and breed. If they eat faster than the grass can regrow, they starve and die, and their bodies become grass. Death through starvation is unpleasant. Suppose they could agree to breed less, as to not expand beyond carrying capacity of the place they live in. They would lead a happier life. Point being, some feedback-driven systems are good, and some are bad.

Good being, a smaller number of happier lives? Huh. Anyway, Optimizing for the whole is different than optimizing for the parts. What seems redundant on a high level can be critical on a lower level. To each antilope eating grass is purposeful. As may be the work of each Department in your original example.

Why is the supposition that fewer lives is good controversial? What do we owe the unborn and non existent? Surely in any moral framework, if one could prove that additional organisms in an environment degrade the quality of life for all organisms, then it would be a moral decision (in principle) to reduce by attrition the number of new organisms? I am not arguing for population control as the mechanisms to achieve it are themselves morally dubious, but surely in principle we can agree that there is no moral imperative to grow a population, or alternatively that is not immoral to advocate for preventing population growth where it would reduce quality of life and lead to environmental degradation?

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#494

Post by wemdyjreichert »

jakidud wrote: post #279

Okay, I wasn't going to comment, but I thought this would be extremely relevant : I've been getting paid for free for the past four months. I've been turning up to work, reading novels all fucking day, eating at the company cafeteria, and leaving. I generally spend 4-6 hours at the office. For 4 months now. Let that sink in. What happened is that I transferred from a 'public' team to a 'private' team, which means tha…

You've been reassigned to the roof.

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#495

Post by ci5er »

bena wrote: post #482
ci5er wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yeah: not having the agents of the monopoly on preemptive violence that the state has reserved to itself getting too trigger-happy is something that I think all us plebes can agree upon. When you are talking about normalizing starting conditions (up-thread), you are talking about ad-hoc/post-hoc redistribution of assets. Presumably assets that have been earned at an earlier time based on providing customers pro…

I mean, we could form that group anyway. Viva la revolution and all that. And it's good that you're uncomfortable with it. It's an uncomfortable thing. I am not talking about the redistribution of wealth per se. I'm talking about the footwork needed to get to the place where we can even begin talking about it. I'm acknowledging that it's difficult. That it needs some hard answers to wicked problems. Something a lot o…

You've triggered a thought related to something I've been thinking about for a while (and almost certain to be followed by one or more questions) that I would like to run by you.

But I don't want to compose it on a mobile device, nor at work, so it will be a day or so before I follow it up here.

Cheers!

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#496

Post by ansible »

rout39574 wrote: post #382
TeMPOraL wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One, bullshit jobs may exist as loops that can be hard to spot if they're multi-step. Department A generates work for department B, which generates work for department C, which - after couple more steps - generates work for department A. Second, "bullshit" in "bullshit jobs" doesn't mean useless from market's short-sighted POV. A competitive market is prone to formation of negative-sum games between companies, and fu…

I've got a favorite hobby horse which is an example of this dynamic: The competing administrative bureaucracies in the health care administration, and health insurance, industries. Both of these classes of (so I claim) drones think they're doing good work: health care drones are trying to navigate the regulations and get care for their patients. Insurance drones are trying to navigate regulations and keep costs down.…

> The competing administrative bureaucracies in the health care administration, and health insurance, industries.

Our company once was in the same office building as another company that specialized in billing for health care.

They would look at the services provided by a doctor's office, and figure out ways to code the procedures performed so that it would maximize the payout from the insurance.

Doctors liked it because it was easy to sign up and just increase their revenue without doing any additional work.

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#497

Post by ksdale »

CalRobert wrote: post #483
ksdale wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly I just think that there are certain places where it's socially acceptable to give up all your time, like to a career. But if you're a smart young person, you're considered to be giving up your future (at least by your peers) if you have kids too young, and I think whether that's true depends a ton on the person in question. I'm of the perspective that a lot of people trade their 20s for a paycheck and weekends…

Thanks for the detailed response! My wife and I are contemplating some large life changes and also feel like the way we've set up society is not actually the best way to live. How much of your work exists to make your boss' boss' boss, and your landlord, wealthier? Why can't I work half as much for half as much money? I never want to buy anything but the odd vacation anyway.

Exactly!

You're welcome, and good luck with everything! :)

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#498

Post by shindog »

dentemple wrote: post #315
jakidud wrote: post #279

Okay, I wasn't going to comment, but I thought this would be extremely relevant : I've been getting paid for free for the past four months. I've been turning up to work, reading novels all fucking day, eating at the company cafeteria, and leaving. I generally spend 4-6 hours at the office. For 4 months now. Let that sink in. What happened is that I transferred from a 'public' team to a 'private' team, which means tha…

Use this time to train a new skill. People are willing to pay big money to set aside time to learn a new, marketable skill. You currently have the opportunity to be paid while doing the same.

Having been in this situation it’s so incredibly difficult. Especially if it happens early career you don’t know what you don’t know. It ends up becoming tedious for people with work ethic which is like to consider myself having. Your soul wants to be productive and you know you aren’t. Maybe it’s an ego thing. Or just procrastination. I think you are right. Just that it’s hard to do.

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#499

Post by mml »

da02 wrote: post #481
AlexanderNull wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former chef here, the variance in balances of different chemical constituents can be so massive between two pieces of fruit picked from the same tree that precise recipes would be useless without requiring each reader to have access to a mass spectrometer (and any clue as to what its readout means). This is largely where the "art" in culinary arts comes in. While you could teach someone to read a mass spectrometer to…

Why did you stop being a chef? Too much stress from crazy restaurant owners?

I’ll answer for him. It’s a terrible, stressful, dangerous job, with insane hours & criminal working conditions, that pays peanuts. Might just be my opinion.

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#500

Post by jokoon »

I have been unemployed for the most of my life, and i now have a 9to5 job. I think I hate jobs. I love working with code and projects, but it's very difficult or impossible to find a job, even in programming, that has some kind of meaning, good sense, or is stimulating.

Jobs feel like you're playing the role of a robot. It has no soul. It just shows how society has become so mechanized and lifeless and dead boring.

It's not all jobs, but I really feel alien to the society of labor. I might be unable to adapt and do work I don't like, but at least this article is agreeing that I'm not 100% of the problem.

On the other hand, creating a project by one self and making it happen seems hard, but it really shouldn't. My view is that society doesn't really like struggling artists.

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