81–90 of 110 posts
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I get your hyperbole but simply as a matter of course I'm gonna have to throw a flag: that's the fallacy of relative privation.
It's not the fallacy of relative privation if the article already made the comparison to sweatshops. It's just pointing out an inaccurate (and arguably tasteless) analogy.
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Imagine you miss your child's goal just because you were checking your oh-so-important Excel spreadsheet. Addiction, as you say. Lack of freedom (as any addiction is). Plain stupid.
Is that better or worse than if you miss it because your boss wouldn't let you go at all? I've had friends from the USA eat the cost of a plane ticket because their supervisor told them they'd get time off for a visit to Germany, but then got dunked on two weeks before the flight by their supervisor's supervisor, precisely because they wouldn't have been able to react to emergencies in Germany, and this entirely due…
Competition makes it so that anything that's possible than can give company a leg up soon becomes expected.
I think the worst thing about this is that it tricks you into thinking that dipping into emails at the park or piddling around in a spreadsheet while you're piddling is actually working. It's not. It's an addiction. It's shovelling snow, it's a quest for feeling accomplishment without effort. It's more fuel for being constantly connected, for constantly thinking you're progressing and accomplishing by hitting that em…
Your dad's a smart man. I have an hour or so to myself every morning, and some days, I'm fairly certain that's the only thing that keeps me sane.
This. Work work work. Work is the process of mapping nature into products and (then) waste. If nobody needs the 'fruits' of your work, there's always marketing and advertising which can make people want them. This my friends is the reason our planet is fast becoming uninhabitable. People doing too much work. I think we've achieved a lot, now it's time to take a look around and take a look inside. Is it possible to bu…
> Is it possible to build a society which is not built around the concept of 'work'?
I hope so. I suppose it will happen, as more and more people realize there isn't much to be proud about working anymore. We're not making food for our community, we're not making sheets for someone else to make swords to protect our community. We're making pointless websites that are meant to trick people into buying some shit they don't need, all to make our boss richer.
Of course pop psychology is already on it, reminding us that what matters is that we're working - our professionalism, our dedication, our skill. But at some point I guess the society at large will get disillusioned about it and realize there's nothing honourable in working, because most work is no longer doing anything honourable. The pride of work is an outdated value.
(As a software engineer, I, of course, agree that this is terrible).
I really don't like this post. The article is shoehorning an agenda and viewpoint in to an ad that is essentially a profile of an unusual person. I don't like the tone, I don't like the language, and I don't like the judgemental assumptions. It is obviously written by someone who doesn't know many working creatives, and why some people approach work that way. And it is assuming that the author knows what is best, and…
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I am very strict about work hours, and try and get the people I work with to take similar steps. I take steps to limit any possible exposure to work emails, notifications, calls from the moment I leave the office (or the work day ends), which is usually around 6pm. I don't even look at anything until 9am the next day. This has probably annoyed some people along the way, but I don't care, my time is more important to…
I used to do that. Made a point to switch mindset when I was crossing out the door of the building and immediately started thinking about my personal projects. It's become much more difficult now that I work remotely and use a single place and computer for both work and personal.
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Your dad's a smart man. I have an hour or so to myself every morning, and some days, I'm fairly certain that's the only thing that keeps me sane.
Could you (also GP) elaborate on what do you do in this "you" hour? Genuinely curious if it involves primarily things away from screens or not.
The problem comes from a very narrow understanding of how 'capitalism/free market economy/society' should work. In the original theoretical framework that laid the ground for the modern economical system, David Hume (and Adam Smith) talked about 'spontaneous order' that comprised multiple social signals, not just prices! Society and economy are complex adaptive system with multiple inputs and any public indignation like this one are perfect examples of signals that should act like 'invisible hand'.
The more such signals we'll allow, the better the optimisation will be, not just in terms of economical efficiency, but also environmental friendliness, quality of life impact etc.
Unfortunately neoclassical economy (including some Nobel price winners) seem to be blissfully unaware of where they are coming from and they tend to ditch social 'messiness' so characteristic for any complex system in favour of simplified mathematical models.
For anyone interested, I really recommend the below:
1) This talk about the missing forgotten part of Adam Smith thought ("The Theory of Moral Sentiment"), that significantly changes the understanding of his perspective: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/04/vernon_smith_an.htm...
2) This article by Yannis Varoufakis on the idea of Spotaneous Order and how it got oversimplified over the last 3 centuries: https://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2013/02/25/on-spontaneous-order-v...
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i agree. i also think Microsoft isn't encouraging people to lose sleep and work in soccer games, at bed, etc. People already are doing it and Microsoft is simply putting out an ad that speaks and resonates with those people.
A big company should aspire to make life better, not worse. People don't need to work more than they already do (unless they really want to, which is fine, but most of the time they are expected to be always available).
Why exactly?